Natural Health Blog

Magic Hippie Salve You Can Make At Home

Anyone with dry, cracked, irritated, inflamed, or even painful and infected skin, can benefit from this salve. 

I had a bunch of extra and I rubbed it all over my husbands feet! He was in ecstasy!

So what is this Magical Hippie Salve and why do you need it? 

This salve is ULTRA healing. Perfect for the winter, scaly, flakey, dryness, that inevitably gets us all.  

It contains some of the most nourishing herbs and moisturizers you can apply topically to the skin - some of which you may already have at home. 

This particular salve was a last minute gift I made 2 months ago when a old friend of mine (who is super-hippied out also), had a baby. She was having some serious mastitis issues, and a lot of pain subsequantly while nursing. The breast tissue can be so sensitive, and usually hurts like hell I'm told! Herbs to the rescue! I made her the salve as an after thought to another baby gift and she told me later how it saved her. She told me it was superbly helpful. I was thrilled. Go Herbs!!

So yes - technically this is a Nipple Salve recipe, but the ingredients are soothing, healing and 100% natural (even edible), BUT anyone can use this salve for any part of their body that needs some healing, moisture, love and magic.

Here's What You'll Need: 

First things first. Melt down the coconut oil on the stove; don't allow it to smoke, just gently melt it. Then add in your herbs.

The Calendula flower is SUPER healing, soothing, and anti fungal too so when it comes to nipples or diaper rash - when there is yeast involved as in thrush - calendula flower is great to use topically. 

Marshmallow Root is an herbalists favorite for topical or internal irritations. If your throat is sore, stomach acidic or if you have ulcers, if the bowels are irritated or if you have topical irritations of the skin - you can't do much better than Marshmallow Root. (shown at the top right). Marshmallow can be taken as an herbal tea, herbal tincture or in capsules. 

Slippery Elm Bark is similar to marshmallow root in it's soothing ability - but internally it has an uncanny knack for removing mucus, sludge and problematic wastes from the body. It's great for bronchitis, excessive mucus of the nose or lungs, rancid stinking poops or farts (yes, I know its gross but true) and it can be taken internally as a tea, in a capsule or eaten as a sort of slippery elm oatmeal/gruel.

It's SO nutritious, you could live on it - it's SO healing, we probably ought to live on it. Slippery Elm is shown in the above photo. (bottom right) 

All of these herbs can be purchased at Mountain Rose Herbs OR Whole Foods Market and local health food stores or Co-Ops. Check it out! The herbs for this might have cost me $12-$15 or so. Worth every penny to someone in need.

Add in the herbs and keep the heat on LOW. The herbs should only simmer, bubbling gently on the stove. You don't want a rolling boil, or to have them smoking, so keep an eye on it at first. Ensure that the temperature is just right for a gentle simmer. 

Add in the Olive Oil now too. 

A few tablespoons of distilled or reverse osmosis water will help with the boiling consistancy. Partially cover the pan so that a little evaporation of the water can occur. 

Simmer for 2.5 hours. Stirring at least once every half hour  - ensuring the herbs don't stick to the bottom of the pan. 

You don't have to watch it like a hawk if it's simmering low enough. As long as it's not sticking to the pan, you're good! 

After 2.5 hours or so, turn off the heat on the stove and grab your metal mesh strainer, spoon and a couple of wide mouth ball jars. We'll now separate the oil from the herbs. Pour the contents of the pan through the strainer into a glass jar and using the spoon, push as much of the oil out of the herbs as you can.

Once this is done, set the oil to the side for a moment and grab your pillow case.

Make sure that this is a clean pillow case - preferably one that has been cleaned with natural detergents, with no bleach or otherwise toxic ingredients. If you use Tide - first of all - stop using Tide. (lol) Use an all natural detergent like Seventh Generation, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods Brand or otherwise. This way your not getting these nasty ingredients into your body via the skin. Ok, i digress. 

Place the pillow case into the glass jar, preparing to strain all the excess oil from the the remaining herbs. Plop the herbs into the pillow case that rests gently inside the glass jar. Grab ahold of the pillowcase with the herbs in it and wring out the excess oil from the herbs. Squeeze the dickens out of that thing! 

Once your satisfied that you can squeeze anymore out, toss the spent herbs in the trash - OR if your making this for yourself, you can use the remaining herbs as a poultice to apply to the irritated skin. Learn how to make a poultice here.

Now - strain the oil a second time through a different part of the pillow case.

This way you get absolutely all the sediment out of the oil so that your salve is smooth and lovely.

Now that your oil is fully strained, grab your sauce pan (make sure it's clean of any sediment) and add the oil back into it. 

Add your raw shea butter. A nice big spoonful is what I used, but I reckon it was about 1/2 cup of raw shea. This will melt down on low very quickly also. Don't leave it unattended, you don't want to over heat the oil. 

Once the raw shea butter is melted, you can add your 1/4 cup of beeswax.

Beeswax will help the salve to be a better texture, helping it to stay put on the skin. It takes a little longer to heat up and melt; I actually ended up increasing the temperatures just slightly from LOW to "2" on my stovetop. Use the lowest possible setting to get the job done right! 

Once the beeswax is melted you can pour your liquid loveliness into your jar - use a very small canning jar or a fancy little jar you can buy online. 

Pour it into the jar using a funnel for best results. I learned this the hard way! 

Allow to cool overnight with the lid on.

Voila´! Healing Magic Hippie Salve for nipples, baby butts, feet, arms,  legs or whatever else you have that needs moisture, healing and love.