PD: Herbal salves 1

A few different herbal salves.

I start almost always with herbal oils, when I make herbal salves. And then I add 1 parts (100 g) beeswax to 8 parts (8 dl) of herbal oil.
Here are the herbal salve recipes from the first two days of recent product development:

1) Calendula salve
9 dl calendula oil (recipe A)
110 g beeswax (I forgot to tell my group that it's better to add a gram or two rather than subtract them .. 9 dl would require 112.5 g, and I'd have put in 115 g rather than 110.)
Melt the beeswax in the oil on a waterbath, use a syringe to spritz things into 30 ml jars, let cool (= let set), close lids, add labels.

2) Calendula-meadowsweet salve
3 dl calendula oil (recipe B)
3 dl meadowsweet oil (done in an oven that kept its temperature at the 50C setting overnight, earlier, using safflower oil)
75 g beeswax
Melt the beeswax in the oil on a waterbath, use a syringe to spritz things into 30 ml jars, let cool (= let set), close lids, add labels.

3) Spruce-meadowsweet-calendula salve
5.5 dl spruce shoot oil (done overnight earlier at 50C, using rape seed oil)
0.5 dl meadowsweet oil (done overnight earlier at 50C, using safflower oil)
2 dl calendula oil (recipe B)
100 g beeswax
Melt the beeswax in the oil on a waterbath, use a syringe to spritz things into 30 ml jars, let cool (= let set), close lids, add labels.

4) Reindeer milk salve
2 dl calendula oil (recipe B)
32 g beeswax
Melt beeswax in calendula oil on a waterbath.
30 g reindeer milk
Heat up to 50C in a waterbath, whisk this in a very thin stream into the oil'n'wax, and, once it's all in there, put the bowl into cold water to cool it faster and continue to whisk until the salve has cooled.
This salve won't keep for very long as the milk contains water. And that milk might even go sour before the salve grows moldy! Scary thought, sour milk isn't really what you'd like on your skin...
Pouring this into jars: put the salve into a plastic baggie, cut one small piece out of a corner, and press the salve through that into jars. It's best to do this fairly soon, as the salve grows harder as it cools further.

5) Peppermint salve
5 dl peppermint oil (recipe D)
62 g beeswax
Melt the beeswax in the oil on a waterbath, use a syringe to spritz things into 30 ml jars, let cool (= let set), close lids, add labels.
This particular salve turned out to be rather soft (... it's very very runny). That has happened to me very few times before, but I'd forgotten all about it. However (however!), it has only happened when I've either 1) used a very recent crop of cold-pressed organic rapeseed oil, or 2) used peppermint in its various forms. So either of these factors might make for a softer salve. Adjusting the amount of beeswax to 1:7 instead of 1:8 should take care of the problem.

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Related entries: PD: Herbal oils 1 - PD: Herbal oils 2 - PD: Herbal salves 2 - Herbs in salves - Cat: Salves