Herbal Salves

Making your own creams and salves is a great way to use and store herbs. We make our salves from our Herb Infused oils. See the link for our page on how to make them.

A salve is, strictly, Beeswax and Oil mixed together. I’ll cover lotions and creams a bit later. They are similar, but contain water in the mix in different ratios (lotion has 70% water, a cream about 45%). Here’s a link to an outside page with a pretty good description

Once you have your oil prepared, follow the simple steps listed below to make a salve.

Making a herbal salve

Step 1

Prepare your infused oil and a cold plate. A cold plate is simply a plate that has been put in the refrigerator. It is used later to test the salve for consistency. Warm the oil in a pot or slow cooker.

Step 2

Add Beeswax slowly, giving it time to melt into the oil.

I like to use 10 – 20% Beeswax by volume. Thats about 1/10th to 1/15th of the amount of oil. The less Beeswax you use, the more fluid and oily the cream will be.

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Step 3

When you have about 10% Beeswax melted and stirred into the oil, take a spoonfull out and place it onto a cold plate. When it has solidified, test it to see if it’s got the consistency you desire.

Step 4

If it’s not how you like it, add Beeswax by the spoonful, testing with the cold plate at regular and frequent intervals until your desired consistency is reached.

Step 5

Pour the salve into the receiving jars and allow to cool and set overnight (or at least for a couple of hours).

That’s it. Now you just have to put your salve into a jar with a good lid and store it somewhere cool and out of direct sunlight.