Even though it’s officially spring, both the weather and my lungs are holding on tight to winter. It’s all kinds of rainy and cold outside, and I can’t quite shake the stuffy nose I picked up last week.
I whipped up a little homemade VapoRub (Viva Peru!) to get me through the next few days of this cold, and – BONUS – to help me take on the spring allergies I know are coming as soon as everything starts blooming.
Valentine’s Day means chocolate. Lots and lots of it. With all the sweet people in your life sure to have eaten enough chocolate to last them for the next month, now’s the perfect time to make them a different kind of chocolate kiss.
Just recently, my girlfriend came home from a week in Chicago with a new tattoo. After showing me the still-red a-camp mountain on her arm, she went in the other room to rub some lotion on it and – “OW!” As much as I love Vaseline’s lotion, it’s isn’t the most gentle stuff on broken skin.
Wanting to give her something a little less painful and a lot more DIY, I researched tattoo healing and got to work.
On the first day of spring here in New York City, we had some downright vernal weather.
Desperate for the tiniest hint of spring, I broke out the honeysuckle essential oil I’ve been holding onto since last October. I’d experimented with lotion before but my results were always hit or miss. One day I’d end up with a perfect, creamy lotion. The next, I’d have a lump of concrete in a puddle of water. I gave up. Last week, though – armed with my little bottle of honeysuckle and facing an nearly-empty bottle of store-bought lotion – I decided to give homemade lotion another try.
The result was a velvety, floral lotion that I’ve been able to duplicate twice with no concrete disasters.
I’ve finally figured out how to make labels for my lip balm and I am ecstatic. More on that later, but for now, I’m celebrating the end of way too many months of printer problems by making an easy and wintery peppermint lip balm.
The math of making salves is easy. If you can boil water and measure ingredients, you can make a salve. The science and art comes in infusing herbs and spices that will make the salve worthwhile. Before we get there, though, let’s dive into the math.
| Beeswax | Liquid Oil | |
| By Part | 1/7 | 6/7 |
| By Percentage | 15% | 85% |
| Beeswax (oz) | Oil (oz) | Beeswax (g) | Oil (g) | |
| .5 oz (14 g) | .075 oz | .425 oz | 2 g | 12 g |
| 1 oz (28 g) | .15 oz | .85 oz | 4 g | 24 g |
| 2 oz (56 g) | .3 oz | 1.7 oz | 8 g | 48 g |
| 4 oz (112 g) | .6 oz | 3.4 oz | 16 g | 96 g |
| 5 oz (140 g) | .75 oz | 4.25 oz | 20 g | 120 g |
| 10 oz (280 g) | 1.5 oz | 8.5 oz | 40 g | 240 g |
| 16 oz (454 g) | 2.4 oz | 13.6 oz | 68 g | 386 g |
None of these amounts work for you or using more than one oil? Use the spreadsheet to do the calculation for you.
In the spreadsheet blow, make your own copy in google drive (“File” > “Make a copy” > “OK”). Enter how much salve (in grams) you want to make in the pink box and the spreadsheet will auto-calculate ingredient amounts for you.
Mamoot 