My lips and face and hands are SO happy!! Why???? Because they have been missing their “friend” Vaseline! Ever since learning about the dangers of Petroleum Jelly from Dr. Oz, the Vaseline in my bathroom went bye-bye:
Petroleum jelly is a byproduct of oil drilling, and when you spread it on your lips, you end up eating it, which is essentially the same as drinking gasoline. Add up the amount of lip-gloss the average woman uses (and consumes) over a decade, and it equals 7 pounds. The European Union has banned many petroleum jelly products, and experts are concerned they could be linked to cancer. Women with breast cancer have twice the levels of hydrocarbons (substances found in petroleum jelly) in their breasts than women who haven’t had breast cancer. Steer clear of any products that list petroleum jelly or mineral oil on the ingredient list. ~~~Dr. Oz
Yikes! Scary stuff.
As is often the case with me, I didn’t even think about a substitute for my “former trusted friend” Vaseline. I just figured my lips, face and hands were out of luck. Then tonight, by total accident, I stumbled onto A Delightful Home and her post about How to Make Non-Petroleum Jelly. Bingo! I literally made a BEELINE to my stash of BEESWAX! :-) I mean the “recipe” could NOT be easier to make! From start to finish, even with snapping pictures along the way, I don’t think it took longer than 5 minutes. The cooling and hardening phase took a LITTLE longer….but not much after I put it by an open window (it’s still pretty chilly here at night!)
And as soon as that baby was ready….I was digging into it! First I slathered my poor knuckles. They are so dry they are cracking, and unfortunately even my Simple Moisturizing Lotion (which everyone in this household LOVES!) wasn’t cutting it.
Then I gave my forever chapped lips a good slathering as well. See? Don’t they look NICE??? ;-)
haha. I wish. Here are my real lips…not nearly as pretty….but just as HAPPY (and shiny)! :-)
So, if your lips, face or hands have been missing the uber moisturizing feel of Vaseline…Run, Don’t Walk to your kitchen and MAKE THIS!
Homemade Non-Petroleum Jelly (aka DIY “Vaseline”)
Ingredients
1/8 cup grated beeswax (about 1 ounce) I used beeswax pellets that I had ordered off Amazon awhile ago.
1/2 cup olive oil
Method
Combine beeswax and oil in a small saucepan. Melt over very low heat or in the top of a double boiler. Pour into a jar to cool.
Beeswax pellets I bought in bulk off of Amazon.com
I used extra virgin olive oil that I use for everyday cooking.
I didn’t use a double boiler….but I melted the beeswax into the olive oil
at a VERY LOW TEMPERATURE.
Even at that LOW temp….it melted together VERY quickly!
Then I poured it into a 1/2 pint mason jar and set it on the window ledge in the kitchen
with the window cracked open. It hardened up within 30 minutes.
Wonder if coconut oil could replace the olive oil? This sounds great and I definitely am going to try it!
Don’t see why coconut oil shouldn’t work – you’d just end up with a harder [denser?] end product surely. Coconut oill was my first thought too.
I agree with Penny. I’m sure coconut oil would work as well. Let us know how it goes! :-)
Coconut Oil works awesome and it comes out a touch more solid and less greasy feeling in my opinion! I also added some peppermint essential oil for it smelled good.
I’ve been wanting to make my own lip gloss but all the recipes I found called for petroleum jelly, which kinda defeats the purpose of making my own….since I want to color them I think I’m going to use white beeswax and maybe try grapeseed oil or castor oil so it isn’t yellowish. :)
I use this one from Crunchy Betty! http://www.crunchybetty.com/3-simple-homemade-lip-balms-your-lipsve-never-been-yummier it’s awesome!
Yes, or at least for 1/2 of it.
I have a recipe for a healing salve (I see other posts talking about doing similar) that uses 1/2 coconut oil & 1/2 olive oil (tho I add a combo of good for your skin oils in mine) and different essential healing oils.
It comes out very much like “vaseline”.
Basically the same recipe as this except for the 1/2 coconut oil & 1/2 olive oil, and then the added Essential oils.
I was gonna post that, but saw your question and decided to do it here.
It is a great salve by the way.
