Making Hypnos Bedtime Balm

ByCindy Grant February 17, 2020November 20, 2023 Craft

The Hypnos bedtime balm was born from the overwhelming desire to find something heavy and whack my insomnia over the head with it.

That’s about it, really. Will this balm physically fist-fight your insomnia? Sadly, no. It makes for a pretty relaxing (and very fragrant) pre-bedtime massage balm, though!

A pinterest pin of a jar of oil, beeswax floating within, standing on the top of an electronic scale.

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You will need

Equipment

Electronic scale
Glass jar
Small saucepan
Salve tins
A dropper for essential oils

Ingredients

3.30 oz Grapeseed Oil
(Infused with: Lavender, Myrrh, Frankincense, White pine, Chamomile, Nettle, Lemon Balm, and Valerian root)
.50 oz Beeswax
.10 oz Borage oil
.10 oz Evening Primrose oil
45 drops lavender essential oil
30 drops cedarwood atlas essential oil
1 generous toothpick of myrrh essential oil (it’s thick and sticky!)

Recipe

Seven finished tins of salve, arranged in a circle.

Weigh out your infused grapeseed oil and beeswax, and place both in a heatproof container such as a mason jar. Place jar in a small saucepan that has a few inches of water at the bottom. Melt the beeswax and the oil together, stirring on occasion to help things speed up.

Once melted, remove jar from heat. Let sit for a minute to cool a bit, but don’t let it start setting up!

Weigh out and add in both borage and evening primrose oil, giving it a quick stir to make sure they get mixed in.

Drop in the essential oils. Do not add extra– scent will appear faint while salve is hot, but is stronger once salve is cooled. Stir for a minute to make sure essential oils are well mixed-in. To get the myrrh off the toothpick, swirl dipped toothpick end around in the hot oil mixture until myrrh dissolves.

Pour salve into tins, and leave to cool. Once completely cool, lid the tins, and store somewhere cool and dark.

Apply by gently massaging a small amount into skin as needed.

Hypnos bedtime balm remains good to use so long as it does not discolor, begin to smell like rancid oil, or lose fragrance. Do not use on face or allow to come into contact with mucous membranes.

Hey, why these herbs?

All herbs (and essential oils) in this recipe were chosen because they are supposed to be calming, relaxing, or soothing in some way, among their other properties.

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Cindy Grant

Cindy is the original founder of Unruly Gardening. She's been planting peas and pulling weeds since she was a preschooler, following grandpa around his gardens. She loves growing heirlooms and unusual plant varieties, especially the tricky-to-grow or ultra rare ones! She lives at the foot of the Appalachian mountains with two adorable cats and a slightly out of control yarn collection.

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2 Comments

Cassandra says:

November 8, 2020 at 9:52 am

What do you mean by “Infused with”, does that mean the you add those oils as well, or that they are already in the Grapeseed oil? I looked at the graspesed oil you linked to, but didn’t see that it was infused with those essential oils.

Thank you!

Reply
1. Unruly Gardening says:
  
  November 10, 2020 at 4:56 pm
  
  “Infused with” means that the herbs were added to the oil and allowed to sit on a sunny windowsill for 2 weeks, before being strained and used in the recipe. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!
  
  Reply