Learn to Make a Simple Healing Natural Calendula Salve

Learn to make this super simple soothing & healing natural calendula salve that has SO many everyday uses!

Natural calendula salve was not something I’ve always used. Many years ago, I was a Neosporin girl. Unfortunately, some members of my family began to have reactions to triple antibiotic ointment.  At the time, I was just entering my crunchy mom phase and learning all about the power of nature. I was happy to look at healthy and natural remedies as alternatives to medicine. 

The recipe I found was a gentle multipurpose skin cream that had a concoction of various herbs and dry flowers that were difficult to find.  However, I was often stuck buying a pound of each variety. It was difficult finding smaller quantities. From the very first time, the salve worked SO well though!  It just became an expensive investment.

I began adding medicinal herbs to my garden to grow things I needed to make a natural healing salve. I subsequently pared the ingredients down to the simplest ones I could find that still gave me a great result.  This recipe was born!  

What is natural calendula salve?

Natural calendula salve is a semi soft balm that is used to soothe and heal skin irritations.  A mixture of natural ingredients makes this homemade calendula salve silky smooth.  It includes infused oil made from organic extra virgin olive oil and dried calendula flowers. In addition, it contains organic beeswax, and extra virgin organic coconut oil.  

It’s a super simple process to turn these organic oils and natural ingredients into a multi-purpose salve. You’ll be so happy you have it on hand!

If you’ve used my furniture salve, you’ll notice that the recipe is similar.  That’s the great thing about recipes like this.  Once you find out what proportions of oils to beeswax you prefer, swapping ingredients is easy. It allows you to make all different kinds of salves and balms!

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Why Do You Use Calendula in this multipurpose salve? 

Originally, my healing balm had many varieties of medicinal herbs in it.  I realized that it super simple to grow my own calendula and it had enough healing properties to stand alone!

Calendula’s proper name is calendula officinalis and was originally found in Southern Europe.  It is full of beneficial plant compounds, so it was grown for medicinal purposes.  Calendula has been shown to be a potent remedy for a variety of skin issues. 

It has powerful anti-inflammatory properties, so it’s often used for skin inflammation, bug bites or baby diaper irritation.  Its antibacterial properties help minor cuts and ulcers heal faster, possibly due to increased blood flow.  With its antioxidant and antifungal properties, it is even used to speed burn recovery!  It’s also soothing so it aids in the healing process of dry skin patches.

Above all, I would like to mention that I am not a doctor so I cannot give medical advice. In other words, while I have found this natural calendula salve to be useful, it hasn’t been reviewed by the food and drug administration. I cannot guarantee that it will work the same for everybody.  I can just share what has worked for us!

These sunshiney calendula blooms were from my garden. Can you even believe how beautiful they are? Every time people to cut flowers from my garden, I had to steer them away from the calendula. They ARE beautiful – but I was growing them for medicinal purposes.

Organic Ingredients for Natural Calendula Salve:

This small batch gentle skin cream has only 5 ingredients:

Organic olive oil: 

Olive oil is the basis for much of the natural calendula salve.  It is simple to infuse with the essential oils of the calendula petals either with a long room temperature steep, or a short low heat. Unfortunately, olive oil is runny and oily, so it needs other, harder oils to firm it up. This is the olive oil I often use.

Organic calendula flowers: 

Like we discussed above, when using the whole flower, calendula has many medicinal purposes.  You can buy dry flowers.  Alternately, you can grow them yourself and dry them on a screen.  

I usually elevate my screen a little to allow for airflow.  Either way, you will want to make sure you’re using fully dried calendula flowers to make sure you’re not adding any moisture to the natural calendula salve.  Too much moisture makes the mixture go rancid. In order to make sure the oil lasts, use very dry flowers.

Extra virgin organic coconut oil:  

Coconut oil is solid at room temperature, so it adds firmness and stability to the healing balm.  The antimicrobial effects add to the effectiveness of the natural calendula salve. This is the coconut oil I use.

Organic yellow beeswax: 

The small amount of beeswax acts as a hardener in this homemade calendula salve.  It’s waxy nature also provides a natural barrier and creates a layer of protection on the top of the skin.  Not only does it do all that, but organic beeswax helps to heal wounds and fight infections.  This looks like a great organic beeswax.

Raw Honey

Raw honey can help wounds and burns due to its antibacterial and anti inflammatory properties.

How Do You Make Natural Calendula Salve?

It’s so simple to turn these 5 organic ingredients into small batches of herbal salve to soothe irritated skin!

1. Make the Organic Calendula Oil:

The first step in the process of making natural calendula salve is infusing the essential oils from the organic calendula blossoms into the organic olive oil, creating an organic calendula oil.  This can be done a number of ways. Which way you choose is up to your personal preference.  Originally, I grew and dried my own calendula in my garden as a medicinal herb, but when I needed to take photos for this post, I didn’t have any left so I bought these ones to use.

