Walk into any gym bag or physical therapist’s office and you’ll find one of two tubes: Deep Blue Rub, doTERRA’s essential-oil blend in a lotion, or Biofreeze, the green menthol gel. Both earn their reputations. Biofreeze in particular has the best case behind it — its active ingredient, menthol, is an FDA over-the-counter pain reliever, and the cold it delivers is real and fast.
The catch is the price, and in Deep Blue’s case, a label you can’t fully reproduce in your kitchen. This post is the make-it-yourself answer to both: an everyday cooling salve that borrows Deep Blue’s profile, and a Biofreeze-strength version that hits the same menthol level with crystals you can buy by the ounce. And for the nagging joint that wants numbing more than cold, a lidocaine + menthol version modeled on Biofreeze UltraFlex Plus. Three recipe cards, each with a 🖨 Print button.
Not medical advice. Patch-test first, and keep it off broken skin, eyes, and young children. If pain is sudden, severe, follows an injury, or comes with swelling, redness, or fever, get it looked at instead of rubbing something on it.
What’s actually in the store tubes
| Deep Blue Rub | Biofreeze | This salve | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cooling source | Menthol, plus peppermint and camphor | Menthol — 4% (classic) or 5% (professional) | Peppermint, plus optional menthol crystals |
| The rest of the blend | Wintergreen, camphor, peppermint, blue tansy, German chamomile, helichrysum, ylang ylang, osmanthus | Mostly a gel base | Eucalyptus, rosemary, lavender, optional blue tansy |
| Base | Lotion | Gel or roll-on | Beeswax and oil |
| Feel | Creamy, absorbs | Non-greasy, fast | A balm — a little glide, stays put |
| Strongest at | Scent and skin feel | Pain-signal relief | Knowing what’s in it, and cost |
Two things to take from that table:
- The cold is menthol. Whether it comes from a crystal, a gel, or peppermint oil (which is roughly a third to a half menthol on its own), menthol is what triggers the cold receptors in your skin and quiets the ache for a while. Biofreeze is the most direct version of that, which is why it works so reliably.
- The “blue” in Deep Blue is blue tansy and German chamomile. Both owe their color to chamazulene, a compound valued for calming irritated tissue. A few drops in your salve gets you closer to the real profile — and the color.
So the plan is simple: a salve that smells and feels like the premium rub, with the option to dial the menthol up to Biofreeze strength.
The cooling agents, briefly
- Peppermint essential oil — the main natural source of menthol, and the backbone of the cold.
- Eucalyptus essential oil — that sharp, fresh, camphor-like note. Its main compound is eucalyptol (1,8-cineole), not menthol, so it adds character more than cold. Radiata is milder; globulus is stronger.
- Menthol crystals — pure menthol, the same active as Biofreeze. This is how you get a genuinely strong cold without piling on more essential oil.
- Wintergreen and camphor — the “medicine cabinet” notes in many store rubs. Wintergreen is optional (adults only, cautions below). We leave camphor out: it adds little you can’t get from eucalyptus, and it’s one of the most dangerous things to have in a jar a child might get into.
Recipe 1 — Deep Blue–Style Cooling Muscle Salve
Best for: everyday soreness, stiff joints, a tight neck or back.
About ¼ cup of oil and a tablespoon of beeswax makes roughly 2½ oz — two small tins. The essential oils come to about 3% of the finished salve, a sensible strength for an adult rub on a moderate-sized area.
Deep Blue–Style Cooling Muscle Salve
A ~3%-dilution beeswax salve for sore muscles and stiff joints—peppermint and eucalyptus for cooling, rosemary and lavender for the rest of the blend, and an optional drop of blue tansy for the color.
Ingredients
Equipment
- Double boiler, or a heat-safe glass measuring cup set in a pan of simmering water
- Two or three small tins or glass jars (2 oz / 1 oz)
- Kitchen thermometer (optional, but helpful)
Method
- Melt the carrier oil and beeswax together in a double boiler until the wax is fully liquid. Gentle heat only — don’t let it boil.
- Take it off the heat and let it cool a minute or two, to about 140°F (60°C) — warm enough to stay liquid, cool enough that the essential oils don’t flash off. If it starts to film over at the edges, you’ve waited long enough.
