Frequently Asked Questions

Yes! Beard care is very real. Men have beards, and beards need care. That’s where we step in.

The Basics

Beard oil is a combination of all natural oils that help moisturize your beard, keep it healthy, and give off a great scent. The end result is a softer, healthier, shinier (without being greasy), and less wild beard.

Beard balm is similar to beard oil except that is has a few more ingredients (see below) and has a balm/paste/cream consistency. It offers the same benefits as beard oil, except that it provides slightly more stylistic control.

Beard wax is similar to beard balm but also has beeswax added to the base. This allows for even more control over your beard than beard balm offers. You can think of it as hairspray for your beard.

In addition to keeping your beard in check, our beard oil/balm/wax is also incredibly good for the skin underneath your beard.

Commonalities Between Oils, Balms, and Butters

There are a few things that these three things have in common, so we’ll go over that first to make things easier when you’re reading each particular section.

Another couple of common ingredients in most balms and butters (as well as beard waxes, which we’ll add along with the balm section):

• Shea butter
• Cocoa butter
• Beeswax (usually more in beard waxes vs balms)

Despite being labeled for beards, these products can be used on your head hair or skin as well.

All three help tremendously when you’re initially growing your beard out past the stubble stages. Due to the irritation of the hair and possible dryness that comes along with growing a beard, using one of these three products can help you get past that itching stage, which generally lasts a good 2-3 weeks for many men.

A beard wax/balm should mostly be used on the facial hair itself, rather than the skin, as beeswax tends to be comedogenic (pore-clogging); an oil or butter are better options to add directly and intentionally to your skin due to the lack of that ingredient.

That said, this doesn’t mean a balm is bad for your skin or that you should completely avoid it on your skin — it merely has more of a chance to clog your pores.

What Is Beard Oil?

A beard oil, the most basic of the three, is used to keep a beard soft, moisturized, and potentially smelling nice if there are any fragrances or essential oils included. This is, according to Google’s search statistics, the most popular of the three and is usually the first product in a beard company’s line up of products.

It’s simple, yet effective, for everyday needs but it won’t tame your unruly beard quite as much as a beard balm, beard butter, or beard wax would. At the same time, it will still help more than not using an oil at all. Oils are exceptionally good for the skin under your beard.

What is Beard Balm and Beard Wax?

Beard balms and beard waxes are very similar, but are different in the sense of how well they hold your facial hair in place. As opposed to an oil, they provide much more of a hold for styling and taming flyaways and unruliness. Many times, these two are referred to interchangeably.

A balm generally won’t contain as much beeswax as a beard wax. Beeswax is a natural ingredient that has the most hold compared to shea butter and cocoa butter, which are more for spread than hold. Waxes will contain more beeswax and we’d go as far as to say that they will have this ingredient 100% of the time, even if there’s an inclusion of carnauba wax, which can technically be used for the same purpose of hold.

When we say “generally won’t” for a balm, that’s because it comes down to the company and what they want to call their product. Balm is a more widely searched for term in search engines and sites like Amazon, so labeling a product as such tends to be the go-to, even if it may have the same amount of hold as a product labeled as wax. Really, there’s no outlined standards.

Don’t confuse a beard wax with a mustache wax, however. While they can contain some of the same ingredients, a mustache wax needs a stronger hold than a beard wax. As such, it will contain an even larger percentage of beeswax, or alternative and possibly non-natural ingredients altogether.

Beard balms and waxes usually come in tin containers with pop- or twist-off caps. Some opt to use amber glass containers with plastic screw-off caps, however. In general, glass items will be more expensive than tin.

The reason balm and wax tame facial hair so well is due to butters and oils hardening at certain temperatures, as well as adding additional weight to the hair. Once they are applied and cool off, it invisibly hardens around your hair in the style that you set your beard. They do not make your beard feel hard like a hair gel would, nor does it matter if you venture into hotter temperatures — they should do their thing despite the ambient temperature.

What is Beard Butter?

A beard butter could be said to be in between an oil and a balm: it’s not liquid, but it’s not a solid either, and thus doesn’t need to be emulsified in your hands before application of it into your beard.

Think of it as being very close to lotion that you would use on your body or face. Although, at the same time, beard butters can also simply be like beard balms without the beeswax. Which means using shea and cocoa butters as the primary texture, which isn’t quite the same as lotion. You could potentially say that beard butters are the most inconsistent in branding, and many of them can be called creams as well.

Beard butter is easy to spread and tackles dry skin very well. While soothing to the skin, it also provides moderate hold which can be similar to that of a beard balm that may not contain a large portion of beeswax — which is a big bonus for many men. As well, compared to beard oils and balms, it’s the best at softening beards because of its easy penetration past the hair’s cuticle.
With the weight of the butter in a beard, it’s also a helpful styling aid at the same time.

A beard butter is likely to come stored in a plastic container similar to face lotions that don’t use pumps to dispense the product. Some come in tins much like a balm or wax as well.

Every beard is different, and a little oil or balm goes a long way. We have found the best way to apply balm or oil is the apply just a little at a time. After running your hands through your beard, they shouldn’t appear to have any excess oil or balm on them. If they do, you’ve probably used too much and should pat dry your beard to remove excess product. An average size (1-2 inch) beard only needs around 4-6 drops of oil or a dime size amount of balm, though some people like to use or may require more. Our 1 oz tin of balm should last the average beard about a month while the 1 oz oil should last a little longer. Larger beards may require more and can take advantage of our 2 oz balms or 2 oz oils to get more bang for their buck.

