By: Alice Eckles
This article originally appeared in the Autumn 2020 issue of BEEKeeping Your First Three Years
Whether it’s for self-sufficiency to make your own health and beauty products for personal use and gifts, or to add to a product to your honey sales, making salves is an easy and excellent use of the valuable beeswax you can accumulate through beekeeping.
If you typically use store-bought lotions you may not be aware of the many benefits of beeswax salves. I was once like that. I originally started making salves because my grandmother made salves, and as beekeepers we had the beeswax. I also thought it would be good for us to have another product to offer at our honey booth. What I’ve learned is that beeswax salves are superior to lotions and good for a lot more than moisturizing skin.
I developed a recipe for Healing Herbal Beeswax Salve that I make in artisanal batches for Dancing Bee Gardens. By putting samples out at our booth people can try them. I explain that they can be used as an all over moisturizer and because it is infused with certain herbs there are many other healing uses for the salve as well. I use it for almost all my first aid needs. Salves are also very handy for traveling, as a little goes a long way, usually packaged in a 2 ounce tin, and solid so there’s no trouble getting through security when traveling by air. Salves are very small compared to a bottle of lotion leaving more space in your luggage for other things.
I have made and used my Healing Herbal Beeswax Salve over the years and have come to know its virtues, from my research and intuition, to customer testimonials and my own experience. While I provide my recipe in this article, do not limit yourself to what I have done. Beeswax can enhance the herbal and moisturizing qualities of whatever ingredients you add. Your creativity and herbal knowledge will expand the opportunities for creating your own recipes and products.
If the herbs aren’t completely dry place them on a screen until they are dry to the touch.
Just as when making mead you can either flavor the drink with fruits, herbs, or spices or you can make a simple mead with only water, honey, and yeast, so it is in salve making. The simplest most basic salve ingredients are: beeswax and oil. And the process at its simplest is to melt one part of the amount of beeswax into three parts oil in a double boiler, then pour the mixture in to containers to cool.
For my herbal salve I use the sun-infused oil method. I begin collecting my herbs near the end of the Summer when all the different herbs that I like to use are in flower. I gather these, and if they are at all moist I dry them out a bit on a screen. Then I fill a gallon jar with the herbs and and pour organic olive oil over the herbs to cover. I set my jar in the sun for two weeks. I push the herbs down so that there are as few air bubbles as possible.
The oils and herbs you choose for your salve will give it the special properties of those herbs and oils. Know your ingredients, and use what you know. You can get ideas by visiting an herbalist, or checking the ingredients in skin products you like and use. Think about what is inspiring you to do this and let your curiosity lead your research into the type of product you want to make. List any problems you want to address with the salve and let that guide your discovery of helpful herbs. I know that caster oil is great for healthy hair growth for example and have made a hair styling salve, with caster oil, beeswax, and essential oils for scent.
To start: Do you have inspiration? Do you have needs that a salve could solve or soothe? If you have decided to make beeswax salve gather all the herbs, oils, and wax that you will need. Make sure you have all your supplies before you start, and make sure they are labeled to prevent any mix-ups. You will need: clean beeswax, olive oil, a jar for solar infusing with herbs if you are doing that, a double boiler, cheese cloth for straining out herbs, essential oils for scent, containers to fill, and labels. Herbs for the most part are best collected and used immediately. You may need a screen for drying them if you can’t find a dry time to collect them. See my Herbal Healing Salve recipe at the end of this article. Process your beeswax into clean smaller measured pieces like one ounce or eight ounce blocks.
Herbs in jars ready for oil to be added for solar infusion.
Next gather the materials you will need. What kind of containers will you fill with save? Will you make some small test batches and reuse small glass bottles and tins or are you ready to place a big wholesale order for tins from a major company?
The way I like to make salves is to collect the fresh herbs. Most herbs will be more effective if fresh. Calendula is an exception and can be used fresh or dried. By observing the bees all Summer on the flowers you will be aware of what nature is offering and in what quantities and locations. Every year is a little different. Bring a bunch of bags and visit locations where your chosen herbs grow. Harvest responsibly, by taking no more than one third of what’s available in any one area. Also think of the quality of your herbal salve and don’t harvest from contaminated sites. Find a sunny spot to put your jar, and fill it with clean dry herbs. Pour the oil into the jar over the herbs, pushing the herbs down to get out as many bubbles as possible. Your hand is going to be covered in olive oil so you want to be prepared for that with some sort of towel to wipe it off or just run the oil into your bare arms and legs to moisturize. You could use a kitchen utensil to push down the herbs. I like to do this whole process outside because it can get messy. Put the lid on the jar tight and leave the mixture to infuse outside in the Summer sun for two weeks. Could you set it on a kitchen counter or in a sunny window? Maybe, but I’ve never tried it believing that direct sun is needed. If the herb oil mix doesn’t have consistent and significant all over warmth, spoilage can occur. My intuition says no to indoor sun infusion.
