Glossary of balm and salve terms

Plain definitions of the vocabulary used in balm making and anhydrous formulation, from anhydrous and bis-allylic to water activity and yield stress.

Trebalm editorial deskUpdated 6 September 2026

The vocabulary of anhydrous formulation borrows from food science, dermatology and cosmetic regulation, which is why so much of it is used loosely. These are the definitions Trebalm uses, in the sense the pages here mean them.

A to C

Anhydrous: Containing no water phase. Balms, salves, ointments and body butters are anhydrous; creams and lotions are not. It is the single distinction that decides whether a product needs an emulsifier and a preservative. See anhydrous formulation.
Balm: An anhydrous blend of waxes, hard fats and liquid oils that sets solid at room temperature and softens on skin. Not a regulated category.
Bis-allylic position: A carbon sitting between two carbon-carbon double bonds. Its hydrogen is the one autoxidation removes first, which is why it predicts rancidity better than total unsaturation does.
Bloom: A pale film or streaking on the surface of a fat, caused by crystals rearranging and migrating. Cosmetic, not spoilage. Common in cocoa butter.
Bulk density: The mass of a loose material per unit of the volume it occupies, air included. Beeswax pastilles have a bulk density near 0.59 g/mL against a solid density near 0.97, which is why volume measures of wax are unreliable.
Candelilla wax: A plant wax from Euphorbia shrubs, melting around 68.5 to 73 C. The usual vegan substitute for beeswax.
Carnauba wax: A palm leaf wax melting at 80 to 86 C. The hardest common wax as a solid, and the weakest oil structurant of the group.
Cheilitis: Inflammation of the lips. Contact cheilitis from a balm ingredient is the documented mechanism behind the belief that lip balm is addictive.
Clear point: The temperature at which the last crystal in a fat dissolves. Higher than the slip point, and the number that matters when you are trying to erase crystal memory.
Comedogenic: Tending to form comedones, the plugs that precede acne lesions. The 0 to 5 ratings circulating online derive from a rabbit ear assay whose relevance to human skin its own authors questioned. See comedogenic ratings.
Congealing point: The temperature at which a molten material solidifies on cooling. A different measurement from a melting range, which is why pharmacopoeial figures for different waxes are not directly comparable.
CPNP: The EU's Cosmetic Products Notification Portal, where a product must be notified before it goes on sale.
CPSR: Cosmetic Product Safety Report. The formal safety assessment required in the UK and EU before a cosmetic can be sold.
Cure: The period after pouring during which a balm's crystal structure settles. Real for butter-heavy products, largely mythical for a simple wax and oil balm.

D to L

Drag: Resistance felt as a balm is applied. Caused by too much wax, the wrong wax, or product that is simply cold. See drag and poor glide.
Drop point: The temperature at which a heated sample becomes fluid enough to fall from an orifice. The method most cosmetic wax suppliers quote.
Emollient: A material that fills between surface skin cells and makes skin feel smooth. Most carrier oils are emollients.
Fatty acid profile: The proportions of each fatty acid in a fat, usually given as a percentage of total fatty acids. Determines both feel and shelf life.
Grain: The gritty texture that develops in shea-containing products as stearin-rich triglycerides crystallise and coarsen. See grainy shea butter.
Humectant: A material that attracts and holds water, such as glycerin or honey. Difficult to use in an anhydrous product, because there is no water phase for it to sit in.
INCI: International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients. The standardised naming system used on ingredient lists worldwide.
Induction period: In accelerated oxidation testing, the time before oxidation accelerates sharply. Useful for ranking oils against each other, and not convertible into months of shelf life.
Iodine value: Grams of iodine that react with 100 g of fat, a proxy for total double bond content. Blind to how those double bonds are arranged, which is why it misjudges jojoba and meadowfoam.
Lanolin: Wool wax, a mixture of sterol esters rather than triglycerides. Exceptionally occlusive and water-holding. Melting range 38 to 44 C.