Black Sun Apothecary beard oil, beard balm, and beard wax starts out as a proprietary blend of 5 natural base oils. Each blend then has a different mixture of natural essential oils added for scent (and other benefits).

Beard Oils: All of our oiils are based on a proprietary potion concocted of jojoba oil, argan oil, grapeseed oil, coconut oil, hemp seed oil, avocado oil, and pure 70,000 IU vitamin E oil.

Beard Balms: Shea butter, cocoa butter, beeswax, coconut oil and every oil that is in our beard oil.

Beard Waxes: Same ingredients as the balm, but with lanolin and a higher concentration of wax.

Scents: We use all natural essential oils and absolutes that are both functional and smell great. Our beard balms and oils may contain apple oil, cedarwood oil, sandalwood oil, vanilla absolute, lemon oil, ylang ylang oil, pine oil, patchouli oil, cinnamon leaf oil, sweet orange oil, peppermint oil, bay leaf oil, lime oil, clove oil, white fir oil, earl grey tea extract, lavender oil, tobacco absolute, black pepper oil, coffee oil, lemongrass oil, grapefruit oil, and citronella oil.

Beard Wax: Shea butter, coconut oil, cocoa butter, raw yellow beeswax, lanolin, and all the other stuff that is in our beard oils.

Base Oils

Jojoba Oil

The proteins and minerals in this oil mimic collagen and it is the closest oil to our natural skin oil (sebum). Anti-inflammatory effects have been shown. An interesting fact about jojoba is that it is actually a liquid plant wax as opposed to an oil, which is why it is a little thicker, and it will get cloudy and solidify as the temperature drops. Jojoba oil is great for all skin types — especially acne prone skin since jojoba actually breaks down excess sebum. This makes a great base for a face serum to protect your skin against environmental issues. Jojoba oil helps our beard products absorb into your skin and hair rapidly.

Grapeseed Oil

This oil contains high levels of Vitamin E, which helps strengthen your beard hair. Grapeseed oil is also very moisturizing.

Avocado Oil

The proteins, omega 3 fatty acids, and antioxidants in this oil make it a great moisturizer — avocado oil is an excellent source for vitamins A, B1, B2, D, and E. This oil is what helps our beard oil relieve beard itch and “beardruff”. It also absorbs deeply into the skin and helps increase collagen to keep your skin supple. This is a thick oil that works great when combined with other oils. Dry, mature, sensitive, and problem prone skin can benefit greatly from this vitamin rich oil. Avocado oil is especially awesome during the winter, used as a deep moisturizer for very dry skin.

Sweet Almond Oil

Sweet almond oil is also a great source of Vitamin E, D as well as calcium, potassium, and magnesium. The amino acids and vitamins in this oil go on light and smooth and help the more solid or thick oils (such as coconut, neem, castor, and tamanu) penetrate more deeply. It absorbs easily and softens hair very well. The emollient properties in almond oil helps to improve skin tone and complexion. Suitable for all skin types, especially dry & sensitive. It is commonly used as a massage oil because it acts as a natural muscle pain reliever. It is also used to treat split ends and reduce frizzy hair, making it a perfect part of our blend.

Argan Oil

A luxurious oil that absorbs quickly. Argan oil is considered to be a rare (and expensive) oil due to the small area it grows in. Contains antioxidants and is high in vitamin E. Suitable for all skin types. It is great for making hair feel soft and silky and reducing frizz.

Coconut Oil

The medium chain fatty acids in coconut oil work as an antimicrobial agent to help kill bacteria. It is also very similar to our natural sebum secretion. Most coconut oil solidifies at about 76 degrees, so it works best when blended with other liquid carrier oils in to keep it in a more fluid state. Suitable for all skin types, especially acne prone. All of the properties of coconut oil leads to moisturized skin, fewer breakouts, and clearer complexion. We use fractionated coconut oil which lacks the trademark coconut smell of thick, unrefined coconut oil and retains its liquid state easier.

Butters

Shea Butter

Like the oils, shea butter is also rich in vitamins and minerals. It adds thickness to our beard balms, beard creams, and beard waxes. This helps give more styling hold to our product. It also helps with dry, itchy, flaky skin. It is especially useful in cold weather to relieve chapped skin and wind burn.

Cocoa Butter

Helps reduce hair breakage and increases the manageability of your beard. This is one of the ingredients that really helps our beard balm make your beard “lay down”. It also coats the hair which adds volume.

Cyanide: Apples and berries with a peach midtone and a musky finish.

Arsenic: Bay Rum and Lime

Nightshade: Earl Grey Tea, Lavender, and Vanilla

Strichnine: Leather

As soon as you start growing! Our oils and balms not only help existing beards become vastly more awesome, but also makes your skin more healthy to facilitate faster and thicker hair growth and reduce dry, itchy skin for new beards.

Yes! You can use any of our all natural, handmade products to help with itchy skin. Beard oils and beard balms help nourish the skin and relieves itching in addition to making your beard awesome. It’s especially useful when your beard is first coming in and the skin is extra itchy!

We get this question a lot — so much that we made a separate page explaining how to use beard oil.

We made a separate page for using beard balm, too.

Yep, you guessed it. See “How To Use Beard Wax“.

Absolutely not! Black Sun Apothecary does not test our products on animals. Sometimes our cats climb or rub on us after applying our beard oil or beard balm (they like the smell, too), but we don’t feel like this counts.