How to Make a Healing Honey Salve

52 Homesteading Skills in One Year Project 30 and 31: Rendering honeycomb into beeswax and making honey salve

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This is the best DIY honey salve recipe. How can I say it is THE best? Because you’re going to make it with YOUR favorite ingredients in a combination that best suits YOUR skin.

But first, you may be wondering why I decided to make a honey hand salve. Did you know bees have to visit millions of flowers, fly around the world about 13 times and use roughly 6 lb of honey just to produce 1 lb of wax? Beeswax and honey are precious ingredients that should never go to waste. So, as a beekeeper, I decided to use my leftover beeswax and honey to make a potent, skin-saving honey salve.

If you’re not a beekeeper, you can purchase beeswax and jump down to the recipe. But, if you are a beekeeper, here’s how to first turn your honeycomb into clean and pure beeswax.

How to make beeswax from honeycomb

“You’re cool.” That’s what my 8-year-old daughter told me as she watched me render bits of honeycomb into beeswax.  I am writing this down so I can remind her of this fact when she becomes a know-it-all teenager who is embarrassed by her homesteading mama.

But I have to admit, she was right. Okay, maybe I’m not cool, but what I was doing certainly was. There is something Harry Potterish about experimenting with rendering beeswax and mixing together different combinations of oils and fragrances. It felt like a Hogwart’s activity and I’m convinced the resulting honey salve will work magic on your dry hands.

Step 1
Wrap your bits of honeycomb in a piece of cheesecloth such as this and clip it tightly closed.

Step 2
Find an old pot. I can not stress the word “old” enough. Your pot will be almost impossible to clean afterward.

Place your honeycomb bundle in the OLD pot on medium/low heat. As the water heats, the beeswax will melt and seep out of the cheesecloth leaving any debris trapped inside the cloth.

Step 3
Once it seems like all the wax has melted, you can remove the cheesecloth from the pot giving it one last squeeze to get any remaining wax out.

Step 4
In just a couple of hours, the beeswax will have formed a solid layer on top of the water. Press down gently to remove it and voila…

You are now ready to turn beeswax into honey salve or whatever else you can dream up – mustache cream, surgical bone wax, fashioning your dreadlocks – or maybe just making hand salve.

The Best DIY Honey Salve Recipe

How can I say this is THE best honey salve. Because you are going to make it with YOUR favorite ingredients in a combination that best suits YOUR skin. Here’s how:

Ingredients

Beeswax
I used a consistency of 1 part beeswax to 4 parts oil. Check out this post from HumbleBeeAndMe to determine which consistency will work best for your skin.

If you don’t have your own hive to harvest beeswax from, you can purchase beeswax from your local beekeeper or online such as this organic beeswax.

Oils
I’m a big fan of coconut oil. It works wonders on dry skin and is easily absorbed. One caveat – It is comedogenic. So, if you have acne-prone skin, you may not want to use this salve on your face. Here is a handy list of the comedogenic ratings of different kinds of oils from The Holistic Health Herbalist. 

I also used another rich, skin-strengthening oil in combination with the coconut oil – jojoba. It is applied directly to the skin for acne, psoriasis, sunburn, and chapped skin, according to WebMD. 

But wait. Maybe you don’t like coconut oil or jojoba oils? No problem. Substitute for grapeseed oil, rosehip seed oil, safflower oil, or whatever your favorite skin oil may be.

Essential oils
Not only do they make your salve smell great, but each one has unique properties that could improve your skin. I love the scent of lavender and since I’m prone to getting cuts and scrapes from working with my hands, I benefit from its healing properties.

But maybe you’d prefer a different oil. No problem. Check out this post from Hello Glow on the 12 best essential oils for gorgeous skin.

Honey
I added a dash of honey to my salve for its healing and antimicrobial properties.

The spell, er, I mean Instructions
To make the honey salve, melt the wax and oil on low heat while continuously mixing your brew. Remove from heat and add honey and essential oils. Pour into your containers to set.

Now it is your turn to experiment with making your own secret, skin-saving honey salve recipe.

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