This healing calendula infused coconut oil can be used as a body lotion, a base to use in your homemade deodorant or face serum and much more!
Coconut oil is used year round in my home for both cooking and topical use. It’s high in antioxidants which helps to repair free radical damaged skin and also prevents further degeneration of skin; by far one of the best carrier oils to use on your skin! People with diverse skin irritations have experienced amazing results using coconut oil in the skin.
I infuse different herbs and essential oils with coconut oil throughout the year to keep my skin feeling soft and healthy. I also make rubs and salves to have on hand to apply to cuts, scraps or rashes.
This summer I spent some time learning about the healing benefits of calendula and made infused calendula oil, lotion and healing salve.
Calendula is most notably used for skin, and for good reason! Its oil has anti-inflammatory properties that are extremely beneficial to use on damaged, inflamed, dry, cracked or chapped skin.
Calendula infused coconut oil is safe to use on all skin types, even babies. Actually, it makes a great baby lotion!
How To Make Calendula Infused Coconut Oil
There are two ways to make calendula infused coconut oil:
Option 1: This method will take up to 6 weeks to make. Â You’ll need dried organic calendula flowers and virgin coconut oil.
- All you have to do is fill a glass jar 3/4 way full of dried calendula leaves and then fill the whole jar up with coconut oil (you’ll need to gently melt it at a very low heat if it’s solid – or you can use fractionated coconut oil).
- Keep the jar out in the sun and swirl the mixture around every 2-3 days.
- After approximately 6 weeks the oil will be ready. All you have to do then is strain the dried calendula flowers from the infused oil.
Option 2: This method will take 6-8 hours. You’ll need a double boiler and a thermometer.
- Pour the dried calendula flowers into the double boiler.
- Cover the flowers with coconut oil.
- Keep the oil at 115-120 degrees F for 6-8 hours.
- The coconut oil will turn a beautiful bright yellow color.
This method is quicker, but the heat may damage some of the healing properties of coconut oil and calendula.
How To Use Calendula Infused Coconut Oil
You can use this infused oil directly on the skin or add it to other oils to make your favorite body butter, lip balm, deodorant and sun screen.
The recipe below is my favorite use for calendula infused coconut oil. I use this salve on the bottom of my feet and on my dry skin throughout the winter.
Related recipes:
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Calendula Infused Coconut Oil
- 1/2 Cup Calendula Infused Coconut Oil
- 1/4 Cup Beeswax
- 20 Drops Lavender Essential Oil
Ingredients
- Melt the beeswax over low heat over a double boiler.
- Once melted, take off the heat and add the calendula coconut oil.
- Stir the oil and beeswax together.
- Add essential oils and mix again until thoroughly combined.
- Pour into glass container.
I made a similar recipe with a different herb using a double boiler method and I’m wondering if it’s normal for the coconut oil to stay in a liquid state after cooling or if I did it wrong. I only used the fresh herbs and refined coconut oil, nothing else added. Kept it in the double boiler until the oil took on the color of the herb, and then strained in sanitized jars to cool. It’s been about 12 hours and the oil has reached room temperature and is still in a liquid state.
What about using fractionated coconut oil? Would that work too?
★★★★★
What do you think about using fractionated coconut oil for infusing?
Would that work too?
How do you prevent the coconut oil from solidifying during the infusion?
I keep it in a warm place in my kitchen. Usually in direct sunlight or out on the porch. If your home is cooler than 75 degrees it will solidify if it’s not in direct sunlight during the day. Hope this helps!
Is it degrees Fahrenheit or Celsius?
Very important question. Looking at the source of this blogger, it appears she is in the USA. so it’s Farenheit. That’s all they know there while the world has adopted C. Shameful she didn’t mention the proper key as many could destroy their flowers doing 155 C.
How do you stop the coconut oil solidifying during the infusion and after its strained?
It is a risk that Coconut oli will solidify when colder. No big deal to many but if you want free flowing use a different Oil such as Sunflower or Olive oil.
Not a comment but a question, when making body washes and scrubs with oil, do you have trouble with all the oil going down the drain and clogging? Is there something special you do to keep this from being a problem?
The flowers are easy to grow yourself and you can find them very easy too. Mountain Rose Herbs sell the seeds or get the plants at a green house . I get all my plants at a local Amish Farm and are sure of how they are started. Calendula is a heirloom seed so you can grow them from yr to yr.
Is there another creditable place to get dried calendula flowers? Mountain Rose Herbs have been out for quite awhile now.
is there a way to strain the color out and leave the good properties in the oil? I found that using the natural beeswax made the deodorants yellow and stained my clothes. I’m going to retry with white beeswax pellets. this infused oil interests me greatly and my armpits are sensitive so any anti-inflammatory properties would assist!
How do you store the finished salve.?
To infuse coconut oil with calendula leaving in the sun for 6 weeks, do you need to leave outside in the sun or can it be in a southern exposure window for 6 weeks?
You can leave it in the window as long as it’s in the sun for several hours a day.
I have infused Sweet Almond Oil much the same way, covering the dried flowers with oil and leaving in capped jar for 8 weeks. This turned out really well so I am going to try the coconut oil as I use it all the time in most everything I make. Thank You for the tip.
Hmmmm…so instead of the double boiler and trying to monitor the temp for 6-8 hrs; why not place the mixture of calendula infused coconut oil, beeswax and essential oil in a mason jar, and place in your dehydrator, set at 115 degrees, for 8hrs?? Whatdya think?
I wouldn’t do that! It would be difficult to strain the calendula flowers from the beeswax. You also don’t want to heat the essential oils so I would wait to add them until the end.
Good idea about using a dehydrator to infuse the coconut oil and calendula! I think that method would work.