All-Purpose Healing Salve with Calendula, Chamomile & St John’s Wort

 Looking for a natural alternative to treat scratches, wounds, bruises, skin irritations, burns and more?   Today’s recipe is an all-purpose healing salve with calendula, chamomile and St. John’s wort.   

This combination makes a wonderfully soothing and healing salve that’s naturally anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and antifungal.   It’s a staple in my medicine cabinet!

 

How to Make an All Purpose Healing Salve with Calendula, Chamomile & St. John's Wort | Herbal Home Remedies | DIY | Homemade | Herbal | Herbalism | My Healthy Homemade Life

 

As I was collecting my calendula seeds this past week, I was reminded of how much I enjoy growing this herb.    Even a small handful of seeds thrown in a corner of your garden will yield you a summer (and fall) full of cheerful yellow and orange blooms.

 If you harvest the blooms, your gorgeous flower show will continue until the first killing frost and you will have plenty of dried blooms to use over the winter in all sorts of wonderful ways, such as salve-making.  (More calendula recipes coming this fall and winter!)

 

 

All Purpose Healing Salve with Calendula, Chamomile & Lavender | Herbal Home Remedies | DIY | Skin Care | My Health Homemade Life

 

 

Calendula for the Skin

If you’ve ever touched a calendula flower, you might remember a sticky residue left behind on your fingers.  This is actually a resin that makes for very good medicine making.

Calendula is probably most well-known for being a premier herb for any kind of skin issue.   Extremely healing and soothing, it is anti-inflammatory (reduces redness and swelling,) anti-microbial (it prevents infection) and antifungal.    It is also astringent so it can help stop or slow bleeding.

Calendula even promotes the growth of healthy tissue for rapid wound healing.

 

All Purpose Healing Salve with Calendula, Chamomile & Lavender | Herbal Home Remedies | DIY | Skin Care | My Health Homemade Life

 

When to Use Calendula

Calendula can be beneficial for:

  • minor scratches and wounds

  • bug bites

  • rashes and skin irritation (including chicken pox and psoriasis)

  • minor burns and sunburn

  • blisters and boils

  • bruises

  • acne

  • eczema

  • fungal conditions such as ringworm and athlete’s foot

  • diaper rash and cradle cap

  • scars, freckles and age spots

 

If you aren’t feeling all that up to making your own salve, you can purchase a ready-made calendula salve on Amazon.

 

 

 

How to Make an All Purpose Healing Salve with Calendula, Chamomile & St. John's Wort | Herbal Home Remedies | DIY | Homemade | Herbal | Herbalism | My Healthy Homemade Life

 

About the Other Herbs in This Salve

St. John’s Wort:  Most commonly know as the herb for depression, St. John’s Wort has many more uses.  It’s a great addition to an herbal salve because of its antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and analgesic (pain-killing) properties.   It can also help wounds heal more rapidly and with less chance of scarring.

Chamomile: A gentle and healing herb with soothing anti-inflammatory properties which make it wonderful for burns, rashes and other inflammatory skin issues.  (We have lots of recipes using chamomile here on the blog.)

We’re also adding two essential oils to the salve:  lavender and frankincense, which are both exceptional for wound healing, inflammation and skin regeneration.

 

How to Make an All Purpose Healing Salve with Calendula, Chamomile & St. John's Wort | Herbal Home Remedies | DIY | Homemade | Herbal | Herbalism | My Healthy Homemade Life

 

 

 

 

 

 How to Make an All Purpose Healing Salve with Calendula, Chamomile & St. John's Wort | Herbal Home Remedies | DIY | Homemade | Herbal | Herbalism | My Healthy Homemade Life

 

 

 

All-Purpose Healing Salve with Calendula, Chamomile & St John’s Wort

 

Yields 1 cup

All-Purpose Healing Salve with Calendula, Chamomile & St John’s Wort

An All-Purpose Healing salve for cuts, wounds, bruises, rashes, skin irritation, minor burns and sunburn, acne, insect bites, eczema, diaper rash, cradle cap, scars and fungal condition such as ringworm and athlete's foot.

