How To Make Hand Salve With Calendula

All natural hand salve is very valuable, especially for people who battle dry skin. How do I know? My elderly parents work with their hands. For Christmas, one of the presents I sent was all natural hand salve. They liked it, so I sent some more a few weeks later.

I liked the fact I was sending my parents a product that didn’t contain potentially harmful or irritating ingredients. There were no artificial fragrances or parabens. Parabens are found in so many personal care products. Because they mimic estrogen, there’s fear they can contribute to hormonally driven cancers.

With so many good natural alternatives, it makes no sense to use a hand balm that contains chemicals. Plus, I’ve found that plant-based creams, balms and body butters work just as well.

DIY Homemade Hand Salve

(This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase anything, I receive a commission at no extra cost to you. Also, Nature’s Fusions essential oils sent me a bottle of lavender oil to review.)

I sent my parents a well known brand of all natural hand made by Burt’s Bees. They were very pleased with this all natural product. So this is a good option if you don’t want to make your own salve. I know my parents don’t. Plus, since they live thousands of miles away, it was infinitely easier for me to just order what was needed and have it shipped.

But, if you don’t mind doing a little bit of mixing, it’s really easy to make your own hand salve with calendula flowers and other natural ingredients. Herbal calendula has a soothing quality. There’s also evidence calendula contains natural antibacterial compounds, as do so many other plants and botanical extracts. The recipe I’m going to tell you about also calls for a little bit of lavender essential oil. This aromatic is considered a good skin remedy. (I’ve used lavender on a sunburn, with very good results.)

Hand Salve With Calendula

I got the idea for writing this post from Wilderness Family Naturals, which sells USDA-certified organic herbs, seeds, nuts, powders and other healthy living necessities at incredible prices. I love visiting this site, just to get ideas, because it’s filled with healthy living tips. As the name implies, this is a family-run business, based in northern Minnesota. I love the concept of smallish enterprises devoted to natural health. These businesses seem to be springing up in response as people try to rid themselves of potentially toxic chemicals.

How To Make Hand Salve With Calendula

Anyway, it’s pretty easy to make your own hand salve with dried calendula flowers. You only need a few ingredients, including dried calendula flowers and beeswax pellets.

Beeswax is what gives a salve its consistency. Without it, you’ll wind up with a cream. I also love making natural body butter with shea butter and coconut oil. However, this doesn’t hold up in the heat and doesn’t travel as well as a salve made with beeswax. So, if you don’t already own beeswax, you can order it online.

DIY All Natural Hand Salve

Here is a recipe if you’d like to make your own hand salve with dried calendula flowers and essential oils. This recipe is adapted from the Wilderness Family Naturals blog.

1/4 cup pure olive oil (It’s available here). This olive oil comes from small coop farmers located near the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. It’s very important to know the source of your olive oil. That’s because fraud is rampant in the industry. The more a product changes hands, the more potential exists for it to be tampered with. This olive oil comes straight from the source.

1 tablespoon powdered herbal meadowsweet (It’s available here)

1 tablespoon dried calendula flowers (They’re available here)

1.5 teaspoons of beeswax pastiles (They’re available here)

3 drops of lavender essential oil (It’s available here)

Here are the directions:

1. On top of a double boiler, with water on the bottom, gently heat the olive oil and the herbs for 30 minutes.
2. Use an unbleached coffee filter to strain the oil. (Remove any herbs from the double boiler.)
3. Return the strained oil to the double boiler and add the beeswax.
4. Gently heat until the beeswax is melted.
5. Add the lavender essential oil and stir.
6. Pour into a tin or a small glass jar. When it’s cool you can cover it.
7. Store this mixture away from light and heat and use as needed.

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