How to Make a Healing Skin Salve

Herbal oils are easy to make and are the basis for both salves and lip balms, as well as massage oil. Salves are also called ointments and are simply a preparation made from herbs, oil and beeswax. When you apply a salve to your skin, it stays in place due to its thick consistency.

Things You'll Need

• 1 pint olive or other oil
• <br>Clean pint jar with fitting lid
• <br>Herbs such as comfrey, plantain, echinacea, calendula
• <br>Strainer
• <br>1/4 cup beeswax
• <br>Essential oil

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Instructions

• 1

  Make an herbal oil first: Grind 1/2 oz. of fresh or dried herbs in a blender or mortar and pestle.

• 2

  Place your herbs into a clean pint-size glass jar, and then add your preferred oil to fill the jar.

• 3

  Cap tightly, and then heat for 3 hours at a low temperature in your oven--150 degrees is a good temperature if your oven goes down this far. If not, 170 degrees is fine.

• 4

  Cool and strain before using.

• 5

  Heat about 1 cup of your herbal oil using a double boiler or glass measuring cup placed in a pan of simmering water.

• 6

  Melt beeswax in a separate pan, which you have also placed in a double boiler or a glass measuring cup in a pan with a small amount of water, at the same time you're heating the oil.

• 7

  Add about 1/4 cup of melted wax to the hot oil and stir to mix it thoroughly.

• 8

  Add essential oil to the containers in which you'll be pouring your finished salve; 16 drops per ounce of salve is a good amount.

• 9

  Pour the hot mixture into small jars or lip balm-sized tubs and, when cool, use on wounds or as a lip balm.