TrekCyclist

I've been looking to purchase a chamois cream for the first time and am disappointed to find that nearly all commercial brands typically include around twenty or so ingredients, including preservatives and other chemicals with unpronounceable names. I can't imagine anyone letting that stuff get absorbed by their skin, particularly around their private parts, just because the FDA says that it's safe to use. It's as if the manufacturers load up these products with unnecessary ingredients simply to justify their high prices - often $20 or more for 8 oz.

Does anyone know of a truly simple, all-natural commercial product with no more than a handful of ingredients, or otherwise a convenient home-made alternative?

Thanks.

ljsense

Look at diaper creams. Since they're used on babies, the pressure to be safe is more intense, and you can find some with simple ingredients. Also much less expensive. They work as well or better in my experience.

Here's one example for $7 a tube. The ingredients are: Active Ingredient - Purpose. Zinc Oxide, 16% - Skin Protectant. Inactive Ingredients: Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Beeswax, Citric Acid, Copernicia Cerifera (Carnauba Wax), Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Myroxylon Pereirae (Balsam Peru Oil), Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil.

ddeand 

I made up a double batch of this earlier this year. It works quite well and saves some $$. My wife had a few of the ingredients already.

Coach Levi’s Mint Deluxe Chamois Cream Recipe

Now, let’s get fancy!

• 4oz shea butter
• 2oz coconut oil
• 2oz lanolin
• 1/8oz tea tree oil
• 1/16oz menthol
• 1/16oz peppermint oil

1. Melt the shea butter and coconut oil together in a pot on the stove (or in double boiler if you have one).

2. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

3. Stir in lanolin.

4. Place in freezer for 20 minutes (or until partially solidified).

5. Add essential oils and mix for 10 minutes.

6. Place in freezer 10 more minutes.

7. Whip until a butter-like consistency is achieved.

8. Once ready, place in a small jar for storage.

9. Test it out.

*Note that cooking times and exact preparation will vary depending on your cookware and the specific brands of ingredients you’re using

gif4445

Bag balm is my go to product.

Kat12

There are some places I would not put tea tree or peppermint oil, and definitely not menthol, and the places I would put chamois cream are definitely those same places. OW.

79pmooney

Bag Balm is not all natural but it has a ~120 year history of use, first on cow tits, then when the 2nd generation mechanical milkers obviated the need, farmers' wives quickly figured out a lot of uses on humans for which it worked really well. Probably didn't take too long for the early cyclists to catch on.

I was turned on to it by a tandem stoker 30 years ago, The stuff works. Cheap, Available in any old-school drug store. It is also the best if you have saddle sores or any other ongoing injury.issue down there and you have to ride. I always bring it on tours. I may not use it. I may even use the creme given out as freebies, but that Bag Balm is always in my gear in case things get ugly.

Ben

Bill in VA

When I wore wood cycling shorts with a real leather chamois, we used vaseline carefully rubbed into the chamois. It made the chamois soft and stopped and chafing or saddle sores. It took a thorough shower to get the grease off after a ride, but was very effective. After you washed the shorts (in Woolite) the chamois would be stiff and need a reapplication before the next ride.

WIth newer synthetic chamois I would be inclined to use Bag Balm. It is great stuff. My wife is a dairy farmers daughter and she turned me on to it years ago for surf fishing and cold damp activities. It really helped the chapped cold hands. I never tried it for a chamois cream, but given its past performance, I should work very well.

jgwilliams

Interesting question. The problem is just because something has a fancy name it doesn't mean it isn't a completely natural product. One classic example is that the first ingredient on my pot of Assos chamois cream is Aqua, which is just a fancy name for water. If they can do that for water then goodness knows what all the other ingredients are. For the record, I've been using Assos chamois cream for years and found it to be very good and reasonably economical.

indyfabz

Assos is not an American company. In Europe, "aqua" is a common term for water in beauty products and the like. Nothing fancy about it, and no deception is afoot. In fact, I’m more confident in transparency in labeling when it comes to European products. For example, you might be surprised at what you can call “natural flavoring” in the U.S.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bon...al-flavors/amp

nomadmax 

This right here. Works better than anything for me.

shelbyfv

I don't have a beef with FDA and if something will preserve my private parts I'm OK with that. I use this, cheap and readily available.

leob1

Now that is the sign of the hardman of the peloton.

downhillmaster

Unless you have an underlying medical condition why can’t you just ride your bike without buttering up your arse?
Wouldn’t that be the simplest and most natural?

rosefarts

Skin, skinniness, age.

