🌿 How to Make Homemade Cannabis Salve
CBD or THC — A Complete Guide
🌿 Homemade cannabis salve — healing, natural, and made with love.
📌 In This Article
🌿 What Is Cannabis Salve?
A salve is a healing solution that you put on your skin, including creams, ointments, or balms. Generally, salves are fairly thick, shelf-stable, and include nourishing oils such as coconut oil, olive oil, sweet almond oil, or others.
When cannabis is added to salve as an ingredient… voila! You've got yourself a cannabis salve. The most common way to add cannabis to a salve recipe is to create a cannabis-infused oil first, and then combine the oil with the other salve ingredients.
In our cannabis salve recipe, we prefer to use mostly coconut oil, because it is full of saturated fat that binds well with cannabinoids. It is also ultra-moisturizing. We also add a dash of olive oil to increase absorption and smoothness.
🔥 Using Decarboxylated or Raw Cannabis in Salve
If you aren't familiar with the term, decarboxylation is the process of heating cannabis at an ideal time and temperature to transform raw cannabinoid compounds from their "acid" form to more active and potent versions. For example, CBDA and THCA are changed into CBD and THC respectively.
💬 "The medicinal benefits of decarboxylated THC and CBD are well-documented. Both are anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, high in antioxidants, relieve pain, relax muscles, and suppress tumor growth."
On the other hand, emerging studies are revealing that raw THCA and CBDA have some pretty groovy perks too. THCA is showing a promising ability to reduce inflammation, muscle spasms, arthritis, and cancer. CBDA also fights inflammation and tumor growth.
Considering all of this, we like to use both decarbed and raw organic cannabis (containing both THC and CBD) to create a full-spectrum, well-rounded, ultra-healing finished product.
💚 What Can Cannabis Salve Be Used For?
- Psoriasis — Soothes and reduces flare-ups
- Eczema — Calms irritated, dry skin
- Rashes, itching, or other skin irritation
- General inflammation
- Sore joints & Arthritis
- Muscle aches — Including carpal tunnel syndrome
- Irregular cell growth — e.g., skin cancer cells
Personally, I like to rub a little cannabis salve on my tight and sore neck muscles, shoulders, wrists, knees, elbows, ankles, bottom of my feet, and behind my ears. Hey, all this gardening (and sitting to blog) does a number on my body!
🧬 How Does It Work?
Did you know we all have an Endocannabinoid System? Yep. Just like we have an endocrine system, immune system, digestive system, and so on. Our bodies have natural receptors, literally made to interact with cannabinoid compounds.
When cannabis salve or medicated topicals are applied to our skin, the THC, CBD, and other cannabinoids present in the solution penetrate the skin to bind and activate our localized endocannabinoid receptors. They won't enter the bloodstream however, so topically-applied salve will not get you "high".
📝 Homemade Cannabis Salve Recipe
Yield: Approximately 2 cups (16 ounces) | Prep time: 15 minutes | Infusion time: 1 hour
Supplies Needed
- A double-boiler, or make-shift double boiler (such as a glass pyrex bowl or stainless steel bowl perched on top of a saucepan with water below)
- Cheesecloth
- Fine mesh strainer
- Glass bowl
- Glass storage jars or salve tins
- Probe thermometer (recommended)
- A baking sheet (if not using already-decarboxylated cannabis)
Ingredients
👩🍳 Step-by-Step Instructions
1 Decarboxylate Your Cannabis
If you haven't done so already, the first step is to decarboxylate the cannabis you intend to use in this salve recipe. Or at least some of it, if you want to also use some raw material.
Grind or tear up the cannabis into fairly small pieces. Spread it evenly on a baking sheet, and heat it in the oven on 250°F for 25-30 minutes for THC-dominant strains. CBD requires about double the time to fully convert from CBDA to CBD, so heat hemp flower at the same temperature for 50-60 minutes instead. Or, meet in the middle at 45 minutes for balanced THC/CBD strains.
2 Create & Strain Cannabis-Infused Oil
When making cannabis oil, it is important to not overheat it. Because we are starting with already-decarboxylated cannabis, maintaining a lower temperature will preserve the already-active THC and CBD content as well as the terpenes. Avoid heating it over 200°F. 120 to 180°F is even better.
Steps to Make Cannabis-Infused Oil:
- Add water to the bottom pan of your double-boiler. Now add 1.5 cups of coconut oil to the top section. Heat until it melts.