As for it being a harder end product (re penny’s reply), surprisingly, it is very salve like. (Using only 1/2 CO!) My house is quite cool (especialyl some rooms I have the salve in), and it stays salve consistency. (again this is 1/2 CO & 1/2 olive oil)
Sorry about the redundancy.
I just realized that I got the recipe I mentioned above at Jill’s sister, Rebecca’s blog site! lol
Very nice! I saw a jar at Whole Foods the other and was tempted to buy and try it…to the tune of $10. So happy I walked away from THAT purchase. Now I’ll make my own, thank you very much!
Mmmmm! That sounds perfect! I love the coconut oil alternative. I might add a drop of my favorite essential oil…maybe some peppermint or lavender or wild orange? My mother in law has pecome allergic to petroleum and most man made things…she can’t seem to go anywhere or use anything but natural ingredients. This is looking like a perfect homemade mothers day gift!
Would you store it in the fridge so the olive oil doesn’t go rancid? Or do you use it up so quickly it wouldn’t matter?
Olive oil usually doesn’t go rancid. Neither does coconut oil.
Hi Jillee, I became a fan of your blog through Pinterest and now I never miss a new post. I had a tip I’d like to share after seeing your extra homemade Shout in a spaghetti jar. If you want to disguise the fact that it’s a spaghetti sauce jar, just get some sand paper and sand the lid. I did it to an applesauce jar lid and it just gets this cool brushed metallic look (way less tacky!). If you’re really ambitious, you could paint it (but I was pleased with the metallic look). My applesauce jar now holds dog treats on display on top of my dog crate end table (that’s right–a space-saving dog crate that doubles as an end table). If you’re interested, this is where we got the idea for the crate: http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/how-to/intro/0,,20387918,00.html. My hubby did a great job simplifying it and it only cost us around $200 for everything plus it’s way more solid than anything you’d find in a store (and we didn’t use $100 decorative heat grates either).
I’m interested in using this as a lip balm. Any suggestions for ingredients to tint it?
tint it with a tiny bit of beet juice!
Iron oxide?
Tint it with Alkanet Root Powder.
I make this all the time and LOVE it! Sometimes I pierce a few vitamin E capsules and add that in at the end.
Jody
Jillee! How I enjoy your potions and recipes and everything else! Just wanted to tell you thanks for making my life better and more interesting!
Any difference if you use white beeswax pellets instead of yellow? Love your blog – keep ‘em coming!!!
This is great! Adding my vote for the addition of coconut oil as well. I will offload some into a little pill box to carry as lipgloss. Thank you, as always!
What a great idea Kate! I’m totally going to do that. My lips will love me!
Jillee, I love your blog. The new style is incredible. Your posts are always very informative and keep me occupied for hours. I found you through Pintrest, and I am so very glad I did. I wanted to thank you for the information about petroleum jelly, I had no idea it was that bad. I will be trying this recipe as soon as I get some beeswax pellets.
Thanks so much Cheri :-) I’m so glad you like the blog…and the new style. I am loving it! I had no idea about the petroleum jelly either until I heard that from Dr. Oz. Oh well…life is about learning!
Could you not use exra virgin olive oil instead of olive oil?? Then it would have a slight coconut smell. :o)
Ok, I just have to say that I am a little peeved. I had not idea that mineral oil was bad for you or that it was a byproduct of oil drilling. Thank you Jillee very much for pointing that out, now back to the reason I am a bit peeved. I am in the grocery store the other day and I see this chap stick on the counter so I pick it up and start reading the ingredients, which I always do, and was pretty impressed with what I saw. I love the burtsbees but it seems to work a little less each time I use it. So in looking for a new all natural alternative this Shaka Laka sounded pretty good, so I bought some and used and LOVED it! It went on all smooth and silky and it tasted divine, not that I eat it but you can’t help but taste it when it is on your lips, so I was happy thinking that I had finally found my alternative. So I open up your blog this morning and am reading down through it and something in the back of my mind is telling me that I should read through the ingredients again, and what would you know? Yes the second item in the ingredients is MINERAL OIL….. UUUGGHHH. :-( but all is well now that I have a new recipe to try and hopefully it will be my new alternative, I have to say that from the pics above my lips would be very happy with this stuff slathered all over them. :-) Thanks again Jillee… Love ya.
