If your beard balm has been sitting around for a few months, it might not come as a surprise to see it start to take on a grainy appearance as the acids separate from the natural butters.
You might expect this to happen to your balms eventually, but it’s truly disheartening when your beard balm arrives all melted. But don’t worry, and don’t toss your beard balm in the trash. It’s easier to fix than you might think!
Beard balms naturally separate when they are kept at high temperatures for too long. These same processes which allow your beard balm to melt and separate can be used to revive your beard balm. With just a few simple steps, you can have a perfectly functioning beard balm with only a minimal amount of product lost.
If you have beard balm that has gone grainy or beard butter that has separated and started to run, then you need to learn how to revive it. The best news is that reviving your beard balm only takes a few minutes, and it’s so easy that you could even do it with your eyes shut.
Most importantly, it’ll save you money by extending the life of your balms.
How to Revive Your Beard Balm
While they are two different products, beard balms and beard butters both suffer from melting because of their shared ingredients. While the revival process is similar for both, we will focus on beard balm first and discuss butters afterwards.
If your beard balm is fully melted, then it must still be warm, and you might be able to revive it simply by freezing it. If your beard balm is grainy, on the other hand, in that in-between stage between being completely melted or completely solid. In that case, you will need to re-melt the balm yourself.
By fully melting your beard balm, you create a uniform liquid which can be frozen again as a whole. It’s a little bit like making popsicles.
When melting your beard balm, it is important that you are careful with the method you choose. If you just place the balm into a pot and heat it up, the oils will turn to fats and the balm will be ruined. To get around this issue, use a steam method.
If you have a steaming pot, fill it with water and set it to steam. Put your beard balm into another pot and set this on top of the steamer. If you don’t have a steaming pot, this can be done by bringing a pot to a boil and simply holding the small pot of balm above the steam.
It will be easy to tell that the balm is finished. If it is a liquid, then it’s done melting. Pour it back into the container and toss it into the fridge or freezer. It’ll take a couple hours to form again, but that’s all there is to it.
If you follow these steps, then you’ll be able to bring your beard balms back to life with little effort. A little bit of product will be lost as the heat evaporates a bit of it, but it sure beats ordering a new balm.
How Do You Prevent This From Happening?
If you order beard balm online and it comes melted, that sucks. But there wasn’t a whole lot you could have done about it. Simply revive it and move on. But when it comes to preventing the beard balms you have from melting, there is a lot you can do.
Since the problem here is heat, make sure that you store your beard balms and butters in a cool area where they won’t be exposed to direct sunlight. Instead of leaving them out on the bathroom counter, put them away on a shelf or in your medicine cabinet.
If you want to take your balms on the go with you, stick them in a backpack rather than your back pocket. Body heat will bring up the temperature and cause more melting.
Why Does Happen?
Beard balms melt for the same reason that anything else does—too much heat. This is why companies have to put out heat warnings as part of their shipping advice.
Some beard balms are made using beeswax and are thus less likely to melt, but many use alternative ingredients that become beady when exposed to high temperatures. They can even melt entirely when too hot.
It’s actually easier to fix fully-melted balms and butters since you don’t need to melt them first.
Can You Still Use Melted Beard Balm?
Yes, absolutely. Melted beard balm is still usable, same with beady balm.
But it isn’t going to feel very nice, nor will it spread through your beard as evenly. For a more enjoyable experience, take the time to revive your balm. You deserve it.
Are Beard Balm and Beard Butter the Same?
Beard balm and beard butter are often used interchangeably. However, there are a few notable differences between the two as far as what they’re made from and their intended use.
Beard balm is often, although not always, made with beeswax as a primary ingredient. This gives it a stronger hold and makes it great for styling a beard. It contains many of the ingredients found in beard butter, but it is the beeswax that is most important to note.
Beard butter on the other hand is mostly made up of natural oils and butters. It is great for moisturizing your beard and the skin underneath it. But since it doesn’t have beeswax in it, it has a much weaker hold.
Most beard balms are made with shea butter and many other ingredients found in beard butter. But the beeswax requires us to melt beard balms in order to revive them. With beard butters, we need to cool them down instead.
Nobody likes the guy that points out the difference between beard balm and beard butter at parties but that guy’s the smart one when it comes to reading how-to guides. And now you’re that guy, so you won’t go burning your beard butter trying to revive it like a balm.
How Do You Fix Melted Beard Butter?
Fixing melted beard butter is even easier than fixing beard balm, as the following video shows:
Beard butter separates entirely because of the oils in the shea butter.
Leave your melted beard butter in the fridge until it begins to stick together another. Then, take it out of the fridge and bring it back up to room temperature. It is important that you always allow it to return to room temperature before continuing, otherwise you won’t get it to spread properly.
Finally, whip the butter with a fork until it returns to the expected consistency. Don’t be worried about overwhipping. It doesn’t exist at this point, so go ahead and blend it good.
A little beard butter will be lost in the process; but again, it beats tossing out the whole container!
Is Melting a Sign of a Low Quality Product?
Most beard balms and butters melt. In no way is this a sign of low quality or poor production methods. Ice melts in heat, as do balms and butters.
A high quality product such as Honest Amish’s beard balm will melt when left out in the heat. But if you use the steps above, you know that this isn’t a problem at all. Revive that balm and slather it over that manly face of yours.
It should be noted that this goes both ways. Melting is not a sign of a low-quality product. But staying stuck together isn’t a sign of a high-quality product either. It all depends on the ingredients that are used in the manufacturing process.
The best balms might melt, and the best might stick together. The only way to tell the quality of a product is to read the reviews or try it yourself.
Conclusion
As you’ve seen, not only can you revive melted bead balm, but it is actually easier than you might have thought. While beard butter and beard balms are two different products, they share a lot of the same ingredients and reviving either of them can make them last much longer.
Keep this trick in mind if you have one of those friends that’s constantly going through products. You might be able to save a lot of money on products by caring for theirs.
I hope this trick proves useful. Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to keep your beard looking fresh. Make sure you check back for more articles covering tips and tricks that will leave your beard looking (and feeling) great!
