Healing Herbal Bruise and Sprain Salve

This homemade salve can be used for sprains and strains but is also great for bumps and bruises too... so perfect if you have children!

To make a basic salve, you'll need about a cup of oil and around three tablespoons of beeswax. You can choose to add some essential oils for extra potency too. I always do but them I'm always finding excuses to use them, being an aromatherapist!

I've found the best way to use herbs within a salve is to infuse the oil you're using for at least 2 weeks beforehand.

How to Infuse Oil

Infusing oil is super simple. All you need is your herb of choice, a glass jar and some oil. You can use any sort of oil too. If you are infusing herbs to make something like a facial salve, you can choose an oil based on your skin type. If it's a sprain salve, it's not quite so important.

Here's a suggestion of oils based on skin type:

If you have oily or blemished skin, you should opt for lighter oils eg apricot, grapeseed or sunflower oil.

If you have normal to dry skin, you can use oils such as almond or jojoba oil.

If you have dry skin, you can use heavier oils which will provide extra hydration such as olive or avocado oil.

Once you've chosen your herb and your oil, all you need to do is pop your herbs in a glass jar and cover them with oil. Pop on the lid to make sure it's airtight and leave it in a warm place for at least 2 weeks. You can kick start your infusion by leaving it in the sun for the first few days, but be sure to move it so it doesn't spend the entire time in the sun.

When you've left your oil for long enough, you can strain the oil to remove the herbs. Discard of the herbs and pop the lid back on the oil to keep it fresh.

How to Make Salve

When you have your infused oil ready, all you need to do is pop it into a double boiler (or a glass dish in a pan of water) with around 3 tablespoons of beeswax pellets (or grated beeswax). Gently heat the mixture, stirring until all of the beeswax has melted.

If you would like to add essential oils to the mix, wait for about 10-15 minutes until the oil-beeswax mixture has cooled. That way, they won't immediately evaporate. Around 20 drops should be fine.

Once cooled slightly, you can pour the salve into glass jars or small tins to store.

And that's it!

Our Favourite Herbal Sprain Salve Recipe

This salve recipe is a potent all-rounder and is great for sprains and strains, as well as bumps and bruises. Just follow the instructions above to make the salve.

1/3 cup Elderflower infused oil

1/3 cup St John's Wort infused oil

1/3 Calendula unfused oil

3 Tablespoons beeswax

20 drops wintergreen essential oil

Elderflower, St John's Wort, Calendula and Wintergreen all have wonderful healing properties, making this blend a potent healer of sprains, strains bumps and bruises.

Let us know how you get on! Have you made salve at home? Share your results below!