Muscle pain relief cream

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

PerthMobility

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2016
Messages
145
Reaction score
57
Location
Mandurah, Western Australia
It's a pain getting old, literally. Would some kind person please help me with formulating Arnica, Eucalyptus, Emu Oil and Menthol into a pain relieving rub/cream, please. I will need percentages plus sufficants, emulsifiers and preservatives if appropriate as well, please.
 
I make a muscle rub using menthol crystals and a bunch of other ingredients but it's taken me a few years to develop my recipe; there's no way I'll ever share it. I will say that it is one of the few things that helps my husband's severely damaged and circulation-challenged feet (from a bad break as the result of a skiing accident many years ago).

That reminds me - I need to order more menthol crystals.
 
I would recommend doing a lot of research since you are now entering the OTC drug arena. When customers ask me for a pain balm I suggest they purchase a brand name that has testing and insurance backing them. Wintergreen, capsicum, cayenne pepper, menthol can be dangerous if not used correctly. Emu Oil will act as a carrier to bypass our normal skin barrier so you really need to know the dosage of ingredients used and the carrier is necessary to get the active ingredients to the layer of pain. Pain Balms usually contain an Anti inflammatory, Analgesic, Anti-oxidant, have anti-neuralgic component, and a blood circulation promoter Hopefully you have insurance if selling or even giving away such products, but your insurance will probably be nullified if there is a problem because it is a drug. One of the best way to research is to check patents on some of the commercially available balms/creams.

You might be interested in this recipe http://library.essentialwholesale.c...uscle-ointment-recipe-castorlatum-now-10-off/
 
Given that I am dealing with a toxic oil in Arnica, I have chickened out from using the range of infused blends on the market and ordered some 100% pure EO from Rock Health Products in NY. Not cheap by the time I use DHL but a little bit goes a long way, I hope.

At least this way I am quite sure of my final formulation and can add my own carrier, in my case Emu Oil.
 
I make a muscle rub using menthol crystals and a bunch of other ingredients but it's taken me a few years to develop my recipe; there's no way I'll ever share it. I will say that it is one of the few things that helps my husband's severely damaged and circulation-challenged feet (from a bad break as the result of a skiing accident many years ago).

You posted this in reply to a (nearly) 80 year old man who is in pain for what reason?

I don't get it ... :?
 
Hey, you are lovely person Suzie and I thank you, but I think I have gone one better with my recipe. I will most certainly publish mine for the benefit of this wonderful community just as soon as I have tried it on my own knees and things.

If they don't dissolve or catch fire or something I will be good to publicise. It is based on Arnica and Emu of course. More soon.
 
You posted this in reply to a (nearly) 80 year old man who is in pain for what reason?

I don't get it ... :?

How would you know this poster was an 80 year old man????? From the profile? Not me. If someone formulates a formula they are under no obligation to share it unless they want to. Now if it was me I would not have posted anything if I didn't want to share, but just saying the guilt trick didn't work on me.
 
How would you know this poster was an 80 year old man????? From the profile? Not me. If someone formulates a formula they are under no obligation to share it unless they want to. Now if it was me I would not have posted anything if I didn't want to share, but just saying the guilt trick didn't work on me.

Right. I understand not sharing recipes to some degree (I believe everyone should share basic recipes as it was shared with us when we began) but I don't understand announcing yes, I have a recipe but I'm not giving it to you.

I make my own muscle balm and it did take me a very long time to come up with my recipe. I use infused oils that I make with beeswax to make a salve as the base for the oil. I've seen others say you can use petroleum jelly as the basis. I would warn that when testing this, it takes about 20 minutes for the cooling to kick in and it's hard to really gauge the correct amount of menthol chips and/or essential oils. So start out lightly and add as time goes on.

Anyway, the active ingredients in any muscle balms are usually menthol chips and then a combination of essential oils. For my mild muscle balm I melt a tsp of menthol chips into a half cup of salve. I then add a few drops of cajeput essential oil and clovebud essential oil and that seems to be fine. If I want it stronger I will add cassia (cinnamon) eo, wintergreen e.o., peppermint e.o., eucalyptus eo. The cassia is the ingredient that makes RED Tiger Balm versus regular Tiger Balm. It takes a long time to figure out how each ingredient affects the product as a whole.

