Happy Mother's Day everyone! Today I made a rose lavender hand salve for my mom, and it is so delicious! This is how it was made...

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My friend Kamille has countless rose plants at her home. Hundreds of roses were reaching their prime and begging us to harvest the petals, so we did. I had also been harvesting roses from my home for the past week and already had some drying in my room. We spent around 30 minutes just harvesting rose petals, my nose has never been happier. Well, my nose is still happy since all of those petals are now drying about 2 feet away from me. 

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We ended up using the rose petals from my garden that were already dried, as well as lavender from my garden that I had previously dried. Drying rose petals is as easy as it sounds. I just put the petals in my hanging herb drying rack (you can see it in the last photo of this post), and let them sit for a week. 

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Kamille and I gathered our salve making materials and starting playing in the kitchen. First, we melted 1 cup of coconut oil and 1 cup of olive oil in a double boiler over low heat. Then we added 2 cups of dried rose petals and 4 tablespoons of dried lavender. We let that mixture simmer over low heat for 2 hours. 

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After 2 hours, we strained the oil with a cheesecloth in order to separate the oils from the petals and lavender. We then put the oil combination back in the double boiler and added 1/4 cup of shea butter and a 1/4 of cacao butter. Once the butters melted we added a handful of beeswax pastilles, 1 tablespoon of jojoba oil, and 1/2 teaspoon of vitamin e oil for longer shelf life (and other health benefits). After everything was mixed together, we poured the salve into mason jars and let them cool. Our delicious salve was ready! 

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I love making my own salves because then I know exactly what I am putting on the largest organ of my body, my skin. As Evan Healy says, skin breathes. We used all organic ingredients in this salve, and even used roses and lavender from my garden. Topically, roses have been used by herbalists to heal ulcers, reduce swelling, and cure headaches and insomnia. The smell of lavender is a mild sedative and can help with anxiety. Topically, it has been used to heal burns and stings, and it has antibacterial properties that heal cuts and wounds *(The New American Herbal by Stephen Orr)*. 

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I made enough salve for myself as well, and have been absolutely loving the scents of our creation. The shea and cacao butter give the salve a rich, grounding smell while the rose and lavender give the salve a fresh, spring smell. I've been using it to moisturize my hands. It has also been a great substitute for chapstick, which I just ran out of. My mom loved the gift and has been using it for her hands and arms as well. Happy Mother's day to my wonderful mom, to all the moms out there, and to Mother Earth for the incredible ingredients that went into this salve!

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