How to Make Lemon Balm Lip Balm for Cold Sores
Lemon balm, or Melissa officinalis, is great for naturally treating cold sores because of its anti-viral properties. A large majority of the population has been exposed to the cold sore virus, so it is great to have a Natural Lip Balm for Cold Sores available to fight the symptoms and help resolve them quickly. This lip balm uses lemon balm-infused olive oil and melissa, peppermint, and tea tree essential oils, all of which have cold sore-fighting properties. It also incorporates beeswax and grass-fed tallow to deeply nourish and protect your lips. Beeswax has anti-inflammatory properties, while tallow helps to moisturize and repair damaged skin.
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Benefits of Lemon Balm
Lemon balm is the star ingredient in this recipe and is known for its ability to fight cold sores, which are caused by a virus. Unfortunately, once you have the virus, it will always be in your body, but we can help alleviate some of the uncomfortable symptoms using this lip balm for cold sores! Along with its anti-viral properties, lemon balm is also known for its soothing abilities, helping to relieve restlessness and calm the nerves. Lemon balm is also used to help lower blood sugar, support heart health, and help with concentration. Melissa essential oil is the essential oil that comes from lemon balm, and I have also included it in my lip balm recipe.
You can use lemon balm in all types of recipes like tea, infused lemonade, popsicles, smoothies, scones, and cookies, not to mention other salves and topical recipes! If you have lemon balm growing around you, I would encourage you to experiment with some of these recipes and enjoy the benefits it offers. We love going out and smelling the fresh lemon balm growing in the warmer months. I can’t wait to try some of these new recipes next year:
- Lemon Balm Jelly by Creative Canning
- Lemon Balm Lavender Scones by The Herbal Academy
- Lemon Balm Blueberry Smoothie by Healthy Slow Cooking
Essential Oils that Help Fight Cold Sores & Dry Lips
Melissa Essential Oil is the essential oil that comes from lemon balm. Its antiviral properties are known for their healing effects on cold sores. It helps by reducing the severity of outbreaks and inhibits the spreading of the virus. It also has anti-inflammatory properties that help soothe redness and swelling and contains antioxidants that help to repair your skin. Melissa oil can also help lock in moisture which helps your lips from getting too dry.
Peppermint Essential Oil has a cooling effect that helps with the burning and itching feeling that comes with cold sores. It stimulates circulation which may help with healing and it has natural antiviral and antimicrobial properties that help support the quick healing of cold sores.
Tea Tree Essential Oil is antiviral and antiseptic which helps prevent bacteria from causing an infection on cold sores. It is a strong and cooling essential oil that promotes skin healing and relieves irritation and inflammation. Tea tree oil also helps to cleanse the skin and reduces the risk of the cold sore spreading to other areas of your lips or skin.
You can get creative with your essential oils and change them up, just make sure you research each essential oil to ensure safety especially if used on children. Generally, a safe dilution for essential oils in lip balm is 1-2 drops per tablespoon of oil. I don’t typically like measuring essential oils in “drops” but for small recipes like this you use such a small amount of essential oils it is difficult to measure them in weight! When using essential oils that you’ve never used before it is important to do a patch test to ensure you don’t have any negative reactions or skin sensitivities to the oils.
Lip Balm for Cold Sores – What You’ll Need
This is a multi-step process! Depending on what step you’re on and if you choose to buy some of the ingredients already done for you, you may or may not need all of these things. I’m going to assume you’re doing the WHOLE process with me and list everything that you’ll need in order to dry the lemon balm, infuse the olive oil, and make the lip balm for cold sores!
Ingredients for Oil Infusion & Lip Balm:
- Lemon Balm (fresh or dried) – if you get dried lemon balm you can skip the drying step.
- Oil of Choice – I used Organic Olive Oil in my recipe but you could use other oils. This olive oil is organic, cold-pressed, and extra virgin.
- Organic Vodka – This is optional but it helps to extract the oils out of your lemon balm more efficiently. You don’t need a lot so if you can find a smaller amount that would work too. I like to use organic when possible. You can also use vodka to easily make your own vanilla extract!
