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All Natural Homemade Vapor Rub

Make this easy, all natural homemade vapor rub to replace that store bought, full chemical brand. It helps relieve chest congestion, a stuffy nose, and coughing.


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All Natural Homemade Vapor Rub

Don’t you loath when the weather starts to cool and allergies and sickness start to creep in and everyone gets sick and congested?!  I HATE that. 

One thing we do at my house to help keep the congestion to a minimum is put a vapor rub on the bottoms of our feet before we sleep.  This helps SO much!  I try not to buy the kind at the store because of the different chemicals and things it has in it that I feel are not good for our bodies. 

Did you know it is actually REALLY easy to make your own vapor rub?  Say Whaaaaaat?!  It took me about ten minutes from start to finish.  Then it has to set for about 30 minutes after it’s all mixed together.  It’s so simple, anyone can do it.


  

Essential Oils Safety

Now before I tell you what I put in my vapor rub, we need to talk about essential oil safety.  Are essential oils save to use?  Of course they are. 

However, certain ages handle particular kinds of oils differently.  In fact, if you are pregnant or nursing you need to be careful of which oils you use or are around. 

The vapor rub that I make is not for small kids or babies.  It is for older kids and adults.  I will give you a suggestion for oils to use for small children but I am no doctor and I recommend that you do your OWN research and see which oils you feel comfortable using on kids 8 and under.


 

Vapor Rub Ingredients

Make this easy, all natural homemade vapor rub to replace that store bought, full chemical brand. It helps relieve chest congestion, a stuffy nose, and coughing. | We Three Shanes
 

All ingredients can be found at your local health food store or you can click on our affiliate links to get them from Amazon. 

 
 

I know that’s a lot of ingredients and if you don’t already have them on hand it can get expensive. I will say that once you start making your own products you will begin to get a great collection of materials that can be used to make tons of stuff.

Everything on this list for vapor rub is great for other homemade products. You won’t regret buying any of these things.


Why These Ingredients for Homemade Vapor Rub?

You might have seen other homemade vapor rub recipes with less ingredients so I want to explain why I use so many. I know seeing a lot of ingredients might make it seem like this vapor rub is harder to make but I assure you it’s pretty simple.

 

The Base Ingredients

The four base ingredients are the coconut oil, beeswax, shea butter, and cocoa butter. This is what gives homemade vapor rub it’s thick consistency.

Coconut oil is fantastic for skin and it has great antibacterial and anti fungal properties.  I like adding it to stuff because of that.  However it is very runny when heated so I add beeswax to thicken it up.  Can you make vapor rub with just coconut oil? Of course but it’s going to be a much thinner solution to rub on.
 
I also like to add shea butter because it’s great for skin and it helps smooth out the coconut oil and beeswax mixture.  Personally, I add the cocoa butter because again, it’s great for skin and it also smells amazing!  The mixture of the 4 of these ingredients makes a great consistency that I just love for body butters, lotions and rubs. 
 
 

The Essential Oil Ingredients

The essential oils I use are all good for opening up the lungs and helping breakdown the congestion.  Some of them also have soothing properties, helping stuffed up sickies fall asleep faster.
 
I have to tell you that making your own products is very personal.  Some people wonder,  why is she putting that in her recipe when someone else puts in something entirely different?  And the answer is because I want to!  Haha.
 
I like the smell of certain essential oils. Others might not.  You find out what you like as you go.  For instance I bought lemon grass for something.  I don’t like it!  I hardly ever use it and will probably never use the entire bottle up.
 
So be open to changing recipes as you learn.  For now, stick with the recipe if you are new to oils and making products.  I encourage you to research oils before you make something to see what they do.  You’ll learn and grow and be able to know in the future which recipes look like something you’ll want to try. 

Make this easy, all natural homemade vapor rub to replace that store bought, full chemical brand. It helps relieve chest congestion, a stuffy nose, and coughing. | We Three Shanes

Making Homemade Vapor Rub

 

3 TBSP Coconut oil

1 1/2 TBSP Bees Wax

2 TBSP Cocoa butter

2 TBSP Shea Butter

 
 
  1. The above ingredients need to go in a double broiler on the stove top until they are all in liquid form. Sometimes the bees wax can take a while to melt.  I like to stir it around a bit to help the process go by quicker. 
  2. Once those 4 ingredients are melted, remove from heat and let rest a few minutes. 
  3. Then we will add the essential oils.
 
 
 

10 drops Lemon essential oil

10 drops Lavender essential oil

10 drops Peppermint essential oil

10 drops Rosemary essential oil

5 drops Eucalyptus essential  oil

 
 

Here’s the thing.  Essential oils are kind of personal.  What smells good to one person might not smell good to another.  So if you are newer to the oils, I suggest you start with 5 drops each. 

Then if you think it should be stronger go up to ten drops.  You may think that 5 drops each is the perfect amount for you.  I started with 5 and thought it was not strong enough.  Then I moved up to 10 drops.

 
 
 

4. Once you have those drops in your hot mixture, stir that up and pour your vapor mix into a jar.  I like to use the small mason jars because they are the perfect size and they are so stinking cute! And I mean LOOK at how perfect it fits!  Like this recipe was purposefully for these jars.  Can’t beat that.

 
 
 
Make this easy, all natural homemade vapor rub to replace that store bought, full chemical brand. It helps relieve chest congestion, a stuffy nose, and coughing. | We Three Shanes

Using Homemade Vapor Rub

Use your all natural homemade vapor rub just like you would use the store bought stuff.

I like to rub this on the bottoms of our feet and then put socks on over them.  If my kids start coughing in the middle of the night then I usually reapply to their feet while they sleep and put the socks back on.  I also like to rub a little of this on their chest.

Homemade vapor rub can be stored anywhere you’d normally keep the store bought vapor rub. Remember to keep it out of reach of small kids. It does not need to be refrigerated.

Homemade Vapor Rub will last at least a year. It will start to smell off when it’s no longer useable.

 
 
 

Don’t Forget!

Don’t forget that this mixture is for older kids and up.  Some essential oils that would be better suited for little ones, are lavender and lemon.

Now I have read mixed feelings about Eucalyptus oil.  Some feel it is okay for younger kids and some don’t.  Same goes for Rosemary.  So do your research. Decide for yourself which oils you are comfortable using.

I hope you try this All Natural Homemade Vapor Rub for yourself. Once you see how easy it is to make your own products you’ll be throwing out all those yuck filled store bought ones. Congratulate yourself! You’re on the way to a healthier home.


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