How We Make Our Bug Bite Balm: From Garden to Jar

This is how InVine Botanicals, a small batch herbal balm maker in Tallahassee, Florida, makes its best selling Bug Bite Balm, from garden bed to finished jar. Every jar starts in our own garden. We grow the herbs ourselves, dry them ourselves, and infuse them ourselves, right here in North Florida.

In the next few minutes we will walk through the whole process. Five garden herbs, a careful harvest, a slow six to eight week infusion, and the final pour into amber glass jars. It takes far longer than most balm making, and you can smell the difference the moment you open the jar.

Bug Bite Balm is built on five herbs, and we grow every one of them. Lemongrass, lemon balm, rosemary, sweet basil, and lemon mint. Lemon balm, Melissa officinalis, is the heart of the formula.

It is a citrus scented member of the mint family, and it thrives in our garden beds most of the year. We grow it in dense patches, and it regrows so eagerly that we can cut from the same plants again and again through the season. Its small, scalloped leaves release a bright lemon scent when you brush past them, and that brightness sets the tone for the whole balm.

Rosemary, Rosmarinus officinalis, adds a green, resinous depth. The same Mediterranean shrub you cook with grows beautifully in Tallahassee's warm climate. Rosemary also holds its scent unusually well through drying, which makes it a dependable anchor note in the finished balm.

Sweet basil, Ocimum basilicum, rounds out the scent with a soft, peppery green note, started from seed in waves so a fresh crop is always coming up. Lemongrass, Cymbopogon citratus, brings the bright, citrusy top note this balm is known for. It grows in tall, arching clumps, more like an ornamental grass than a kitchen herb.

And lemon mint, Monarda citriodora, a bee friendly plant that loves our climate, layers a gentle floral citrus underneath. If it is in the jar, it grew here first. That is the rule this balm is built on.

Those five herbs, plus a clean tea tree finish added at the very end, are the entire scent story. There are no synthetic fragrances in this jar. Harvest happens in the morning, after the dew lifts but before the Florida heat settles in, when each herb's aromatic oils are at their strongest.

We cut by hand with pruning shears, taking the top growth and leaving every plant ready to push out the next flush of leaves. Lemon balm gets the same treatment, stem by stem into the basket. The herbs never see a truck.

The trip from bed to drying room is a short walk. Freshly cut herbs go straight onto mesh drying screens in our dedicated drying room. That room is held at 76 degrees Fahrenheit and 35 percent humidity, with circulation fans running around the clock.

It is also kept dark. Light breaks down the delicate compounds that give each herb its color and scent, so no sunlight reaches the racks. The low humidity matters just as much.

Drying too slowly invites mold, and drying too hot cooks the character right out of the leaf. Everything is spread in a single layer on mesh screens, never piled, so air reaches every leaf. The same room handles everything we grow.

Calendula for other balms, rose petals for our creams, and the five herbs bound for this one. Depending on the herb, drying takes four to nine days. Rosemary finishes quickly.

Softer, moisture rich leaves like lemon balm take longer. You know an herb is fully dry when the leaves crumble between your fingers and the stems snap cleanly instead of bending. Once dry, the herbs go into large glass jars for the step that defines everything InVine Botanicals makes.

Whole herb infusion. We pack each jar with the dried herbs, then cover them completely in a base of cold extracted extra virgin olive oil and unrefined virgin coconut oil. Both oils earn their place.

Olive oil carries the infusion, and coconut oil gives the finished balm its smooth glide. Then each jar is stirred so the oil reaches everything. Each jar is capped, and the infusion clock starts.

The jars move to our infusion room, climate controlled at 74 degrees and, like the drying room, kept completely dark. And there they sit for six to eight weeks. No heat, no sunlight, no shortcuts.

Just time, while the oil slowly takes on the character of the whole herb. That is what whole herb infusion means. Instead of adding a few drops of extract to a finished base, the plant itself steeps in the oil for weeks, passing along its color, its scent, and its full character.

When the infusion is ready, we strain the spent herbs out through a fine mesh, and what comes through is a rich, golden, herb infused oil. That oil is the foundation of the balm. The color, the scent, and the feel of the finished jar all start right here.

We warm the infused oil gently and blend in pure beeswax. Beeswax is what sets the balm's structure, so it glides on smoothly without feeling greasy. Vitamin E goes in next, a natural antioxidant that keeps every finished jar fresh, with no synthetic preservatives.

Last comes a whisper of tea tree essential oil, Melaleuca alternifolia, purely for aroma. A crisp, clean finish. While the blend is still warm and liquid, we pour it into two ounce amber glass jars.

Amber glass is the gold standard for herbal balms. It shields the oils inside from UV light, for the same reason the infusion room stays dark. Each jar is capped by hand and finished with a printed label.

As the balm cools it sets, turning from a clear golden liquid into the soft, smooth balm you find when you first open the jar. The result is Bug Bite Balm. A botanical skin conditioning balm made for families who spend real time outdoors, and gentle enough for children and sensitive skin.

It opens bright and citrusy, settles into green basil and rosemary, and finishes clean. Grown in our garden, formulated by Janice, made by hand in small batches. Every balm we make, Bug Bite Balm included, goes through the process you just watched.

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