This Homemade Dry Skin Salve is extremely easy to make and only contains 2 ingredients.  My skin has always had a tendency to be super dry especially in the winter.  My hands particularly take a beating this time of year with the extreme dryness in the air, cold temperatures and extra hand washing to keep germs and sickness at bay.  Around Christmas I tried several different homemade lotion recipes and this is one that I have been busy tweaking.

I wanted something a little more thick to tackle chapped skin. I also wanted it to be simple, with ingredients I already had on hand from making homemade lip balm.  I always have plenty of coconut oil on hand and I was lucky enough to be given some beeswax.  If you don’t have a local source of beeswax which I realize many people do not, that’s okay you can get some here.  You might try asking around to see if there are any people in your area that produce honey, contact them and I bet they will have beeswax they are willing to sell rather inexpensively.

Check out my post on homemade lip balm to see how I melted the ingredients using a glass measuring cup inside a saucepan filled part way with water on the stove top.  I now have a designated glass measuring cup for this purpose.  It would be really difficult to clean off all of the oils and wax I have melted in it so I just decided to make that one of my tools for making natural body care products.  Plus the spout on the glass measuring cup makes it really easy to pour mixtures into all sorts of containers.

All you need to do for this recipe is use a 1:3 ratio of beeswax:coconut oil and melt them both in your glass measuring cup.  I prefer not to even grate my beeswax before melting it (I ruined a little cheese grater doing this!)  just drop in your chunk of wax and let it melt and see how much it measures, then add three times as much coconut oil.  If you’d like you can always add essential oils for a little scent.  Lavender and vanilla would be really nice.  Once your ingredients are melted just pour the mixture into containers.  I purchased little plastic containers at my local health food store but you could also use little jars like these or tins like these.

Homemade Dry Skin Salve

1 part beeswax (you can purchase here)

3 parts coconut oil (I use this brand)

Directions:

1. Fill a saucepan about 1/3 full of water and place on stove on medium heat setting.

2. Place glass measuring cup inside saucepan, with the handle hanging over the side, see picture in this post.

3. Place beeswax in measuring cup and let melt. Add triple the amount of coconut oil and let melt.

4. Add essential oils if desired.

5. Pour into containers and let set up before using.

I hope you enjoy this salve as much as I do.  It has really helped with my chapped hands this winter.  Do you make any homemade body care products?  I love to hear what you make, leave a comment below.