The Apothecary
I put my herbal remedies for sale here, along with links and explanations for why I do what I do with them.
I accept checks as well as PayPal--email me to get my address and details about shipping.
I accept checks as well as PayPal--email me to get my address and details about shipping.
Comfrey Salve
An all-purpose healing salve for dry skin, bug bites, rope burns, cuts, scratches, chapped lips, etc. Made with:
Comfrey (leaves steeped in olive oil)
Plaintain (leaves steeped in olive oil)
Vitamin E
Tea tree oil
Sandalwood extract
Pure beeswax
The herbs are steeped in olive oil for two months and blended with a high-quality local beeswax. Each tin is 1/2 ounce, but a little goes a long way!
Also listed on my Etsy account.
Comfrey (leaves steeped in olive oil)
Plaintain (leaves steeped in olive oil)
Vitamin E
Tea tree oil
Sandalwood extract
Pure beeswax
The herbs are steeped in olive oil for two months and blended with a high-quality local beeswax. Each tin is 1/2 ounce, but a little goes a long way!
Also listed on my Etsy account.
$
2.50
Some notes on comfrey salve as a whole
Some time ago I wrote a tutorial on how I make comfrey salve, which can be found here.
I was taught how to make this salve from a friend of my mom's, who is an AMAZING herbalist. She's given me reams of information about herbal remedies in general, and my only regret is that I haven't had an opportunity to try them all out. It's on my bucket list to do at least SOME of them, though.
Anyway. Back to the salve. I've used it on cuts, burns, scrapes, bug bites, and gaping tears on people AND animals, and I have to say that this stuff works wonderfully. Once one of the horses, Violet, tore a huge flap of skin on her chest open from running into a fence. It was too awkward a place to consider stitching up, so I took a huge glob of comfrey salve, glued the skin back into place, and continued to apply it around the edges of the wound for about a week. By the end of that week, the skin had bonded back into place, and by the end of two weeks it had scabbed over and was hardly noticeable. Now (two years later) there is a very fine scar, only noticeable if I kneel down and lift the hair to look for it (and I have to be looking for it, otherwise it's invisible).
I gave some to another friend of my mom's who had a nasty rope burn on the back of her leg--a dog on one of those plastic-like lines on a stake had run behind and given it to her. She had had the burn for about two weeks, and it was looking red and infected. When she started putting the salve on it, by the next day the redness had gone down and it had started to heal. Now she doesn't even have a scar to show for it.
Just the other day a friend of mine put this salve on her brother's dog--said dog has a weeping sore, or boil, on the side of her head. Within a day of applying it the boil had gone down, stopped weeping, and is on the mend.
It may sound kind of crazy, how much I'm going over this, but I can't express how great this stuff is. Comfrey has traditionally been used for healing broken bones, clearing out infection, and promotes enormous amounts of healing over a short period of time. Plantain has anti-bleeding properties, calms inflammation, and supposedly helps to stop various fungus (I can't vouch for the latter, as I've never had an opportunity to use it on fungus, but I'm also not ready to totally discredit it).
Some time ago I wrote a tutorial on how I make comfrey salve, which can be found here.
I was taught how to make this salve from a friend of my mom's, who is an AMAZING herbalist. She's given me reams of information about herbal remedies in general, and my only regret is that I haven't had an opportunity to try them all out. It's on my bucket list to do at least SOME of them, though.
Anyway. Back to the salve. I've used it on cuts, burns, scrapes, bug bites, and gaping tears on people AND animals, and I have to say that this stuff works wonderfully. Once one of the horses, Violet, tore a huge flap of skin on her chest open from running into a fence. It was too awkward a place to consider stitching up, so I took a huge glob of comfrey salve, glued the skin back into place, and continued to apply it around the edges of the wound for about a week. By the end of that week, the skin had bonded back into place, and by the end of two weeks it had scabbed over and was hardly noticeable. Now (two years later) there is a very fine scar, only noticeable if I kneel down and lift the hair to look for it (and I have to be looking for it, otherwise it's invisible).
I gave some to another friend of my mom's who had a nasty rope burn on the back of her leg--a dog on one of those plastic-like lines on a stake had run behind and given it to her. She had had the burn for about two weeks, and it was looking red and infected. When she started putting the salve on it, by the next day the redness had gone down and it had started to heal. Now she doesn't even have a scar to show for it.
Just the other day a friend of mine put this salve on her brother's dog--said dog has a weeping sore, or boil, on the side of her head. Within a day of applying it the boil had gone down, stopped weeping, and is on the mend.
It may sound kind of crazy, how much I'm going over this, but I can't express how great this stuff is. Comfrey has traditionally been used for healing broken bones, clearing out infection, and promotes enormous amounts of healing over a short period of time. Plantain has anti-bleeding properties, calms inflammation, and supposedly helps to stop various fungus (I can't vouch for the latter, as I've never had an opportunity to use it on fungus, but I'm also not ready to totally discredit it).
Poison Ivy Remedy
I unfortunately do not have any of this for sale, but I can at least sing its praises.
There are only three ingredients to my poison ivy remedy:
French green clay
Witch hazel
Peppermint oil
French green clay (or FGC, for short) is a cosmetic clay, and well-known for its drying properties. I've used it as a facial mask, and it leaves the skin soft while pulling impurities from the skin. I mix FGC and witch hazel together to form a paste, something the consistency of mud, and put 4 or 5 drops of peppermint oil in per batch. Because of its drying properties, when the clay mixture is applied to poison ivy, oak, sumac, or any kind of weeping rash, it dries the ooze up and prevents it from spreading. The peppermint oil is also very cooling and feels wonderful on a hot, itchy rash.
I usually get poison ivy or oak at least once a year. Normally I have to get a steroid shot, otherwise the infection spreads to the point of utter misery. However, I haven't had to get a steroid shot for over three years, because when this stuff is applied it stops the spreading dead in its tracks. My last case of poison oak earlier this year was limited to a single patch on my left wrist, instead of spreading all the way up my arm, in between my fingers (that is one of the WORST places to get poison oak, let me tell you), or on my face. It took about a week total to completely go away, but the point is that it didn't spread at all. I LOVE THIS STUFF. I've made it for friends and family as well, and it's affectionately known as 'the green stuff'.
There are only three ingredients to my poison ivy remedy:
French green clay
Witch hazel
Peppermint oil
French green clay (or FGC, for short) is a cosmetic clay, and well-known for its drying properties. I've used it as a facial mask, and it leaves the skin soft while pulling impurities from the skin. I mix FGC and witch hazel together to form a paste, something the consistency of mud, and put 4 or 5 drops of peppermint oil in per batch. Because of its drying properties, when the clay mixture is applied to poison ivy, oak, sumac, or any kind of weeping rash, it dries the ooze up and prevents it from spreading. The peppermint oil is also very cooling and feels wonderful on a hot, itchy rash.
I usually get poison ivy or oak at least once a year. Normally I have to get a steroid shot, otherwise the infection spreads to the point of utter misery. However, I haven't had to get a steroid shot for over three years, because when this stuff is applied it stops the spreading dead in its tracks. My last case of poison oak earlier this year was limited to a single patch on my left wrist, instead of spreading all the way up my arm, in between my fingers (that is one of the WORST places to get poison oak, let me tell you), or on my face. It took about a week total to completely go away, but the point is that it didn't spread at all. I LOVE THIS STUFF. I've made it for friends and family as well, and it's affectionately known as 'the green stuff'.