Rosemary Herb and Gardener's Hand Salve.

I love rosemary.  It is a wonderful plant medicinally. The ancient civilization around the Mediterranean made wreaths out of rosemary for scholars and believed smelling the herb helped mental clarity. There is a legend of rosemary getting it's little blue flowers from Mary the Mother of Jesus. According to this story Mary used a rosemary bush to lay her blue robe on during the birth of Jesus and the plant forever had made blue flowers the color of her robe in remembrance of the great event.

The plant grows well here in Arizona and drought and heat resistant.
I love to use rosemary infused oil for hand salve and hair and scalp oil.  With any recipe I add herb to the oil and allow for time to let the infusing process to occur.  Fresh Rosemary like many herbs in oil looks pretty gross, I am always careful to remove fresh herbs within two weeks of infusment.  Some people prefer dried herbs for this reason.  Dried rosemary is a mess so I process my Rosemary by washing patting or spinning it dry and cleaning all the little leaves off the stems.  I dry herbs by hanging and curing but with rosemary I use a little paper bag and in our dry climate here they dry out in couple of days. 

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378874111007963Then I store the rosemary in a container for later use.  Fresh or dried Rosemary can be used for this recipe. When it comes time to use it in salves or soaps I can grind it up fine to powder in my coffee grinder or use it as is for a scrub.

For the Rosemary Gardener's Salve you will need:

1 cup - rosemary infused carrier oil  (I use coconut oil)
1.5 oz - of Bee's Wax this about 3 Tbsp
2 shot glasses of Almond Oil- (optional)
3 Tbsp Shea Butter
2 Tbsp Cocoa Butter - Oil I buy my oils and butters in bulk HERE
20 drops - Essential Oil of Rosemary
1 Tbsp - Vitamin E oil

Pyrex Big Measuring cup
A strainer - cheese cloth
Some kind of stirring utensil.
Sterilized Containers- Tins, Jars must have lids

Strain off your herbs from oil and discard the herbs. Combine the infused oil, bee's wax and butters into the Pyrex measuring cup.
I use a microwave in 10 second intervals to melt my oils and bee's wax down but you can use a double boiler or place your pyrex measuring cup in a big pot of 3 inches of water and watch it carefully during the heating process.  You don't want water splashing up into the oil and wax mixture.
After all the solids melt to liquid I carefully remove the pyrex cup and stir in the essential oils and Vitamin E Oil.  Now I pour in the mixture into my sterilized tins and containers. Allow to cool with- out the lids to avoid condensation moisture from collecting.   Label and use.  This salve is slightly green and will smell wonderful.  I use it on my hands after washing dishes but it works great after a bath or showers on elbows and heels.  The little tins can be recycled and few tins of salves and soaps make a great Christmas Basket.

Here's a video I made of this process with infused Calendula oil.

Soap Making the Melt and Pour Way

I love making soaps with the melt and pour bases.  These pre made soap bases come in all kinds of oil  choices. I love the coconut oil and goat's milk versions with a suspension formula so your added ingredients will float throughout the soap and not float up on top. 

Using the melt and pour bases takes all the stirring and lye parts out. You simple melt and pour these blocks of soap. No hassle soap making.

You Will Need

Fragrance- Essential oils can be expensive and you need more quantities in soap to scent.  I use fragrances I buy on-line or get at the craft stores. They are inexpensive but do not confuse oils used for room defuses or candles. Make sure you buy fragrances that can be used on the skin only.

Molds - look around for repurposed empty food containers. I like the rectangular almond milk containers and just turn the container on its side, trim off the top side at the spout up and get a long  rectangular mold that's flexable and waxy to release the soap. Silicon cake molds work great. Also cupcake papers in a cupcake pan will work. I use empty frozen orange juice cans. Just wash containers  in soapy water and soak in a water and bleach of a 10 percent to 1 mixture for ten minutes. Get them good and clean.

Coloring- Coloring needs to be skin safe.

Special Goodies- Oatmeal-Coffee grounds- Rosemary-Cosmetic Clays- Sage-Lemon Zest

Melt and Pour Soap Base

Trimmed and prepped fresh Rosemary

In a Pyrex measure cup melt the melt and pour base using a 20 second heat cycle in the microwave, followed by 5 second intervals of heat until the solid bases is liquid.

 I cube the melt and pour up to speed up the melting process. Keep an sharp eye on this melting process. Using short five seconds at a time back to back till you have a liquid. Now remove the melted mixture carefully it's burning hot. Add your ingredients, color, scent scrubs and stir quickly as you want to get the mixture poured before it sets up in your Pyrex measuring cup.

 Pour into molds and finish with an rubbing alcohol spray from a spritzer bottle to pop air bubbles. Wait a few hours and you have beautiful soap. That's it, a super easy and fun project.

cake molds work great for soap molds.

