Balms Baby!

It's that time of year again. My favorite time of year when I can get busy harvesting earth's gifts for my soapmaking and personal care items. I have a plethora of good-for-you naturals growing all around me, and I'm taking a little and giving back as I go.

One of my favorite items to make are my salves and balms and I gather herbs and plants like dandelions, plantain, lavender, chickweed, Calendula, you name it! I always take care to leave the majority for our pollinator friends like bees and butterflies. I prefer to use beeswax from local beekeepers to support the local apiaries, but for a vegan option there's candelilla wax. If you don't have these lovelies available locally to you, then I recommend Mountain Rose Herbs for your herbal needs.

After I have gathered and dried my herbs, I place them in a nice carrier oil like almond, rice, olive, even coconut to infuse. I have two methods I use for infusion, one being heat. I like to place my heatproof jars with the oils containing my choice plant material in several inches of water in my Crockpot on low for several hours. I also use the solar infusion method of sitting the jars on a nice sunny window sill to slowly infuse over several weeks if I'm not in too much of a hurry.

Once infused, I strain out the plants and compost them and label the jars with the date, type of carrier oil, and plant name, then set them aside in a dark area of my shelves until I need them in a recipe. Then when I'm ready to make a balm or salve, the infused oils, which are the stars of the recipe, come out to play!

I use the double boiler method to heat up my wax and oils, then when everything is melted and cooled just a touch, I add in my essential oils, give it a stir, then pour into cute little tins or nice double walled PET jars that can be found on Amazon. I like to pour around 125 degrees even if the containers are not heat sensitive.

*Add your wax & oils to your double boiler.

*Stir often to help the wax melt faster.

Let the poured salves completely cool before capping, then label and they're ready for yourself, family, and/or friends!

I like to personally use them for pesky, itchy bug bites, scrapes, for my achy muscles after tending my garden, and to moisturize my skin. Below are photos of my favorite salve, Dandy-Lion Salve with dandelions and Calendula.

Sound like something you'd like to make? I will be teaching some salve making classes soon locally, so be sure and subscribe or check this blog to keep up to date on any upcoming classes & news!