Blast From My Past....Homemade Muscle Rub Salve
Greetings again sisters!
I found this in my old homestead blog and wanted to share it with you. I hope it is a help to you:-)
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As we live our daily lives there are times we need some pain relief (more often than not:-).
I enjoy making this salve because it's such a pretty color when warm and it really works to soothe aching muscles and tension.
INGREDIENTS:
* 1 cup Arnica flowers
* 4 heaping teaspoons cayenne pepper (the more the better)
* Olive oil
* Vitamin E
* Beeswax
* Tea Tree oil
* Essential Oil (your choice)
To start you will need a large glass container. Put in your herbs in the jar. I don't have measurements because it all depends on how much oil you want to make however much salve you need. If you want to make a big batch, use a big jar, if you want just a couple tins of salve, then use a very small jar.
Cover the herbs with oil so the oil is a few inches over the top of the herbs. Let it sit 6 weeks and gently shake, swish it every day if you remember. (No big deal if you forget.) Now if you are impatient, you can gently heat this concoction for a couple hours and then move on to the next step, I prefer to let it sit and take it's time extracting the properties.
After the oil has done it's job, you strain out the herbs making sure to squeeze all that precious oil out from it. Toss the strained herbs out.
The ratio I use for my salves is 1 pint of oil to 1 1/2 oz of beeswax so that will be what this recipe is based on. The consistency of this salve will not be soft, nor will it be hard. It's an in between salve that does not drip nor is it hard to spread at all. Seems to make everyone happy that has used it so we're staying at this point. Feel free to make a small batch and see if it's to your liking then adjust the beeswax more or less depending on how firm or soft you like it.
Once you have your oil and the rest of your materials you just warm the oil only to the point that it will melt the beeswax. When the beeswax is melted you can add in the Vitamin E. I like to use 800 IU Vitamin E per cup of oil. This helps preserve the salve as well as add additional healing properties from the Vitamin E. (You can find Vitamin E capsules at most stores or online and all I do is poke it with a pin and squeeze it out.) I also like to add 1 drop of tea tree essential oil per cup of oil as it adds anti fungal properties to help preserve the oil as well as help skin issues.
You can also add whatever essential oil you like to make it smell nicer, I choose lavender because of it's soothing properties and the smell is pleasant. I drop maybe 10-15 drops in per cup.
Again, make sure you don't overheat the oil, do it very slowly and take your time because if it's too hot when you add the essential oils you will lose the potency.
Pour it into your waiting containers...
...and let sit until it hardens. (This picture shows the salve in it's warm state, it turns a lighter color as it cools.
Once it's done you can label it and now you're set with a natural pain salve. They make great gifts:-)
Have a joyous day.
Love,
Sister Deb
I found this in my old homestead blog and wanted to share it with you. I hope it is a help to you:-)
*********************************
As we live our daily lives there are times we need some pain relief (more often than not:-).
I enjoy making this salve because it's such a pretty color when warm and it really works to soothe aching muscles and tension.
INGREDIENTS:
* 1 cup Arnica flowers
* 4 heaping teaspoons cayenne pepper (the more the better)
* Olive oil
* Vitamin E
* Beeswax
* Tea Tree oil
* Essential Oil (your choice)
To start you will need a large glass container. Put in your herbs in the jar. I don't have measurements because it all depends on how much oil you want to make however much salve you need. If you want to make a big batch, use a big jar, if you want just a couple tins of salve, then use a very small jar.
Cover the herbs with oil so the oil is a few inches over the top of the herbs. Let it sit 6 weeks and gently shake, swish it every day if you remember. (No big deal if you forget.) Now if you are impatient, you can gently heat this concoction for a couple hours and then move on to the next step, I prefer to let it sit and take it's time extracting the properties.
After the oil has done it's job, you strain out the herbs making sure to squeeze all that precious oil out from it. Toss the strained herbs out.
The ratio I use for my salves is 1 pint of oil to 1 1/2 oz of beeswax so that will be what this recipe is based on. The consistency of this salve will not be soft, nor will it be hard. It's an in between salve that does not drip nor is it hard to spread at all. Seems to make everyone happy that has used it so we're staying at this point. Feel free to make a small batch and see if it's to your liking then adjust the beeswax more or less depending on how firm or soft you like it.
Once you have your oil and the rest of your materials you just warm the oil only to the point that it will melt the beeswax. When the beeswax is melted you can add in the Vitamin E. I like to use 800 IU Vitamin E per cup of oil. This helps preserve the salve as well as add additional healing properties from the Vitamin E. (You can find Vitamin E capsules at most stores or online and all I do is poke it with a pin and squeeze it out.) I also like to add 1 drop of tea tree essential oil per cup of oil as it adds anti fungal properties to help preserve the oil as well as help skin issues.
You can also add whatever essential oil you like to make it smell nicer, I choose lavender because of it's soothing properties and the smell is pleasant. I drop maybe 10-15 drops in per cup.
Again, make sure you don't overheat the oil, do it very slowly and take your time because if it's too hot when you add the essential oils you will lose the potency.
Pour it into your waiting containers...
...and let sit until it hardens. (This picture shows the salve in it's warm state, it turns a lighter color as it cools.
Once it's done you can label it and now you're set with a natural pain salve. They make great gifts:-)
Have a joyous day.
Love,
Sister Deb
The biblical gospel...