Making my own beard balm/oil and moustache wax?

I have a big beard and moustache. I am pretty price-sensitive, and don’t really like having to pay an arm and a leg for stuff I could make at home.

I used to think beard balm was better than beard oil, as it provided some hold. Now that my beard is long enough, I am thinking that a beard oil will be easier to distribute throughout my beard, and a balm won’t provide that much hold on a huge beard anyway.

My moustache is commensurate with my beard. I wax it out to the sides so my face won’t look disproportionate. Wax is ridiculously expensive, and I’d just as soon make my own.

I don’t care about smells. In fact, I’d prefer scentless.

Does anyone have any easy, cheap recipes for beard oil/balm and moustache wax? It will be an expensive up-front investment, but will pay off over time.

Thanks!

Hemp oil, found any health food store does a nice job..

Add drop of vitamin e to keep it from going bad and it's also good for the skin..

Coconut oil acts as a good balm by itself. For beard oil I just mix jojoba oil and a few drops of essential oil. I'll make it an ounce at a time and since I only use it about one or two times a week, it lasts forever. The coconut oil balm will melt on your fingers and applies like an oil, no guarantees on hold ability.

I made some aftershave balm the other day by mixing Shea butter and coconut oil 50/50. That might act as a good wax since the shea has a higher melting temp. Just food for thought.

Thanks a bunch guys. There are a ton of resources out there!

I would go with jojoba oil for the beard oil and a beeswax would be good for the mustache wax

No experience with beard products here, but I've played around with making/mixing my own moustache wax.

Plain beeswax will be too hard and stiff in my experience. My first try involved some Col. Conk, which did not work for me as it was too much like plain old petroleum jelly. I melted it half and half (roughly) with plain beeswax, let it cool and had a nice product. I've also just used petroleum jelly, and played around with various oils. I do not like the texture of waxes that use castor oil. Jojoba oil works, but imparts a yellow tinge to the wax which doesn't work for me.

You can buy enough beeswax to last several years for just a few bucks. Just play around with various mixtures until you find one you like.

For about the last three months I've been using DIY beard oil. for that I was mixing Jojoba oil from Trader Joe's 50/50 with almond oil. Both are absorbed really well by the skin, so this was a great improvement in the look of my beard hair. I got aboar bristle brush that helped get it evenly applied.

Next I decided that it absorbed a bit too well, so I started to blend in about 15% by weight beeswax. this makes a beard balm I guess--instead of liquid at room temp it's a gel, but melts really easily with skin heat. This was a good upgrade--it gives a really fine wax coat to the hairs and that helps them feel a lot less wiry. Washing this out is really easy with soap and water. I really like this mix.

I get almond oil at the Indian market--a two pound bottle sets me back around ten bucks. Great for all kinds of skin products.

Today I just whipped up a batch of 50% beeswax and 50% almond oil. This I would call mustache wax. I've stopped trimming the 'stache, and I'm trying to train it to grow out from the center, so I wanted more hold that I was getting. Prior to this I had been using a similar proportion as a lotion bar. It helps my dry skin areas by keeping the water in with the beeswax forming a little bit of a barrier. I haven't been using this on my mustache long enough to have a review, but I would go with 50% beeswax to 50% oil as a first pass, then adjust if you want it softer or harder. I melt the wax and oil together in a glass measuring cup in a pot of water on the stove.

this is really useful thanks!

The simplest recipe I've seen for moustache wax is 50% beeswax and 50% coconut oil, heated together in a bain-marie or double boiler.
Another one is equal parts of beeswax and Vaseline (aka petroleum jelly) for the winter; 4 parts beeswax to 3 parts Vaseline for the summer.

I've not tried either one yet.

And usually how long does the scent remain after applying beard oil ? on average


Thanks again
Dinesh

Regarding coconut oil as an ingredient for moustache wax, what kind should I look for?

Some of it looks like a clear yellowish liquid, resembling corn oil:



Other products look like a lumpy paste, typically in wide-mouth jars:

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Is there a difference as far as moustache wax is concerned?
If there is, then what do you call the kind I need?

