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Simple Lavender Salve

October 11, 2014 by Stacy Karen

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Simple DIY Lavender Salve

This lavender salve is one of my all-time favorite things to make. It smells divine but is not overpowering. Perfect for dry hands, it also relieves rough patches on elbows and knees.

The best part: it is EASY to make. This recipe only contains 4 ingredients and a few simple steps.

If you have been intimidated by the thought of making your own body products, fear no more! This one is an excellent way to start.

It also makes a great gift.

 

 

Here is what you’ll need:

Ingredients

(Makes ½ cup, enough for two, small, 2-ounce jars)

¼  cup dried lavender flowers
5 to 7 drops lavender essential oil
2 tablespoons grated beeswax (Have a separate grater dedicated to grating beeswax – it does not come off! Don’t use a grater you want to grate cheese on again. You can always avoid grating by using beeswax pastilles.)
½ cup virgin olive oil

Tools

Heavy saucepan
Glass liquid measuring cup
Clean jars for finished salve (I use 2-ounce jars)
cheesecloth
Rubber band
tea towels

Method

Pour the oil into a heavy saucepan.

Add lavender flowers. Stir to combine.

Warm slowly over low heat. Once warm, turn off heat and let sit for 20 minutes.

Place cheesecloth over measuring cup and secure with a rubber band.

Strain lavender/oil mixture through cheesecloth.

Once most of the oil has dripped through, remove rubber band and pull the cheesecloth around the lavender. Squeeze any excess oil into the measuring cup.

(Have a towel nearby; your hands are going to be oily!)

Put a few inches of water into pan, place cup (with olive oil) into pan. Warm slowly over low heat until the water is simmering.

While the water is warming, add the 5 drops of lavender essential oil and 2 tablespoons of beeswax to the olive oil.

Let this mixture sit in simmering water and stir occasionally until the beeswax has melted. This takes about 10 minutes.

Once melted, pour into clean jars.

Allow to cool completely before putting the lid on.

Once cooled completely, the salve may have a dip in the top. But I don't mind that. It shows it's homemade.

Keeps for 6 months to a year.

I purchased my dried lavender, essential oil, beeswax, and jars from Mountain Rose Herbs.

This recipe is adapted from one found in Gardening How-To Magazine, May/June 2008 issue.

shg 5This is Day 11 in the 31 Days of Simple, Homemade Gifts Series. 

 

Links to Mountain Rose Herbs are affiliate links. I buy most of my herbs and oils from them. They are great!

This post was originally published on Nov. 11, 2010.

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Category: DIY, Herbal Remedies, Herbal Remedies & Homemade Body Products, Natural Beauty

About Stacy Karen

Stacy is a DIY obsessed, healthy living advocate. A preacher's wife and mom of three, she loves to encourage others to live a natural lifestyle.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Sustainable Eats

    November 12, 2010 at 10:10 pm

    This looks great – I love the smell of lavender! And just in time for Christmas too. Thanks for sharing it with Simple Lives Thursday!

    Reply
  2. Jenny @Home is Where...

    November 13, 2010 at 10:52 am

    oh wow, you made that look so easy! I’m thinking of trying this, though I’ve never tried making something like this before. I love, love lavendar 🙂 Thank you for sharing this, and thanks for the tweet letting me know you posted it!

    Reply
  3. Dawn

    November 13, 2010 at 9:08 pm

    That looks so easy! And I have two big lavender plants in my yard too! 🙂 I think I will do something with them this year. Thanks!

    Reply
  4. Anne

    November 15, 2010 at 10:08 am

    Question about your recipe: would “1/2 virgin olive oil” mean 1/2 “cup”? Sounds like a wonderful recipe. I plan to make these for Christmas gifts – and for myself, of course! Thank you for sharing the recipe.

    Reply
    • Stacy @ Delighting in the Days

      November 15, 2010 at 11:35 am

      Yes, 1/2 cup! Thanks for pointing that out. I’ll correct the post 🙂

      Reply
  5. Ashley S

    November 21, 2010 at 6:03 am

    I was wanting to try to make this b/c it looks like it would be a nice gift, but i have one question. What exactly is a salve used for?