DIY Pepper Rubbing Salve

I have been creating new recipes for a natural organic arthritis rub.  I have pain in my hands and feet and sometimes at night it cause me a lot of discomfort.  I was thrilled to find a DIY recipe for an easy rub calling for the use of peppers.  I grow peppers and have several different varieties so I was eager to try the traditional version which called for Cayenne peppers or Habanero peppers with a more mild variety of pepper that are organically grown in my garden. I also have sensitive skin and often feel the burn when handling and processing some of the hotter varieties like jalapeños.  I have to use gloves for some of these hot beauties as they can cause a reaction on some people like a burn that last for days.  So I used some of my more mild peppers. I had dried Pepperoncini peppers on hand. These are mild peppers orginal from Italy, that I pick at about 3 inches size for pickling with garlic and dill.  They aren't sweet but they don't have much of a hot flavor either. I do notice when you pick they smell like they are more spicey than they are. They are oily peppers and after a bit a research I found the active ingredient in peppers that work in this recipe is the capsicum.  All peppers have that so my reasoning is less hot less burn on my skin.  Everyone is different and I would start with less is safer and slowly increase your dried powder or crushed peppers. You can dry and crush your own or buy chili pepper or cayenne pepper powder at you local grocers. For infusing peppers into oils you do not have to crush the peppers but I recommend slitting fresh peppers along the sides to release the flavors.

Fresh mild peppers from my garden are pepperoncini and a sweet Japanese pepper called Shishoto.

BASIC RECIPE FOR INFUSED OIL

You need:

Carrier oil I use coconut oil but olive oil works too.
Herb/herbs fresh or dried
Clean jar with a lid.
Prepare Herbs -Fresh or Dried herbs
   1. Clean and wash the fresh herbs and place in jar.
   2. Cover herbs in jar with oil, label and date lid and seal.
Infusing 
Place the oil herb jar in a sunny window for 2 weeks to infuse the herbs into the oil.
 Or you can speed up the process by putting the jar in a slow cooker on low. I put a washcloth down for a layer of protection in my old earthenware crock pot and fill the water level up to half way up my jar. I keep it in there for up to 4 days.  This is it.  You are going to strain off the herbs (I use a cheese cloth) and use this oil for the base for many recipes.

Leave the herbs in oil in a sunny window for two weeks for a natural infusing method.

When Infusing Peppers in Oil- I use less peppers depending on hotness of pepper and what I am going to use the infused pepper oil for.  Cooking or Chow Chow I might kick up the ratio of quantity and hottness of peppers and use a finer grade of nice olive oil.  For Ointments I am very careful on the impact of peppers grown in the the Arizona sunshine and strength of the variety and year it grew.  I grow some hot peppers here and everyone's skin is different.  I recommend making small batches of this ointment and testing on a small patch on you hand to see how your skin will tolerate the pepper. Peppers anything on fingers and rubbed in eyes can really hurt and damage skin.  Especially young children's skin can be burned and blistered by fresh peppers so be warned.

Calendula flowers are shown here about to be cover in the carrier oil.

Infusing calendula flowers in the crock pot.

Infuses oils can be used for cooking or cosmetics. As with any food prep I sterilize my jars and lids and also my tins for ointments.

Pepper Salve Recipe

Supplies
Dried or Fresh Organic Peppers infused in Carrier Oil  ( see above- My Basic Recipe for Infusing Oils with Herbs) 1/2 cup
Arnica Dried Flowers infused in Carrier Oil (Organic Coconut Oil) (1/2 cup)

Bee's Wax 2 0z 

1Tbs Shea Butter

Vitamin E Oil 1 tsp

Lavender Essential Oil (10 drops

Peppermint Essential Oil (20 drops)

3 tsp ground pepper powder ( I use a blend of hot to mild dried peppers)

In a Pyrex glass measuring cup combine infused oils and bee's wax and Shea butter. Using a double boiler or microwave melt down all bee's wax and Shea butter to a liquid. Don't burn it. I do a microwave version with 20 seconds power burst to start then 10 second intervals of power until all the bee's wax pellets are melted. Remove the mixture and add your essential oils and pepper powder and vitamin E oil. Stir ingredients and pour into pre sterilized containers. I use 5 oz tin containers or 8 oz glass canning jars. The mixture will have a nice orange tint and will be about the consistency of a lip balm. Use less bee's wax for a creamer texture.

Test this salve on the tops of your feet or back of your hands. It can be hot and you might have a reaction so go slow to see how your skin will react to this medicine.

This is a very potent recipe that works on my arthritis hands and feet. Please respect the peppers! With any natural food product the shelf life of this products with no preservatives will go bad. Always use good judgement and discard ointments that smell bad or show signs of mold. Storing unused salves in frig will give them longer shelf life.