On the left is the goldenrod oil right after I made it. It's cloudy with sediment and some moisture.On the right you can see that, after sitting undisturbed for a few days, the sediment has settled out to the bottom. It's that little strip of lighter stuff right at the bottom of the jar in the picture.
In the picture below, you can see that the oil has cleared:
How To Make Goldenrod Salve
1/2 cup goldenrod infused oil (click here to learn how to make goldenrod infused oil)
1/2 ounce beeswax
30 drops grapefruit seed extract
30-40 drops vitamin E
Heat beeswax in top part of a double boiler over simmering water until wax is melted. Add infused oil. Some of the wax will solidify again, heat until all is melted. Add grapefruit seed extract and vitamin E. Stir.
Remove mixture from heat and pour into sturdy, sterile glass jar or sterile plastic jar. Let stand until mixture has cooled and set. Place lid on jar. You have salve!
The grapefruit seed extract is an antimicrobial agent which will help preserve your salve and help keep it mold and germ free. The vitamin E helps extend the shelf life of the oil, keeping it from going rancid longer. I've used extra virgin olive oil as my oil, and that's high in vitamin E anyway.
This is the first time I've made any kind of salve. I'm not keeping it in the refrigerator - that's why I added the grapefruit seed extract. Hopefully with the grapefruit seed extract it will last for quite a while in my make-up drawer in my bathroom. We'll see.
If you don't want to add the grapefruit seed extract, then it's advisable to keep your salve in the refrigerator and only keep it for a few weeks.
I've already used the salve on my neck and back to help relieve tight muscles. It's not a miracle cream, but it does help ease the knots and the tension.
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4 comments:
Hiya,
I bet the tension came from getting all those ingredients together in the first place ;-)
Are you turning yellow from the goldenrod?
I tried something similar with marigold ( calendula?). Stuffed the blossoms in a jam jar and left it in the sun. It oozed oil and then it rotted and got thrown away. O well...
Hi Joco,
I'm not turning yellow from the goldenrod yet, but I haven't used it everyday :)
I have some calendula, which is different from regular marigolds, but is sometimes called pot marigold. I harvest it from my garden and dry it. I'm going to infuse it in a base of olive oil (let the dry blooms sit in the oil in the sun for a couple of weeks, then strain the old, used up blosoms out). I'll make a salve with that too - it should have more color than the goldenrod salve. Don't know if it stains though. It's also good for cuts & scrapes and you can brew the flowers like tea and use the liquid as a wash to help clear acne.
I know, more than you wanted to know :)
Thanks for stopping by!
ICQB
Hi, I made this yesterday using another recipe and it is hard as a brick. I used 5 ounces of beeswax and 3.5 ounces of goldenrod infusion. When I use it on my arm, it felt like I was coated in something. What can I do to fix this? Elizabeth
Hi Elizabeth,
Sorry to get back to you so late. It seems like you've used too much bee's wax. My recipe is in cups of infused oil and ounces of bee's wax, but converts to 4 fluid ounces of infused oil to 1/2 ounce of bee's wax. So your five ounces of bee's wax would be enough for 40 fluid ounces of infused oil, not the 3.5 ounces you used. To fix it, I would just treat what you made as bee's wax because the infused oil is so diluted in it. Cut off, say 1/2 ounce of your mixture, which you are treating as if it was just bee's wax, and mix it with 4 fluid ounces of infused oil. Good luck!
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