Infused oil (soaking in & multiple herbs) for salves

[SharonStudent]

Hi all.  I am wondering about infused oil for salves.  I cannot seem to find an oil that will actually soak into my skin!  I can sit there watching it NOT soak in for 20 minutes or more, and it would appear that none of it actually is soaking in!

Also, if I want to make a salve of say three herbs – should all three of them be made into an oil first?  Should all three be in the SAME oil so that it is stronger?  In this particular case, I’d like to use Yarrow, Plantain, & Comfrey.  I have some Comfrey oil already made, but I could easily take that oil and do a second infusion with the other two herbs to make it a 3 herb oil.  I would of course prefer to find an oil that my skin would absorb though!  Any help is welcome!

• This topic was modified 8 months, 3 weeks ago by Sharon.

[SharonStudentTopic Author]

I have now watched the salve/lotion video 2 or 3 times and still cannot figure out how to use infused oil with TINCTURES rather than tea to make a lotion.  I have some infused oil, but the other ingredients I want to use to make my lotion are all in a tincture form (though I could do a tea at any point, but I think that the tinctures would be more powerful).  Plus I believe – correct me if I’m wrong – but if using tinctures rather than tea, the lotion should be shelf stable and not need to be kept in the fridge.  Also, if I’m remembering correctly, somewhere I think I remember talk of putting a little tad of lavender essential oil in the lotion/salve to preserve it without refrigeration?  Thank you in advance for your help!

[Dr. Patrick JonesHomestead Instructor]

Yours in italics, mine in Bold

I have now watched the salve/lotion video 2 or 3 times and still cannot figure out how to use infused oil with TINCTURES rather than tea to make a lotion. I have some infused oil, but the other ingredients I want to use to make my lotion are all in a tincture form (though I could do a tea at any point, but I think that the tinctures would be more powerful).

You still need to add the water but you could spike it with tincture instead of making a tea. I’d do a tsp of tincture per cup of water.

Plus I believe – correct me if I’m wrong – but if using tinctures rather than tea, the lotion should be shelf stable and not need to be kept in the fridge. Also, if I’m remembering correctly, somewhere I think I remember talk of putting a little tad of lavender essential oil in the lotion/salve to preserve it without refrigeration? Thank you in advance for your help

The alcohol in the tincture will be too diluted by the water and oil to be preservative. But the sometimes the herbs used are very preservative.

Don't use herbs or combine herbs with medications or use them during lactation or pregnancy without talking with your healthcare provider.

[SharonStudentTopic Author]

Bumping this for some answers hopefully (Doc – do you have a moment?).  I have researched it and decided to get Hazelnut oil as it is reportedly one of only a few with the “absorption rating” of 1 (they go up to 5, but in a year I might absorb a 5!).  Anyway, to repeat the original question – Also, if I want to make a salve of say three herbs – should all three of them be made into an oil first? Should all three be in the SAME oil so that it is stronger? In this particular case, I’d like to use Yarrow, Plantain, & Comfrey. I have some Comfrey oil already made, but I could easily take that oil and do a second infusion with the other two herbs to make it a 3 herb oil.   Or should I just use a tincture for the ones that I don’t have in oil?  How much tincture to oil is acceptable to making a good lotion?  I hope my question makes sense!

[Greg BoggsStudent]

You might even try mixing some oil with tallow, that’s normally what my wife and I do and it absorbs pretty well. My wife also says that some people add arrowroot to their salves and it makes the whole thing less oily, so that might be worth experimenting with. You also might have success with blending oils together and see if that changes anything.

Now, I’ve never tried mixing alcohol and oil, but I’m not sure if they mix well. The thing that makes the lotions mold is if water is added (like a tea). The lotions/salves my wife and I make use tallow and oil and we infuse those with the herbs, not making a tea, so ours is shelf stable.

As for making the herbal infused oils, I would probably just infuse the other two herbs into the comfrey infused oil, seems like less work to me for the same payoff. The only reason I would see to make each it’s own infused oil is if you wanted to use the oils themselves for different purposes.

One last note, a little goes a long way, so if you find what you made isn’t soaking into your skin, you might be using too much

1 user thanked author for this post.

Sharon

[SharonStudentTopic Author]

Greg, sorry for the late reply.  I’m very intrigued by the use of tallow and it’s “shelf stable-ness”.  Do you have a source that you recommend for good tallow?  Also, hubby and I share the same problem with most things we put on our skin – FOREVER to soak in, even a little bit, then give up and wipe it off.  There’s a scale used for oils for the skin 1-5 rating with 5 being one that is rated as the “forever” category, though hubby and I have found that even things rated as a 2 or 3 still take forever.  We laughingly say that our skin is “oil-a-phobic”!  What little research I’ve done on tallow just now, seems to indicate that it absorbs pretty darned good – would you agree with that, and do you have trouble with other oils not soaking in?  Do you have a recipe/instructions for making this after I find a good source for the tallow?  I like the arrowroot tip as well, will definitely keep that in mind!  Thanks in advance.

• This reply was modified 3 months, 2 weeks ago by Sharon.

[Greg BoggsStudent]

No worries! And yeah we still use this tallow balm regularly and its been on our kitchen counter since last August. The tallow does absorb well, but it will still take some time, I would recommend doing it before bed if you find that it takes a long time to absorb so it won’t bother you. I will say that if you add in the oil, it will increase the time for it to absorb into your skin. We actually get our tallow from our parent’s cows when they take them in for slaughter, but as long as you look for organic, grass fed tallow you should be fine.

Here’s the recipe I put on the forum in other places

1 cup tallow
1 cup dried herbs (by volume)
1.5 tbsp olive or coconut oil (optional)

You melt down the tallow in a pot on low, and once it’s a liquid add in the cup of herbs (by volume) and let it infuse for an hour or so keeping the heat on low. The recipe we originally found (from milkandhoneyherbs) says that the longer you can let the herbs stay in there the better, but we felt an hour was long enough. Once you’re done with that, you’ll want to strain the tallow so you don’t get a bunch of herb chunks in your new balm. By recommendation of someone else here on the forum, we put a thin towel or cheesecloth inside of a potato ricer and strained everything through that. Also, if you want to add in the oil, here is where you would do that, it just makes it have a softer consistency. Here you have a couple of options, option 1 is you can just pour it into little containers and let it cool, and then congratulations you’ve made your balm! Option 2 is to let it cool a bit to where it is still in liquid form but not hard yet, and use an emulsion blender and whip it up. We’ve done both ways and found that using the emulsion blender is really nice because it makes it all into a nice, smooth lotion. This really is an excellent skin healer and I cannot recommend it enough!

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