Calendula Cream
Ingredients:
Waters:
2/3 cup distilled water (or rose water)
1/3 cup aloe vera gel
10-20 drops essential oil of choice
Oils:
3/4 cup Calendula-infused oil (can use plain olive oil, jojoba or almond oil if you don’t have calendula oil)*
1/3 cup cocoa butter
1/2 to 1 ounce beeswax
Instructions:
- In a double boiler on low heat, combine the oil, butter & wax. Heat just enough to melt the wax. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
- Combine the waters in a small saucepan & warm to about 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Add your essential oils and cover.
- With the oils and the waters at approximately the same temperature (within 10-20 degrees), pour the oils into a blender, cover and turn the blender on its highest speed.
- Slowly pour the water mixture into the blender. When the blender chokes & coughs and the cream turns thick & creamy white, turn of the blender.
- Pour your cream into clean lotion jars or jelly jars. It will thicken as it cools.
- Label your cream and store it in a cool place. Extra jars can be kept in the refrigerator for long-term storage.
* To infuse your own calendula oil at home is easy, but takes some time. For this recipe, you would use 2 oz of dried calendula blossoms to 10 fl oz of oil (olive, grapeseed, almond or jojoba will do just fine). You may need to first pulse the flowers in a coffee grinder or blender to reduce the volume, then add them to a pint-sized mason jar. Optional: add 1 TBSP Everclear or strong alcohol to help extract the resins. Stir. Then cover with the oil. Give the whole jar a stir to make sure that the herb is fully coated and covered. Store the jar in a warm spot, like in a sunny windowsill for 2 weeks. Then strain using a cheesecloth and reserving the oil to be used in your cream. You can use other methods involving heat to speed up the infusion process For a complete guide to making infused oils, check out this post from Mountain Rose Herbs: https://blog.mountainroseherbs.com/making-herbal-infused-oils