Every time the seasons begin to change, I see a shift in what I’m drawn to create. As the autumn air begins blow through the trees outside my window, I’ve been wanting to create more warming, medicinal remedies to give to my loved ones. Perhaps my holiday gift-making muscle memory is starting to kick in, but I’m in the mood to make stuff for my people!
So the other day, I whipped up this salve that is deeply nourishing for dry, irritated skin. And I’ve been giving it out ahead of the colder, drier days so people can know it’s in their medicine cabinets once the need arises.
The powerful ingredients here are calendula, heather flowers, olive oil, and chamomile. Calendula promotes skin regeneration, heather calms inflammation, olive oil deeply moisturizes and softens skin, and chamomile accelerates healing.
Skin Healing Salve
Herbal Oil
- 2c. organic extra virgin olive oil
- 1 handful dried Calendula
- 1 handful dried Heather Flowers
- 1 handful dried Chamomile
Salve
- 2 tbsp beeswax pellets
- 10-20 drops essential oil (you choose, I used lavender and rosemary)
For the Oil
Fill a saucepan (or double boiler) with water and place a glass bowl on top. Fill the glass bowl with dried herbs and olive oil. Turn the heat on low and allow for the herb to infuse into the oil for approx 2 hours. Be sure the water doesn’t boil away and the oil mixture doesn’t start to bubble up and pop. I recommend stirring every 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit for 30 mins before straining out the herb from the oil. I did this by first straining the herb then using cheesecloth to squeeze out every last bit of infused oil from the oil-soaked herbs.
For the Salve
In the same double boiler, add your beeswax to you oil. Heat until beeswax is completely melted. Now you’ll want to check your consistency by taking a chopstick and dropping a few drops on a plate and place in the freezer for 30 seconds. If it’s too hard, you can add more oil. If it’s too soft, add more beeswax. Remove the mixture from heat and pour into your containers. Let cool, and you’ll see the mixture begin to come to its natural, harder state at room temperature. Keep in a cool, dark place. Salve will last for at least 6 months.
Hallo, Becca,
I have been trying to send this by private e-mail, but It has been impossible
I am a follower of you from Spain. First, I must to congratulation to you for your blog; I love it and I am trying to make some of your beauty recipes, like the cucumber eye gel o peppermint-mouthwash, for example. My problems are the amounts of some ingredientes (in Spain, we use grs, Kg). I look for the converse of cups, tablespoon, ozs to gramos, but I don’t know what is “c” (2c. organic extra virgin olive oil, 1/2 c. jugo de aloe vera)
Thank you for your time you are giving to me and thank you for sharing your knowledge
and your time with us.
Kisses from Spain.
hallo, Becca, other time.
Foget the previous question: what is “c”. I am a stupid. I think it is “cup”. I am thinking about, thinking about….ohhhh, it is cup!!! upssss. I am going to try to adapt this amount to gramos, but in other case, I need to buy a several size cups with your measures amounts.
I’m sorry.
More kisses from Madrid (Spain)
Yolanda, hello!
Thank you so much for writing me. Yes, the “c” stands for cup in my recipes and tutorials. I’m sorry I haven’t translated that into metric grams. I think you can just look that up on online pretty easily. If not, let me know and I’ll try to help you out.
Let me know how it goes with the cucumber eye gel and peppermint mouthwash!
Becca