Danielle??? YOU didn’t know that? You taught me most of what I know about stuff that is bad for you! lol. :-) Honestly, you will LOVE this stuff. It’s so soft and creamy!
I’ll try not to upset you with my next blog post! ;-) Love you too!
Ha ha ha Jillee, no worries on making me mad, I am now glad to know that I shouldn’t be using what I thought was a good product, my peevedness came from my own lack of knowledge, especially since I try to be so careful about using products that are not good for me. :-) It is a wonderful post and I am ever so glad that you wrote it. :-)
Hello, I have been using a product that was called Joy Jell Scented & Flavored Lubricant. A friend turned me onto it for my lips because I had such chaped lips. I have been using it now for around 15 years & this is the ONLY THING that gives me instant belief. Since it came in flavores I loved the pineapple one. Is there something I can use to make this in pineapple flavor? The last question is, do I Need to use the beans or can I use beeswax? Thanks so much & can’t wait to try this receipe.
I thought I might add my 2 pennies here as well. For chapped lips, nothing beats the 100% pure lanolin, like for chapped nipples when breast feeding!! Lansinoh is all I can find these days, but I started with Medela (spelling?).
Here a few months back the amazing shrink ray hit this product as it has so many lately, going from a 2 oz tube down to a 1.4 oz. The shrink ray had another undesirable effect as well, making it a bit thinner–it is easier to squeeze from the tube now (I don’t have to warm the tube in my armpit anymore, hehe), but it also no longer has the overnight, all day long staying power it once did. I have added a bit of lipstick to give it color, melting it all together for a tinted balm, in a plastic pill bottle jar (travel section at Walmart, 2/$1, hard, clear plastic). It’s a great use for that bit of lipstick left in the bottom of the tube.
We use this in our house all the time. It has an AWESOME healing power for, well, EVERYTHING!! I no longer use Neosporin (which is now in the dog’s 1st aid kit) on cuts, minor burns, etc. I had a curling iron burn just above my wrist (trying to learn how to be girlie again after being a helicopter mechanic in the Army) that went almost to the bone–hot curling iron; it was an open, gooey, nasty thing for a week. I put lanolin on & it was healed 2 days later!
Hope I didn’t gross y’all out too bad. Thanks for a great site Jillee!!
I will definitely being trying this. My kids and I have such dry skin year round and I hate the thought of Vaseline. I can now make your delightful recipe and soothe all the dry, cracked skin away. Thanks for sharing!!
This is a great simple recipe! I tossed out my old Baby Rubs because of the petroleum and made a batch of this fortified with menthol crystals and essential oils. It works just as well for my sensitive kiddos. Since I do prefer a less greasy moisturizer for hands, I did finally find a recipe for a rich, thick lotion that is shea based that turned out great. Next time I’ll use half cocoa butter for the yummy smell. It does take special ingredients though like the shea butter, vegetable glycerin and emulsifying wax. Yours is the way to go for easily accessible ingredients.
I havent tried this yet but intend to. To answer how to tint it, take a tube of your favorite lipstick that is down to where you cant apply it anymore and scrape out what is left in the tube, you will be amazed how much is left in there that we normally throw out. I just made the body wash using oil of olay, cant wait to use it.
Coconut oil will serve as a lip balm, body moisturizer, cooking oil, baking fat, and ladies, you can use it anywhere on your body, and i MEAN anywhere!!! i have been using virgin, expeller pressed for about two years now. Not only does it replace cooking fat, its fabulous and i guarantee you wont want anything else! I also use the refined version for cooking this that i dont want to have a coconut taste to them.
Vickie is SOOO right! I use Extra Virgin Coconut Oil as my butter replace ment on toast/muffins, as well as cooking! It is naturally anti-bacterial AND anti-fungal so it helps with acne, dry skin, deep conditoning for your hair….. Check out Bruce Fife on google to hear of all of the amazing uses for COCONUT OIL!
Google brought me here from researching an alternative to Petroleum Jelly as one of my customers has found it works great for her eczema, BUT I wasnted to give her an alternative that was healthier!
Thanks so much! I think I will do 1/2 Olive oil and 1/2 Coconut oil for my oils so it stays a little bit smoother at room temp, but not too smooth!