I did almost all my racing in my teens and twenties with nothing, cause I had the butt of a young man.

At 40, I can still mix it up a bit but I've got to be a lot more careful about my junk.

If all natural is the only option, I'd do what the second poster suggests without the foo foo. Shea butter, beeswax, coconut oil. Melt together and apply liberally. It'd probably work to dip your chain into also.

CAT7RDR

Queen Helene Cocoa Butter Creme works for me (57 y/o) and is $4.47 for 15oz on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Queen-Helene-...s%2C210&sr=8-5

YoungSalt

Remember, everything is chemicals. You are comprised of chemicals. An apple you pick off of a tree is chemicals. Here's the ingredients list of a banana:

Please don't let words you don't understand scare you, and don't get too wrapped up in the phrase "all natural." It many parts of the world (including the USA) the words "natural" or "all natural" are not regulated, so they're meaningless.

Mulberry20

any good facial cream works just fine, the rest is marketing

Paul Barnard

Moe Zhoost

I've used Bag Balm for years. Great stuff.

Danhedonia

For some (me; others) lanolin (key ingredient in Bag Balm) goes outside of a wish to avoid products that may involve animals in a way we don't prefer.

I like the idea of DIY.

Reynolds 

+1 on bag balm.

bbbean 

You know there's no correlation between your ability to pronounce a chemical's name and it's safety, right? FWIW, "natural" products are full of unpronounceable chemicals also. The world is made of chemicals.

veganbikes

"When you start to sizzle you move your ass" - Lewis Black

My favored Chamios stuff is Bike Glide from Body Glide. It is vegan (so no animal ingredients or testing) and nothing crazy but it works. If I don't use it I chafe if I use it I don't.

Bill in VA

Nope. Just the sign of an older man at a keyboard at 3:30am who missed a glaring typo...

cyccommute 

Exactly! Chamois Butt’r contains the following

Just because the name of a chemical is “unpronounceable” doesn’t mean that it is bad or toxic. IODOPROPYNYL BUTYLCARBAMATE (IUPAC name: 3-Iodoprop-2-yn-1-yl butylcarbamate) is almost incomprehensible even to a chemist. But it is added to the mixture because it is a biocide. That’s a good thing.

8-Hydroxyquinoline is the active ingredient in Bag Balm is also a biocide. It’s released by invasive knapweed so it is a “natural product”. It’s hard on other plants and also on some animals but it is “natural”

Petroleum jelly is kind of a natural product that just happens to take several million years to produce. It comes from petroleum which is “natural” but it has lots of toxins in it.

Another scary name is (2R,3R,4S,5S,6R)-2-[(2S,3S,4S,5R)-3,4-dihydroxy-2,5-bis(hydroxymethyl)oxolan-2-yl]oxy-6-(hydroxymethyl)oxane-3,4,5-triol. That’s sucrose. As in “sugar”.

Finally, α-amanitin is a completely natural chemical. It is one of several similar compounds that can be found in Amanita phalloides, a rather common...and commonly confused...mushroom which is more commonly known as the death cap mushroom. Completely natural and completely deadly. The unpronounceable chemical name is 2-[34-butan-2-yl-13-(3,4-dihydroxybutan-2-yl)-8,22-dihydroxy-2,5,11,14,27,30,33,36,39-nonaoxo-27λ4-thia-3,6,12,15,25,29,32,35,38-nonazapentacyclo[14.12.11.06,10.018,26.019,24]nonatriaconta-18(26),19(24),20,22-tetraen-4-yl]acetamide