Sunflower salve is easy to make. This salve contain no water, are full-bodied and easy to prepare. When winter is coming the skin needs protection from colder wind and inside air dried by the central heating. This simple guideline gets you started easily.
Sunflower oil
Ingredients are simply and easy to get. However, you have to pay special attention to the quality. The oil must be absolutely fresh and extra virgin -quality which means it is cold pressed. Organic oil is always better than oil manufactured in mass production factory. Sunflower oil suits to almost all skin types. Sunflower palm absorbs quickly into the skin. It protects and moisturizes perfectly the skin. You can use this cream to protect your children’s skin as well although I do not recommend it to infants under one year age.
Beeswax
Beeswax works in a cream as an emulsifier. Keeping the quantity of beeswax small makes the cream easily absorbing. When making creams you have to find a balance. What is the suitable amount of beeswax in order to create balanced cream which is not too liquid but is still easily absorbing? It is easy to try, just use a part of beeswax mentioned in recipe. When the cream is ready but not yet bottled, put small amount, just few drops, of cream into the fridge. After cooling, in case the result is not satisfactory, add some more beeswax to the cream and heat it up again to get wax melted. You can repeat this process several times until the cream is ready.
Where can I get beeswax?
You may get beeswax from some shops – I have ordered it from online shops. Beeswax will last many years so you can order it a bit bigger quantity at once. Beeswax is for sale as grains and sheets, both are as good and have no influence to the result. Just select the natural yellow, unprocessed beeswax.
In case the beeswax is not suitable
One can be allergic or oversensitive to beeswax, there are always some remains of pollens. Vegans do not use beeswax and it is not suitable to infants, only after one-year age it is safe to test its suitability. You can use carnauba wax, shea butter or cocoa butter instead of beeswax. Features of these waxes differ from beeswax. Cocoa butter is available in grocery store. It is foodstuff-quality so you can use the rest for cooking. You can find Carnauba wax and shea butter in online shops selling materials for diy-cosmetics.
To make sunflower salve you need:
- 100 mills good quality sunflower oil
- 10 – 15 grams of beeswax
- small glass containers with cans
How to do
- Measure both beeswax and sunflower oil in metallic bowl.
- For double boiler, take a suitable sized pot and add some water in bottom. Place the bowl into the pot. Do not let water touch bottom of the bowl. The temperature of materials may not rice too high.
- Put the double boiler on stove and heat the water up. Turn down the heat immediately after the water starts to boil.
- Mix beeswax in oil until it is melted. Usually small quantities are melted before the water starts to boil.
Now the cream is ready for cans. Pour the cream in small glass 30 – 50 ml cans, cool the down and close. Attach stickers with contents and preparation dates.
You can store creams in a fridge – I keep all oils and creams prepared by me in my fridge.
A tip: If you want more creamy cream, you can use a kitchen device to make foam. After foaming, you have to use spoon to fill glass cans, cream is no more liquid. Foamed cream is easier to spread onto your skin. Foamed cream will not last as long as pure cream. Remember to keep it always in the fridge.