    Reply
    • Stacy @ Delighting in the Days

      November 21, 2010 at 7:05 am

      I keep this in the kitchen and use it on my hands. It is stronger than lotion and helpful for extra dry skin. It’s great for dry knees and elbows.

      Reply
  6. Andrea

    November 21, 2010 at 10:54 am

    I grow lavender as well. I am so making this next year!

    Reply
    • Stacy @ Delighting in the Days

      November 21, 2010 at 12:25 pm

      That is cool!

      Reply
  7. Michelle

    November 22, 2010 at 9:33 pm

    I am fairly new to herbs and salve making. I have read that infusions should sit infusing for a while. Is the infusing time shorter in this recipe because essential oil is also used? Thanks in advance for helping me learn. 🙂

    Reply
    • Stacy @ Delighting in the Days

      December 15, 2010 at 10:26 pm

      I wondered the same thing the first time I saw this recipe. I hesitate to answer this question because I consider myself to be quite the amateur…perhaps the infusing time is so short becuase it is mostly for fragrance. The olive oil does most of the moisturizing. That was my take on it anyway…

      Reply
  8. Amanda

    December 15, 2010 at 9:21 am

    I just made a batch of this for my mom for Christmas. She has terribly dry skin, and most lotions don’t work for her. I cannot wait to give this. It’s sitting on my counter cooling and smells WONDERFUL!! Thanks so much 😀

    Reply
    • Stacy @ Delighting in the Days

      December 15, 2010 at 10:29 pm

      Yay! I’m so excited you made this! What fun! I hope it helps your mom’s dry skin. My mother-in-law has said it is one of the only things that helps her. So maybe it will her your mom 🙂

      I made some for my sister this year…it’s going in her stockng :)It’s such a fun gift.

      Reply
  9. Anne

    December 16, 2010 at 6:08 am

    I can answer your question about the infusing time. When you do the infusion on the stovetop, the time is much shorter. Another way to infuse is to cover the herbs with oil in a sealed jar and leave to sit for six weeks in a warm place. (The herbs should be at least one inch below the top of the oil.) This method takes much longer for the oils to infuse, but is a gentler way to infuse the oils and the best if you plan ahead. When infusing on the stovetop you should be very careful to keep the oil at a very low temperature. Anytime you heat a food, it deminishes its nutrients to a degree. But when you don’t have six weeks to wait, stovetop is the way to go.

    Reply
    • Stacy @ Delighting in the Days

      December 17, 2010 at 3:45 pm

      Thanks so much Anne! That makes perfect sense. I appreciate you taking the time to share that with us 🙂

      Reply
  10. JanaC2

    April 27, 2011 at 11:11 am

    I am so excited to try this recipe! We have all these ingredients on hand after making our own creamy lotions and salves last year when my daughter was experiencing frequent skin lesions and ongoing hives. The lotion turned out great, but we had to do more research into natural mold inhibitors as there were no preservatives and it did not last long in the summer heat!
    This recipe seems easier (no double boiler or blender or distilling water) and equally natural and soothing for the skin.

    Reply
    • sindy

      November 19, 2013 at 6:24 am

      Vitamin E is a natural preservative. 🙂

      Reply
  11. Beverly

    January 30, 2012 at 8:57 am

    Thank you for this simple recipe! I’m TOTALLY going to make this as soon as my supplies come in! I think this would be a great calming aromatherapy tool as well! 🙂

    Reply
    • Stacy

      January 30, 2012 at 10:52 pm

      Hope you enjoy it!

      Reply
  12. elaine lancaster

    April 10, 2012 at 12:59 pm

    I am new to this and it is so exciting to learn how to do this thank you for having this page

    Reply
  13. regina

    June 7, 2012 at 4:56 am

    This looks like a great recipe! I have discovered that a few drops of Vitamin E oil helps to preserve the salve.

    Reply
  14. Debbie

    September 20, 2012 at 8:58 am

    I love this idea, but I was wondering if I wanted to add a vanilla scent to this as well what i would use?

    Reply
  15. Boing95

    October 17, 2012 at 8:46 am

    Could I substitute lavender flowers with jasmine flowers (same with jasmine essential oil)?

