“Double Duty Salves” presented by Catherine McGinnis. Hands on activity creating multi-use salves.
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DOUBLE DUTY SALVES Catherine McGinnis Today we are going to make double duty salves. I know this is Florida and those that live in Florida can make soap in their home and resell it only but I asked you on Face Book and kind of took a survey on what you guys would like to do, as we are branching out from soaps and going to make double duty salves. You can’t make these to sell in Florida but you can make them for yourselves. For those of you who don’t live in Florida, check your licensing laws, you can probably make them and sell them. So here we go. A salve by definition is a medical ointment used to soothe the surface of the body. It is also known as a liniment, a soothing agent, a dressing, a balm. Everybody uses lip balm, brand name Chap Stick, to soothe their lips. This is the same thing only not the exact same ingredients, but the same thing and we are going to use it to soothe our bodies. So how do salves work? The main components of a salve is an oil. We know oils are used to soften and nourish our bodies. The waxes, when mixed with the oils, they produce a buffer on top of our skin and it keeps the moisture in and keeps the elements out. The additives can be cooling, warming or can have a medicinal effect. And the final element of a salve that is not an ingredient is when you put it on to your skin, it’s the massage. When you rub a salve onto your skin, much like a lotion, you’re actually sometimes in a circular motion, sometimes back and forth, but you are massaging your skin. So you’re improving the circulation of your skin and that’s another main ingredient of a salve. So unlike lotions, salves contain no water. When you introduce a water into your product, such as lotions, you must use a preservative because we know water grow bacteria which can cause mold. The beauty of the salves is they contain no water. There is another product that contains no water and that’s body butters. They are much different than salves, it is taking butters, whipping them together and making them fluffy. It’s just like a lotion with no water. This is a salve, a bit more than that. So they are really easy to make in small amounts and require no preservative as I said and they can customize to meet specific needs, so far as drying, you can make them more moisturizing, you can add scents, you add essential oils, maybe you study essential oils, some of them have therapeutic properties, you can add these directly to the salves. We can use them on our skin, or our nails, our hair and our lips; thus calling them double duty salves. A lot of time I will take the salve that I use on my rough elbows and put it on the ends of my hair. It makes my hair less dry. They can also be made with homemade herbal oil infusions. Has anybody ever taken oil, put some plant material in it and let it that can be absolutely the base of your salve, Calendula Amanda? So these are some examples of what you can use, but you can use any dry plant material. So this is the recipe we are going to use today for our think, I think I changed the name of it, Double Duty Balm-Salve, they go hand in hand. I’m going to use Beeswax, and let’s talk a minute about Beeswax. The Beeswax, as I said before, it forms a protective barrier, holds the moisture in, keeps the elements out and we will mix that with the oils. It’s anti-inflammatory, antiviral and antibacterial. Acts as an emollient and a humectant by drawing moisture to the skin and sealing it in. The next ingredient is Shea Butter. We used Shea Butter yesterday in our soaps, remember? We said that we use it in our soaps because it had many unsaponafiables, which meant it had a little bit of a super fat left over. Well today we are going to use it for the same wonderful properties that it has, but we are not introducing the saponification factor to it. The next ingredient we are going to do is Lanolin. Does everybody know what Lanolin is and is anybody allegoric to Lanolin that you know of? It is going to be ingredient in our salve, but some people are highly allergic to it, so when you go home and use your salve again, if you feel an irritation, immediately stop using it because Lanolin is not in every product, it is a rare product to use, so may you have an allergy and you don’t know it. But we are going to use it today. Lanolin is the waxy substance secreted by the sebaceous glands of sheep. What it does is the sheep get rained on so it keeps their skin from getting wet, the coat right underneath their fur, their fluff and it is also humectant and holds moisture in and it closely resembles the oil from human oil glands. Question: If you are allergic to the Lanolin, what would you replace it with? Catherine: The Lanolin, there’s really not a good replacement for Lanolin, you would just leave it out. You could use additional oils, Beeswax, and is there anybody allergic to Beeswax? That’s kind of a rarity, but let me think about that and let me get back to you, but there’s no direct replacement for Lanolin, but I can come up with something. Question: If you are allergic to bees. Catherine: Probably not, you mean bee stings? No, because you are not taking it internally, it’s just topical on your skin, so probably not, but if you are allergic and have reactions to stings, you know the signs. So if you get the signs when you use that, stop using it. Answer: I’m allergic to bee stings. Beeswax does not bother me. Catherine: Yeah, it’s topical and when you can stung by a bee it gets into your blood stream, this won’t get into your blood stream. Next ingredient is Vitamin E. Vitamin E has antioxidants, anti-inflammatory properties and helps increase the wound healing process. It is the integral part of the skin’s antioxidant defenses, primarily providing protection against UV radiation and other free radicals. It is not a preservative. A lot of people try to use Vitamin E as a preservative. Please don’t do that, it is not a preservative, it’s an antioxidant, but not a preservative. Next one is Black Cumin Oil. Is anybody familiar with Black Cumin Oil or cumin seeds? It’s kind of taken on a resurgence, I guess it is the best word for it. Black Cumin Oil was used way way way way back in Cleopatra’s day and she said that it was the most amazing oil ever. It cured everything, it healed everything. Of course we can’t say that it does that and I’m doubtful that it does, but it is a great great oil to us and we are going to use it today in our salves. And the last thing is Peppermint Essential Oil. Peppermint Essential Oil is made by, I don’t know exactly how it’s made, but it comes from the menthol. When you put anything menthol on your skin and you breath it, it has the cooling properties. So we added this for a nice scent but also for the ability to cool the skin when you rub the salve in, and I think that’s all our ingredients. Does anybody have any question on any of the ingredients or on the salves? Everybody is going to make one and you will be able to take that home with you. So usually we make one bar of soap and you split it, everybody is going to make a salve. All of your ingredients are in front of you. Okay, our first ingredient is Beeswax and these are already prepared and weighed out for you, it’s just a matter of putting them in. Susan, are these both half an ounce? Catherine: All the Beeswax Put in the Lanolin’s, there should be two Lanolin’s. Lanolin is very sticky. Put in your Shea Butter. Just put everything in. Everybody can start putting in their oils, Vitamin E, Black Cumin Oil and Peppermint Essential Oil. If you don’t want to put the Essential Oil in, then you don’t have to add it. Mine is completely melted If yours are not melted you need to keep stirring. We have now added in the Vitamin E, which we know is an antioxidant and it’s good to help heal wounds, adding the Black Cumin and if you want the essential oil, you can pour. After you pour your salves and then put the cap on and let it harden. It will never get hard hard. Once it gets to room temperature it will begin to harden. Making double duty salves is pretty easy, right? Did you like it a lot? I hope you use it as it is good for dry skin. We cannot cure anything but we can help alleviate the eczema, the psoriasis, the dryness of it, it would be very good for that. So let it harden up and we will try it after an hour or so.