Making a Balm or Salve
Tina Sams
Essential Herbal Magazine
Tina Sams
Essential Herbal Magazine
Making a balm or salve is simply using beeswax to harden a quantity of oil to a desired consistency. I think of a balm as a soothing slather, and a salve as a bit more medicinal. Otherwise, they're the same thing.
Choose base oils that will complement the purpose of the salve. It is entirely possible that you’ll choose more than one. The base for a luxurious balm for dry winter skin might include things like cocoa butter, jojoba oil, calendula infused oil, or just go all the way and try the Dry Skin, or Mature Skin Sampler combined with coconut or even simply olive oil.
When you’ve decided on your salve base, weigh or measure oils.
(Normally we weigh ingredients, but balms and salves are very forgiving, so it isn’t so critical)
Let’s say there are 8 ounces of the base oil. Gently heat the oil until it is liquified (or warm.)
Add one part beeswax beads (by weight, preferably) to 6 to 8 parts oil, and heat slowly to melt the wax. For 8 ounces of oil, use one, up to one and a half ounces of the beeswax.
If adding essential oils to the salve, now is the time. No more than 10 drops per ounce of salve, so 8 ounces (I don’t count the wax) of oil means up to 80 drops of essential oil. Stir, and pour into containers.
Once you’ve got the idea, you can make any size, even single a 1 or 2 ounce jar.
Take one oz of Balm of Gilead, St. Johns Wort, Arnica, Trauma oil, any of the infused oils, and warm it with just over ½ tsp beeswax or ½ ounce of cocoa butter. And add up to 10 drops of your favorite pain relieving essential oils from Marge, and you will have your magic, miracle salve for any ouchies, ooochies, bumps, bruises and things that go hurt or keep you awake in the night!
That’s it! There’s a lot of room for creativity and fun in making balms and salves.
Marge's comments: Tina is the founder editor of The Essential Herbal Magazine and my go-to for all things herbal. (Check out her teas, and her Ache Away salve. Or use her expertise to make your own.) AND.. I am thinking of a pain balm.. 3 oz Trauma oil, 1 oz Poplar Balsam Infused oil.. with some Kunzea ambigua, and some Helichrysum and a bit of Ginger CO2. Maybe some Sweet Marjoram for the anti-spasmodic effect. Or... MANGO-GINGER for inflammation? oh yes!
2 comments:
Is there an alternative to beeswax? Maybe candelilla wax, shea butter, or unrefined solid coconut oil?
Coconut would nt work.. it liquifies too easily.. I would suggest candelilla wax, but you will have to experiment a bit more to get the proportions right. I personally am allergic so Shea so wouldn't use it, but you could use a blend of liquid lipids, butters, and wax.. the possibilities are endless.
Learn from my experience.. work with SMALL quantities and take careful notes.... thinking "this can use a bit more beeswax" and tossing some in without measuring can lead to a very hard salve... and, even if the result had been perfect, I don't know how much I used so can't reproduce it. Make sense?
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