Manuka Essential Oil Salve Recipe: A Magic Beauty Balm for Natural Skin Care

This manuka essential oil salve recipe is a magic beauty balm that hydrates skin and promotes healing. Add mica to create a tinted lip balm or highlighting makeup primer.

Stuck at home searching for ideas for a spa day at home? This manuka essential oil salve recipe is the perfect, natural skin care project! Unlike all those clay mask and bath bomb recipes, this all purpose salve can be used in a number of different ways! Not only does this magic beauty balm replenish and hydrate dry hands, skin and lips, it also promotes healing. So it’s perfect for relief of dry hands and chapped lips. Or throw some mica into the mix for a custom tinted lip balm or a highlighting, makeup primer for glowing skin!

Keep reading to learn how to formulate my manuka essential oil salve recipe to enjoy in unlimited ways. It’s perfect for hydrating skin and promoting skin health, as well as giving your makeup looks that extra wow factor. So, it’s the perfect clean beauty solution for happy skin.

What Can I Make for a Spa Day At Home?

The world kind of feels like it’s going crazy at the moment. And, as one meme put it, this year is being written by Stephen King. Yesterday our Governor ordered all non-essential businesses to close. Thankfully, one person asked the right question. Will VA ABC stores stay open? For now, at least, that answer is yes. In times of chaos, it seems, self medicating is king. What this means, however, is that a LOT of people are now stuck at home during the day. I’m also predicting that day drinking will become less of a social stigma as society tries to navigate the continual changes.

Plus, there’s the boredom to consider. As someone who works from home, I’m well versed in entertaining myself. However, if you’re used to daily interaction with people and a fixed schedule, being cooped up at home can be both unsettling and boring AF. 

According to current trends on Pinterest, a LOT (and I mean a LOT!) of you are seeking an escape through self care. Specifically through a spa day at home. While I have tons of holistic skin care recipes for a spa day at home, including face masks, bath bombs, coffee scrubs, sugar scrubs, salt scrubs, bath salts and milk baths, I wanted to share a brand new skin care recipe with you all instead. 

This manuka essential oil salve recipe is like a magic beauty balm for skin. It has so many applications, and it’s perfect if your skin is dry from repeated hand washing throughout the day. However, you can use it on your skin to relieve more than just your dry hands! It can also be used hydrate dry skin elsewhere on your body, tackle cracked heels and chapped lips, and even soothe cold sores while reducing the severity of symptoms. In addition, my manuka essential oil salve can also be used to add healthy looking color and shine to lips. Or try it as a highlighting face primer for skin. I especially love this essential oil salve as a makeup melting DIY cleansing balm! It’s an absolute dream for my maturing skin AND it helped clear up my hormonal acne.

Use this essential oil salve as a magic beauty balm as your final step to hydrate and nourish skin as a last step after enjoying skin care treatments during your spa day home. Then incorporate it into your everyday skin care routine for natural beauty, as part of your daily self care routine. Also be sure to check out more recipes ideas for a spa day at home after the recipe!

How to Make an Essential Oil Salve for Natural Skin Care

Making my manuka essential oil salve is quick and easy. This beauty DIY is a lot like making homemade lip balms. You simply weight out the ingredients, mix them together than pour them into your container. However, you don’t need to fuss with trying to pour this into tiny lip balm tubes. For smaller applications, you can use three 1 oz. metal tins, or a 3 oz. low profile jar for larger applications, such as all over body care.

Benefits of Manuka Essential Oil

You may be most familiar with manuka honey, rather than manuka essential oil. However, like manuka honey, the essential oil is offers many of the same benefits. It also makes a wonderful substitution for tea tree oil, which is endemic to Australia.

Like tea tree oil, manuka essential oil comes from a plant in the Myrtle family. This small flowering shrub, however, is indigenous to New Zealand. Whereas tea tree is harvested in Australia. Both essential oils are possess antifungal and antibacterial properties.

However, there are some major differences between tea tree oil and manuka essential oil. Unlike tea tree oil, manuka essential oils is a non-toxic, non-irritating and non-sensitizing essential oil. Its benefits also extend beyond those of tea tree oil. Manuka essential oil is 20-30 times more active than tea tree oil against gram positive bacteria. It is also several times more effective against strains of fungi and viruses.

