Emu Oil Salve Recipe

Today, we are going to be demonstrating my skin-nourishing, nutrient-dense emu oil salve recipe. This recipe uses an assortment of top-quality SMR skincare ingredients to create an incredible healing salve that I am confident you, your family and your customers will LOVE.

Below is a picture of our completed emu oil salve batch:

Emu Oil Salve Recipe

Within this emu oil salve recipe batch, we will be using SMR's fully refined pure emu oil, calendula infused olive oil and SMR's carrot seed essential oil. Each step will be explained in full detail below, with plenty of pictures to help you out along the way!

Our emu oil salve recipe will make a 2 ounce batch of finished product. A little of this high-end salve goes a very long way, so 2 ounces will be plenty for a large number of topical applications!

Below is a list of all the ingredients and key equipment you will need to complete our emu oil salve recipe formula:

  • Emu Oil (Fully Refined) = 1.85 Ounce (52.45 grams)
  • Olive Oil (Grade A) = 3 Ounces (85.05 grams)
  • Calendula (Petals) = 1/10 Ounce (2.835 grams)
  • Carrot Seed Essential Oil = 1.1 gram (approximately 45 drops)
  • Small glass jar with watertight closure (SMR's 2 ounce emu oil is packaged in a glass jar that is perfect to use for this emu oil salve recipe!)
  • Fine mesh strainer, cheese cloth or any cloth-like filter
  • Bowl (Any size will do)
  • Small mixing apparatus (you can use a plastic pipette, the handle of a spoon, a wooden skewer or a toothpick)
  • Standard pipette
  • Crockpot (Optional, but highly recommended)
  • Scale (Preferably, one that weighs in ounces and grams)

* All of the above ingredients are available to purchase right here at soap-making-resource.com!

* All measurements mentioned within this recipe are weight measurements, not liquid measurements.

Below are the step by step instructions for making SMR's emu oil salve recipe...

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Step 1) To make our emu oil salve recipe, first we need to create the calendula infused olive oil that we will use within this batch.

Calendula infused olive oil is very easy to make. First, weigh 1/10 of an ounce (approximately 2.835 grams) of SMR's calendula petals into a glass jar. Make sure the jar you are using has an available watertight lid as we will need to fasten this on in a future step! Calendula petals are very bulky, so 1/10 of an ounce is really more than enough for this infusion!

Measuring Calendula Petals into Mason Jar

Next, weigh 3 ounces of SMR's olive oil into the same jar that is housing the calendula petals. Remember, we are speaking in terms of weight ounces here, not liquid ounces.

Measuring Olive Oil into Mason Jar

Now, tighten a watertight lid securely onto the mason jar and set the calendula petals and olive oil mixture into a crockpot filled with warm water. Set your crockpot to a medium to high temperature level and allow this mixture to heat for 2 - 3 hours.

Infusion Ingredients Warming in Crockpot

Occasionally shake your calendula petals and olive oil mixture to ensure that all the petals, at some point, become fully submerged within the olive oil. Don't forget, these ingredients will be very hot, so be sure to protect your hands when handling the jar!

Shaking the Calendula Petals and Olive Oil Mixture

Heating up the calendula petals and olive oil mixture will cause therapeutic components from the calendula petals to extract into the olive oil. As this infusion takes place, you will notice the hue and aroma of your olive oil begin to transform. In many ways, creating an herbal infusion is very similar to making an herbal tea!

Allowing the heat from the warm water within your crockpot to increase the temperature of your mason jar's contents is a great technique for applying gentle heat to your calendula petals and olive oil mixture. Unlike applying direct heat, by combining the ingredients into a pot and then heating the mixture directly on a cooktop burner, our demonstrated gentle heating method is far less likely to scorch your ingredients and is significantly less of a fire hazard. In fact, applying direct heat to oil over long periods of time (like the time that is required to create an infusion) is typically not a good idea! I highly recommend that you use our gentle method of heating your calendula petals and olive oil mixture as demonstrated within this tutorial.

Tip: If you don't have a crockpot, you can duplicate our demonstrated heating method using a small pot and your cooktop burner. Simply heat a pot of water using the lowest setting on your cooktop burner. Once the water is heated, be sure to keep the burner activated to maintain the water's temperature level. Now, secure a lid onto the glass mason jar that houses your infusion ingredients and set it into the heated water, allowing your ingredient mixture to remain within the hot water for 2 - 3 hours. Don't forget to occasionally shake your ingredient mixture to ensure that all the calendula petals become submerged within the olive oil. Once again, use extreme caution when handling your mason jar as your mason jar and its contents will be very hot! When using this heating method, just like with the crockpot method shown above, you are not applying direct heat to the calendula petals and olive oil mixture, but are instead allowing the warm water to increase the temperature of your glass jar's contents. This is the key!

Once your calendula petals and olive oil mixture has heated for 2 - 3 hours, we need to filter out the calendula petals. Using a fine mesh strainer or cloth-like filter, pour the calendula petals and olive oil through your filter, allowing just the calendula infused oil to drip into a clean bowl.

