The Spring season can be brutal on people who suffer from seasonal discomfort, and many times taking medicines for it can leave you feeling awful as well. Natural remedies are always the best choice for your body, and of course sometimes you need a little more, but I have found that this balm is one all-natural product I can make that helps tremendously to stop the symptoms associated with this issue. This easy to make allergy relief balm is a great way to help relieve seasonal issues and discomfort this spring.

Allergy Relief Balm

This allergy relief balm is a thickish balm, therefore it stays on the skin longer. The base ingredients are great for the skin, helping to moisturise and nourish while the essential oils help relieve seasonal spring symptoms. You can use the reflexology of the foot to apply it. For this balm, the area is the bottom of the foot, at the centre of the pad, just below the toes. You can also apply this balm to the chest, throat, temples, and just under the nose. Apply only a pea-sized amount wherever you need the relief. It is slightly cooling too, so it helps with headaches as well.

You will be using 3 essential oils and there is the option of adding a couple more if you’d like to make it even stronger which I will note below. Lemon, Lavender and Peppermint essential oils make a great natural antihistamine. (You can also make a roller bottle blend of these with a carrier oil and use it in addition to the balm too!) Each one of these oils has its own properties and health benefits that it brings to the mix and all together they are a go-to blend for my family.

Lemon essential oil is a clean, fresh scented oil and its best known for its cleansing abilities. It is invigorating and refreshing and it also helps boost mood which you need when feeling down. It is an antiseptic, antioxidant, is antiviral, detoxing and an astringent. Works great for respiratory issues, helps to alleviate congestion and mucus, helps to stop a runny nose and helps with concentration, which lets be honest, you just have very little of when you’re feeling under the weather.

Lavender essential oil is a powerful oil that is regenerating, calming and is known for healing. It combines well with the citrus scent of the lemon and it is also an astringent. It is antispasmodic, antibacterial, and an antihistamine. It helps you to get rest and sleep, helps relieve stress, helps with focus and concentration and helps relieve headaches.

Peppermint essential oil is the oil in this that I believe really packs the punch as far as feeling the relief fast. It is cooling and invigorating and brings the expectorant property too. It is anti-inflammatory, stimulating and an analgesic. It helps with headaches and general achiness, helps open up the pathways of the sinuses and bring back your sense of smell, and it helps with congestion. Peppermint essential oil should not be used on children under 10, or by pregnant of breastfeeding women.

If you want to add a few other oils to the mix. a few great ones for respiratory issues, sinuses, headaches and general aches are:

Frankincense
Cedarwood
Marjoram
Myrrh
Rosemary
Lime
I would suggest adding a few less drops of the peppermint to the balm and substituting with any of these

This recipe makes 3 oz. of the balm. I prefer to use 1 oz. sized tubs with lids, but you can use a tin or jar also if you prefer it to be all in one container. Having smaller jars makes them easier to gift. As I like to have them in more than one place, making more of the smaller sized jars is great for this.

Essential Oils

Essential oils are potent, and need to be diluted. As this scrub is being used on your lips, you will need to use essential oils that are gentle enough to be applied to your skin – and used in the correct quantities.

Phototoxic Oils

As you may be aware, some citrus essential oils, such as cold-pressed grapefruit, lemon and lime are phototoxic. This means that if you use one of these oils on your skin and then go out into the sun, some pretty bad damage such as severe burning and blistering can occur. For this recipe, I use steam-distilled lemon essential oil which is not a phototoxic oil.

Ingredients for this balm

3 x 1 oz. tubs with lids

¼ cup chopped beeswax or beeswax pastilles

2 tbsp coconut oil

1 tbsp olive oil (or another similar carrier oil of your preference like sweet almond or jojoba oil)

¼ teaspoon Vitamin E – optional

10 drops lemon essential oil

12 drops lavender essential oil

10 drops peppermint essential oil

NOTES-

If you live in a hot climate, make this balm with a little extra beeswax to stop it from melting during hot summers, thus making this a harder salve. You may want to decrease the beeswax if you live in a cooler climate, though try the recipe as is to start with and see how it goes. You can test the consistency of your salve by placing a small amount of mixture into the freezer for 2 minutes. Then take it out and let it come to room temperature before testing its hardness. If it is too soft, add a little more beeswax, if too hard, add a little more oil.
You can substitute carnauba wax for beeswax, though it is harder than beeswax, so you will probably need to decrease the amount slightly.
Vitamin E is optional, and is often added to salves as an antioxidant to prevent rancidity, as well as for its amazing skin-healing properties.

Lemon Lavender and Peppermint Set

Making allergy relief balm

You will need a double boiler to melt down the wax. This is the first thing you’ll need to do, so have your beeswax chopped up small and place it in the top pan of the boiler.

Fill the bottom pan until it comes up along the sides of the top one, but not too high up to avoid it boiling over on you.

Place over medium-high heat. You will need to keep an eye on this, but you do have a few minutes as it heats to do other things to prepare while its getting hot.

Open up the tubs and check to be sure they are clean and free of any loose debris, and then set them in a good area for filling up and then leaving to cool later.

Then, measure the olive oil and have it ready to go, and do the same for the coconut oil. Coconut oil can become solid in storage, so if yours is, just remove the lid and microwave it for about a minute and it will become clear and liquefied on the top layer for you, making it easy to measure out. You can scoop it and measure it that way but its more difficult and it isn’t as accurate of a measurement.

By this point, you will want to check on the wax and see if it is starting to melt. The bottom part of it will be going clear and the water will start to bubble once its hot enough. Turn it down to a low simmer once its bubbling you don’t want to burn the wax. Break up the wax and stir it, using a metal kitchen spoon. You can use a second spoon to remove the wax that will stick to the first one too, which helps make this easier.

Every 2 or 3 minutes you will need to repeat and stir the wax to keep it from staying all in a clump. This will help the process move along faster.

Once it is fully clear, add in the olive oil. Let it melt for a minute and then stir it well.

Repeat the same for the coconut oil and then give the mix a good stir.

Add the vitamin E if using and give the mixture a stir.

Add in each essential oil, slowly counting out the drops and stirring between each one. Each of these oils is thin too, so they can come out of the bottle very fast, so just be cautious when dropping them in. The peppermint can be quite strong, so it can make your eyes water if you get too close to it.

Once the oils are all added, stir well and you are all set to pour your balm into the containers.

Pour it nice and slow, leaving a tad bit of room at the top of the containers.

Once it is all poured, if you have any left in the pan that has set up, place it over the hot water for a minute to melt it back down and then pour it. Be sure to turn off your heat after this.

Now, allow the balms to set up and fully cool. They will gradually become a solid yellow and the centers will take longer to solidify, so give them a couple of hours before checking on them.

Feel the bottom middle of container and if it is cooled, you are all done.

Place on your lids and make some nice labels and your balm is ready for use!

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