Making Black Drawing Salve

As noted in previous blog posts, we have made several batches of different salves over the years. However, we had not yet experimented with making black drawing salve. Black drawing salve gets its name from the color of the salve, which is owed to the activated charcoal powder that it contains.

Husband's grandmother once shared her memories of buying black drawing salve from the Watkins representative that would come door-to-door when she was young. She mentioned that it was something they always had on hand for splinters, boils, insect bites, and minor irritations. We were looking forward to making our own medicinal drawing salve to have in the medicine cabinet.

While some black drawing salves use corrosive ingredients that can be harmful, the recipe we found uses safe, natural ingredients. 

For our first time making this salve, we followed the recipe by Living Simply with Valerie. (Note: please go to the website for the recipe. We are will refrain from posting here in order to avoid any copyright issues.)

Drawing salve (front) and healing salve (back) cooling on the counter)

Ingredient Notes:

Base Oil
We used a combination of organic olive oil and coconut oil. Olive oil is moisturizing and helps promote wound healing. (1) Coconut oil also has moisturizing properties, and the high concentration of lauric acid promotes wound healing. (2) 

Herbs for infusion
We used a combination of plantain, calendula, and rose. All of these are known to be soothing to the skin. They can reduce swelling and speed healing.

Dry ingredients
Bentonite clay and activated charcoal are well-known for their absorbent properties and are often used in skincare, toothcare, and toxin removal.

Essential Oils
Lavender is antibacterial and can help to reduce inflammation.

Process:

The process is basically the same for drawing salve as it is for regular salve. You begin by melting beeswax into your infused oil.

Melting beeswax into the infused oil

While that melts, mix your dry ingredients together.

Mixing the charcoal and bentonite clay

Add in the honey once the wax is melted. (We did it this way and the honey didn't mix in well. Our young men suggested mixing the oil into the honey rather than the other way around. We will try that next time we make this.) After the honey is mixed, slowly stir in the dry ingredients.

Dry ingredients mixed in with the oils and honey

When the bentonite clay and activated charcoal were mixed in, the bubbles almost made it look like we had added glitter!

Once all ingredients are blended, pour into jars and add essential oils and/or Vitamin E oil (to better preserve the salve). Allow to cool.

    Once cool, add an airtight lid and store in a cool, dark place. Your salve is ready to use right away.

Notes: 

  1. When reading about how to use this, it was recommended that you apply salve over the affected area, cover, and leave overnight or for several hours. Multiple applications may be necessary. 
  2. It is not recommended to apply this to fresh or open wounds.
  3. This salve is intended for external use only.


(1) https://health.clevelandclinic.org/olive-oil-for-skin
(2) https://health.clevelandclinic.org/coconut-oil-for-skin






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