What I suggest...and this is from months of trying recipes and having different strengths at different times:

1. Come up with the best medium as a base. If you don't want to make your own, you can use petroleum jelly. You can also use some shea butter as a base to melt menthol chips. I use my own herbal infused oils and beeswax to make a salve. Depending on the strength I need I will use comfrey-infused oil, arnica infused oil or calendula infused oil. But you can use an ounce of beeswax in a cup of any oil (olive oil, sweet almond etc) without it being infused first.
2. I melt some menthol chips (starting with a teaspoon per half cup base) into the base and mix well.
3. This alone would make an okay muscle balm. To make it stronger, add a few drops of cajeput essential oil and clovebud essential oil.
4. You don't need anything else but you can add any kind of mints (peppermints, wintergreen etc) or eucalyptus and even lavender.
5. For extra heat add a drop or two of cassia (or cinnamon). This can be very irritating but effective for muscle aches so make sure you use very little and mix well.

My experience is that I needed a lot of trial and error to get it right. All you really need is petroleum jelly and some menthol chips but a well-rounded balm will include clovebud and cajeput and maybe a wintergreen or peppermint.

I had a list at one point of the different combinations and how it effected me. WARNING: most of these balms take a few minutes to "kick in" so don't go overboard at first. Leave it on at least 20 minutes before you decide to add more menthol or EOs. It took me a long, long time to figure out how each ingredient would affect the end product.
 
Right. I understand not sharing recipes to some degree (I believe everyone should share basic recipes as it was shared with us when we began) but I don't understand announcing yes, I have a recipe but I'm not giving it to you.

Yeah, shortly after I submitted it, I realized I probably shouldn't have.

I am more than happy to share most of my recipes (and do) but there are some recipes I've spent a lot of time developing. Those I guard.
 
Yeah, shortly after I submitted it, I realized I probably shouldn't have.

Yeah, same. I should have sent a PM or something. Retrospect - it's a beautiful thing. My apologies to Misschief and Mac.

According to my husband who is Canadian, we Aussies tend to jump in mouth first and can come across as brusque (even rude :think:) sometimes when it's the last thing we're trying to be. He's been in the country for over 20 years and he still has trouble understanding our humour.

I'd certainly never hurt anyone on purpose and I'm very sorry if I've done that.
 
Right. I understand not sharing recipes to some degree (I believe everyone should share basic recipes as it was shared with us when we began) but I don't understand announcing yes, I have a recipe but I'm not giving it to you.

I make my own muscle balm and it did take me a very long time to come up with my recipe. I use infused oils that I make with beeswax to make a salve as the base for the oil. I've seen others say you can use petroleum jelly as the basis. I would warn that when testing this, it takes about 20 minutes for the cooling to kick in and it's hard to really gauge the correct amount of menthol chips and/or essential oils. So start out lightly and add as time goes on.

Anyway, the active ingredients in any muscle balms are usually menthol chips and then a combination of essential oils. For my mild muscle balm I melt a tsp of menthol chips into a half cup of salve. I then add a few drops of cajeput essential oil and clovebud essential oil and that seems to be fine. If I want it stronger I will add cassia (cinnamon) eo, wintergreen e.o., peppermint e.o., eucalyptus eo. The cassia is the ingredient that makes RED Tiger Balm versus regular Tiger Balm. It takes a long time to figure out how each ingredient affects the product as a whole.

What I suggest...and this is from months of trying recipes and having different strengths at different times:

1. Come up with the best medium as a base. If you don't want to make your own, you can use petroleum jelly. You can also use some shea butter as a base to melt menthol chips. I use my own herbal infused oils and beeswax to make a salve. Depending on the strength I need I will use comfrey-infused oil, arnica infused oil or calendula infused oil. But you can use an ounce of beeswax in a cup of any oil (olive oil, sweet almond etc) without it being infused first.
2. I melt some menthol chips (starting with a teaspoon per half cup base) into the base and mix well.
3. This alone would make an okay muscle balm. To make it stronger, add a few drops of cajeput essential oil and clovebud essential oil.
4. You don't need anything else but you can add any kind of mints (peppermints, wintergreen etc) or eucalyptus and even lavender.
5. For extra heat add a drop or two of cassia (or cinnamon). This can be very irritating but effective for muscle aches so make sure you use very little and mix well.

