calendula, salves and an easy soap recipe

Remember this lovely soap? Named Orange Blossom Special by my dear friend Cindy, thanks again Cindy for sharing that brain wave!

Well it's even lovelier on the senses than the picture suggests. I have decided this is now going to be a standard recipe of mine - carrot juice for the orange color, lavender, orange and clove essential oils for the wonderful fragrance. Next time I'll try adding lavender flowers instead of calendula for a bit of color and texture.

Having said that, I really like calendula for a lot of reasons. It's easy to grow and self seeds in the garden, blooms all summer and adds so much cheer. And if that weren't enough it's wonderful for skin. 5 Orange Potatoes recently posted a very easy (and visually beautiful!) calendula oil recipe that can be made into a skin salve.

Making a skin salve

I made a skin salve for our family ages ago, last summer actually and at the time I didn't have my nice camera (or the time) to photograph the process so I haven't written an official how to make skin salve post. The stuff lasts forever, a good sign I guess of few scrapes and such, so it could be a while before an official post on the topic is written.

But at it's very basic level a salve is made with herbal infused oil and a solidifier like beeswax, which has it's own great skin properties. A good rule of thumb I've gleaned from my reading and own experience (I used too much beeswax at first) is mix use 1 oz beeswax with 4-5 oz. of oil. Starting with less than 1 oz and working up to 1 oz.

For more on making healing oils and salves see this great post at Simple Green Frugal Co-op. She uses cottonwood buds but you can substitute any healing plant; calendula, yarrow, echinacea, etc.... Here's a photo of the herbs I used last summer to make mine.

Easy Soap Recipe

A reader sent an e-mail and asked if I had an easy soap recipe I use. Not recently since I do a lot of experimenting and am currently really loving the bars I've created with these oil percentages:

• 25% palm oil
• 25% coconut oil
• 25% olive oil
• 10% canola oil
• 10% sunflower oil
• 5% castor oil

(Use a lye calculator to determine lye and water)

But... the very basic recipe I started with when first making soap is this, from Clean, Naturally: Recipes for Body, Home, and Spirit by Sandy Maine:

• 24 oz. coconut oil
• 24 oz. olive oil
• 38 oz. vegetable shortening
• 12 oz. lye
• 32 oz. water

This is a great easy recipe. I switched because I don't like how cottonseed and soybean oil, the ingredients in shortening, are produced in this country. Now I've learned about unsustainable palm oil growing so I'm kind of stuck but staying with palm oil until I figure out an alternative.

Check out these great how to make soap tutorials featured on other blogs; Cold Process Soapmaking Tutorial at Birch Bark Soap and A Beginner's Guide to Soapmaking at Small Notebook.

~ More natural soap and skin resources on FIMBY's Urban Homestead sidebar.~