5 minPrep Time

48 hrTotal Time

Save RecipeSave Recipe

4.7 based on 6 review(s)

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Fill a clean, dry glass jar with the herbs. Add the carrier oil and shake to combine. You can expect the herbs to expand a bit over the next day or so.
  2. Check your jar over the first couple of days to ensure all the herbs are completely covered with the oil as they expand. Add more oil if needed.
  3. Allow your oil mixture to infuse for 2 weeks in a warm, sunny spot or infuse using one of the quick methods (see recipe notes.)
  4. Strain your oil using a fine mesh strainer or cheese cloth/muslin.
  5. In a double boiler or using a heat safe glass measuring cup in a pan of water, heat 1 cup of the prepared oil and the beeswax until the beeswax is melted. Allow to cool slightly before mixing in the essential oils.
  6. Pour immediately into tins or small glass jars . Label and date your salve.

Notes

If you don’t want to wait 2 weeks for your infused oil, try one of these quick methods:

Quick Infusion (Double-Boiler Method):

In a double boiler or a heat safe measuring cup in a pan of water, simmer the oil and herbs over very low heat. Simmer gently for 30 to 60 minutes or longer, keeping the oil between 95-110 degrees. As Rosemary Gladstar likes to say, “the lower the heat and the longer the infusion, the better the oil.”

Quick Infusion Method 2# (Dehydrator):

This is one of my favorite methods! If you have an Excalibur (or similar type) dehydrator with a temperature control, you can infuse your herbs in it.

Add all of your herbs and oil to a glass jar. Shake to combine.

Remove enough of the trays in your dehydrator so that your glass jar with infused herbs sits in the bottom. Set the temperature between 95-110 degrees and leave it for 2 days or longer, shaking it periodically.

For more great recipes like this, visit www.myhealthyhomemadelife.com

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What are your thoughts on calendula?   Did you try this recipe? Please let me know how it turned out by leaving a comment below or sharing a picture on my Facebook Page or on Instagram . 

 I love hearing your feedback!   

 

 

 

References:

Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine by Andrew Chevallier, FNIMH

The Herbal Medicine-Maker’s Handbook by James Green

Rosalee de la Forȇt.  http://www.herbalremediesadvice.org/

Herb Mentor by Learning Herbs.

 

This site is for educational purposes only. It does not provide medical advice. Information found on myhealthyhomemadelife.com is meant to motivate you to make your own health care and dietary decisions based upon your own research and in partnership with your health care provider.

 

