A salve is a lotion, ointment, paste or cream used to heal very dry, sore, irritated skin. For example, dry hands, chapped lips or sunburn. This salve contains lavender essential oil, lavender is well know for its healing properties. This recipe makes quite a lot of salve – approximately 250 ml, so please be prepared with more containers than you think you might need.
You will need:
- A saucepan
- A heatproof jug (one reserved especially for these type of projects)
- Suitable pots, jars or tins
- Kitchen scales
Ingredients:
- 45 g beeswax pellets
- 45 g cocoa butter (solid)
- 120 ml olive oil (any type)
- 10 ml lavender essential oil
What I did…
Wash and dry your containers and lay them on a tea towel. I used small spice jars and little round tubs.
Gather and weigh your ingredients. Place the cocoa butter and beeswax into a jug and place the jug in a saucepan of boiling water.
Melt the ingredients together by keeping the water simmering.
Take the jug out of the pan, leaving the water simmering. Add the olive oil and lavender oil. It will solidify a little and look like this:
Return the jug to the pan to liquify the mixture again. Stir it with a skewer and then quickly, but carefully, pour the liquid into your prepared containers.
Leave to cool fully (in the fridge is fine) and then add a label if you feel so inclined!
Love the new site and your craft instruction photos as ever! A slight variation that I learned in my aromatherapy trainings is to heat the oils you’ll be using to about the same temperature as the melted waxes before blending the two together. The kind of oil you use can also add more benefits to the end product (not that I don’t LOVE olive oil). Additionally – remember that essential oils are volatile and evaporate in heat, so in making things like this you likely will need to put in more than you expect to get a noticeable scent!
Thanks Jesse for your kind words and excellent advice :0) I hope all is well with you.
I will have to try this! my husband and I have gotten very interested in making salves and ointments. we have a friend who brings us shea butter from Ghana when he goes back home for a visit. my husband makes a wonderful foot salve with it.
I love the addition of lavender essential oil. everything’s better with lavender in it!
Great stuff! Please let me know how you get on. I love lavender in everything
This looks great, really want to try making some. Where did you get the “ingredients”? Did you get them in Guernsey? I’ll need some suitable pots etc.. too, did you have yours lying around or did you buy some?
Thanks
Hi Jo
Thanks
I use this UK supplier for supplies http://www.thesoapkitchen.co.uk/ – it is worth registering with them to get an account. These guys look good too but I have not used them yet http://www.bathbomb.biz/
Recycling pots is a good idea though (even though you can buy them). I like using small spice pots and jam jars etc.
If you like this tutorial, you may like these too: http://www.imake.gg/archives/category/tutorials (click link and scroll down to see all of them. The lip balm is ace).
Let me know how you get on!
Martine
I was wondering, if I’m planing to use a glas jar should it be warm when I pour the salve?
I didn’t warm mine but if you are worried that the jar might crack then yes, just warm it a little in the oven before you pour. Let me know how you get on
thank you for these tutorials, I especially liked this one. I had wondered about making stuff like this and until I saw the pics and read the clear explanation I wasnt sure I could.
Thanks Sandra. I am so glad they are clear. I am doing another this weekend for a salt body scrub. Super easy and a lovely gift. Please keep an eye out for it. Thanks for your message.
Martine
[...] http://www.imake.gg/archives/1193 – Original source, shared with permission. [...]
[...] http://www.imake.gg/archives/1193 – Original source, shared with permission. [...]
I loved the one you gave me for Xmas sooooo much I had to have a go myself!! So me being me I got all the stuff out & started mixing & melting then quel horreur there was no lavender in my scent tin Soooo a quick look at what I had & some frantic searching on Wikipedia & I went with bergamot which has healing qualities!! It’s Devine oh…..& then I found the lavender doh xx
LOL – bergamont sounds lovely as an alternative! X