- Essential Oils – for smaller quantities, I usually get my essential oils from Young Living but there are many other options out there like Plant Therapy that you can get on Amazon. Quality is important here so don’t go for the cheapest or the easier to get because the quality probably suffers. Mountain Rose Herbs has organic essential oils that are great quality.
- Beeswax – I used white beeswax in my original photos but it is more refined and sometimes bleached to get that white color so I opt for a less processed and more natural form of beeswax now.
- Grass-Fed Tallow– I would personal opt to render grass-fed suet myself so I know the quality of the tallow is amazing but you can find some great sources of tallow online too. I prefer for my tallow to be only dry rendered so there is never salt, baking soda, or water added to it. The tallow linked is found on etsy and judging by the description and the rendering practices, I would buy from them!
Tools:
- Cheesecloth
- Jars/Containers – I usually use mason jars because I have a plethora of them but you can use any type of container that you have for storage.
- Labels – A piece of tape will work but I like a cute label for my jars of infused oil because why not?!
- Blender – I use my smaller NutriBullet for this! Use what you have and if you don’t have anything that will blend you can just skip the blending step, you’ll still have a great lemon balm infused olive oil by the end of it.
- Dehydrator, oven, drying rack, or tray for drying. My Air Fryer has a dehydrate setting as well so I like to use this when I have a small amount of herbs to dehydrate.
- 1/2 oz Lip Balm Tins or Tubes for your finished product! I try to stay away from plastic containers as much as I can. I prefer the tins over the tubes but everyone is going to have different preferences!
- Small spatulas or spoons – I like to use silicone ones but you can use whatever you have on hand.
- Double boiler, crockpot, instant pot or glass jar with a pot or water to heat the mixtures.
Quicker Herbal Infusion Instructions
I typically like to do a more traditional lemon balm infusion method but if you’re short on time and want to get your lip balm for cold sores made quickly, here is an infusion technique that will still get you a potent oil in much less time.
Dry lemon balm leaves using a dehydrator, oven, or by laying them out to air dry for 1-2 weeks. If you don’t have access to fresh lemon balm you can find Organic Dried Lemon Balm. Crumble the dried leaves and add them to a half-pint sized jar.
Alcohol Extraction Step
After drying your herbs, crush them into small pieces into a bowl. Measure the herbs into a jar. You can eyeball it and loosely fill your half-pint jar about halfway full with crushed lemon balm leaves or you can measure about 1/4 oz. Pour about 1/2 Tbsp of alcohol into the jar and stir so all the leaves are moist. The leaves should look damp but there shouldn’t be any alcohol pooled at the bottom. Make sure you are using a neutral alcohol that is at least 80 proof, NOT rubbing alcohol or anything flavored.
Cover and let sit for about 8 hours or overnight. Extracting using alcohol makes a stronger extraction because it extracts specific compounds while the oil extracts other compounds. Using two different solvents makes for a more potent, vibrant, and aromatic infusion. If you’re in a hurry you can skip this alcohol intermediary step but your oil won’t be quite as potent.
Blend the Herbs and Oil
After about 8 hours, pour the oil into the jar to fill it. You don’t want a lot of room at the top. The more air that is in your jar, the more chance there is for bacteria and mold to grow. Pour the mixture into the blender and blend until you feel a little heat coming from the blender, just a few minutes. Blend your mixture to help increase the surface area so more of the plant is being exposed to the oils. It helps expedite the infusion process so it doesn’t have to infuse as long. It also helps to break down the plant cells which allows more oils, nutrients, and medicinal properties to be released into your oil.
Once blended, pour the oil back into the same jar and put the lid on. Remember, the oil should come very close to the top of the jar so if you need to add a tad more, that’s okay. Make sure the lid is tight so no water gets inside.
