Simple Salve

I'm going to let you in on a little secret: one of my favorite ways to use essential oils is in a salve. It's moisturizing for the skin, creates a protective barrier, and helps us heal without harsh chemicals and alcohols that dry out our skin.

Plain salves with ingredients that we can count on are hard to come by, even with added essential oils. Before I use something on my already sensitive skin, I want to be sure that the oils are pure and the therapeutic value is high.

This ain't no easy thing...

We tried all sorts of products, before we figured out how to make our own salve. It is quite possibly the best deep skin moisturizer ever! You can change up the oils in the ingredients to support allergies, too. We use it on the itchiest, dry, cracked skin. When we haven't been able to get other remedies to work, this salve has done the trick every time.

If you've tried my miracle salve, you know.

Even your dry, cracked, flaky flip flop feet will come out feeling smooth. What I love the most about this salve is that I can add any essential oil to it and put it anywhere on my body. Dare I say, it's edible. Use some common sense here. Don't eat the salve. That's just wrong.

We store our big batches in glass jars - mason jars, jelly jars, etc. Keep it neat and you can melt it down any time to add an essential oil to it.

Here's how we make it: 

• Fill a sauce pan 1/4-1/3 full of water on medium heat on the stove. It's important not to crank the heat, because you don't want your oils to burn (stinky!) and you need even melting. 
• Place a glass measuring cup in the water and add the ingredients to the measuring cup - the beeswax takes extra time to melt completely. Be sure all of the oils and the beeswax have melted together, or your salve will be chunky and/or grainy. 
• After all ingredients are melted together, carefully remove the measuring cup from the pan.

You'll need: 

• 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil (any is fine, the lighter the scent of your olive oil, the less you will pick up on that scent in the salve) or sweet almond oil 
• 1/4 cup coconut oil 
• 3T beeswax pellets (white beeswax pellets or yellow beeswax pellets - both function the same) 
• 2T shea butter
• Optional: essential oils of your preference (we love these ones) 

Pour the salve in to the containers that you want to store them in before it starts to set. If you're adding essential oil, do that right away, by stirring the essential oil in to the mixture. Then, pour the final magic in to the storage container to allow the salve to cool and set.

The salve will look something like this when you're done. Your salve may come out a little darker, depending on the depth of color in the olive oil or beeswax you use.  

Words to the wise: 

Beeswax may give you a bit of a challenge when cleaning your measuring cup. It's helpful to fill the measuring cup up with warm water and dish soap right away, to keep the mixture from hardening in your measuring cup.

If you're a herb or flower lover, infused olive oil works well too. (I have not tried store bought, but have infused with fresh herbs and plants. 

You can melt this down in the microwave, though you will get a grainier texture that you won't like in the salve. Heating the oils in the microwave also breaks them down and can create a cooked scent (not good when mixing with essential oils). No one wants to smell like Thanksgiving Turkey!