Then again, perhaps beeswax and petroleum jelly would have a much longer shelf life.
I'm mostly interested in having it hold the shape during the day. For conditioning I would be using some beard & moustache balm overnight.

I couldn't wait for replies.
Today I happened to be going by a Bulk Barn store, and found some of the lumpy kind of coconut oil, which was described as "100% All Natural, organic expeller-pressed virgin coconut oil". It was only $4.32 for a bit over 200 g, enough for lots of experiments.
The texture at room temperature feels about like Wilkinson Sword shaving soap, from the blue bowl. Maybe a tad softer.

John Rose said:

I couldn't wait for replies.
Today I happened to be going by a Bulk Barn store, and found some of the lumpy kind of coconut oil, which was described as "100% All Natural, organic expeller-pressed virgin coconut oil". It was only $4.32 for a bit over 200 g, enough for lots of experiments.
The texture at room temperature feels about like Wilkinson Sword shaving soap, from the blue bowl. Maybe a tad softer.

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I've not tried it, but that would have been my choice as well. How did it work out for you? What ratio id you end up using?

I used a 50/50 mix, by mass, for my first batch. I say mass, because it's convenient to use a digital kitchen scale. Volume measurements are not consistent unless you melt the oil and beeswax beforehand. I used 30 g of each because that was enough to fill an empty skin cream jar that my wife was going to toss.

It was solid enough to use after about half an hour, but by the next day I had to resort to the scraping with back of thumbnail gimmick to get it out of the jar.
The only other wax I have to compare it to is the Clubman. Clubman will dry out in a minute or so after application, but you can wet your fingers to dampen it and make adjustments throughout the day.

The coconut oil/beeswax DIY stuff never dries out. My wife has commented that kissing me sometimes results in lips full of oily wax, so I have to be careful about how much I use and where it goes.

One problem I've noted with the DIY wax is that It is difficult to wash off your fingers (with soap and water) after applying it. Clubman itself has a sort of soapy feel to it, and it's easy to wash off. However I have recently discovered that the alcohol in hand sanitizer gel (like Purell, or whatever), followed by soap and water, works great for getting the wax and oil off your fingers. I had to use it to clean the stainless measuring cup and a frying pan that I used for a double boiler, because some wax got accidentally spilled into the hot water.

In the shower I just use bath bar soap (or shampoo) and a nail brush to wash it out of my 'stache, as part of my night-time pre-shave prep.

I guess it works, but I don't have many other products to compare it to.

I just made some beard oil today. The ingredients I used are as follows

1/2 Oz jojoba oil
1/2 Oz sweet almond oil
1/2 Oz grape seed oil
1/2 Oz fractionated coconut oil
2 drops Bay essential oil
2 drops peppermint essential oil
4 drops pine essential oil
4 drops cedar essential oil
4 drops sandalwood essential oil

Does exactly what I wanted it to. It stops the frizz and keeps my beard in place.

It was solid enough to use after about half an hour, but by the next day I had to resort to the scraping with back of thumbnail gimmick to get it out of the jar.

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This would be typical of all the "hard" waxes. Firehouse, Fawcett's, etc. The difference is usually how much effort it takes to soften it and spread it. I like one that is hard and needs some kneading between thumb and forefinger to soften. If I have to resort to a hair dryer, then that is too hard for me, and I'll add some oil of some kind.If it softens too easily, I add wax. My wife has never commented about it. The real test is how it holds.

thanks for all the suggestionbs guys!

For my beard balm/wax/oil I use ~2 parts ev coconut oil to 1 part bees wax by volume. Not super accurate but close enough for my purposes. I melt it down in a double boiler and the. Add EOs for scent mix it all around then pour into a 3oz glass jar. Ends up being a medium soft/ medium hold. Will scrape out pretty easily but requires a little rubbing between the hands to liquify. Also has a pretty good consistency for pomade so I run the excess through my hair and then brush them both with a boars hair brush.

I've made a light hold pomade from 1 part bees wax, 2 parts shea and 3 parts jojoba oil. Works well enough in my hair. I will rub a little in my beard to soften it a bit. It works, but I think it would be better for the beard with a bit more jojoba. Again, you can play with proportions to get what you like.