bump rub

Oh! I wanted to post the recipe for the belly salve in case anyone else is up for making their own. The recipe is pretty straight forward. You could change out the herbs and essential oils if you want to use this salve for another purpose.... say a muscle/joint rub with eucalyptus... or a maybe a nice minty salve to rub on your temples if you have a bad headache (thanks ty for that idea, the peppermint worked nicely!). In a little while I will start experimenting with making diaper salve, but I have a bit more research to do before I start that project.

Read some books about what herbs and essential oils work for whatever issue you want to address. You can vary the combinations of herbs in the maceration, the carrier oils used, or the essential oils used to customize your salve.



The recipe:

Infused oil is the basis of this salve. The process of making the oil takes about a month so you will need to get started a month ahead of when you will need the salve. Do not be intimated though, it's very easy.

Make a cold maceration of the herbs...
1 oz of dried rosehips
1 oz of dried chamomile
1 oz of dried calendula flowers
1 oz of dried/shredded marshmallow root
A large glass jar with a good fitting lid (mason jar would work well)
Grapeseed or sweet almond oil (enough to completely submerge the herbs)

Put the dried herbs in the jar.
Fill the jar with oil so that the herbs are totally submerged plus about another finger or so of oil to top it off.
Put the lid on the jar and let the whole thing sit in a cool dark place for a month. Shake up the jar every so often to stir everything up.

After a month strain the oil thru a bit of cheese cloth (squeeze it to get all the oil out of the saturated herbs). Put the oil in a clean glass jar and store in a cool dark place. You will have more oil than you will use for this salve recipe.


To make the salve (makes almost 2 oz of salve but a little goes a long way):

1 small amber glass jar with lid - holds about 1.75 oz (i get mine at a natural foods store like whole foods)
1 teaspoon of hemp seed oil*
1 teaspoon of macadamia nut oil*
1/4 cup of infused herb oil (per recipe above)
2 1/2 teaspooons grated beeswax

1-2 drops each of the the following essential oils
lavender, chamomile (roman), neroli, tangerine

*if you can't get this type of oil you can just omit it and use an extra teaspoon of the infused herb oil
Using a bain marie heat the beeswax, hemp seed oil and macadamia nut oil in a heat safe glass container on low even heat until everything is melted and the mixture is totally translucent... i use a chopstick to constantly stir mixture while it is melting.

Remove the bain marie from the heat and slowly stir in the infused herb oil.... if the mixture gets cloudy and starts to set up you can put the bain marie back on the heat but only long enough to melt everything.

Once the mixture is totally translucent, remove the container from the bain marie.

To test that you have the right consistency pick up a bit of the mixture on the back of a spoon or put a drop of it onto a plate. Once that bit of salve is cooled confirm whether or not the consistency is to your liking. Add a little grated beeswax to firm it up.... a little more infused oil to thin it out.

Once you are confident in the consistency, remove the container from the bain marie. You do not want to continue heating it once the essential oils are added because they will quickly evaporate. Stir in the essential oils.

Pour the salve into the glass jar. Place in the fridge to cool for 5 minutes. Remove from the fridge, attach the lid and let sit for another 20 mins.

Rub on your belly and enjoy!