Bodycare Formulas

Talk about ingenuity! It never would have occured to me that some of these formulas would be needed on the homestead. Good thing it occured to someone else. I've learned that if you take proper care of your body, then whatever job you face is dramatically reduced in difficulty. These formulas do that and more. They also serve as a "luxury item" you can barter with for something else you need. I'm glad I've found such a talended bunch of folks to draw upon!

From: GILSTRAP7

Hi,
Am getting to mail late, have been working on Christmas presents. I will answer your ? on bath salts tho. They are usually for soaking soar muscles and the scents can help energize, relax, sleep aid etc. My personal recipe is to have 4 cups of epsoms salts, 2 tbls. of baking soda a drop of essential oil and a drop of food coloring. Put all this in a zip lock bag and knead until color is distributed. Package in mason jars, jars or bowls from garage sales, plastic bags, or corsage bags you can purchase from a florist. These are really nice in a "bath basket" with bath oils and bath bags, these are made with herbs, oatmeal and baking soda. Bath oils are any kind of oil you want and a drop or two of essential oil some pretty dried flowers or herbs in the bottle and you have a $10 - $20 gift! Anyway these are simple my ten year old have made them for three years for all of her friends as have I and they always eagerly await their gift. In fact I had a friend call me in February and say "I'm out of bath salts, can you bring me some?" So I took five minutes mixed some up and took them to her. Great way to make some ones day special.

Su

From: "Kat Lonewolf"

>I bought a pound of calendula flowers at the health food store that no one
>wanted for $6.00 and now want to make some cream with beeswax and olive
>oil, but do not know a recipe.  Can I have some suggestions?  

Hi, Wanda
I have been experimenting with various hand creams, lotions and salves. I would steep the flowers in the olive oil. You can either simmer them in the oil or you can stuff them in a jar and pour the olive oil over to fill the jar. Then you could either leave it for a week or so, strain off the flowers, add more to the same oil and keep leaving it for a week at a time. Do this several weeks and you have a nice strong infusion. Or you could set the jar out in the sun and change the flowers every few days. What you get is a very dark yellow, very nice infusion of calendula oil.

Then, what I would do is experiment with amounts of beeswax till you get the consistency you want. IF you want it thick like a salve or cream use more beeswax. If you want it thinner to pour use less. 1 oz of beeswax to 1 oz of oil would probably be a good place to start. And while you are experimenting use only single ounces at a time(e.g. 1oz oil to your amount of beeswax). That should give you an easily expandable recipe for the type of cream you want.

Hope this helps.

Lonewolf
Birch Moon Homemade Soaps & Sundries
Frazier Park, Ca

From: Anita Sands

3 heaping Tbsp. flax seed
2 cups luckwarm water
2 cups cider vinegar
5 Tbsp. glycerin

Soak flax seed overnight in the water. The next morning boil the mixture and strain to remove as much of the mucilage jell as possible, throw away the seeds. Add the vinegar to the jell, and the glycerin, heat again to the boiling point, remove from heat. Beat with an eggbeater for a minute to keep the glycerin from separating. Bottle. Dampen with the solution morning and evening, and let air dry. Wonderful for dry, chapped hands, soon they will be smooth as satin.

Body powder

From: "Janet Knickerbocker"

I found this recipe a few months ago and just tried it. One of our goats attacked another and ripped her up pretty bad. My husband sewed her back up and treated her with this salve. We tore up some old sheets for bandages. This was 2 weeks ago and she is doing well. I have since used the [salve] for human purposes and it works great.

1 13 oz. jar Vaseline
4 Tablespoons turpentine
a few drops of oil of wintergreen

Heat Vaseline until soft. REMOVE FROM HEAT. Add turpentine and wintergreen. Stir. Store in airtight container. This is not necessarily a cheap salve but it is quite effective. I wonder if you could substitute goose grease or chicken fat for the Vaseline?I know they used to do that in the old remedy books.

Another thing I really like is to use corn starch for body powder. You can use it as is or scent it with a few drops of vanilla or essential oils. I am giving some of this for Christmas presents.

Jan Knickerbocker
Harvest Moon Farm

From: Anita Sands

First one has to make the Tigerbalm oil. Here are the two recipes:

Both recipes yield about 3 ounces of Tigerbalm oil.

Make one of the above recipes. Can be used as is or added to petroleum jelly later on to make a balm. (personally, I would use a veggie carrier oil and beeswax to make an un-petroleum jelly...Lisa) To make the balm , take 3.5 ounces of petroleum jelly and melt in the top of a double boiler. Once melted, place top of double boiler over a cool bath of water. As soon as the jelly begins to solidify a bit, add 3 1/2t + 10 drops of either Tigerbalm oil recipe . Stir until cool. If desired, add a drop of chlorophyl for color. Place contents in a jar. (note: I would make the un-petro jelly by melting a little beeswax in to some carrier oil to equal the 3.5 ounce amount, then proceed with the rest of the directions.)