Manuka essential oil is generally safe for all ages to use. Therefore, it’s a better choice over tea tree oil in skin care applications for which you desire antibacterial, antifungal and anti-inflammatory properties. Manuka essential oil helps soothe symptoms of itching skin and dandruff, rashes, eczema and other common skin diseases. It also promotes healing of minor abrasions and eases muscle and joint pain. In addition, manuka also helps to relieve symptoms of congestion or respiratory distress, when utilized in aromatherapy. As such, you’ll find that manuka essential oil makes a wonderful addition to many bath and beauty recipes, including those for skin care and hair care products.

Benefits of Bergamot Essential Oil

In addition to manuka essential oil, I also use bergamot essential oil in this all purpose salve recipe. Like manuka essential oil, bergamot essential oil also has anti-inflammatory properties as well as antibacterial and antifungal effects. So it’s great at soothing dry, itchy skin and eczema. And, it can also help with acne and promote healing of minor wounds or abrasions.

It is important to note, however, that bergamot essential oil does increase photosensitivity. Therefore, I don’t recommend using this essential oil salve on your face or exposed areas of the body if you’ll be spending time outdoors in the sun. If you’re a sun lover, you’ll want to substitute bergamot essential oil with patchouli essential oil or even chamomile. Alternately, you can also use a bergapten-free version of bergamot oil.

Benefits of Lavender Essential Oil

Just like bergamot and manuka essential oils, lavender also has antiseptic, antibacterial, antifungal and anti-inflammatory properties when used in natural skin care applications. It’s also great at fighting acne and can help promote healing from acne breakouts and  minor wounds. In addition, lavender essential oil also works great at soothing dry skin and eczema. So it’s a wonderful choice for any essential oil salve.

Manuka Essential Oil for Stress and Relaxation

Not only do all of these essential oils help to improve skin appearance, fight acne and promote healing, they are also perfect for times of stress. You can easily create an aromatherapy essential oil blend to reduce stress and promote relaxation for your essential oil diffuser. Simply combine 5 drops manuka essential oil, 5 drops bergamot essential oil and 1 drop lavender essential oil in an amber glass bottle. Then swirl to combine. Add a few drops to your diffuser to help ease away stressors and promote calm.

Alternately, you can also add this essential oil blend to a 10 mL rollerball bottle. Then fill the remainder of the bottle with fractionated coconut oil for aromatherapy on the go.

(Like the essential oil diffuser pictured above? Sign up for the Simply Earth Essential Oil Recipe Box and receive a coupon for $40 off to use on the purchase of this diffuser when you use coupon code: SOAPDELIFREE Or use it to score free essential oils. You check out reviews and essential oil recipes from past boxes here.)

Excited to make my manuka essential oil salve? Awesome! You will LOVE it! Just be sure to check out the notes after the recipe to learn about simple substitutions or additions you can make to this all purpose salve to best meet your skin care needs.

Manuka Essential Oil Salve Recipe

© Rebecca D. Dillon

Ingredients:

.5 oz. hemp seed oil
.5 oz. sweet almond oil
.5 oz. deodorized cocoa butter wafers
.5 oz. cosmetic beeswax
.25 oz. refined coconut oil
dollop vitamin E oil, optional
10 drops manuka essential oil
10 drops bergamot essential oil
5 drops lavender essential oil
lip safe dark gold mica, optional

How to Make Manuka Essential Oil Salve

Here is how to make a manuka essential oil salve:

Using a digital kitchen scale, weigh out the cocoa butter wafers, coconut oil and beeswax. Combine the ingredients in a double boiler and heat over medium high heat until halfway melted.

Reduce the heat to medium. Then weigh out and stir in the hemp seed oil and sweet almond oil.

Once all the ingredients have fully melted, remove from heat.

Now add a dollop of vitamin E oil. Stir to combine.

Follow with the drops of essential oil, then mix well.

If desired, add a pinch of mica (to color your essential oil salve, if desired) or more if you’d like to use your magic beauty balm as a tinted lip balm or highlighting face primer. Mix well to combine.

Now pour the manuka essential oil salve into the container(s) of your choice.

If you are using mica powder, I recommend using three 1 oz. tins. Be sure to stir the essential oil salve mixture well after each pour. Otherwise, for an all over magic beauty balm with no color, or a cleansing balm, you can use a 3 oz. low profile jar.

