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:

  1. 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.
  2. Combine the waters in a small saucepan & warm to about 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Add your essential oils and cover.
  3. 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.
  4. Slowly pour the water mixture into the blender. When the blender chokes & coughs and the cream turns thick & creamy white, turn of the blender.
  5. Pour your cream into clean lotion jars or jelly jars. It will thicken as it cools.
  6. 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