Making Salves

Just what is a salve and why would I want to make it?

A salve is simply an ointmint for your skin. Have chapped lips? You can smear yourself with a petroleum based product like vaseline or chap-stick or you can very easily make your own lip salve by combining 5 parts olive oil with 1 part melted beeswax. Yes it can be that simple! You can adjust how hard your salve is by adding more oil to make it softer or adding more melted beeswax to make it firmer.

Basic Lip Salve

5 teaspoons warm Olive Oil
1 teaspoon beeswax, melted

Melt beeswax in doubleboiler, never over direct heat. Add olive oil to melted beeswax. Stir until incorporated, remove from heat and pour into containers.

This is what my family uses for our First Aid Salve. The recipe is one I created after researching different botanicals & essential oil and then using the advice a very wise woman, I looked around at what botanicals grew naturally on our land. This salve is used for minor cuts, scrapes and burns. Be sure the wound is clean and not a puncture wound.

Mommy Kiss-It Salve
copyright 2000

50% Comfrey infused oil*
5% Rosemary infused oil*
5% Lavender infused oil*
5% Calendula infused oil*
5% Plantain infused oil*
5% Chickweed infused oil*
5% Mullein infused oil*
20% beeswax
rosemary essential oil**
tea tree essential oil**
lavender essential oil**

* My oil infusions are made by filling a large mouth glass jar about 1/4 - 1/3 full of the dried botanical. These are then filled with Olive Oil and left in a sunny window. They get a couple shakes a day. After 2 weeks, the oil is strained and more botanical added. To use the oil, strain the botanicals from the oil. Refill oil as needed. Lard is another nice oil to use for infusions.
Another way to infuse oils is to gently warm the oil in a crock pot and add botanicals to it. You will want to keep the crockpot on a low temperature so you do not french-fry your herbs!

**Please keep the total amount of your essential oils to 2% or less of total salve amount.

If you are looking for other recipes, check out some of the links in the side bar or check in my archive. There are alot of recipes in both places. I am always looking for new recipes to post on my blog, so please return in the future. For more salve recipes check out the source link below.

Source: http://www.mullerslanefarm.com/salvemaking.htmlt