    Reply
  16. susanna

    October 28, 2012 at 11:11 pm

    can u just use the essential oil and forget the flowers??

    Reply
    • Stacy

      October 28, 2012 at 11:13 pm

      It would have a much milder scent if you only use the essential oil. I’ve never tried it that way so I’m not sure exactly how it would turn out. But I expect the consistency would be fairly similar.

      Reply
  17. Peggy

    October 31, 2012 at 10:36 am

    Just stopping by to invite you to My Wednesday Linky party. http://diycraftyprojects.com/2012/10/whatcha-work-up-wednesday-linky-party-6.html

    Reply
  18. Cheryl

    November 3, 2012 at 8:33 am

    Can you use powdered lavender? My local health food store has that. The flower buds are expensive, and you don’t get much for your dollar. Since I have a big family, big bucks.

    Reply
    • Stacy

      November 5, 2012 at 3:13 pm

      I haven’t tried using powdered lavender. I assume you could but you would need less powdered lavender than if you used lavender flowers. But I’m not sure what the ratio would be. Let me know how it turns out if you try it.

      Reply
  19. tmh

    March 12, 2013 at 4:00 pm

    My salve is more like thickened oil. I am not sure what went wrong.

    Reply
    • Stacy

      March 12, 2013 at 9:16 pm

      Sorry the salve didn’t turn out as you hoped. This is a rather soft salve, but it should be a little firmer than thickened oil. You can re-melt and add more beeswax to get it firmer.

      Reply
      • Tmh

        March 13, 2013 at 7:24 am

        Thank you, I will try that.

        Reply
  20. tnpakrat

    June 15, 2013 at 1:43 pm

    Just a quick question, as I have never ever done anything like this before, but I SO want to. Anyway…is it possible to color this? I think if it was tinted a very light “lavender” color it would look so much more appealing. Could I use a few drops of food coloring perhaps? Thank you so much for your awesome recipes and tips!! 🙂

    Reply
    • Stacy

      June 17, 2013 at 7:54 am

      I’m sure it is possible to color this. I have never done it,so I can’t give much advice about that. I’d look for a natural food coloring, since it will be soaking into your skin.

      Reply
  21. Shawna

    November 16, 2013 at 6:15 pm

    Hi there,
    Why olive oil? Could coconut oil be used in its place?

    Reply
  22. alicia

    November 24, 2013 at 7:16 am

    Has anyone tried using coconut oil instead of olive oil?

    Reply
    • Stacy

      November 24, 2013 at 11:52 am

      I haven’t tried it, but assume the salve would turn out a little firmer

      Reply
      • alicia

        November 30, 2013 at 9:03 pm

        I made it using the coconut oil – it seems to have turned out fine – thanks so much for this recipe

        Reply
        • Stacy

          December 1, 2013 at 9:15 am

          Great! Thank you so much for letting us know.

          Reply
  23. Edwina

    December 8, 2013 at 7:07 pm

    Can the salve be syored in plastic small containers instead of glass?

    Reply
  24. Katie H.

    December 16, 2013 at 2:16 pm

    I think I would melt the beeswax on its own, rather than in combination with the infused oil and essential oil. You don’t want to heat the other two ingredients if you don’t have to, or you could lose some of the beneficial properties. I’d like to try this, though. 🙂

    Reply
  25. ahs Skin care supplements

    July 16, 2014 at 10:47 am

    An outstanding share! I’ve just forwarded this onto a friend who was conducting a little homework
    on this. And he actually ordered me dinner simply because I
    found it for him… lol. So allow me to reword this….
    Thank YOU for the meal!! But yeah, thanx for spending some time to talk about this topic here on your blog.

    Reply
  26. Minah

    July 29, 2014 at 6:54 pm

    Could I let the lavender soak in the olive oil for a week or two (like your calendula salve) instead of heating it up twice?

    Reply
  27. Amanda lew

    October 15, 2014 at 3:44 pm

    I plan on making a salve for my sister as a gift and I was wondering if you could make it a different color by using food coloring and not have it stain.

    Reply

Trackbacks

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I’m here to help you simplify natural living so you can create a healthy lifestyle without the overwhelm.

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