I have been making this all-purpose healing salve for years and it has become a staple in my medicine cabinet. It’s made up of simple ingredients like coconut oil, olive oil, pure essential oils, and a splash of vitamin E to create an organic salve with Neosporin-like properties. A salve that will protect, disinfect and moisturize! Believe me, this is one workhorse of a salve that you’ll reach for over and over again.
Coconut oil is a natural moisturizer as well as antibacterial. Olive oil has antioxidants and other anti-inflammatory properties. Lavender essential oil is your skin’s best friend. Not only does it calm the senses, it also has amazing healing properties as a tissue restorative. Lemon essential oil cleanses and disinfects with fragrant antiseptic qualities. And finally, Tea Tree essential oil is antibacterial and anti-fungal!
All-Purpose Healing Salve
Supplies:
- (4) 4 oz. glass jam jars
- 1 quart mason jar
- sauce pan
Ingredients:
- 1 cup organic, cold-pressed coconut oil
- 1 cup quality olive oil
- 4 Tbsp beeswax pastilles
- 1 tsp vitamin E oil (optional)
Oil Blend (per 4 ounces of salve):
- 10 drops Lavender essential oil
- 8 drops Lemon essential oil
- 6 drops Tea Tree essential oil
- 3 to 4 drops vitamin E oil
Add the coconut oil, olive oil and beeswax to your 1-quart mason jar. Fill a large saucepan halfway with warm water, set your burner on low-to-medium heat, and slowly melt the ingredients in the warm bath, stirring with a knife or skewer every few minutes until melted.
While melting and stirring, line up your four 4 oz glass jam jars. To each 4 oz jar, add the essential oils and vitamin E oil in the amounts listed above.
Now you’re ready to fill each jar with the melted mixture. Carefully fill each jar to a half inch below the rim. Let the jars cool until the salve hardens. (You can top the jars with a paper towel while cooling to keep dust, bugs etc from invading your lovely jars of salve!)
Secure the lids tightly after the salve has solidified. This salve has a shelf life of approximately one year, depending on humidity, heat etc. Note: the consistency of salve should be soft, but solid enough not to splash around in the jar.
Although this salve was originally made to treat rough gardener’s hands, there are so many different ways to use it. I’ve seen comments touting reader’s success of using this salve in dozens of different ways.
Here’s a few ideas to get you started!
12 Uses for All-Purpose Healing Salve
1. Hand moisturizer for extremely dry skin. (It’s a gardener’s best friend!)
2. Treating dry, cracked heels and crusty elbows.
3. An all-purpose moisturizer for dryer climates.
4. Soothes and heals chapped lips or any chapped skin. Make your salve more portable by scooping some into an old lip balm tin.
5. Soothes welts, burns, insect bites, and bee stings!
6. Great for diaper rash. Keep a small lip balm pot of salve in your purse AND diaper bag!
7. Keep your dogs in mind! Treat sunburned noses, gashes, heat spots, and post surgical wounds. The taste of Lavender and Tea Tree will keep your dogs from licking at their wounds. (A word of caution: not suitable for use on cats as they are highly sensitive to essential oils.)
8. Antiseptic, anti-fungal and antibacterial properties make it great for cuts, scrapes and post-wound care for kids and adults!
9. Wonderful for elderly folks and their thin, fragile skin.
10. Great for scaly scalp!
11. A go-to treatment for eczema breakouts.
12. Hand sanitizer and moisturizer in one!
Do you think it would be okay to use avocado oil instead of olive oil?
Absolutely!
What is the melaleuca oil? And ha toyou recommend for fleas
You can read more about melaleuca oil here: http://jillee.co/2eImBSi
Love your blog! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. My bad knees and chronically sore feet are grateful! This salve has been a lifesaver! My whole family loves it, including my older kids, who are skeptical of any “natural remedies”.
I have neck pillows that are filled with tiny pellets (if styrofoam?). After a while the pellets compress down so I add more pellets. The outside of the pillow is some type of polyester I think.can I add some essential oils when I wash the pillow to help fight germs/ bacteria ? If so which ones?
Absolutely! I go with lemon oil – it’s antibacterial and smells amazing!
I would love this salve to be a little firmer and less greasy. Would adding more beeswax help?
I misread the Vit E amount and put the 1 tsp in each jar…if i add a little more beeswax to the oil blend will that help even it out?
Yes!
I actually added a couple teaspoons more before I got your answer and it is perfect…firm but soft, I used it last night before I fell asleep and it absorbed right away. I have been sharing it with friends…mine made six 4 oz jars for some reason…and a little baby food jar I plan to carry around with me.
Maybe I missed this part…sorry if I did. But, you put the Essential Oils in the jar first, then add the melted wax…do you mix it? If not(which is how I’m reading the directions), how do the essential oils blend with the wax?
Thanks!
They tend to mix during the pouring process, you can see the oils pretty clearly. You can also use a toothpick or wooden skewer to stir it together. :-)
What essential oils would be the best for psoriasis in this salve recipe?
Melaleuca, lavender, frankincense, myrrh and geranium are all great for psoriasis!
Thank you! I love your blogs, you are a wealth of information.
I’m sorry I am kind of new to all the home remedies but….will I add all the essential oils to each jar or 1 essential oil per jar so I have 4 different kinds?
Add the oils to each jar individually, so that each jar has all of the oils!
The link to beeswax that you have posted it out of stock. Do you recommend any other source.
(I know I can Google for another source, but I would like for you to get credit for sending me to someone. *c*