Herbal Creams and Ointments

 One of the things that I’m always doing at this time of year is making creams.

It’s a simple recipe that I learned when studying at the Canterbury College of Natural Medicine.  It’s based on Galen’s cold cream and has been around for a couple of thousand years.

Herbal Cream Recipe:

60 ml oil

10g beeswax

10ml herbal infusion

Place oil and beeswax in the top of a double boiler or in a bowl in a pan of water.  Gently heat until beeswax is melted.  Remove from heat and add herbal infusion. Beat until thick.

Comfrey, lemon balm and calendula infusing in oil.

A preservative such as tincture of benzoin or vitamin e can be added.

I found that this recipe needed the preservative.  It goes mouldy quite easily.  So (being me) I rearranged it slightly.

I make a warm infusion of my chosen herbs in the oil first and remove the liquid infusion.  It means that it takes a lot longer to make creams, but the result is worth it and they seem to keep forever - even with the lids half off the way Miss Seven seems to always leave them.

To make a warm oil infusion:

Heat oil in the top of a double boiler, or in a bowl on a pan of water.  Don’t let the water boil, a gentle simmer is enough.  Chop or grind your herbs and add them to the oil.  Leave them infusing for at least an hour.  When it’s ready, the herbs will seem used up.  Some will seem crunchy and others limp and faded.  Strain carefully through cloth.

To finish the cream, add beeswax, dissolve and beat.

Straining herbs out of infused oil.

My favourite herbs to use for this cream are comfrey, lemon balm and calendula.  I make this for eczema and psoriasis as both Hubby and Miss Seven suffer from this kind of skin disorder.  It works a charm for both of them.  Another good one is to use plantain and lavender for insect bites and stings.  Chickweed can be added to this to ease any itching.  I’ve also made a sage and garlic cream for athlete’s foot.  It worked but made the user smell like roast chicken.

The choice of oils depends on what you want to use.

●  Olive oil is good for your skin, but the cream is quite heavy and will sit on the skin for a while - this isn’t always a bad thing.  Olive oil is also becoming quite expensive.

●  Apricot Kernel Oil or Almond Oil are both great for your skin, light and easily absorbed, but expensive and no good for anyone with nut allergies.

●  Grapeseed Oil is cheap and while it’s not as light as Apricot or Almond oils it’s not as heavy as Olive oil.  It can add a yellow tint to your cream, but this isn’t noticeable once it’s on your skin.

●  Any oil that is cold-pressed is usually cold-pressed because it changes when heated. In many cases the molecular structure of the oil breaks down and forms plastic polymers which is no good for your cream (or eating).

Wax melting in infused oil.

If you want to use essential oils instead of herbs, they should be added during the beating, otherwise the heat will cause them to evaporate leaving a pretty scent but no active constituents and therefore no actual use.  Be careful in selecting essential oils - no more than 2 or 3 to a cream and 5 drops is the most I would recommend adding to a mix of this size.  Too many different essential oils creates confusion in the cream and too much of any can be detrimental to your skin.  As your skin is oil based, attempts to wash off an overpowering or irritating essential oil with soap and water will only draw it deeper into your skin.  If you want to remove an essential oil, pour a carrier oil like olive oil over and then wipe it off with a paper towel.

Ointments are creams that sit on the surface of your skin and are not absorbed into it.  An olive oil based cream is halfway there, but it will soak in after a while.  They are good for nappy rash and situations where your skin is already irritated.

Herbal Ointment Recipe:

Petroleum jelly (vaseline) or soft parafin wax

Dried herbs

Beating the cream - this is starting to set.

Heat the jelly or wax with herbs in the same manner as a cream.  When the herbs are crispy and used up it is ready.  Strain and pour into container.

My Little Tips and Tricks

Less is more.  Don’t add too many different herbs into a cream as it can cause confusion and they may work against each other.  Keep it simple.  If you want to make a cream for multiple purposes, consider instead making several different creams.

Make sure you strain all of the herb out of the oil and as much of the oil as you can out of the herbs.  Why leave oil behind in your herbs?  Any herbs that end up in your cream can go mouldy.

If you want to make your cream more luxurious, add cocoa butter.  Don’t reduce the amount of wax or your cream won’t set and will have fine hard lumps of wax suspended throughout.

Chop your wax into small pieces before adding to the oil.  This makes it dissolve quicker and the whole mix doesn’t get as hot which saves time beating.

Take your cream off the heat just before all the wax is melted.  It will continue to melt while beating as there is still plenty of heat in the oil and this saves time beating.

When beating, pour it into a glass baking jug first.  This cools the oil and wax quicker and can save you half an hour of beating time.

Finished Product

Don’t spend money buying pots and jars for your creams.  Reuse old plastic spread jars with wide mouths.  The small peanut butter or nutella jars work very well.  Old cosmetic cream pots can be used too.  Alternatively, the cheap little food storage containers that you can buy from the supermarket work very well too.

Make sure your jar or pot is clean and completely dry before pouring your cream into it.  Otherwise it can cause mould in your cream.

Don’t rush to put your lids on.  If the jar and cream are still warm, they can sweat which can cause mould.

Labelling can be awkward.  I’ve found that spirit markers rub off when you have some cream on your hands and are opening or closing a jar.  A piece of paper stuck on with sellotape works.

Cleanup is awful!  The cream will not soak off your pots, jugs and spoons with dishwash and hot water.  It takes a bit of work to clean your utensils - I stick with a spoon rather than a whisk for this reason.  I also wipe everything firmly with paper towels before attempting to wash, the cream seems to stick to the paper quite well and it makes the clean up far easier.