Heat the Oil to Make a Quick Herbal Infusion
Heat the jar in water in an instant pot, slow cooker, or double boiler for about 8 hours. Do not let the water boil or get hotter than 110ºF. When the temperature of your herbal infusion gets above the 110º mark, the beneficial compounds in the herbs will start to break down the antioxidants and nutrients making the infusion less potent. The high temperature can also lead to degration in the fatty acids in the carrier oil.
Take the jar out of the hot water periodically and shake it. After about 8 hours strain the olive oil using cheesecloth and a funnel. Store in an amber or other dark bottle for up to a year or use it in this lip balm for cold sores, it is ready!
Lip Balm for Cold Sores – Easy Step-by-Step Process
Melt the tallow and beeswax using a double boiler. You can also put a glass jar in a pot of simmering water. Be careful not to get any water or condensation in your tallow mixture. Heat it slowly, not allowing the water to get over about 160º. Once the tallow and beeswax are melted, stir in the lemon balm-infused olive oil.
Stir the essential oils into the mixture. I like to use little spatulas to mix my smaller recipes like this, especially if the containers are smaller too. If you want to go even smaller, these mini spatula/spoon combos are equally adorable and useful. You can change the ratio of essential oils if you want more of one than the other. Make sure you don’t go over 2 drops of essential oils per 1 tbsp of oil to be safe. If you’re using this lip balm on a child, consider using less essential oils. Always research essential oils for children’s safety.
Pour into lip balm tubs or tubes and let cool uncovered until the mixture has solidified. If you’re using lip balm tubes you might have a little hole in the middle of your balm once it solidifies. You can use a heat gun or hair drying to heat that up slightly and even out the balm.
Enjoy your Lip Balm for Cold Sores!
This lip balm for cold sores is pretty thick but it goes on so smooth! If you want it to be a little thinner, you can use less beeswax. Remember, when you are applying to a cold sore use a clean qtip or applier so you are not contaminating your whole container of lip balm. No double dipping if you use your finger to apply.
Thanks for checking out this recipe. I hope it is really helpful for you. As a long time cold sore sufferer myself, I am always happy to find natural relief when one pops up. Remember, this isn’t a cure for cold sores but it will help give you some relief and hopefully make them heal quicker.
Lemon Balm Lip Balm for Cold Sores
Equipment
- cheesecloth
- 1/2 oz tins
- glass jars/cups
- heat source
Materials
Lemon Balm Infused Olive Oil
- 1/4 oz dried lemon balm
- 1 cup olive oil
- 1/2 tbsp neutral alcohol like vodka
Lemon Balm Lip Balm
- 5 tbsp lemon balm-infused olive oil
- 3 tbsp grass-fed tallow
- 3 tbsp beeswax
- 5-7 drops Melissa essential oil
- 5-7 drops Peppermint essential oil
- 5-7 drops Tea Tree essential oil
Instructions
Quick Lemon Balm Infused Olive Oil Instructions
- Dry lemon balm leaves using a dehydrator, oven, or by laying them out to air dry for 1-2 weeks.
- Crumble the dried leaves and add them to a half-pint sized jar.
- Add 1/2 tablespoon of alcohol and mix until all leaves are moist but no alcohol is pooled at the bottom of the jar. Cover and let sit for about 8 hours or overnight. (Skip this step if you’re in a hurry but your oil will not be quite as potent)
- After the 8 hours, add olive oil to the jar, filling to the top.
- Pour the mixture into the blender and blend until you can feel the warmth of the oil (a few minutes)
- Pour back into the same jar and put the lid on, make sure it is tight so not water gets inside.
- Heat the jar in water in an instant pot, slow cooker, or double boiler for about 8 hours. Do not let the water boil or get hotter than 110ºF.
- Take the jar out periodically and shake it.
- After 8 hours strain the olive oil using cheesecloth and a funnel. Store in an amber or other dark bottle for up to a year.
Lip Balm Instructions
- Melt tallow and beeswax. Stir in lemon balm-infused olive oil.
- Add essential oils and stir until combined.
- Pour into lip balm tubs or tubes and let cool uncovered until the mixture has solidified.
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