Homemade Organic, Petroleum Free, "vapo" rub

Petroleum.  Derived from crude oil, is not what you want to be breathing into your lungs.  Or absorbing into your skin.  Especially not when you're sick!  Sure, the menthol and camphor helps you breath, clears the nostrils, and even reduces coughing.  But why not get the benefits without the petroleum?  It's simple enough!

Here's how ya do it.

First, gather all of your supplies.

8 teaspoons beeswax pellets or grated

4 tablespoons cocoa butter, shea butter, mango butter, kokum butter, etc.  (can be purchased here.)

1 cup coconut oil (I like to order from Vitacost.  I order 2 big containers of Vitacost brand and get free shipping even!)

2 teaspoons menthol crystals (can be purchased here)

40 drops each eucalyptus, camphor, rosemary, peppermint, and lavendar

30 drops cinnamon bark  (all of the oils I used for this came from Mountain Rose Herbs.  They are Certified Organic and of excellent quality and price!)

Using a double broiler, or similar, melt beeswax, butters, and coconut oils together.

Once everything is thoroughly melted, add in the menthol crystals.  Stand back when you do this!  The fumes are potent and you do not want to breath them in!  Menthol is a solid at room temperature, but melts somewhere between 105 and 110 degrees.  You'll want to make sure your oils are at least that warm to add and melt the menthol.

Remove from heat and add in your essential oils.  Stir together, then pour into the containers you'll want to store your new rub in.

It starts cooling and hardening up almost instantly!

Rub on feet to mellow coughs, rub on chest, back, under nose to help breathing if dealing with colds and flu.

*****  However, DO NOT use on children under 6!!!!  Do NOT rub on their chest, under noses, etc of small children!  Children have been hospitalized from high rates of menthol from essential oils like Peppermint, Camphor, and Eucalyptus.  It can cause severe responses and their throat to close up!  Would probably be ok to rub on feet and cover with socks for older children though, and is fine for adults.*******

Great stuff and much better for you than the petroleum based ones!  Very similar to the more natural ones you can purchase as well!  For comparison, here is the back side of a natural rub that I had on hand.  See the ingredients list!

So, there ya go!