Calendula Salve Recipe
Making your own salve is easier than you think, and this calendula salve recipe is here to prove it.
Calendula is packed with anti-inflammatory properties, and helps soothe skin irritations and promote healing in small wounds, making it an ideal addition to your home apothecary kit.
I first started using calendula salve as a diaper rash cream, and it was the best! Since then, I’ve used it for everything from chapped lips, to minor cuts and scrapes. this salve is amazing to use on acne, sunburn, or eczema.
It’s a simple, but so effective remedy.
Ingredients for making homemade calendula salve
- 1 cup Olive oil
- 1 cup Calendula flowers, loosely packed (you can use fresh flowers, or dried)
- 1 oz. Bees Wax (use slightly less beeswax to make a softer salve, or if you’re adding shea butter or coconut oil)
These are the basic ingredients to start with. Cutting it down to three ingredients keeps it accessible so you can get started without having to track down a number of different things.
However, as you get comfortable making salve and want to change things up, you’ll find that it’s very easy to do things like substitute some of the oils such as sweet almond oil, add other herbs to your infusion (such as comfrey, or plantain) melt some shea butter to add to it, etc.
How to make calendula-infused oil
The first step in making salve is to infuse your oil with the medicinal herbs- in this case, calendula.
There are two ways to do this:
- Two weeks ahead of time, combine your calendula flower petals with the olive oil, cover, and set in a warm place out of direct light.
After the infusion period, strain out the calendula blooms using a cheesecloth of fine mesh strainer, pressing them lightly to get as much oil out of them as possible.
- You can also do a “quick infusion” wherein you combine the oil and flowers in an oven safe dish, heat the oven to its lowest setting (typically 150º-180º), and place oil in the oven for 3 hours. This allows the heat to speed up the infusion process.
How to make Calendula Salve
- After your oil has infused, strain out flowers using a jelly bag, cheesecloth or fine mesh sieve, then move on to making the salve.
- To make the salve, combine calendula oil and beeswax in a saucepan, or top bowl of a double boiler setup, and gently heat over medium-low heat until wax is melted.
- If desired, you may add 5-15 drops of essential oil, such as lavender essential oil.
- Pour salve into desired containers, and screw on lids firmly.
- Allow to rest undisturbed until salve has completely cooled, and set up.
- Store out of direct light in a cool place (salve will melt in heated environment such as your car).
This salve is a great tool to have in your home cuts and scrapes kit for your kids.
What kind of container to store your salve in
Salve comes in all kinds of containers, and probably the easiest thing to use is a small jelly jar, as shown in the pictures, because they’re easy to find at most stores. But you can also order tins with snap on lids, or another tip of small pot.
The only downside to glass jars is that it can lead to discoloration, because the salve is exposed to light, and of course, that glass can break.
