All Purpose Salve

In the beginning of November I started infusing some herbs in olive oil.  I went to Noah's Natural Foods and picked up some calendula, comfrey, lavender and red clover.  All of these herbs are therapeutic to the skin and make a great all-purpose salve.  I would use this on any skin irritation, dry skin and hands, baby's bottoms, growing mama's bellies and eczema.  I mixed them all up and stuffed them into mason jars and then topped until completely covered with olive oil.

here are the herbs all mixed up

and here they are being topped with a high quality olive oil

Fast forward 6 weeks later......I dumped the 2 mason jars full of soaked herbs into a bodum and pressed as much of the olive oil out as I could.  I then scooped a few tbsp. of herb into some cheescloth and rang out the remainder of the oil.

 

Lastly, I bought 2 tubs of pure cocoa butter and melted them down on the lowest simmer and mixed in about 1.5 cups of the oil mixture.  I also squeezed in 2 vitamin E capsules which acts as a natural perservative.  Gave it a quick stir and poured the liquid into small pots.  Here they are!

A few other great ideas is buying some empty lip balm tubes and filling those up or simply pouring the purely infused oil into little bottles without the cocoa butter and using the oil as is! Simple and thoughtful gifts....