First let me also thank Jillee for her wonderful site. I did not know Vaseline was bad for me. I have used it my entire life. I will be making my own now after reading this blog.
Hey Melissa, is there a brand of coconut oilI you prefer and where do you buy it.
Thanks for all the comments, I am learning so much!!!
Hi Jillee,
Got a question … I’m looking to make my own draino and I could swear I saw a post about it on your website … can you point me in the right direction. We have 3 bathrooms in my house and for some reason my teenage sons always choose my bathroom to drop the drain clogging load! I think it had baking soda and vinegar and I will probably add some lemon for a fresh scent – can you please help????
Alex.
This is probably much more expensive, but I use lanolin a lot in my house. You know the nipple cream you buy when you are nursing. No petroleum in that. Just pure oil from sheep’s wool.
This sounds a little more economical unless you have lanolin in your house already.
just remember not to use lanolin if you’re allergic to wool!
Thanks so much for this! Lately I have been usuing a lot of petroleum jelly! Yikes! I have just found myself a local source for beeswax…. aux natural, here I come!
I’d love to know how your batch turns out. My parents are bee keepers and we tend to sell our wax to cosmetic companies. I think my mom and I may have to start keeping a block or two to make some of this stuff. Besides, the less processed the stuff is, the better it is for you.
So true! I source my beeswax from a local beekeeper and I get it unrefined! I have to melt it down as I go and remove bits from the hive, but all- in -all it is loaded with the great properties of the honey and propolis!
Hi, I live in Sri Lanka, and the only bees wax I can get is the unrefined beeswax from a local bee keeper. Could you tell me how to refine the bees wax at home.
thanks
Sherreen
i had no idea that vaseline is this bad for you. i always use vaseline for my intimate care! I’m definitely gonna stop using it. i do not want any cancer related substances anywhere near my intimate place. but do you think this recipe is save to use “down under”, because not all skin care products are good for that place. i would like to hear your advise on this. (by the way; i can only see the newest two post since the new lay out is online. older post disappear when a new post is online.)
i would recommend coconut oil. it works very well for THAT.
I love making creams and salves with beeswax. Where do you get your beeswax pellets? I have only found it in bar form, which requires lots of lovely grating.
Mauri….I got my beeswax pellets through Amazon.com. Here’s a link if you are interested. It was pretty reasonable. :-)
Amazon.com
No need to grate really if you have a scale! 3 tbsp = 1 oz I get it in the large block from a local beekeeper and dig off chuncks with a paring knife as I need it!
Ditto on the lanolin for lip balm. I had just thrown out a partial tube left from nursing (DD is now 4!) when I read about using lanolin. After retrieving that old tube from the trash I have to say I’m thrilled with it. It’s heavier than coconut oil and therefore lasts a lot longer. Put it on at bedtime and you’ll still have it with you in the morning! Also, I don’t believe it will melt in warm weather the way coconut oil does, so if nothing else it’s a good alternative for carrying in your purse in the summer months.
Thanks for this post! I never knew that about petroleum jelly was that harmful! But I guess it does make sense. Living in this lovely Wisconsin state my hands have been constantly cracked and don’t even get me started on my lips!! I’m glad reading the comments that coconut oil works as well and adding a bit of peppermint oil, or whatever scent works well! Can’t wait to make this! Oh, and a big thanks for sharing the link the beeswax pellets! I’m going to order mine now! :)
Brambleberry.com sells the beeswax in granules for $6.25 for a pound. That is less than half of the Amazon price…just thought I’d pass that on to anyone looking to buy some. Brambleberry is AWESOME! I get most of my bulk items for making soaps, toiletries & all my essential oils from them. Just an FYI :)
Great post!!
I was searching for a homemade Vicks recipe and I think this would work for the base with peppermint or eucalyptus essential oils added in.
Ahhh…..excellent idea Angela B. Let us know how it works please! :-)
Hi Jillee!
Thanks SO much for your blog, I’m a huge OGTbyJ fan!!
I tried this recipe but mine comes out pretty solid, any suggestions on how to get it less dense? More olive oil perhaps?
Thanks!
Was too lazy to read through all the comments, but wanted to share an idea to go with the coconut oil ideas. Fractionated coconut oil? Won’t solidify. Not quite sure where you can get some other than online, but I’ve been wanting to get some myself.
