C- Calendula Comfrey oil

Wikipedia

The best thing about herbal folk medicine is how well it works when you really need something for healing skin.  Comfrey speeds skin cell regeneration, reduces inflammation and speeds the healing of bruises and sprains.  No matter how much I pull up in my yard there's more spreading slowly around the edges.  Each spring it comes up with it's wonderful blue flower stalks, softening my heart again and keeping me from pulling most of it up.  It's the impulsive kid in my garden with the charming smile that makes me forget how frustrating it was.

Nutritionist-World.com

Its crinkly fuzzy leaves yield their goodness to oil with just a little encouragement, and mixed into a salve or lotion it works wonders for my own and my friends' minor skin health needs (as always with any illness- take the pledge: If my condition worsens or anything new develops, I will consult a doctor or hospital AND inform them of the herbal preparation I have been using).

I have used jewel weed and comfrey before to make salves especially for swollen rashes, stings and eczema.  I also try to keep a jar or two of comfrey and calendula oil on hand.  Calendula is another astonishing herbal ally: in addition to reducing gastric  inflammation as a tea it yields it's excellent healing properties to skin in a poultice, wash or oil-based skin soothers.

Solid healing salve scented with clove and citrus for the fellas.

Left to Right: goldenseal tincture, comfrey calendua oil, clary sage/geranium/lavender oil, anointing oil.

To make an oil infused with comfrey and calendula- pick the comfrey leaves early and rinse them of dirt in cool water.  Pat them dry and lay them out to wilt on a sheet or screen.  This will remove lots of the water from them and help keep water out of your oil later, where it can breed mold.

Fill a jar half with dried calendula petals and half with very wilted comfrey leaves.  Add almond or olive oil with a few tablespoons full of jojoba for preserving.





Cap with a sterile cap and let steep in sunlight for two weeks in warm weather, or place loosely capped in a pan of hot water just below simmering for 2 hours.  Strain through fine muslin set in a funnel; label with the date and use in 6 months to a year.  Add to salves 1-2 tablespoons per 4 ounces of other oils and wax ingredients.

Pomander Bath Fizz

Real pomanders started in Renascence Europe and mean "apple of amber".
They were carried about to keep dangerous vapors away.

Scented Solsitice gifts are the way to satisfy my creative urges during this week of holiday bustle. This year's offerings include bath treats for my sister and daughter. Each of them are seriously hip, work like devils at high pressure jobs one on Wall Street and as one as Director of pretty-much-everything in a city hospital. They fly back and forth between NYC and Austin TX to visit one another for concerts and weekend getaways. To them, I am the shining example of the slow, centered life.

This year's offering, in addition to my already famous Rosemary and Lemon shampoo (I don't provide conditioner because everyone is so fussy about her own, but I one day hope to make one using Argan Oil, probably scented to match the shampoo) I am making Bath Bombs, those fizzy balls you toss into the bath to create havoc and scent. In the past I have searched for scented products one could add to the whirlpool without creating a souffle of suds. Finally, I realized that with just my own essential oils (which I already have for scent and Craft uses) I can have fancy bath toys for myself and my hip-girls.

Solstice Pomander Perfume recipe

1 ounce Sweet Orange Essence EO

1/2 ounce Lime Essence EO

1/2 ounce Tangerine Essence EO

We make pomanders by poking holes for cloves into oranges
with a skewer. They represent the Sun we miss during the Winter.

1/2 ounce Lemon Essence EO

1/16th ounce Cinnamon Bark tincture*

1/8th ounce Allspice tincture*

1/8th ounce Ginger EO

1/8th ounce Clove Bud Absolute

• Mix 1/2C Epsom salt (or Epsom and sea salt mixture for a variety in texture) with 
• Citric acid 1/2C
• Baking soda  1/2C
• Cornstarch 1/2C
• 15 drops total of the above essential oil (EO) recipe. 
• add 1/2 teaspoon of Jojoba oil as a carrier oil.
• add one drop at a time of food color of you like, I do not.
• add 1/4 teaspoon fine grind orange peel or crushed cloves, also optional, this will not dissolve.
• mix mix mix.

with molding form (muffin tin, ice cream sccop) ready, add

• 1/2 teaspoon (or slightly more) of water from a spray bottle.

Mix with your hands, quickly form into balls or pack into shaped molds. it does not take long to harden. Turn out onto foil and let stand 1 day. Wrap. Impress those hip chicks.

Be aware, this scent recipe makes what might be a lifetime supply of Solstice Pomander scent. Terrific if you are interested in making room spray, perfume bath oils and bath bombs for scent layering for several people's gifts.  Not terrific if you want only 2 big bath bombs.  Reduce recipe by proportion by substituting 8 drops for each 1 oz of EO (essential Oil). *Tinctures are something I can make using 1/2 oz high proof vodka with the dry spice.