With so much cold and flu going around at the moment, I wanted to share my recipe for natural chest rub. This chest rub is made with beeswax (or candelilla wax if vegan), sweet almond infused oil and essential oils. The essential oils assist with clearing mucous from the airways and decongesting. This is great for those that commonly suffer from sinusitis, bronchitis or just get an excess of mucous when sick.
This balm is easy to make and keeps for a year in a cool dark place. It is best to keep the balm in a dark jar as the essential oils will keep their potency for longer. If you don't have certain essential oils on hand you can still make the balm with the main oils for therapeutic use being peppermint and eucalyptus. But without further ado here is the recipe.
Natural Chest Rub Recipe
Ingredients:
15-25g beeswax or candelilla (the more you add the more dense your balm will be)
100ml sweet almond oil
10g peppermint tea loose leaf (if you don't have you can use other herbs such as rosemary or mint)
5 drops each of essential oils (eucalyptus, peppermint, tea tree, camphor, rosemary, lemon)
Method:
Grind the peppermint leaf in a mortar and pestle or pulse very briefly in a grinder.
Place in a jar with sweet almond oil in a dark place and leave for 7-10 days, shaking twice a day.
If you want to make a quicker infused oil you can use a water bath. Get a pot of water and place a metal bowl over it making sure the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl. Place oil and herb in the water bath and warm for 10 minutes. N.B. this can damage some of the constituents in the herb so if you are patient enough step 2 is recommended.
Once 7-10 days has passed strain infused oil with strainer and muslin cloth squeezing out any excess oil in the herb.
Place oil in metal bowl over water bath. Add beeswax and heat until beeswax is melted.
Pour into jars, allow to cool until starting to set and mix in essential oils.
Enjoy your natural chest balm!
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