I always make this recipe for me and my family. I love my homemade products to have a creamy consistency, so I added a 1/2 tsp of E-Wax flakes to the oils while they where still on the stove.
let the flakes melt away, and put the mix into the mixer and what a nice creamy product it made.
This sounds sooo awesome…can’t wait to try it…and thanks, Jenn, for the great website for supplies. They even have tubes and little pots and stuff. BUT….what about sunscreen? Any ideas on how to add some? Or…should I?
I used grated beeswax. Most of my testers (hehe), we’ve said that we’d like it a bit harder. Do I just use more beeswax? I have bee pellets on order.So excited!!
I think a little more beeswax would probably do the trick! Let us know! :-)
I almost NEVER post on a blog but I just HAD to post on this one! I am a chapstick junkie and after years of trial and error with almost every lip product on the market I settled in on a particular lip balm that actually moisturizes my lips and doesn’t sit on top of them in a film of wax. I can only get it online and buy it in bulk (about 100 tubes at once- I did say I was an addict) so that I don’t have to pay shipping. With this recipe I can save myself so much money it’s crazy! I had no idea about pretroleum jelly or mineral oil and I’m grateful for this new knowledge for the health of both my daughter and myself. And even though the lip balm I currently use doesn’t have either of those 2 indredients in it, I still have to buy it online and save room to store 100 tubes of it, plus the small pill boxes filled with the stuff at the bottom of the tube (junkie!). Now I can use whatever essential oils I want (I’m thinking a lavender for nighttime dry feet and a citrus oil for my lips) and can tint it with beets as suggested in an earlier post. I’m so in LOVE!!! Thank you for this blog, I have enjoyed this blog since the moment I found it by accident on Pinterest and I look forward to more “Good Things”!
You are so welcome Katie! I’m so glad you found it too. :-) I really do love this stuff! I think I am becoming a “petroleum free jelly junkie”!
Jillee…you’re wonderful! I did it this week also. I had a piece of beeswax that I picked up at the farmer’s market last fall literally sitting around. So I grated that up and put it in a pint canning jar (cute little curlies); I put it in a small metal bowl inside a larger pan of boiling water (your way is easier but I have a glasstop stove that I am very leery of….just moved into this house). I used about 1/4 C olive oil, 1/8 C grapeseed oil and 1/8 c coconut oil (roughly those proportions). It didn’t set up real well, so I melted it down again and added more beeswax and let it set up again. VOILA! It is perfect. It is a little darker as the beeswax was darker….probably the flowers they harvested from. I’ll be doing this again….I poured it in a little jar and it’s on my bedside table. I am going to put some into little tins I have around for lips at various locations in the house but this was fun and fast. Thanks and thanks to your sister for letting me know that you’d done this. Off to subscribe now (which I should have done ages ago)
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I am not sure if this has been covered in the other comments but I am wondering if this has a shelf live date? Does it go bad? I don’t use vaseline very often and I would love to replace it with this for when I do use it but I don’t want it to go rancid after a short while. Thanks.
Stephanie….I made mine over 6 weeks ago and have just kept it in a small tupperware container (like in the picture) and it’s just as good as the day I made it. :-) Hope this helps!
Are you concerned about the plastic being safe as a lot of the plastic is made from the same petroleum products. I always check the number on the plastic I use.
Jillee – you are awesome – no other way to put it!!! I have spent a lot of time on your blog today (too much time actually now I am behind on my to-do list – oh well!!) But I am thrilled to find someone else who truly is questioning the chemicals we are putting on our bodies!!! My Mom and I discussed the fact that there are so many illnesses and occurrences of strange things that so many are suffering from — Fibromyalgia (which we both have) and that’s just for starteres – because we have been slathering stuff on our bodies that no one has really wondered what the consequences were — other than how it made the stock prices rise!!!! Sorry, I know I’m preaching to the Choir here. Thank you for keeping it simple and helping others, and getting back to basics! I am a homemade-stuff using kind of girl!!! And I’m so grateful you do the research that makes it easy for the rest of us to follow your example!!! Nobody’s perfect and we are all just doing the best we can, and I’m grateful not to be alone in the effort!! Keep up the good work! Thanks again!
