The Best DIY Cayenne Muscle Rub (EASY)

This post is all about DIY Cayenne Muscle Rub.

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After a good days work or after sleeping wrong on your pillow there is nothing you want more than muscle rub. Here is an easy, fabulous DIY muscle rub recipe made from all natural ingredients. And you can totally grow your own cayenne for this recipe!

I LOVE Dr. Christopher’s cayenne heat rub, but it can be pricy, and we grow cayenne peppers so we thought might as well give it a try. This recipe we developed uses cayenne to bring the heat to your muscles and menthol crystals to bring the cool for that “icy hot” effect.

Ingredients for DIY Muscle Rub

Cayenne infused Olive Oil

The core of this recipe, and what gives the rub its pretty red color, is the cayenne infused olive oil. The spiciness of the cayenne has a warming effect to muscles and skin and can be anti-inflammatory. It also encourages better blood flow to the area helping to heal those tender muscles.

This recipe is calibrated to a normal, garden type cayenne that is only about 30,000-60,00ish heat units (HU), it’s not one of the crazy hot 180,000 HU varieties. If you are using a hotter pepper to make the cayenne oil, I would scale down how much you put in the recipe.

Also, if you want less of a burn, add less cayenne oil. This recipe is VERY customizable to what you want and need.

Cayenne Infused Olive Oil REcipe

Ingredients

• Cayenne Peppers (or cayenne powder)
• Olive Oil

To make the powder from whole cayenne peppers, I let them dry out and then whizzed them up in our blender. Take as much cayenne powder as you want and put it into a jar( I used about 1/4 cup), add olive oil until it just covers the powdered cayenne, shake the jar. Keep adding oil until all the powder is soaked through and you can see 1/4 inch of oil over the top of the powder. Let sit in a warm place for 2-3 weeks. Strain out the powder with cheese cloth ( you can run more oil through the same powder to get more use out of it).

Beeswax

This is what makes this rub spreadable, not to mention the many known skin benefits. I used this kind of beeswax from Amazon, though Azure Standard has bulk beeswax that looks good too.

Menthol Crystals

Menthol crystals give this DIY muscle rub its cooling effect. I bought these off Amazon. After searching the internet about how much of these to add, I was only able to find one source that said you should add 1-5% of your ointment in menthol crystals and that you SHOULDN’T add more than 5%. I started with 1% and tried the ointment, but it wasn’t “cool” enough for my taste so I ended up increasing it clear up to the 5%. And the 5% feels really good to me.

Be careful while using menthol crystals, as concentrated menthol can cause harm to your lungs and skin and other tender parts, though it is generally considered safe.

Essential oils

This recipe has wintergreen, peppermint and eucalyptus essential oil. These make this rub smell amazing, but also aid in the cooling effect. I use wintergreen, peppermint and eucalyptus. I like Now brand, and you can get them on amazon here.

You don’t need the essential oils for this rub to work, they do take it to the next level though.

Tools for DIY Muscle Rub

gloves and protective eyeware

We are working with cayenne (SPICY AND BURNY) and menthol (BURNY). Take precautions.

double boiler

This allows us to have a controlled heating of the ingredients and makes sure that the beeswax doesn’t burn.

Jars/ Salve Containers

You can use a simple half pint mason jar, but these salve containers look nice too.

Scale

This recipe is measured by weight, you will want a scale that can weigh in both ounces and grams. This one on Amazon looks good.

WHat I want to try next time

I have been just tickled with this rub, but I want to try adding orange EO, spearmint EO, cajaput EO, cassia EO; mainly for their aroma. It would also be cool to add camphor crystals, and maybe some CBD oil.

directions

Now that we have the ingredients and the tools, it’s time to get to making it!

Step 1: Put on GLoves and Proper Personal Protection

Step 2: Add Beeswax and oils

In a double over medium low heat add 2 1/4 ounce cayenne infused oil and 1 1/2 ounce olive oil along with 1 ounce of beeswax. Heat just enough to dissolve the beeswax. Stir to make sure the beeswax is thoroughly incorporated.

Step 3: Add Menthol Crystals

Measure out 7 grams of menthol crystals. These are POTENT so be careful working with them. Add to the oils and beeswax and stir till dissolved. Remove pot from heat.

Step 4: Add Essential Oils

Off of the heat allow the mixture to cool as much as you can and it still be liquid. ( I like the mixture to be as cool as possible because I feel like it messes with the way the essential oils smell/work if I put them in something hot) Once it gets to this point add 3/4 tsp of wintergreen EO, 1/2 tsp Peppermint EO and 1/4 tsp of Eucalyptus EO.

Step 5: Put in COntainers and Enjoy

Pour into containers of your choice, I put mine in some half cup jars and old salve jars. Enjoy! Bear in mind that this is spicy, so keep away from eyes and sensitive parts. For a deeper heat rub longer and harder into your muscles. For a lighter heat, rub lighter and shorter.

DIY Muscle Rub: Cayenne Heat Ointment

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 Ounces Cayenne Infused Olive Oil (or less, just bear in mind that your menthol crystals should be no more than 5% of the recipe’s weight) Click here to learn how to make cayenne oil.
• 1 1/2 Ounces Olive Oil
• 1 Ounce Beeswax
• 7 grams Menthol Crystals (or less depending on preference)
• 3/4 tsp wintergreen EO (essential oil)
• 1/2 tsp peppermint EO
• 1/4 tsp Eucalyptus EO

Directions

1. Put on gloves and eye protection.
2. In a double boiler on low heat add cayenne infused olive oil, plain olive oil, and menthol crystals. Stir until menthol crystals are dissolved.
3. Add beeswax heat until the wax is just incorporated. Remove from heat.
4. Allow the mixture to cool as much as possible while still remaining liquid. while it is cooler, but still a liquid, add the essential oils. Incorporate thoroughly into ointment.
5. Pour ointment into clean jars or containers of your choice.
6. Enjoy! If you want to get a more intense heat, rub it into your muscle longer and deeper, for a lighter heat, rub softer and shorter.

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