DIY Beeswax Hand Salve Recipe (2024)

This DIY Beeswax Hand Salve recipe is a winter savior for dry or chapped hands. Made with all natural ingredients, this simple hand balm moisturizes the skin with each use.

This easy DIY hand salve recipe uses beeswax, shea butter, olive oil, and your favorite essential oils. It makes a great homemade holiday gift or stocking stuffer too, a great non-toxic hand salve you can share with family and friends. I’ve made dozens, and it’s gotten rave reviews!

As a beekeeper, I always have tons of beeswax leftover from our honey harvests. I make lip balms, wood furniture polish, and even beard balm with the wax. Beeswax is great to add to skin products – beeswax forms a protective barrier, allowing your skin to absorb the nutrients from the olive oil and shea butter.

One year I made a hand salve to sell at a local market, and it was a total hit! I sold out and had customers reaching out after for more orders. It’s a staple I make again and again, and feels amazing on the hands!

This DIY Beeswax Hand Salve Recipe Is

• Simple
• Moisturizing
• All Natural
• Non-Toxic Skin Care
• Great to Gift
• Customizable – Add your favorite essential oil as a scent!

Where Does Beeswax Come From?

As a beekeeper, we have a lot of wax left over from when we harvest honey from the hives. Bees make the wax to create “cells”, which form that hexagonal honeycomb pattern. The cells can be used to lay eggs, raise brood, and keep honey that the bees store for the winter. The honey is stored in these hexagonal cells, and when the moisture has been cured out from the honey, the bees will cover the cells with a wax seal. This is called capping. It preserves the honey for the winter, and keeps the moisture from ruining their honey stores.

When we harvest honey, we scrape the honey and wax from the frames. Once the honey gets filtered into a separate bucket (which we then jar up and enjoy!) we are left with the wax. We melt the wax to remove any impurities, and then keep it to make great products like this!

Here is a frame full of honey, perfectly capped in beeswax:

What Do I Need To Make Hand Salve with Beeswax?

See the recipe card below for full ingredient amounts and recipe instructions!

• Natural Beeswax:I used beeswax from our beehives, but I’d recommend an organic cosmetic-grade beeswax like this one. Why organic and cosmetic-grade? Because if you have any beeswax leftover from making furniture polish, you can use it for some simple and easy hand and skin products. I have 2 great recipe forDIY Beeswax Lip Balm& DIY Beeswax Beard Balm that gets rave reviews. If there’s a local beekeeper in your area, I’d recommended starting there for wax, but if you buy online, make sure you get the good stuff!
• Olive Oil: I like getting this olive oil, because it’s super high quality and great for the price – plus it’s delicious and also great for cooking.
• Shea Butter: I also like getting an organic shea butter, only the best when I’m gifting this to family and friends.
• Essential Oils – again, I like using organic oils best since these will be in contact with the skin. I’ve made this with a few scents, and my rosemary one always sells out first!
• A Double Boiler: the safest way to melt the wax is over a double boiler on the stove top. Remember: wax is flammable, so take care to not melt the wax directly in a hot pot. A double boiler is heated with hot water, and acts as a buffer between the heat and the wax.
• 8 Ounce Wide Mouth Mason Jars: I like to use these larger wide mouth mason jars (rather than the taller skinny jam jars) as I found these are easier to dip a cloth or paper towel in to apply the wax. Regular mouth jam jars are too narrow for my hands, and these jars allow you to reach down to the bottom of the jar better to get that last drop of polish on.

How Do I Make Hand Salve?

1. Infuse the olive oil: in a medium pot, add the olive oil and rosemary leaves. Heat over low heat for 10 minutes, then remove from heat and allow the rosemary to steep in the olive oil for 2 hours minimum (overnight is best). Strain the rosemary out, and leave only the infused olive oil for the recipe.
2. Melt the shea butter and beeswax. The best and safest way to do it this is over a double boileron the stove top.
3. Let hot steam melt the shea butter and wax, and be very careful not to spill any on the stove because beeswax is flammable. Once the shea butter and beeswax are melted, stir in the infused olive oil to the mixture.
4. Remove from heat, and add the essential oils to mixture. Pour into a 8 ounce wide mouth mason jars, allow about 2 hours to cool and solidify, and you’re ready to use.

More DIY Recipes with Beeswax You’ll Love!

DIY Leather Conditioner Recipe with Beeswax

DIY Beeswax Lip Balm Recipe

Beard Balm Recipe – DIY Homemade Beard Wax

DIY Beeswax Furniture Polish Recipe (2 Ingredients!)

DIY Headache Balm Recipe with Mint and Pine

As always, if you make this all natural non-toxic beeswax hand salve recipe be sure to leave me a comment, rate this recipe, and tag me @theherbeevore on Instagram so I can feature you. I love seeing all your photos of my recipes!

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About the Author: Kelly Jensen