Jillee, I’m a “melt-it-down-to-make-something-better” junkie so of course I immediately set about making this when I clicked on it, so that I could in turn make the Lip Stain & Plumper that came across my RSS feed this morning (http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/05/diy-beauty-solution-make-your-own-lip-stain-and-plumper.html)
And… of course, I had no beeswax on hand, so I used Shea Butter. OMG it is heavenly! I was impatient and just dropped a little of the flavored water mix in a dab on a spoon (without dissolving it first) and smeared it on my lips while the mix was still “gritty” and it made for a wonderful exfoliant (lol) … I am concerned about sunscreen (lack thereof) so I’ll prolly buy beeswax (if you promise it has sunscreen qualities!) and use that for an on-the-go version when I’ll be outdoors.
I’m going to buy coconut oil the next time I see it somewhere because these girls are all correct, it can be used everywhere!
Thanks for such a wonderful blog, it’s super entertaining and I also follow you on Pinterest. Love Missy
Helichrysum essential oils are also used as a sunscreen, you could add some of that to this mix for a little added protection in the sunscreen department. :-)
Hi Jillee!
Just discovered your blog today and I can’t stop reading!
I’ve used Vaseline for years to remove my eye makeup, do you think this would work too? Thanks!
Would it be best to use a pan that you arn’t going to cook in any more or okay to cook again in this pan? thanks! :)
I’ve been using the microwave to make this stuff and it works great! My daughter uses it on her two little boys’ bums after diaper changes, and for their skin after baths.
Haven’t read through all of the comments, but I bought a glass 2 cup measuring cup and use it only for ingredients for homemade health and beauty products. I make my own lip balm, deodorant and lotions. I boil some water in a pot, then put it on simmer and set the cup with the beeswax in it to melt. Pour the olive oil in (I usually add a few drops of an essential oil and the contents of a vit E capsule), and pour into containers. Coconut oil is great, but not solid in hot temps. Love your site!
Love this! I Pin’d it right away. :)
About 6 years ago I was introduced to Arbonne products, and that’s when I learned about the dangers of petroleum and mineral oi. Arbonne doesn’t contain either of these, and they don’t use tallow or byproducts from a rendering plant (please google that, it will scare you). It is formulated in Switzerland, but made here in the USA! I also sell Arbonne to get the great discount :)
I will be making some of my own lip balm too! Thanks.
Wow! Lots of great info and great ideas! Thanks, Jillee, I’m a fan & subscriber -thanks for your great tips. I’ll be giving this one a try! karenbomagat.etsy.com
For those of you out there who are vegans, a good VEGAN alternative is to use candelilla wax instead of bees wax. :-)
~Tumble Desert Botanicals
I’m in need of some help substituting and hoping you and others can help. My daughter has some SEVERE allergies to various items, including propolis (beeswax) and lanolin. So…I see your comment about candelilla wax and am hoping this might be a good alternative for her. (FYI – she can’t use ANY lotions from stores because of various preservatives (propylene glycol), propolis, or other ingredients that make her break out so Vasaline was suggested by new dermotology dr as a good alternative. I’m not too keen on it due to petroleum sourced product, so I’m desparately seeking some alternatives that she can use and that fit into the budget :))
Beeswax pellets will be here in about a week and I will be making my own lotion!! Very excited thank you for sharing!!
I’ve done this before and it’s great. I did fill a jar with Calendula flowers I grew, then covered them in the olive oil to steep for 6 weeks. Calendula is good for rashes, cuts, and burns, so once mixed with the beeswax, it was used for everything, lol. I have heard that if you use a hand beater, you can get this to be fluffier, and more creamy.
I use coconut oil — I whip about a cup of it in the Kitchen Aid stand mixer for about 5 minutes along with a couple drops of essential oil. Rose geranium is my favorite. Store it in a mason jar. Turns out nice and smooth.
I make this for my daughter. I put it in a reusable squeeze bottle and apply it while her skin is still wet from the shower. She has eczema and her skin loves it. :)
Thank you so much for this post, my girlfriends and i had just discovered the dangers of petroleum
And we were all wondering what products to use instead, I will be shark this to info at the girls dinner tonight, can’t wait to make it!!