Hot and Icy Foot Salve
Hot and Icy Foot Salve
Whether you've spent the day walking, hiking, working on your feet, or finishing a Pilates class, tired feet deserve a little extra care. This simple hot and icy foot salve combines arnica-infused oil with cooling and warming essential oils to create an invigorating massage balm that's perfect at the end of a long day.
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| Photo credit HERE. |
For this recipe, I chose Mountain Rose Herbs Certified Organic Arnica Herbal Oil because it's one of my favorite infused oils to work with. I've used it for years in massage balms and salves, and I appreciate the convenience of having a ready-to-use herbal infusion.
Arnica (Arnica montana) has long been used in topical preparations, and an infused oil makes it easy to incorporate into massage balms and salves. Mountain Rose Herbs prepares this oil by slowly infusing certified organic arnica flowers into organic olive oil, creating a ready-to-use herbal infusion that's perfect for DIY skincare recipes.
To give this salve its cooling and warming sensation, I blended three essential oils:
- Peppermint – provides a refreshing cooling aroma.
- Ginger – adds a gentle warming note.
- Wintergreen – contributes a cooling, minty aroma and should be used with extra care because it naturally contains methyl salicylate.
For this recipe I used:
- 30 drops peppermint essential oil
- 15 drops wintergreen essential oil
- 15 drops ginger essential oil
Important: Wintergreen essential oil is not appropriate for everyone. If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, allergic to aspirin, taking blood-thinning medications, have diabetes or another medical condition, or are making this salve for a child, consult your healthcare provider before using products containing wintergreen essential oil.
To transform the infused oil into a smooth, spreadable salve, I used beeswax. For a soft massage balm, I recommend approximately 15% beeswax by weight.
For 2 ounces (about 57 g) of infused oil, I use approximately 9 g of beeswax. This creates a soft salve that's easy to massage into tired feet. If you prefer a firmer balm, simply increase the amount of beeswax slightly until you reach your desired consistency.
I prefer making this salve on the softer side because it glides easily over the skin during a foot massage. If you're packaging it in a tin for travel or live in a warmer climate, adding a little more beeswax can help it stay firm.