Pouring Calendula Infused Olive Oil through a Filter

If you are using a cloth-like filter, be sure to gather all the calendula petals towards the bottom of the filter and squeeze this "calendula petal clump" to release as much oil as possible.

Squeezing the Bunched Calendula Petals at the Bottom of the Cloth Filter

You can also squeeze the oil-soaked calendula petals between your fingers to further ensure that the majority of the oil has been removed from the botanical.

Squeezing Calendula Petals with Fingers

This step is especially important if you are using a stiff mesh filter as this type of filter will not allow you to gather all the petals together and squeeze them like you can with a cloth-like filter. No matter what kind of filter you use, it is pivotal that you remove as much oil as possible from the calendula petals.

Once you are confident that most of the oil has been successfully filtered from the calendula petals, set your calendula infused olive oil off to the side for future use. You can discard the used calendula petals or save them for a future project!

Calendula Infused Olive Oil

You will notice that even though we started out with 3 ounces of olive oil when creating our calendula infusion, once you filter out the calendula petals, you will predictably be left with quite a bit less than 3 ounces of calendula infused olive oil. Despite trying our very best to remove all the oil from the calendula petals, inevitably, a small amount of oil will indeed be lost due to the oil soaking into the botanical. Keep in mind, however, that we made more than enough calendula infused olive oil to complete this batch, so you do not have to worry about not having enough due to losing this small amount of oil.

Step 2) Now that you are finished making your calendula infused olive oil, we need to weigh out the emu oil that we will be using within this emu oil salve recipe. This batch requires 1.85 ounces (approximately 52 grams) of SMR's pure fully refined emu oil. Carefully weigh out this portion into a clean container. This emu oil portion will be the "base oil" within our salve to which other skincare ingredients will be added.

Weighing Out the Emu Oil

You do not have to melt down the emu oil before weighing it out. At room temperature (about 70 degrees Fahrenheit), your pure, fully refined emu oil will be thick, yet free flowing. For this small batch, we will simply "spoon" the room temperature emu oil into our tiny container of choice as shown in the picture above.

Tip: If you are only making a single batch of finished product, you may want to weigh out the emu oil for this emu oil salve recipe directly into your final container just like we did! This will prevent you from wasting the emu oil that would inevitably get stuck to the interior of a separate "mixing container". Let's face it; you always tend to lose some product whenever you transfer ingredients from one container to another, so it's always nice to avoid this step if at all possible!

Step 3) Now that your emu oil portion is successfully measured out, we are going to incorporate the first of our skincare additives into this emu oil salve recipe batch; the calendula infused olive oil that we made in the very first step of this recipe! For this 2 ounce emu oil salve recipe, carefully add just .15 ounces (approximately 4.25 grams) of your freshly made calendula infused olive oil directly to your measured out pure emu oil base.

Adding the Calendula Infused Olive Oil
Note: Because of the small amount of calendula infused olive oil needed for this batch, it is important that you measure out this ingredient directly into the emu oil. If you measure out the calendula infused olive oil into a separate container first, like we normally would, and then pour this pre-measured portion into the emu oil, you will lose a significant percentage of this ingredient due to some of the calendula infused olive oil sticking to the interior of your separate container. Since our recipe only calls for .15 ounces (approximately 4.25 grams) of calendula infused olive oil, even if you only lose .05 ounces (approximately 1.42 grams) of this ingredient during the transfer (which is very possible) you will actually be losing 1/3 of the total amount of calendula infused olive oil needed. As you can see, when working with small batches, even miniscule ingredient losses due to product transfers, can make a huge impact! Of course, if you are making a larger batch of emu oil salve, you can certainly measure out the calendula infused olive oil separately, as we would typically recommend, and then pour your pre-measured portion into the rest of the batch. The benefit of this method is that it will allow you to remove some of the calendula infused olive oil if you happen to accidentally over measure the ingredient. This, of course, would not be possible if you were measuring your calendula infused olive oil directly into the emu oil.

Now mix the calendula infused olive oil thoroughly into the emu oil until your entire emu oil salve recipe batch has a single uniform color.

Mixing the Calendula Infused Olive Oil into our Batch

To mix this very small batch, you can use a pipette (as shown above), the handle of your spoon, a wooden skewer, or even a toothpick!

After you incorporate the required amount of calendula infused olive oil into your emu oil salve recipe, you will have a decent amount of infused oil left over. Due to the nature of making botanical infusions, it is really not advisable to create a small batch of infused oil weighing only .15 ounces (approximately 4.25 grams) as you should have enough oil to adequately submerge the botanical. Also, your infused oil batch should be large enough to cover at least some of the surface area of your container which may aid in proper, even heating.

