Monday 11 February 2013

Alchemy of Balm making.....


We turned oils into balms today, a most satisfying bit of alchemy!

Our ache ease balm specially formulated to aid support painful joints and muscles, is made up from herbal infused organic almond oils –we pick each of the respective herbs on dry sunny days around the Full Moon, to get the full wack of strong lunar energies.

Each plant material is left in the almond oil for a lunar cycle –full moon to full moon, then strained.


The other ingredients are organic Cocoa Butter, which is a great skin nourisher that melts at body temperature, also called theobroma oil, is a pale-yellow, pure, edible vegetable fat extracted from the cocoa bean. Also local Beeswax, which is the natural wax made by honeybees in the hive.  Beeswax is also known as Cera alba.. A wide variety of cosmetics use beeswax as an emulsifier, emollient, and moisturizer.

The oils we use are;

Heather Oil

 We gather the Heather in the summer months, we've collected from Skiddaw in the Lake District, Cornwall, Dartmoor, Hebden Bridge, this years harvest was from The New Forest.....

The familiar heather plant - Calluna vulgaris - belongs to the Ericaceae plant family. Heather is rarely adopted for its traditional use for rheumatic conditions. Herbalists in Britain today no longer have this wonderful herb as a staple of their Materia Medica (repertoire of medicinal herbs) which seems a shame.  In the balm the heather provides great relief for aching joints.

It has been revered in many cultures across the globe including Greek, Egyptian and Celtic.  It requires a lot of patience to gather and the flowers have a reputation for preserving youth.

               Comfrey Oil

 We harvested these strong loving leaves from the canal side at Ware Hertfordshire. Turning the light almond oil a deep dark green within days.

Comfrey is such a good healer for connective tissue (ligaments and tendons) and bones that it has the folk name of “knit bone”.  It works well for any bruising or deeper tissue damage, for rheumatism and arthritis.  The name comfrey is thought to be from the Latin ‘confervere’ which means to grow together.

Horseradish Oil

Harvested from Lea-valley Park in the Autumn –take care when grating these mustard oil containing roots –wear googles!!!

The Horseradish has been connected to healing arthritis since way back when, people used to apply poultices and make them so strong it would cause ulceration, believing there was poison inside the joint was causing pain and it would leech out through the ulcer -HEROIC treatment. We are a little more, gentle with the mixture of the oil within the balm. As a circulatory stimulant applying the oil increases the flow of blood, fresh oxygenated blood thus flows through the area carrying away debris and creating movement, and alleviating pain.

We firstly measured the oils adding equal parts of each -200ml of each oil –

600mls infused oils
300g of Cocoa Butter
150g of Beeswax





Heat this up together in a Bain Marie, when it is very well mixed and totally clear our carefully into a pouring jug to transfer to the jars, then whilst in the jug we add peppermint and rosemary essential oils for their wonderful anodyne and circulatory stimulant properties. Plus smelling brilliant, uplifting and fresh.




Put into Jars and label..
 
This wonder Balm has helped countless folks with a variety of muscle and joint ill health.

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