Calendula has quickly become one of my favorite herbs to work with. If you know anything about calendula this may come as no surprise, but if calendula (also known as marigold) still sounds foreign to you… fear not! With its incredible healing properties calendula will soon become a sought after companion in your herbal apothecary, too.
Topical Uses
To start, a couple of weeks ago my boyfriend mentioned to me that his hands had become extremely dry and cracked and red. This didn’t come as much of a surprise to me as the weather has started to get colder and with the non-stop handwashing due to covid-19, it seemed inevitable. And of course I felt terrible because his hands just looked so painful. I did a little bit of research online and decided that I would make a calendula infused oil. Of course calendula was the answer; with all of its vulnerary properties it helps inflamed, damaged cells to heal faster! That night, after making the calendula oil infusion and straining the plant matter, my boyfriend applied some of the calendula oil to his dry, inflamed hands. To our surprise when he woke up in the morning they were almost 100% better! You could no longer see any redness, just a little bit of flaky dead skin. We were both beyond impressed.
Similarly, For years my boyfriend has dealt with light red skin patches on his forehead. It’s kind of hard to describe them because they sort of look like pimples but they aren’t because they’re not raised from the skin, and the patches aren’t dry like eczema or psoriasis. They also don’t bother him in any way. Over the years he’s realized that the redness seems to lessen when he rinses his head in the shower with cool water, but no cream or lotion has ever gotten rid of them completely. Sidenote: his dad and brother also have the same skin condition on their foreheads (talk about genetics!). After the instant success he had with the calendula oil on his hands we thought, ‘why not use it on your forehead?!’. And so he did and you know what? No more red marks! The calendula oil has now become a part of his nightly routine and I must say, his skin looks amazing: bright, more even toned, and hydrated!
Lastly, I want to talk about my own personal experience with calendula, specifically with calendula oil as well. Over the past few years I’ve occasionally started to experience something I like to call “hot lips”. I’m not exactly sure why this happens, but my lips become a deeper color red and very sensitive to touch. I’ve tried to research online the potential causes and I haven’t been convinced yet of any of the information I’ve found so far. Oftentimes when I experience this hot, sensitive sensation in my lips it is accompanied by the corners of my mouth becoming very dry and cracked. After seeing such fast, positive results from my boyfriend utilizing calendula oil I decided to try it myself. After brushing my teeth at night, before I go to bed I have been dipping a q-tip in our calendula oil and rubbing it on my lips and then adding a light layer of vaseline on top of that. In just three days what I have noticed is that 1. the dry, cracked corners of my mouth have disappeared, 2. I no longer experience this burning sensation, and 3. my lips look very plump and lovely!
Calendula Oil: How to Make
To make the infusion I added about 10 grams of dried calendula flowers into a dry, sterilized, thermal resistant glass jar and added enough oil so that the flowers were covered. For this extraction I decided to use grapeseed oil because that was what I had on hand. Turns out it was probably the more preferable oil to use since (as I’ve read – thanks LearningHerbs.com!) it is quite stable and heat tolerant. I also created an aluminum ring to place the jar on when I added it to our New Chef (similar to an InstaPot) so that that jar wasn’t sitting directly on the heat. I filled the New Chef with water so that the water covered about half of the herb mixture and I left it on the warm setting for about 6 hours, checking it every couple of hours to make sure it wasn’t getting too hot. When you can see that the oil has become the color of the herbs you’ll know your oil has been infused and is ready to be pressed. I strained the plant material and stored the calendula oil in a tiny, clean, dry, opaque pump bottle that I saved from a face serum I purchased from the cosmetic store, and voila! High quality calendula oil that didn’t cost a fortune!
Calendula Oil FTW!
In conclusion, I would 100% encourage and recommend the topical application of calendula oil to any individual experiencing dry, irritated, or inflamed skin. In our personal experiences we have had great success at resolving skin conditions with calendula oil, and studies have confirmed time and time again that with respect to acute wound healing, calendula has the ability to shorten the inflammation phase and increase the production and formation of new, healthy cells.