Tip: this excess calendula infused olive oil does not have to go to waste! You can save the leftovers for use in your next emu oil salve recipe batch or use it in a different project. In fact, this ingredient can really make a nice addition to any one of your homemade soaps! Simply add the calendula infused olive oil at trace to your standard soap batch. If you are adding this herbal infusion to your existing soap recipe without adjusting your recipe's oil quantities to include the infused oil (like we did with our popular calendula soap recipe) incorporate at a modest usage rate of only 1% - 2% of your total batch. For example, if you are making a batch of soap that weighs a total of 5 pounds (80 ounces), add approximately .8 ounce (1% of the total batch size) to 1.6 ounce (2% of the total batch size) of your calendula infused olive oil. Remember, due to the olive oil content, this ingredient will slightly increase the superfat level of your finished product. Our minimal usage rate, however, will prevent you from adding too much extra fat as too high of a superfat level could decrease your soap's lather. Calendula infused olive oil will add additional nutrients to your finished product!

Want to learn how to make a complete calendula soap that is formulated with a much higher usage rate of calendula infused oil? Then click here now to check out SMR's very popular calendula soap recipe tutorial!

Keep in mind that if you don't plan on using your calendula infused olive oil right away, you can always store it in the refrigerator to help extend the shelf life.

Step 4) Next, we are going to incorporate the second, and final, skincare additive into our emu oil salve recipe batch: SMR's carrot seed essential oil. For this 2 ounce emu oil salve recipe, we will be adding 1.1 gram (about 45 drops) of SMR's carrot seed essential oil. This is approximately a 2% usage rate.

Adding the Carrot Seed Essential Oil
Note: Because this small and very precise measurement of only 1.1 gram is very difficult to accurately weigh out on a standard scale, for your convenience, we decided to test this measurement in-house to find out approximately how many drops from a standard pipette is contained within 1.1 gram of SMR's carrot seed essential oil. Through multiple tests, we have determined that there are approximately 45 drops of SMR's carrot seed essential oil in 1.1 gram of this ingredient. We hope this conversion helps you! Of course, if you are making a larger emu oil salve recipe batch that, according to our usage rate, would require a significantly greater amount of carrot seed essential oil, you can always weigh out this ingredient on your scale as you usually would for larger ingredient amounts.

Now that SMR's carrot seed essential oil has been added to your batch, mix it thoroughly into the rest of your emu oil salve recipe ingredients. Again, if you are creating this very small batch that weighs only 2 ounces, use a small mixing apparatus here, like a pipette (as shown below), the handle of your spoon, a wooden skewer, or even a toothpick.

Mixing the Carrot Seed Essential Oil into our Batch

As shown all throughout this tutorial (including the picture above), we decided to mix the ingredients for this very small batch of emu oil salve directly within our finished product container. Because of this, we have no need to transfer our emu oil salve batch into any other vessel. If, however, you decided not to manufacture your product directly within the final packaging, but instead, mixed your formula ingredients within a separate "mixing container", go ahead and transfer your emu oil salve now into your final packaging of choice. Just make sure that you are extra diligent in ensuring that all of the salve has been successfully transferred to the new container. This stuff is definitely too good to waste!

Once your finished product is successfully packaged within your final container of choice, your emu oil salve project is officially complete!

Emu Oil Salve Finished Product
Expand the batch: If you need to make a larger commercial size batch, SMR's emu oil salve recipe is very easy to expand! Simply multiply each ingredient within the emu oil salve formula by an equal number. The multiplier you choose, of course, will be determined by how large of a batch you decide to make. For example, if you want to make a batch that is 30 times larger than our demonstrated 2 ounce recipe, in an effort to yield approximately 60 ounces of finished product, multiply each ingredient used within the recipe by 30 to determine exactly how much of each ingredient you will need in order to create your expanded batch! When expanding a formula to enlarge your batch size, it is vital that you keep all ingredients proportionately identical to the original recipe.

We hope that you enjoyed this tutorial everyone! SMR's emu oil salve that we produced within today's demonstration, incorporates many advantageous skincare ingredients to create a finished product that offers a plethora of valuable epidermal benefits. I am fully confident that you, your family and your customers will LOVE the high-end salve that this formula produces! Who knows, this emu oil salve could even become your next big hit product. We truly hope that it will!

SMR's emu oil salve is a very versatile product that may be used to help improve the condition of numerous epidermal ailments including acne, eczema, psoriasis, chronic dry skin and many other skin disorders. This product may also be used to help in the healing process of minor cuts, scrapes and burns, while potentially minimizing scarring. Furthermore, SMR's emu oil salve is simply an all-around great natural moisturizer that will soothe, hydrate and nourish the skin.

Keep in mind that in warm weather, your emu oil salve may lose its thickness and adopt a relatively thin, almost liquid-like consistency. This is due to emu oil's moderately low melting temperature. Of course, the thinning of your emu oil salve due to warm climate conditions will not diminish any of your product's skincare benefits. If your product has indeed thinned, simply apply the salve like you would any liquid oil-based moisturizer! Once the salve is exposed to cooler temperatures, it will gradually thicken back up.

Thank you everyone for reading SMR's emu oil salve recipe tutorial. Remember, all ingredients used within this formula are available to purchase in bulk right here at soap-making-resource.com!

If you ever have any questions about this recipe, or any other recipes on soap-making-resource.com, please feel free to contact us. We are always more than happy to help!

Also, be sure to thoroughly explore soap-making-resource.com for more valuable homemade soap and topical product manufacturing information, including additional recipe demonstrations and picture tutorials.


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