After the herbs have infused into the oil by sitting in the sun it’s time to strain the herbs out. Begin by stretching the cheese cloth over the opening of the double boiler pot (top part) and secure it with a rubber band around the edge and/ or clothes pins. You don’t want the cheese cloth to come loose while you’re pouring the oil onto it to strain out the herbal material. You can let time do the job or elect to finish up by taking the cheese cloth off the pot and wringing it out so that the oil passes into the pot and the herbs form a clump inside the cheese cloth. The herbs make a great addition to your compost pile. Don’t squeeze too hard and end up adding watery herb juice to the oil inadvertently. Water can cause your salves to spoil. If made with care salves can last a year or more. You can add preservatives such as vitamin E or rosemary extract and these can have other benefits as well, but remember there is no water in a quality salve and beeswax is a preservative too.
If producing for the market be sure to weigh out the first one to get the proper file line so it matches the weight on the label before filing the rest.
Ready to finish making these salves? Put water in the bottom of your double boiler. Add ingots or small chunks of clean beeswax to your olive oil. You can choose another type of oil, but do your research to make sure it’s what you want. I use olive oil because I believe it’s the most stable. I know from experience that sunflower oil does not. The proportions are four parts oil to one part beeswax. Melt gently together, if there’s anything else such as essential oils that you want to add, Add those when the beeswax has melted and mixed into the oil. Stir gently. I use a Pyrex measuring cup to pour the mixture into my tins and that works quite well. You will want something with a little spout to pour with. Be sure the counter or table you are working on is level but be sure to put newspapers all around on the floor just in case. By leaving a little room at the top of the containers you’re less likely to make a mess. Fill the containers and wait for the salve to harden and cool before you put the lids on. Label your product! If you feel unsure of the oil to wax ratio or you want to make your salve softer or harder, simply adjust the amount of beeswax. Use more beeswax for a more solid product and less for a softer salve. To gage the effect of the amount of wax you are adding, you can start with the least amount, add a little more at a time, dropping a drip of the wax-oil mixture on wax paper and putting the wax paper into the fridge for a moment then check the cooled consistency. Keep adding beeswax until you have the consistency you like. You did it!
A resource I would recommend for concise instructions on this and other herbal preparations is Rosemary Gladstar’s Family Herbal, a guide to living life with energy, health and vitality.
Alice’s Healing Herbal Salve Recipe
Harvest the herbs below to fill a gallon jar. The quantity of each herb is listed in order of most to least. Though these herbs have many virtues I selected them for the quality listed after the herb.
Comfrey- heals muscles and bones
Calendula – soothing to skin irritations/inflammation
Red Clover- anticancer, lymph clearing
Plantain – soothes bug bites
St. John’s wort – heals nerves and skin
Heal all – heals wounds
Sage – antimicrobial
- Cover the clean dry herbs in large jar with organic olive oil.
- Let sit outside in the sun for two weeks.
- Strain herbs out with cheesecloth.
- Ideally let the infused oil sit and settle for a day before starting production.
- For each cup of oil add ¼ cup of beeswax and melt together in a double boiler.
- Add a tablespoon or two of vitamin E.
When everything is melted just before you’re ready to pour you can add lavender essential oil, two tablespoons, for a pleasant scent. Pour the mixture into tins and label when cool.
I usually make a gallon of oil at a time. To this I add three 8 ounce chunks of beeswax. Half of the mixture I use for unscented salves. Only to the remainder do I add the 2 tablespoons of lavender essential oil. Makes about 50 tins, 2 oz each.
Alice Eckles is the author of The Literature Preferred by Wild Boar, a novel. While she sometimes assists in beekeeping, she mostly handles the value added parts of the beekeeping business she shares with Ross and works at her own artist business AliceEcklesStudio.com.
