How To Make A Salve

Beeswax and coconut and olive oils have been used throughout history for soothing and healing irritated skin.  While these three substances alone will facilitate some healing, adding herbs will up the game by hastening healing and preventing infection. And preparing a salve is really simple.
Here's what you need:

• coconut or olive oil
• beeswax
• herbs
• double boiler (or a small pot with water and a canning jar for melting wax and oil together)
• strainer (or coffee filter or cheesecloth)
• small jars, tins, or tubes for your salve

Before you begin, it's important to understand that salve-making isn't an exact science, at least as far as the consistency is concerned.  You make the salve as creamy or stiff as you want.  A stiffer salve is less likely to leak and stain.  A creamier salve spreads more easily and may be less irritating to damaged skin.  Also, most coconut oil is solid up to 76 degrees Fahrenheit.  At 77 degrees, it melts into a liquid.  If you're using your salve more in the summer, when temperatures are higher, you may want more beeswax in it.  If you are using this for bites and stings or applying it to children who might stain their clothes, you may want more beeswax as well.  If this is for severely irritated skin, a creamier product that spreads more easily might be more desirable, and so more oil would be warranted.  Stiffer salves are better suited to lip balm tubes.

When it comes to beeswax, what you really want are the beeswax pastilles.  The pastilles, or pellets, don't cost any more than the solid blocks, and even if they did, they'd be worth the price.  It's so much easier to work with the pastilles.  Trust me on this.  

The most commonly used ratio for making salves is one cup of oil to one ounce of beeswax.  Now honestly, that is fine for making a lot of lip balm, or if the salve is being used frequently for chronic conditions.  But for others?  A batch that size is going to last a lifetime.  Consider what your needs really are before you begin.  You don't want to waste precious supplies.

So here are some common batch sizes:

• 1 cup oil and 1 ounce beeswax
• 1/2 cup oil and 1 tablespoon beeswax
• 1/4 cup oil and 1 1/2 teaspoons beeswax
• 2 tablespoons oil and 3/4 teaspoon beeswax

When making small batches, it's much easier to use small Pyrex ramekins or wide-mouth half-pint jars for your double boiler.  Using a regular double boiler would result in losing so much of the batch to the sides of the pan.  I hate wasting like that.

Enough of the chit-chat.  Let's get down to work.

Begin by infusing your chosen herbs in one of two ways:

• in oil in a double boiler for about an hour;
• in oil in the sun for four to six weeks.

Regardless of which method you choose for infusing, you want to just cover the herbs with the oil.  After infusing the oil, strain out and discard the herbs.  Throw them in the garbage or on the compost pile.  Your choice.

In the double boiler, melt the beeswax.  Once the wax is melted, pour the herb-infused oil over the top and combine thoroughly.  To test the consistency, put a small dab on a plate in the refrigerator for ten minutes.  Adjust the beeswax or oil amounts accordingly, if necessary.  When you are happy with the consistency, pour the salve into jars, tins, or lip balm tubes. 

That's it!  Yeah, that was easy.

There are all kinds of salves to make for healing.  I don't have all the space in the world for storing herbal preparations, so I only prepare the boo-boo and bug bite salves in advance.  Those, unfortunately, always get used.  The others get prepared on an as-needed basis.  So far, that approach has worked for us.

Links to related posts:
Calendula Salve (Bug Bites)
Plantain Salve  
Usnea Wound Healing Salve
Yarrow Salve  

30 march 2020