Long, slow steep:

The first method takes a long time, but it is the gentlest processing of the herb and may keep the most medicinal value.  I use this method when I don’t need to make the salve right away and have some time before I’ll use it.  Fill a 16 oz mason jar with ½ cup of dried calendula flowers.  Cover the dry flowers with about 1 cup of organic extra virgin olive oil.

Remember that the dried petals will soak up the oil, so you won’t end up with the same amount of oil that you put in.  Because of this, you’ll want to make sure to use more oil than the ½ cup that is called for in the recipe.

Put a lid on the mason jar and keep it in a dark place, out of direct sunlight.  Some people put the calendula oil in a brown paper bag, but I prefer to just put it inside a cupboard I rarely open.  This allows for it to be out of sunlight, without me forgetting about it because I can see it when I open the cupboard!  Shake it whenever you see it – some people say daily, but I never do it that much!

After it steeps for 4-6 weeks, you’ll see that it has created a beautiful vibrant orange oil to add to your salve.  Just strain it through cheese cloth into a clean container.  And that’s it!  You’ve got calendula oil!

Short, low heat steep:

In this second method to create calendula infused oil, you’ll want to put ½ cup of calendula blossoms, 1/2 cup coconut oil and 1/2 cup of organic olive oil in a pot or a double boiler over very low heat.  If you’re like me, I just use a makeshift double boiler and put a bowl over a pot of water.  It works like a charm!

Heat the calendula petals and oil for 30 minutes to one hour on low heat.  After it steeps, strain it through cheesecloth into a clean jar.  And that’s it!  You’ve got calendula oil!

2. Melt the beeswax into the mixture:

During the infusing process, measure your beeswax into a jar. Put the infused oil into the jar with beeswax pellets and set in a pot with about an inch of water. Heat until they just melt.

3. Pour it into your container:

Once the beeswax is just melted, add the raw honey. Whisk until combined and pour it into the containers you’ll be using. Most importantly, just like when you were making the infused oil, you’ll want to make sure it’s out of direct sunlight. You can use metal tins, or glass jars that you store in a dark place.

4. Let it cool to room temperature:

That’s it! Let it cool to room temperature and you’re done! Wasn’t that simple!?

Ways to Use Natural Calendula Salve

The healing properties of this organic salve make it so amazing to have on hand for daily uses.  For example, here is a quick list of ways to use this small batch salve on a variety of skin issues:

*First, use this gentle skin cream to heal minor skin irritations or itchy skin

*Secondly use it on a baby’s bottom for diaper rash and to create a protective barrier from wetness

*Put it in your arsenal to use for insect bites or insect stings

*Use it for chapped skin from the cold winter wind

*Apply it as a new mother nipple cream for nursing mamas

*Spread on minor cuts, using the antiseptic properties of the calendula to heal

*treat burns 

*soothe cradle cap

*smooth dry hands and dry feet

(Remember, this is for external use only! Do not ingest. In addition, if you have any sensitive skin types, try it on a small patch to see if you have any reaction. Then, apply it to larger areas.)

FAQs:

Do I have to make this into a salve, or can I make this into a lotion bar?

I think this would make a great lotion bar!  Basically, the ingredients in both are about the same, so you’re not a long way off from a lotion bar! Consequently, you can increase the organic yellow beeswax to ½ cup.  Many of the lotion bar recipes have equal parts liquid oil to solid butter/oil to beeswax. 

Put it into a silicone mold and let it cool to room temperature.  If the lotion bar is too hard or soft, remelt it and add either more oil or wax to compensate.  If you try this out, let me know the final result!

Can I add any other oils or herbs?

Absolutely!  I wanted to keep this as simple as possible, but you can add in other beneficial things to this natural calendula salve.  I have used dried plantain and chamomile flowers infused along with the calendula in the infused oil.  

You can also swap out some of the olive oil for other oils you love:

*sweet almond oil

*organic sunflower oil

*jojoba oil

You could even add a bit of vitamin e oil for skin healing.  

Finally, you can swap out some of the extra virgin organic coconut oil for other semi hard butters. Examples of these would be organic raw shae butter, cocoa butter, organic mango butter, or african shea butter.  

I think the biggest thing is to keep the overall ratios the same:

*1/2c liquid oil

*A half cup semi solid butter/oil

*1/2c medicinal herbs

*4T beeswax.

You keep saying organic.  Do I have to use organic?

Technically no.  However, your skin in the largest organ in your body. Everything you put on it can enter into your system.  The high grade organic alternatives to these items are only negligibly more expensive. Consequently, I think it’s worth it to go the organic route and end up with the best product you can.  

Can this natural calendula salve be used on all skin types?

If you have sensitive skin, for the best results, you may want to try the natural calendula salve on a small spot to make sure there are no skin irritations.  

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