Fed to the gills with lying awake all night stressing over this or that? You can fall quickly asleep thanks to this DIY tranquilizing salve that also leaves your feet so soft — you can not beat that! Made with a calming mixture of essential oils, the recipe generates more than enough for yourself, so gift the rest to your beloved people. You will love how this remarkably smelling helper makes nighttime delightful.

Ingredients:

1 cup olive oil

1 cup coconut oil

Equal parts lavender, orange, cedarwood, peppermint, and cinnamon essential oils

4 tablespoons grated beeswax

Directions:

1. Put the olive oil, coconut oil, and grated beeswax in a glass or metal bowl, and gradually warm in the microwave in short bursts or heat over a double boiler. Once everything has melted enough, give it a stir, and then remove from heat.
2. Now mix together the essential oils to form the dreamy mix of scents. Lavender is so comforting while cinnamon and orange help soothe nerves. Sandalwood, cedarwood, and ylang ylang offer earthy smells. And peppermint does an excellent job of relieving muscle pains. Using about 50 drops of each produces a magnificent blend. Add coconut oil to the mixture.
3. Now thoroughly ladle the warm sleep salve into cleaned jars, let cool till room temperature, and then cap. Your sleep slave is now ready to use! Keep it next to your bed and smooth onto feet, cover with socks, and snuggle down on nights you are having a hard time drifting off into sleep. The larger pores in your feet enable the essential oils to instantly absorb and flow through the body, promoting your relax. Or rub into sore muscles, hands, or even your temples for immediate calm.

Makes approximately 16 ounces of sleep salve.

If you're a big fan of herbs (like me!), then you just have to try your hand at making your own herbal salve.  It's surprisingly simple and so much fun!

The only ingredients you'll need are:

1. herbs (I used plantain)
2. bees wax 
3. olive oil 
4. small tins with lids
5. a crock pot and a jar

This project goes together really quickly- just a few minutes of work over a period of a few days, and you're done!  

It's also a great way to give an inexpensive and creative gift!

1. 4 oz organic plantain leaf
2. 3 oz bees wax 
3. 4 (.5 oz) tins and 5 (4 oz) tins
4. olive oil 

For about $20, I ended up with 9 tins of homemade herbal salve for giving and using- not bad! 

1. The first step is to infuse your olive oil with the herbs.  To do this, pack your herbs into a canning jar (we used quart size) until the jar is three-quarters full.

2. Next, pour olive oil over the herbs until they are completely covered.  Leave about 1 inch of head space at the top, then seal with a lid.

3. Place a wash clothe in the bottom of your crock pot, and set the jar of herbs and oil on top.  Fill the crock pot almost completely with water.  Turn on "low" heat and let the herbs sit for three full days. Replace water as needed.  By the end of the three days, you will have an herbal-infused oil...

4. Like this!  Strain off the herbs and pour the oil into a clean container.  You can use cheese cloth or a clean piece of cotton (from an old t-shirt) to strain out the herbs.  (Discard herbs when you're done.)

5.  Place the herbal oil into a large sauce pan and add beeswax.  I used three 1-oz bars of wax for our salve.  Turn the burner on low heat and gently stir until the wax begins to melt.  The little things you see floating around in the oil are pieces of beeswax! 

At this point, you can also add 2 or 3 drops of grapefruit seed extract (as a natural antibiotic) and 2 or 3 drops of vitamin E oil (as a preservative) to your salve oil.   

6. If you have little helpers around, enlist them to stir!

7. Once the wax has completely melted, your "salve" is ready to pour into tins!  The oil should be smooth and completely lump-free before you pour it into your containers. 

8. Fill tins almost to the very top, then allow the salve to "set".  The tins will be very hot so be extremely careful if you try to move them before they're cool!  It only took a few minutes for our salve to cool and set.  This batch yielded five large tins and four small tins of salve.

And here is the final product- plantain herbal salve, ready to use and give!  

Plantain has wonderfully healing properties for skin irritations and rashes -- it makes a great gift for a mother with small children or babies!  I've been using it on my children's "boo boos", dry skin (including diaper rash).