#DIY Nurturing Beard Balm-Styling Wax: Keep that Beard Shiny, Healthy and Gorgeously Smelling in Cold Winters!

I will keep this post short. Making nurturing beard/mustache balm is easy. Giving a pleasant scent to any beard is easy as well. Keeping it healthy and shiny in cold winters when it gets to freeze with ice, isn't hard as well. So, I made one for my beloved bearded man about 2 months ago, and he is still using it. We both are satisfied. He is happy that the beard shines and the beard balm-wax helps keeping it together, I'm happy for the gorgeous aroma of his beard. This isn't a beard wax for extreme styling, just for getting a slight hold, but mostly for nurturing, shine, health and scent. 

So, here it is: 

Ingredients: 

• Beeswax - you need it if you want to make "beard wax". Without wax, you can make beard oil that will be as nurturing and aromatic, yet without getting a slight hold. Besides that, beeswax smells good, blends well with essential oils and heals the skin and beard helping to keep it moisturized. 
• Cold-pressed Extra-virgin Olive oil (but you can take also any other natural oil of your choice). Olive oil has great moisturizing properties. It's good not just for beards and hair, but for skin as well. You can also use herb-infused oils!
• Essential oils add aroma and healing properties. Here you have to take in account that you need to create manly aroma - the one a man would enjoy (or he is not going to use it). My choice was a combination of cedar-wood, birch and orange. 

Cedar-wood essential oil is warming and uplifting, it strengthens hair and is often used in male cosmetic products. It also helps with itchiness, psoriasis and rash. I chose it as the main scent. 

I added just a drop of Birch essential oil as it has a pretty strong aroma, yet it fits well into cosmetics for men. Birch has antidepressant, uplifting aroma, and it also has skin healing properties. 

The third one I added was Orange essential oil - another warming, uplifting aroma, that helps keeping cold away. 

So, this had to keep him full of energy and happy in cold, dark months of the year! (We really need it, when we get just a few hours of daylight in December!) I wouldn't add orange essential oil in a beard balm for summer season, because it is a sun-sensitive oil. 

I made 30ml of beard wax and added 6 drops of cedar-wood, 2 drops of orange and 1 drop of birch essential oils. 

The ratio of beeswax:oil is what makes the density of the beard wax. Too much of beeswax will make the beard balm too thick and it will be harder to apply it without chunks etc. Too much of oil will do the opposite - make it too liquid. My ratio is about 1 part beeswax and 2 parts olive oil, but you can experiment with this. Probably, the perfect recipe for one exact man is something you have to discover on your own. 

The Process of Preparation: 

1) Melt beeswax in a water bath. (I set a pan half-full of water on the stove, put in the pan heat-proof metal bowl, and the beeswax goes into the bowl)

2) When the beeswax has melted, add olive oil. Let it warm up. Stir it well. 

3) Pour the beeswax-oil mixture in the container where you will store it. Add essential oils and stir it well. 

4) Let it cool...

... and it's done! 

It's easy, right?