How To Make DIY Vapour Rub Tutorial With 2 Easy Variations!

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Whenever I get sick, I want my mom. This probably sounds funny coming from a 37 year old woman, but it’s true. My mom was (and is) the ultimate caregiver. When I was a child, whenever I was sick, she would make me tea and soft boiled eggs with toast triangles. She would give me 7 up to sip on and “Chess Man Cookies” to munch on. And when it was time for a nap, she would rub Vicks Vapour Rub on my chest and back, turn on my humidifier and wrap the blanket around my head in the most perfect way, so it was like I was wearing a hood. She would kiss me on top of her head and call me her “little babushka. She made me feel safe, and loved, and like I would feel better soon. This is the way I want my children to feel everyday, but especially when they are sick. I want my children to tell the story of how much their mommy loves them and how she takes such good care of them.

The ultimate caregiver (center) and the two daughters she raised.

Tea, vapour rub and blankets wrapped like a babushka scarf are three of the things I still do when I am sick. My family has had a flu and then a cold bug that has lasted for more than a month this winter. Let me tell you, we’ve gone through a TON of tea.

When the first sign of a cold came on this year I went to the medicine cabinet to pull out the Vicks Vapour Rub to slather on all of our chests before bed, only to find that it wasn’t there! Being the DIY gal that I am, I was 100% ok with this and set out to quickly make some of my own by mixing a bit of coconut oil with some peppermint and eucalyptus essential oils. I warmed the coconut oil in my hands, added a couple drops of essential oil rubbed my hands together and got slathering. It did the trick and my family loved it.

I loved that I knew EXACTLY what I was putting on my family’s skin. Since I took my Culinary Nutrition Expert course last year, I’ve become a lot more aware of what I’m put on my body and my family’s body. Our skin is our largest organ and what we put on our skin is absorbed into our bodies. I started to look closer at the ingredient labels on my bath and body products, and it was pretty scary. There were a lot of ingredients that I could barely pronounce and had no idea what they were.

I started thinking about the idea– If I wouldn’t put it in my mouth to eat it, why would I put it on my body?

I am far from perfect, (Do you know how hard it is to find an organic mascara that doesn’t end up all over your face? Mama likes her mascara!) but I have switched out a lot of my body products for all natural ones (shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, toothpaste, lotions, soap, etc).

Today’s recipe is 100% natural. You can eat it if you want to (as long as you use food grade ingredients). I’ll be honest, it smells so good that I actually did eat a little bit just to see what it tasted like! I’m going to share with you two ways to make this recipe. The first way is the simplest– you just whip up coconut oil and add essential oils. This is a great alternative for vapour rub but it’s pretty oily, so I also created a second option that has more ingredients that makes the finished product feel more like a lotion or whipped body butter!

I hope that you enjoy these recipes and get a lot of use out of them in your own home! I hope they encourage you to look deeper into your own medicine cabinet and investigate some of the ingredient labels of the body products you are using in your home.

Read on for my How To Make DIY Vapour Rub Tutorial- 2 Ways!

How To Make DIY Vapour Rub Tutorial- 2 Ways!

Version 1: The most basic DIY Vapour Rub Recipe

This is your most simple “natural DIY vapour rub” option. I wanted to include it for the times when you need vapour rub in a pinch and don’t have time to track down all the ingredients. It makes for an oilier vapour rub, but my family has been using it for awhile and it does the trick! For a vapour rub that is more like a lotion see version 2.

Ingredients:

-1 cup Coconut Oil

–Peppermint Essential Oil (I try to use food grade essential oils whenever possible.)

–Eucalyptus Essential Oil (I try to use food grade essential oils whenever possible.)

Directions:

-Put 1 cup of coconut oil in the bowl of your mixer. Make sure that your coconut oil is in it’s solid state. (If making this in the summer, but it in the fridge to solidify before making.)

-Whisk on high speed with your wire whisk for 8-10 minutes or until light and fluffy.

-Add essential oils and whisk for another 30 seconds to incorporate essential oils into your coconut oil. I put 10-20 drops of each oil into the coconut oil depending on how strong I want the vapour rub to be.

-Spoon into a mason jar and store in a cool dark place. Rub your DIY Vapour Rub on chest, back, bottoms of feet and temples at the first sign of a cold!

Version 2: Hello Creative Family’s Favorite DIY Vapour Rub Recipe

This DIY Vapour Rub has more ingredients to track down, but you won’t be disappointed with the results. This vapour rub turns into a thicker lotion that glides on smoothly like a whipped body butter. It smells good enough to eat, and with the all natural ingredients, you actually can!

Ingredients:

-1 cup Coconut Oil

-1/2 cup Shea Butter

-1/2 cup Cacao Butter (You can sub cocoa butter if that’s what you have available.)

-1 ounce Beeswax

–Peppermint Essential Oil (I try to use food grade essential oils whenever possible.)

–Eucalyptus Essential Oil (I try to use food grade essential oils whenever possible.)

*A note about using a double boiler- If you don’t have a double boiler, don’t worry! I actually don’t have one either. Instead, I fill a saucepan with a few inches of water and bring to a boil. Then I reduce the heat to low, place a heat safe bowl on top of the saucepan and melt my ingredients in the bowl. Voila! Instant double boiler! I use the bowl of my mixer to do this so I don’t have to transfer it.

Directions:

-Using a double boiler (see double boiler note above) melt your coconut oil, cacao butter and beeswax. When these 3 ingredients are melted, add the shea butter. (Shea butter is more sensitive to heat and should be added at the end.)

-When all 4 ingredients are melted, transfer oils to the bowl of your mixer (if you weren’t using your mixer bowl already) and transfer to the fridge to cool for at least an hour. When it’s ready to be mixed it should be solidified and a creamy white color like the photo below.

-Attach the bowl to your mixer and using the whisk attachment whisk for 5-10 minutes or until the vapour rub is light and drizzly (see photo below). Scrape down the sides of your mixing bowl several times during this process. Add your essential oils towards the end of whisking. I added 40 drops of peppermint essential oil and another 40 of eucalyptus, but since all essential oil bottles drop different sized drops, I suggest dropping 10 drops of each at a time and then rubbing a bit on your skin to test the scent strength.

–Spoon into a mason jar and store in a cool dark place. It will harden up a bit as it cools down. Rub your DIY Vapour Rub on chest, back, bottoms of feet and temples at the first sign of a cold (or use as a lovely body butter any time at all)!

I hope this recipe becomes a family favorite and that you get a lot of use out of it during cold and flu season.

Check out another one of my family’s favorite cold and flu remedies! Lemon Honey Ginger Sore Throat Gummies!