How to Make Healing Skin Salve: Recipe + DIY Instructions

I love healing skin salve. I use it on every part of my body. My husband and son use it on their bodies. We slather it on after we bathe, before bed, when we get up in the morning or when we go out in the sun, rain, wind or snow.

What is Healing Skin Salve Used For?

We put healing skin salve on any part of our body that is red, sore, itchy, dry, cracked or uncomfortable.

We also just rub it on to moisturize and nourish ourselves.

A little salve is like applying a Band-Aid of love. You can kiss the “owie” and then tap it with a little bit of salve to make it all better. I love salve.

I know, what an image of a greased up family! Truth is, when our skin is nice and moisturized, we feel better and therefore are nicer to each other. Ha ha. No, really!

Did you know that moisturizing the skin calms your nerves? Keep Calm and Use Salve!

You are cordially invited into the sensational world of diy healing skin salve making.

Salve, a source of self-empowerment that frees you from hundreds of products and gimmicks because you know just how healing it can be.

Salve, a place where you feel connected to a remedy that you fashioned with your own heart and hands.

Salve. Wherever you go, you carry the generosity of a personal medicine that can help with more than you ever imagined it could help with. You offer simple assistance in a complicated world.

Why do I love healing skin salve so much?

Is it because I have always loved plants and flowers? Is it because I was just smitten with the idea that I could make something myself that could help people? Is it because I love to experiment and mix things together?

I admit, I was the mud pie making child. We lived directly above a creek that ran swift and wide in the winter. The banks of the creek were my childhood playground. I constructed every concoction possible with mud, sand, roots and creek muck. The consistency of salve is a little like creek muck, don’t you think?

When I was introduced to the wonderful art of working with my garden to bring healing to my family, there was no turning back. I had an insatiable thirst to learn everything I could about herbal remedies.

My parents insisted that I finish college, so I did. They thought I was going to get a real job after they paid for 5 years of university. Instead I became a self-ordained fanatic salve maker. Ha ha.

Anyway, sort of the long way of saying that I hope that you enjoy this simple healing skin salve recipe. It is infused with many years of comfort and healing that is now yours to share.

DIY Healing Skin Salve Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon grated beeswax or beeswax pearls (available at Mountain Rose Herbs)
• 1 ounce olive oil by volume (measured in a measuring cup)
• 8 drops lavender essential oil

Supplies

• Double boiler or 2 stainless steel pots
• Measuring cup
• Spatula
• Salve container(s)
• Label

1. Grate the beeswax into medium shredded pieces. Think of when you grate cheddar cheese, if you use the smallest holes on the grater, it just gums up the grater. Use the medium holes just like you would if you were grating cheese. You can grate the beeswax with a cheese grater or purchase the beeswax already cut into small pearls.

2. The beeswax pearls are denser than grated beeswax, so the measurements vary depending on which type of beeswax you add. I use a heaping tablespoon of grated beeswax to a scant tablespoon of beeswax pearls. Basically, my recipes are made for home grated beeswax, so just use a little less if you are going to use the already prepared beeswax pearls that can be purchased.

3. A double boiler has a top pot that fits into a bottom pot. Put water in the bottom pot; put the top pot on the pot with water in it and bring the water to a boil. (Say that 5 times!) If you don’t have a double boiler, just make one up. Put water in a pot and then put another pot that fits on top of the pot with the water in it.

4. Put the beeswax in the upper pot and melt it.

5. Slowly add the olive oil a little at a time until the oil and beeswax melt together.

6. Remove the pot from the heat as soon as everything is melted together. Make sure that you do not overheat the oil. The oil should never be too hot to put your finger into.

7. While the mixture is still hot, pour it from the pot into a measuring cup.

8. From the measuring cup, pour the mixture into salve containers.

9. After the salve begins to cool, but before it hardens, add lavender essential oil to the salve.

10. Let the salve jar sit on the counter until the salve has hardened, then put the lid on the container.

11. Take a moment to think about what you will use this healing skin salve for. Think about to whom you might give it and how it could help them. This is called adding love and best wishes to your salve. The extra added ingredient that heals. You can’t buy that in the store.

How Long Does Homemade Salve Last?

Store your homemade salve in a cool, dark place. It should last for about a year.

Enjoy your healing skin salve!