- Stir in the menthol crystals first if you’re using them; they dissolve in the warm oil within a minute.
- Add the essential oils (and vitamin E), and stir well.
- Pour into clean, dry tins or jars and leave them uncovered until set — 20–30 minutes. Cap, then label with the ingredients and the date.
Notes
- Use: rub a pea-to-dime-sized amount into the sore area. Wash your hands afterward and keep it away from your eyes.
- Texture check: too soft at room temperature? Remelt and add another 1 tsp of beeswax. Too hard? Remelt and add 1 tsp of oil.
- Storage: a cool, dark cupboard. Keeps 6–12 months — closer to 12 with fractionated coconut or jojoba and vitamin E, closer to 6 with olive or sweet almond. Off smell means it’s done.
- Want it more like the store tube? Add up to 8 drops of wintergreen for the whole batch — adults only. Read the wintergreen cautions below the card first.
Getting the dilution right
The most common mistake with homemade rubs is “a few more drops couldn’t hurt.” It can. A drop is about 0.05 ml, so in a 70 ml batch:
| Total drops | Strength | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| ~30 | ~2% | Larger areas, sensitive skin, daily use |
| ~45 (this recipe) | ~3% | Everyday adult muscle salve |
| ~60 | ~4% | Small areas only |
If you want more cold, don’t add more peppermint — add menthol crystals. That’s what the next recipe does.
Optional adults-only add-in: wintergreen
Wintergreen is mostly methyl salicylate, a close chemical cousin of aspirin, and it’s the warm “Bengay” note in many store rubs. If you want it:
- No more than 8 drops for this batch (about 3–4 drops per ounce).
- Adults only, small areas, short-term.
- Skip it if you’re pregnant or nursing, allergic to aspirin, on blood thinners, have a bleeding disorder or upcoming surgery, or live with small children. Wintergreen is highly toxic if swallowed — one teaspoon of the oil carries about as much salicylate as 20 adult aspirin tablets.
Recipe 2 — Biofreeze-Strength Menthol Salve
Best for: one angry knot, a sore joint, the low back after a long day.
Classic Biofreeze is 4% menthol. This version gets you there: 2.5 g of menthol crystals is about 3.5% of the batch, and the peppermint oil’s own menthol brings the total to roughly 4%. It’s the same active ingredient at the same strength — in a balm you made yourself, without the gel base.
Biofreeze-Strength Menthol Salve
The same salve with menthol crystals brought up to about 4% menthol—the strength of classic Biofreeze—for one sore spot, not a full-body rub.
Ingredients
Equipment
- Double boiler, or a heat-safe glass measuring cup set in a pan of simmering water
- Pocket scale that reads to 0.1 g
- Two or three small tins or glass jars
Method
- Melt the oil and beeswax in a double boiler until clear.
- Off the heat, cool to about 140°F (60°C), then stir in the weighed menthol crystals until fully dissolved — no grit left on the spoon.
- Stir in the essential oils.
- Pour, let set uncovered, then cap and label it “strong — small areas only” with the date.
Notes
- Small areas only: one knot, one joint, the low back. This is not a massage salve — use the everyday salve or the massage oil for that, then dab this on the hot spot.
- Weigh the crystals. Teaspoon measures vary a lot with crystal size, and this is the one ingredient where “about” can mean double.
- Adults only. Not under a heating pad, a tight wrap, or right before a hot shower.
A $10 pocket scale is the honest way to do this. Menthol crystals range from fine needles to chunky flakes, so a teaspoon of one brand can weigh twice a teaspoon of another. Weigh it once, and you’ll know what “½ teaspoon” means for the jar you bought.
Recipe 3 — Numbing Menthol Salve (UltraFlex Plus–Style)
Best for: a nagging knee, shoulder, or low back that wants numbing more than cold.
Biofreeze UltraFlex Plus is a different animal from the green gel. It’s a stretchy patch with two actives: lidocaine 4%, a topical anesthetic that quiets the nerve endings under the skin, and menthol 1% for a mild cool. The rest of the label is the patch itself — adhesive polymers, mineral oil, and an antioxidant to keep the glue stable. A salve doesn’t need any of that.
