I’ve made several versions of salves like this in the past but I’ve never been all that successful. They would sort of, kind of work but I remained relatively unimpressed with the results.   (In fact, I think I can one blend that actually made zits worse.  Game over!)

This recipe was one that came together on the fly.  I had gotten a big honker of a pimple in the morning and by that night, I was feeling like I needed to intervene.  But it was late and I wasn’t going to spend a lot of time monkeying around with ingredients.

Turns out, the reason that I wasn’t successful with the other salves I had tried is that I was trying to get a little too fancy with all the mixing. (That’s how I ended up making zits worse with that one blend.)  What I really needed to do was find a few powerful ingredients and just stick with those!

That’s why this recipe only has 3 ingredients…but they get the job done.

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This is an overnight salve for a reason.  Lemon essential oil (and all other citrus essential oils) is photosensitizing so don’t smear this on your face and then go outside in the sun.  I haven’t ever personally experienced this but I have no desire to add irritation on top of a pre-existing pimple.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon neem oil
• 15 drops lemon essential oil
• 1 tablespoon carrier oil (I like coconut oil because it’s also antibacterial but you can use whatever oil you want)…see note below on carrier oil

Single Serving: if you just want a single serving, you can combine 1/8 teaspoon neem oil, 1/8 carrier oil, and 2 drops lemon essential oil in the palm of your hand and then apply to zit.

Note on the Carrier Oil: high quality 100% neem oil should be diluted with a carrier oil. It is my personal belief that a lot of the cheaper brands that I’ve looked into have quite low concentrations of the active compounds (mostly commonly, azadirachtin) which could theoretically not require a carrier oil.  HOWEVER, the only the way to know this for each brand is to call the company directly and find out…since I can’t do this for every brand out there, my best recommendation is to just use a skin-beneficial carrier oil like coconut oil to be safe.

Steps:

1. Place your neem oil into a small glass container.

2. Place that small glass bottle into a bigger container (I just use a regular bowl) with warm water.  This melts the neem oil so that you can combine it evenly with the lemon essential oil.

3. Once the neem oil is melted, add in your lemon essential oil and mix until everything is thoroughly combined.

4. Let cool and store in a dark, cool place.