Rose Petal Salve

[SunKat]

Today’s project is Rose Petal Salve.  I like to enrich this with Rosehip Seed Oil which is well known for its anti-aging and skin healing benefits for conditions such as:

• Scars
• Stretch Marks
• Eczema & Psoriasis
• Age Spots
• Wrinkles
• Sun Damage

I dab this around my eyes & use on my face. I have dry skin & am old enough to start worrying about preventing wrinkles, so this works perfectly for me. If you have oily skin or acne, then you’ll want to skip using this on those areas. It’s still great for dry patches on your feet, elbows & knees though!

I buy high quality rosehip seed oil from Mountain Rose Herbs (affiliate link). If you don’t want to use roseship seed oil or don’t have any on hand, you can just substitute more of your homemade rose infused oil instead and it will still make a nice salve.

To make this, first we’ll need to gather up some unsprayed rose petals. If you don’t have any fresh roses, you can buy dried, organic petals from somewhere like Mountain Rose Herbs.

Just make sure not to use roses from the florist. They’ve usually been treated with heavy duty pesticides that you don’t want on your skin.

Once you have a collection of rose petals, spread them out in a single layer over some white paper towels, or cut open brown paper lunch bags. Let them wilt for at least a day or two to remove much of the water content. They don’t have to be completely dry, but this will make our oil last a lot longer.

Okay, now, once your petals have dried, or almost dried, for a day or two, we can turn them into an infused oil.

To do this, place your petals into a jar. The size of the jar will depend on how many flowers you have. For a small amount, use a small jar; if have a good supply, use a bigger jar. Don’t get hung up on precise numbers and amounts. You’re basically filling some type of container about 1/2 to 3/4 full with wilted rose petals then covering them with oil.

Which type of oil is up to you. I like to use Olive Oil or Sunflower Oil. Some other good options for this salve are Avocado Oil, Sweet Almond Oil or Apricot Kernal Oil.

There are two ways to infuse our oil. The slow way or the fast way.

For the slow way, cover the top of your jar of oil with a couple layers of cheesecloth and secure it with a rubber band. Place in a cabinet and let it sit for 3 to 4 weeks.

For the fast way, set the jar gently into a pan with a few inches of warm water and heat slowly over medium lowish heat. Keep the burner on and let the oil stay in the heated water for one to two hours then remove.

At this point, you can go ahead and strain the oil and use in your salve or you can let it infuse several days longer in a dark cabinet. Another option is to strain the oil then do the whole process again with a new batch of rose petals but the same batch of oil you just finished infusing. This is called a double infusion.

The shelf life of your strained oil is about a year. Store in a cool, dark place for best results.

Once our oil is ready, we can make our salve.

Rose Petal Salve

• 3 ounces (100 grams) of rose petal infused oil
• .5 ounce rosehip seed oil
• .5 ounces (15 grams) of beeswax pastilles
• optional: several drops of rose essential oil (or you can use geranium (rose) for a less expensive, but still rosy smelling option)

I measure all of my ingredients by weight on a small inexpensive scale, but for salves, you can also measure the oil in a glass measuring cup with ounce markings until total oil reaches 3 1/2 ounces. Next, add your beeswax until it pushes the oil up to 4 ounces.

Add the oil and beeswax pastilles into a heat proof container. Set it down into a pan containing several inches of water (just like we used when we infused our rose petal oil.) Gently bring the temperature up to medium-lowish heat and let the container stay in the makeshift double boiler until the wax is melted.

Remove from heat and carefully pour into tins or jars then let sit until firm. This sized batch makes about four ounces of salve. I buy my tins and small jars from Specialty Bottle or Mountain Rose Herbs, but you could even recycle an old jelly jar for this.

You can use my tutorial on How to Create Your Own Round Labels if you wish to make a pretty label for your salve!

*If you’d like to make this salve vegan, you can use half as much candelilla wax instead of the beeswax. I buy my candelilla wax from BrambleBerry.com.

http://thenerdyfarmwife.com/rose-petal-salve-recipe/