So the part worth copying is the pairing: numb plus cool. Four percent is the over-the-counter ceiling for lidocaine in a muscle and joint product, so this recipe sits just under it, with menthol at the patch’s 1%.
Two things make this one different from the other cards:
- Buy lidocaine base, not lidocaine HCl. The HCl salt is what dissolves in water-based gels and sprays; it won’t dissolve in oil and will sit in your salve as grit. Lidocaine base melts and dissolves into warm oil.
- It dissolves hotter than the essential oils like. So the lidocaine goes in while the salve is still on the heat, and the menthol and essential oils go in after it cools — same as the other recipes.
Numbing Menthol Salve (UltraFlex Plus–Style)
Lidocaine just under 4% plus about 1% menthol—the same two actives, at the same strengths, as Biofreeze UltraFlex Plus—in a beeswax salve for one sore spot.
Ingredients
Equipment
- Double boiler, or a heat-safe glass measuring cup set in a pan of simmering water
- Pocket scale that reads to 0.1 g
- Kitchen thermometer
- Two or three small tins or glass jars
Method
- Melt the oil and beeswax in a double boiler until clear.
- Leave it on the heat — about 160–180°F (70–80°C) — and stir in the weighed lidocaine base. It melts around 150–155°F (66–69°C); keep stirring 2–5 minutes until the oil is completely clear and there are no grains on the spoon.
- Take it off the heat and cool to about 140°F (60°C). Stir in the menthol crystals until dissolved, then the essential oils.
- Pour, let set uncovered, then cap and label it “LIDOCAINE ~4% — small areas only” with the date.
Notes
- Use it the way the patch label reads: a thin layer on one area, no more than 3–4 times a day, and not for more than 7 days in a row without having it looked at.
- No heating pad, no tight wrap, no broken skin, and don’t stack it with other lidocaine products (patches, creams, sprays) — heat, occlusion, and doubling up are how a topical anesthetic gets absorbed faster than intended.
- Gritty after it sets? The lidocaine didn’t fully dissolve, and each grain is a concentrated hot spot. Remelt on the heat and stir until clear.
- Weigh both powders. This is the one card where eyeballing a teaspoon is not okay.
- Rather not measure a drug at home? HealthWise sells a lidocaine 4% + menthol 1% roll-on — the same pairing, ready-made. See the shortcut below this card.
A patch gives an exact dose; a salve gives whatever you scoop. Use a thin layer, and treat that tin like the drug it is: labeled, dated, and on a high shelf.
The no-weighing shortcut: buy the pairing ready-made
Rather not buy and weigh lidocaine powder? You can buy Recipe 3’s actives already mixed, at an exact dose:
- Numb + cool: the HealthWise Roll-On with lidocaine 4% and menthol 1%. Those are the same two actives, at the same strengths, as UltraFlex Plus, in a roll-on gel. Its label allows up to 3–4 applications a day.
- Numb only: the HealthWise 4% Lidocaine Roll-On (2.5 oz, unscented; Walmart carries it too). Its label says a thin layer every 6–8 hours, no more than 3 times in 24 hours.
Use either one on its own. Three rules:
- Don’t put the salve on top. The lidocaine roll-on’s label says not to use it at the same time as other topical pain relievers, and a menthol salve is one. Want the salve too? Use it on a different spot, or on a different day.
- Don’t stir a roll-on into the salve. It’s a water-based liquid, so it won’t blend into beeswax and oil. It separates, it dilutes the lidocaine to an unknown strength, and it puts water in a jar that isn’t preserved for it.
- Never pair a roll-on with Recipe 3. That’s two lidocaine products on one spot. Use one lidocaine source at a time.
Which one, when
| What you’re after | Reach for |
|---|---|
| A daily rub that smells good and does the job | Recipe 1 |
| The strongest cold on one sore spot | Recipe 2, or a tube of Biofreeze |
| Numbing for a nagging joint | Recipe 3, or a ready-made lidocaine + menthol roll-on |
| A full massage with real glide | The Everyday Recovery Massage Oil |
| A non-greasy gel | The Aloe-Gel Cooling Spot Rub |
The combination that works best is still the one from our sore-muscle massage oil post: massage first with an oil, then a small amount of strong menthol on the hot spot. This salve gives you both ends of that in tins you can toss in a gym bag.
