Herbal Recipe: Instant Pot Eczema Battle Salve
So I have eczema. It SUCKS!!! I hate it. It is genetic and I have surprised several older family members because apparently they grew out of their eczema in their late 20s. This did not happen for me, possibly because of climate change or because [redacted possible astrological and traditional Chinese medicine explanations via ADHD special interest babbling]. Who knows!
At any rate, moving to a region that has much less severe winters and overall dryer air than my home state of New Jersey has helped with the eczema, but not entirely resolved it. Actually to be honest the latter part led to a lot of discomfort when I first moved and I had to go out of my way to purchase calendula soaps to endure it. Now, I am the one with the calendula! Who's laughing now?! (Not the people who sold the soaps to me, that's for sure.)
But not only do I have calendula; I also have PLAINTAIN! Tragically not the caramelized kind that goes into your belly at Cuban restaurants. However, both calendula and plaintain are often paired together because they are well known for resolving skin issues. So into the Eczema Battle Salve they go!
Here's my recipe:
INGREDIENTS
1 cup of coconut oil
1 tablespoon calendula, otherwise named marigold
1 tablespoon plaintain
1 tablespoon beeswax pellets
Aluminum foil
INSTRUCTIONS
Put coconut oil in small glass container, or a container otherwise Instant Pot-friendly. Press the saute function and set to about 15 minutes in order to melt. Cover pot with lid, but don't seal closed because you want to occasionally check the melting progress.
Once coconut oil is in a mostly or fully liquid form, put in the calendula and plaintain. Stir if you feel like it, but mine mostly ended up on the bottom and you should be fine if not. Cover container with aluminum foil.
Set Slow Cooker function to low for 4 to 6 hours (I did 5 because I always do in between) and go about your day.
When Instant Pot is done, remove container to cool. At this point, you may want to strain out the herbs into another container, but I tend to keep my friends around. Just don't scratch your eczema with plaintain, that'll hurt.
Sprinkle in the beeswax. When the pellets start to melt, stir to encourage even mixing. Wait for salve to cool and solidify, which will take overnight to finish.
APPLICATION
Rub salve on hands after every handwash in order to restore moisture and healing to skin. If you have an eczema-specific treatment, apply that on inflammation spots before using salve. During application, glare at the eczema so that it feels cowered and unwelcome.
Note: Coconut oil can be swapped for other kinds of oils, however is often a good base ingredient for salves because it's already fairly solid. Keep beeswax addition small because you don't want the texture to get too hard, you want it to distribute easily on the skin.
Contraindications: If allergic to coconut or coconut oil, use another base oil and at least one teaspoon of beeswax. If allergic to calendula/marigold, only use plaintain. If allergic to plaintain, only use calendula/marigold. I am not your herbalist nor medical provider so use common sense.