- Stir in 7–10 grams of decarboxylated cannabis to the melted oil. Add an optional few grams of raw ground cannabis if you desire.
- Continue to heat the cannabis and oil over a low heat for 30 to 60 minutes, stirring occasionally. Use a probe thermometer to check the temperature, and adjust the heat as needed to maintain the oil below 200°F. We aim for a target temperature range of around 130 to 150°F and infuse for one hour.
- When the time is up, line a strainer with cheesecloth and position it over a glass bowl. Pour the cannabis and oil mixture through the strainer. Gather the cheesecloth and gently squeeze out the excess oil from the cannabis. Warning: the oil will be hot, and your hands will get greasy! You may want to wear food-grade gloves.
- Keep the strained cannabis oil aside for now. It will be added to the salve mixture soon.
3 Mix the Salve Ingredients
Just like the last step, we want to avoid excessively heating the cannabis oil in order to preserve cannabinoids. If you happen to be using solidified cannabis-infused coconut oil that you previously made, I highly suggest mixing everything in a double-boiler once again (since you'll need to heat it longer and hotter to re-melt your oil).
On the other hand, if you just made your cannabis oil and it is still liquified, you can do this step straight in a pot on the stove – keeping the heat as low as possible once the cannabis coconut oil is added.
In either a pot or double-boiler, add ⅓ cup of beeswax. Heat until it is completely melted. Now turn down the heat to low. Next, stir in 1.5 cups of strained cannabis coconut oil and ⅓ cup olive oil. Stir until everything looks completely combined. Once it is, remove the liquid salve from the heat and add optional vitamin E plus a few drops of optional essential oils as well. Finally, quickly transfer it into your storage containers of choice.
4 Cool & Store
When it is ready, pour the liquid salve straight into glass jars or salve tins. The cannabis salve will harden as it cools, and then it is ready to use!
It is best to store your finished cannabis salve in a cool dark location because light degrades cannabinoids. The amber and cobalt jars block UV light, which protects the salve if you leave it out.
5 Feel Good
Lather up! Apply a thin, even layer to the affected area. You should start to feel the results within 5 to 20 minutes, depending on the severity of your issue and strength of your salve. Repeat several times per day as needed.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
Just slightly! I find our salve to have a mild cannabis odor, but nothing overpowering. The coconut aroma also stands out. If you add essential oils to your recipe, that can also help to mask the smell.
When stored in ideal cool and dark conditions, homemade cannabis salve should last up to a year. The potency will only slightly decrease during this time.
Yes! If you already have cannabis-infused coconut oil, you can skip Step 2 and use 1.5 cups of it in Step 3. Just be sure to keep the heat low to preserve potency.
Yes! To make a stronger salve, simply use more cannabis flower during the infusion process. You can also use a higher ratio of cannabis to oil.
Absolutely! Many people use cannabis salve on their face for its moisturizing and anti-aging properties. Just be sure to patch test first if you have sensitive skin.
Final Thoughts
I hope you found this tutorial to be useful, interesting, and informative! I also hope that it helps you soothe your trouble spots, whatever those may be. Finally, please remember to heed caution depending on your local laws, and always be careful with your cannabis products around curious kiddos or pets.
💬 "Ready to make your own medicine? To grow and make your own medicine… that is the stuff that dreams are made of, am I right?!" 🌿✨
📄 Printable Recipe Card
╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ HOMEMADE CANNABIS SALVE ║
║ CBD or THC — A Complete Guide ║
╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
YIELD: 2 cups | TIME: 1 hour + decarb time
INGREDIENTS:
- 1.5 cups Coconut oil
- 7-10 grams Decarboxylated cannabis
- 5 grams Raw cannabis (optional)
- ⅓ cup Olive oil
- ⅓ cup Beeswax pastilles
- 1 tsp Vitamin E oil (optional)
- 4-5 drops Essential oils (optional)
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Decarb cannabis (250°F: 25-30 min for THC, 50-60 min for CBD).
2. Infuse cannabis in coconut oil for 30-60 min (below 200°F).
3. Strain oil through cheesecloth.
4. Melt beeswax, add cannabis oil and olive oil.
5. Add optional vitamin E and essential oils.
6. Pour into jars and cool.
"To grow and make your own medicine…
that is the stuff that dreams are made of." 🌿
🌿 You May Also Like
© How to Make Homemade Cannabis Salve (CBD or THC) 🌿
Comments