Allow the manuka essential oil salve to cool completely. Then cover with the lid and label as desired.

How to Use Manuka Salve

To use your all purpose salve, simply apply to skin or lips as desired, and massage in. I do recommend a less is more approach when using this product as a face primer or facial moisturizer.

More Ways to Use Manuka Essential Oil Salve: Swaps & Substitutions

Natural Cold Sore Relief

Because the essential oils used in my essential oil salve are analgesic and antiviral, it’s the perfect remedy for soothing cold sore and reducing pain. It can even lead to faster healing times. By adding neem oil, you can up the ante in the fight against this frustrating skin issue. To upgrade this essential oil salve to use as a cold sore lip balm, simply substitute .1 oz. of the sweet almond oil with neem oil. (Learn more about the skin care benefits of neem oil here.)

Dry or Cracked Skin Relief

If you hands, heels, elbows or lips are incredibly dry or cracked, you can add lanolin to my manuke essential oil salve recipe to further protect and hydrate skin. Simply add .25 oz. of lanolin, by weight, to the double boiler when heating the wax, butter and oils. Alternately, you replace up to .25 oz. of one of the carrier oils with liquid lanolin. (Learn more about the skin care benefits of lanolin here.)

Facial Moisturizer or Highlighting Makeup Primer

As coconut oil rates high on the non-comedogenic scale, I recommend substituting the coconut oil with fractionated coconut oil, which has a lower rating of 2 and is less likely to clog pores. Additionally, if you have dry or maturing skin, consider swapping all or part of the sweet almond oil with rosehip seed oil. Also be sure to check out my anti-aging serum recipe for maturing skin as well as my recipe for making a DIY hyaluronic acid serum.

Yield: Approximately 2.25 oz.

Essential Oil Salve Recipe

Print

This multipurpose essential oil salve with manuka essential oil hydrates skin and lips and naturally promotes healing. Add mica powder to the recipe for a tinted lip balm or highlighting makeup primer, for the perfect all over magic beauty balm.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Active Time 10 minutes

Additional Time 15 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Difficulty Easy

Materials

• .5 oz. hemp seed oil
• .5 oz. sweet almond oil
• .5 oz. deodorized cocoa butter wafers
• .5 oz. cosmetic beeswax
• .25 oz. refined coconut oil
• dollop vitamin E oil, optional
• 10 drops manuka essential oil
• 10 drops bergamot essential oil
• 5 drops lavender essential oil
• lip safe dark gold mica, optional

Tools

• Digital Kitchen Scale
• Double Boiler
• Utensils for Mixing
• 3 - 1 oz. Metal Tins

Instructions

1. Using a digital scale to weigh out the beeswax, cocoa butter and coconut oil.
2. Heat the ingredients in a double boiler over medium high heat until halfway melted.
3. Reduce the heat to medium.
4. Weigh out and stir in the hemp seed oil.
5. Remove the ingredients from heat once full melted.
6. Stir in the vitamin E oil and essential oils. Mix well.
7. Add mica powder to suit, and stir to combine.
8. Then pour the essential oil salve evenly into three 1 oz. lip balm tins.
9. Allow to cool completely, before placing the lids on the tins.

If you like my manuka essential oil salve recipe, then make sure you pin this recipe to Pinterest for later. Then be sure to check out more ways to enjoy a spa day at home below.

More Beauty Recipe Ideas for a Spa Day at Home

If you’d like more ideas for your spa day at home, then be sure to check out these other natural skin care and beauty recipes.

• Anti-Aging Yogurt Face Mask Recipe
• Ginger & Turmeric Face Polish Recipe
• DIY Sheet Mask for Sensitive Skin
• Activated Charcoal Detox Mask Recipe
• Herbal Bath Soak Recipe
• Relaxing Mineral Bath Soak Recipes
• Homemade Foot Soak with Epsom Salt
• Epsom Salt Scrub Recipe with Essential Oils
• Blueberry Thyme Bath Salts Recipe
• Cucumber Mint Sugar Scrub Recipe

Or explore more holistic beauty and skin care recipes for a spa day at home here. You can also follow me on Blog Lovin‘, facebook, twitter and instagram for more beauty recipes and ideas for a spa day at home. As well as sign up to receive an email whenever I share a new post!