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42 Comments

  • Reply Samantha at Thanks for the recipe. With 4 young kids someone always has a cut. Not to mention my husband is accident prone as well.
    • Reply Jen at You're welcome! I hope you get to make it, Samantha! :)
  • Reply Zoë at Gosh this looks fabulous and I love working with nature. I hadn't realised that calendula what so useful for so many things. I love the idea that the world makes everything we need ?
    • Reply Jen at I do too, Zoe! Thank you!
  • Reply Kristin at I suffer from rosacea and I wonder if calendula might be a nice alternative to some of the store bought moisturizers I use? My skin is SO sensitive that I usually have to use only fragrance free products, however I have had moderate luck with coconut oil mixed with caster oil in the past. Thanks for sharing. i'm definitely going to try this out!
    • Reply Jen at I have rosacea also and like you, my skin is so sensitive. Even some of the fragrance free products bother me. I have found German chamomile, lavender and calendula to be extremely helpful in reducing the inflammation (all of which are in this salve!) If you find this salve too oily for the face, I also created a serum especially for your face that I use every day and it makes a big difference in my skin. Here's the recipe for that also. The German chamomile is optional in this serum but I'd highly recommend adding it for the rosecea. http://www.myhealthyhomemadelife.com/recipe/diy-anti-aging-moisturizing-serum/
  • Reply jade at Thnks for the recipe - I've been looking to make my own!
    • Reply Jen at Wonderful! I'm glad it helped! :)
  • Reply Corey | The Nostalgia Diaries at When my daughter was little, I always used a lotion on her that contained calendula. It worked wonders! I never would have guessed I could make something similar myself!
    • Reply Jen at You sure can, Corey! It's not difficult either! It's a staple in my medicine cabinet.
  • Reply Karla at I love the idea of a natural salve. It's great that you provided a recipe, as well as tips for those who need to speed up the process!
  • Reply roamy at Hi Thanks for shaing,I have never really used all natural healing products but after suffering from fungal conditions recently without a good reason, a friend suggested I should try plant-based salve.She did not explain things, that`s why I landed on your site. You explained things so well and in an easy to understand way.Really appreciate.
    • Reply Jen at I'm so glad it was helpful, Roamy! The hope the calendula salve is able to help!
  • Reply Besties Notepad at The only place I have heard of calendula before is california baby shampoo, heard its good to calm you..would like to try myself as I love working with nature. Thanks for the great post!
    • Reply Jen at Thank you! How neat! Calendula is really great at calming the skin (even the scalp!)
  • Reply Shell at Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe!!! Absolutely helpful!!!
    • Reply Jen at I'm so glad to hear that, Shell! :)
  • Reply R. Harwick at I forgot how amazing calendula is! Thanks for putting it back on my radar.
    • Reply Jen at You're so welcome! Enjoy!
  • Reply Jagriti Roy at Thanks for this recipe of herbal salve.. 😊 It was never known to me before that Calendula has such huge range of medicinal quality in it.. So, this article was much informative for me too..
    • Reply Jen at I'm so glad it was helpful, Jagriti!
  • Reply Kim at Thanks! Will have to give this a try.
    • Reply Jen at Wonderful! I hope you find it helpful, Kim!
  • Reply Kimberley at This sounds amazing! I love natural remedies when you can make them. Calendula helped a lot with my children's eczema.
    • Reply Jen at Oh, I do too, Kimberley! Calendula is wonderful for eczema! :)
  • Reply Angela Noel at This is a lovely post filled with great advice and gorgeous pictures. I had trouble pinning and sharing, the URL doesn't seem to be linked to the buttons. Maybe that's something to look at, or could be just me? Either way, I'm glad I found your pose on Scale it Simple's blog party.
    • Reply Jen at Hi Angela! Thank you so much for your kinds words! :) I've been looking into the issue with the share buttons. Could you tell me if it was the side share buttons, the ones at the bottom of the post or the hovering "Pin Me" button? I definitely want to get that corrected if there is an issue. Thank you for bringing that to my attention.
  • Reply Christine at Thanks for sharing this recipe. I always like the natural remedies and pinned this for future use.
    • Reply Jen at You are so welcome, Christine! I hope you find the recipe helpful!
  • Reply Anissa Watkins at Awesome information! Thank you for providing the recipes. Nothing like natural healing. It seems that everything on the market has harmful chemicals in it. Thank you for sharing!
    • Reply Jen at Thank you, Anissa! It is nice when you can make your own products and avoid the chemicals.
  • Reply Reeni at Thanks for the recipe!!
    • Reply Jen at You're welcome, Reeni. I hope you find it useful!
  • Reply Nydia at Thank you for this recipe and for your beautiful website. I'm slowly building my personal natural pharmacy. This recipe will make the shortlist.
    • Reply Jen at I'm so happy to hear that Nydia! Thanks for stopping by! :)
  • Reply Janet Gernand at I have dried calendula already but I do not have dried chamomile. Would it be okay to substitute the recipe with chamomile essential oil instead? If so, how many drops would you suggest for this recipe? Also, I have been reading about the many health benefits of Astragalus Root (including for treatment of wounds) and wondered about using it in place of St. John's Wart since I already have it on hand in power form. Thank you!
    • Reply Jen at Hi Janet! Yes, you could substitute the chamomile with chamomile essential oil. I find German chamomile to be more beneficial to the skin but Roman chamomile could also be used. I would use between 13-15 drops of chamomile essential oil in this recipe. I've read about using astragalus topically but I haven't tried it yet (thank you for reminding me of it!) I would definitely give it a try in this recipe. It doesn't have the pain-relieving properties that St. John's wort has but it would be beneficial in a salve. If you do use the astragalus, I'd love to hear what you thought of it! You might also be interested in this post I wrote on astragalus--lots of ideas and recipes for using it! http://www.myhealthyhomemadelife.com/how-to-boost-your-immune-system-with-astragalus/
  • Reply Leila at When would this expire. ?
    • Reply Jen at Salves usually last about a year if they are stored in a cool spot.
  • Reply Katie at Hello Jen! Thank you for this amazing recipe! I’m new to herbal healing and I’m still learning about how herbals can be used, so I’m wondering if dried lavender can be used in place of st.John’s wart (since I already have it in my cupboard and want to use it up)? The multi purpose use is perfect for me and my family!
    • Reply Jen at Hi Katie! Absolutely! Part of the fun of learning about herbs is the experimenting and using what you have. I'd encourage you to take notes (mental or written) as you use your salve. What does your salve work best for? What didn't it work well for? Is there something you'd like to add next time? All these things will help you learn more about the herbs you are using in a way that sticks.

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