My experience is that I needed a lot of trial and error to get it right. All you really need is petroleum jelly and some menthol chips but a well-rounded balm will include clovebud and cajeput and maybe a wintergreen or peppermint.

I had a list at one point of the different combinations and how it effected me. WARNING: most of these balms take a few minutes to "kick in" so don't go overboard at first. Leave it on at least 20 minutes before you decide to add more menthol or EOs. It took me a long, long time to figure out how each ingredient would affect the end product.

This is pretty close to the ingredient list that I use. I do add camphor and use Arnica infused oil ( in my case olive)
 
PerthMobility - Have you tried dandelion flower oil? (Uh, do you even have dandelions in Australia?) Last summer, I was at a farmer's market here in town and I purchased some "dandelion flower salve." The woman I purchased it from said it was a pain reliever and her grandfather swears by it for his arthritis. Since I have all kinds of issues, I decided to give it a go. Oh. My. Gosh. Awesomeness in a jar!! I went online and ordered dandelion flower infused oil and gave it to my friend. She has severe arthritis and it helped her with her pain. (She's just had her knee and hip replaced, Feb & 2 weeks ago respectively.) I bought some dandelion flowers on Etsy and have made my own oil (12 oz sweet almond with 4 oz dandelion flowers). The oil works wonders. Someone here on this forum makes a dandelion salve (I don't remember who it is). You can find a recipe here: https://thenerdyfarmwife.com/dandelion-salve-recipe/. (actually, I think this is where she go her recipe.) Good luck and I hope this helps or at least gives you some ideas. Personally, I would avoid the menthol, wintergreen and camphor (I don't even know what arnica is!) since they are a bit on the "not-so-safe" side...
 
PerthMobility - Have you tried dandelion flower oil? (Uh, do you even have dandelions in Australia?) Last summer, I was at a farmer's market here in town and I purchased some "dandelion flower salve." The woman I purchased it from said it was a pain reliever and her grandfather swears by it for his arthritis. Since I have all kinds of issues, I decided to give it a go. Oh. My. Gosh. Awesomeness in a jar!! I went online and ordered dandelion flower infused oil and gave it to my friend. She has severe arthritis and it helped her with her pain. (She's just had her knee and hip replaced, Feb & 2 weeks ago respectively.) I bought some dandelion flowers on Etsy and have made my own oil (12 oz sweet almond with 4 oz dandelion flowers). The oil works wonders. Someone here on this forum makes a dandelion salve (I don't remember who it is). You can find a recipe here: https://thenerdyfarmwife.com/dandelion-salve-recipe/. (actually, I think this is where she go her recipe.) Good luck and I hope this helps or at least gives you some ideas. Personally, I would avoid the menthol, wintergreen and camphor (I don't even know what arnica is!) since they are a bit on the "not-so-safe" side...


Funny you should mention this... I have some dandelions infusing in sweet almond oil right now so I can make that very salve for my husband. I know there are places dandelion's don't grow (that's not an issue around here, believe me!); I've seen dandelion seeds in seed catalogues and shake my head in wonder. I'm happy to hear it works well.
 
(Uh, do you even have dandelions in Australia?)

Uh, just all over our lawns ... like everywhere! ... wow I didn't even know all this about dandelions Teresa, thanks. I'll have to go outside and pick me some dandelions.

I'm supposing dandelions are the same thing everywhere though, hopefully not another name for a different flower? Like "squash" in Canada being a butternut pumpkin in Australia. ... Just a thought.
 
Like "squash" in Canada being a butternut pumpkin in Australia. ... Just a thought.

I'm in Canada and there are a lot of different kinds of squash here...butternut is a squash... um.. and a whole lot of others, too. We don't call butternut a pumpkin, though. It's a squash. Pumpkin is a type of squash.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top