Working on a scar? Different jar entirely — no menthol, closed skin only. See the Scar Mobility Oil, and keep this salve around a scar, never on top of it.
Safety (read this once)
- Patch-test a small spot on the inner forearm and wait 24 hours before the first real use. Peppermint, eucalyptus, wintergreen, menthol, and lidocaine can all irritate skin, and repeated overuse can sensitize you to them.
- Not for children — especially under 6, and use real caution under 10. Menthol and eucalyptus near a young child’s face can trigger breathing problems. Store the tins where kids can’t reach them.
- Skip it during pregnancy and nursing, unless your own practitioner has okayed it.
- Keep it off broken skin, mucous membranes, the eyes, and large areas of the body. If it gets in your eyes, flush with plain oil, then water.
- No heat on top. Don’t use it under a heating pad or a tight wrap, which traps the actives against your skin.
- Menthol crystals are potent. Weigh them, dissolve them completely, and don’t go past the amount in Recipe 2.
- Lidocaine is a drug. Recipe 3 stays under the 4% over-the-counter limit; don’t raise it, don’t use it on large areas, and keep it away from kids — a swallowed or overused topical anesthetic is a real poisoning risk. Use one lidocaine product at a time — Recipe 3, a roll-on, or a patch, not two — and don’t layer the salve over a store-bought lidocaine product.
The barefoot part
The store tubes work; there’s no shame in reaching for one. But once you own a bottle of peppermint and a bag of beeswax, a tin of this costs a fraction of either one — and you’ll know exactly what’s in it: oils you can name, at a strength you chose, with nothing hiding behind the word “fragrance.”
Fewer, better things, made by your own hands.
Make it the easy way
Each recipe card above has a 🖨 Print button — tape it inside the cupboard where you keep the beeswax. Or get the printable Muscle Salve card and we’ll email you the PDF, along with the occasional recipe worth making.
Don’t have the oils yet? We carry them — shop essential oils and make your first tin this week.
Sources & further reading
- U.S. National Library of Medicine, DailyMed — Biofreeze drug labels and other topical menthol products, labeled as over-the-counter external analgesics (menthol 4–5% in gels and roll-ons). — Basis for menthol being the best-supported cooling active.
- Biofreeze UltraFlex Plus drug label (Reckitt, NDC 59316-898), DailyMed — lidocaine 4% and menthol 1% in a stretch patch. Inactive ingredients: butylated hydroxytoluene, glyceryl hydrogenated rosinate, mineral oil, polyisobutylene, and styrene/isoprene/styrene block copolymer. One patch at a time, no more than 3–4 times a day, and not with heat or other topical anesthetics.
- Biofreeze UltraFlex drug label (Reckitt, NDC 59316-899), DailyMed — the lidocaine-only (4%) version of the same patch.
- HealthWise Roll-On drug label (Veridian Healthcare, NDC 71101-110), DailyMed — lidocaine 4% and menthol 1% in a roll-on gel; up to 3–4 applications a day.
- HealthWise 4% Lidocaine Roll-On drug label (Veridian Healthcare, NDC 71101-003), DailyMed — lidocaine 4%; a thin layer every 6–8 hours, no more than 3 times in 24 hours, and not at the same time as other topical pain relievers. Sold on Amazon and at Walmart.
- FDA over-the-counter external analgesic monograph — lidocaine 0.5–4% and menthol 1.25–16% for topical pain relief.
- doTERRA product labeling for Deep Blue Soothing Blend and Deep Blue Rub — wintergreen, camphor, peppermint, blue tansy, German (blue) chamomile, helichrysum, ylang ylang, and osmanthus.
- Tisserand R. & Young R., Essential Oil Safety, 2nd ed. — dermal dilution guidance; menthol and 1,8-cineole cautions for young children; salicylate cautions for wintergreen (methyl salicylate); camphor toxicity.
Deep Blue is a trademark of doTERRA, and Biofreeze is a trademark of Reckitt. Barefoot Betters isn’t affiliated with either; the names are used only to describe what these recipes are modeled on.