M to R

Melting range: The interval over which a mixture goes from first softening to fully liquid. Natural fats and waxes have ranges, not points, because they are mixtures of many molecules.
MoCRA: The US Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act, which introduced facility registration, product listing, safety substantiation and adverse event reporting duties.
Occlusive: A material that forms a surface film and slows water leaving the skin. Petrolatum, lanolin and beeswax are strongly occlusive.
Oleogel: A liquid oil structured into a solid by a small percentage of a gelator such as a wax. The scientific term for what a balm's wax network does.
PAO: Period after opening, shown as an open jar symbol with a number of months. Required in the EU and UK for products lasting more than 30 months.
Payoff: How much product transfers to the skin per stroke. Low payoff feels stingy, high payoff feels greasy.
Peroxide value: A measure of primary oxidation products in an oil, in milliequivalents per kilogram. Rises then falls as oxidation proceeds, so a single reading cannot be interpreted alone.
PIF: Product Information File. The dossier a UK or EU responsible person must hold for each cosmetic product.
Polymorphism: The ability of a fat to crystallise in several different arrangements with different melting points and stabilities. The reason cocoa butter is tempered and the reason shea goes grainy.
Rancidity: The smell and taste of oxidised fat: crayon, old nuts, cardboard, putty. Irreversible. See rancid balm.
Responsible person: The legal entity accountable for a cosmetic product's compliance in the UK or the EU. Must be established in the relevant territory.

S to Z

Salve: Traditionally an oil-and-wax preparation with a low wax content, typically around 8 to 15%, often carrying an infused herb.
Saponification value: Milligrams of potassium hydroxide needed to saponify one gram of fat. Used with acid value to check whether a wax has been adulterated.
Slip: How easily a product glides. The opposite of drag.
Slip point: The temperature at which a column of fat in an open capillary begins to rise. The standard measurement for butters and vegetable fats, and lower than the clear point.
Stearin and olein: The higher-melting and lower-melting fractions of a fat. Shea butter is a physical mixture of the two, which is what makes it prone to graining.
StOSt: A triglyceride with stearic acid at positions 1 and 3 and oleic acid at position 2. The dominant crystallising species in shea butter and the source of grain.
Structurant: Anything that turns a liquid oil into a solid: a wax, a hard butter, a fatty alcohol or a hydrogenated fat.
Sweating: Liquid oil separating onto the surface of a set balm because the structure cannot hold it all. See balm sweating.
Tempering: Controlled heating and cooling to produce a specific crystal form. Meaningful for cocoa butter, where a particular form is the target; a category error when applied to shea, whose stable form is simply beta.
TEWL: Transepidermal water loss, the rate at which water evaporates through skin. Occlusives work by reducing it.
Titre: The solidification temperature of fatty acids liberated from a fat, per ISO 935. Not a melting point, though the figure for tallow is frequently misquoted as one.
Tocopherol: Vitamin E. An antioxidant that slows oxidation of oils. Not a preservative, and pro-oxidant above roughly 100 parts per million in the alpha form.
Tunnelling: A hollow cavity inside a set balm, caused by shrinkage as it solidifies from the outside in. See tunnelling and dips.
Unsaponifiables: The fraction of a fat that will not form soap: sterols, triterpenes, tocopherols and hydrocarbons. Around 5% in crude shea butter, against under 1% in cocoa butter.
Water activity: The availability of water for microbial growth, on a scale from 0 to 1. ISO 29621 treats a cosmetic below 0.75 as microbiologically low risk. Most bacteria need 0.90 or above.
Wax ester: A fatty acid joined to a fatty alcohol, with no glycerol. Jojoba is a liquid wax ester, which is why it is so resistant to oxidation.
Yield stress: The force needed before a solid starts to flow. In a balm it is the difference between a product you can scoop and one you have to scrape.

If a term you need is missing, tell us and we will add it. To find where a term is used, search the site, and for the full list of pages see the site index.