Let me start by telling you about the two different types of topicals I make.
The first is my pain oil. It's made from actual dried bud, as I want the oil to be at least 15mg THC/ml oil. That's the number I have found to be the minimum for pain relief. I make it with a 50/50 blend of grapeseed and pumpkin seed oils, and it's done in the MB machine since it's easy to fit the decarbed bud and oil in there as the machine grinds it for you as it goes. The resulting oil goes in a bottle in my nightstand, small roller bottles for pocket/purse/desk, and the rest goes in the fridge. I'm sure you've seen tutorials on that, but if not I can point you to a few.
The second is what I call my skin salve. It is not high in THC because it's made from the rest of the plant after drying.
@SweetSue found
information in Roger Pertwee’s Handbook of Cannabis that quoted historical documents where the hemp plant in oil is recommended for burns.
Before I even read that, I had made some a few years ago with the roots, and I found it excellent for hives, itching, bites, and abrasions. This time I decided to save every bit of the plants I was taking down, let them dry, and make a big batch in a crock pot.
As I harvested the plant I would cut the stems into about 1" pieces and leave them in a bucket to dry. I also rinsed the roots, let them dry, and cut them with a scissors into the bucket. I also dried the fans and put them in the bucket after they were dry (to keep them from molding).
I ended up with two boxes that looked like this:
That was way more than would fit in the 5qt crockpot, so I have loads left over for the next batch:
I had three 14oz bottles of organic unrefined coconut oil that I put in the microwave to liquefy, so I could pour it in the pot:
It did not come close to covering the material!
So I went back to the store and bought another 3 jars, liquefied them, and added that to the mix. That's 84 liquid ounces of coconut oil:
You can see that the plant material is not completely covered, but every bit is touching oil.
I put the crockpot on low cook, as I wanted it to be around 180º. It was never exact so sometimes I would turn it up and when it started to bubble I would turn it down again. Whenever I walked past I would take a slotted spoon and mix it up and push it back under the oil.
After 48 hours, the oil had been absorbed into all the material, so it now looked like this:
I continued the infusion process for 4 days to make sure that all the goodness from inside the stems and roots had a chance to get into the oil. Drying the stems eliminates all the water from the material but also makes it take longer to re-oildrate them.
At the end of the process, I used a straining spoon and removed most of the plant from the crock pot.
And put it in a metal pot:
I poured the crock pot oil into another pot and used a strainer to catch what the straining spoon did not. Then I scooped out the plant material and pressed it into the strainer to get out what I could.
I tossed out the leftover plant material and it was time to add the beeswax. I went with beeswax over soy wax because beeswax is supposed to have anti-inflammatory properties, which is a good thing to have in a skin salve!
Beeswax is harder to clean up, so I created a throw-away double boiler out of tin foil:
And I did all my mixing of oil and beeswax in large pyrex measuring cups because I find them easier to clean than metal pots.
Figuring out how many grams of beeswax to use per cup of oil took a long time, but here is my final recipe. I ended up with
25g beeswax/cup of oil, but I might go with 30g/cup for slightly stiffer product at room temperatures.
I had ordered what I thought were push-up dispensers from Amazon, but they turned out to be twist up like deodorant and much bigger than I thought. Still, they work fine:
I filled 12 of them and still had a jar and a half left over. I left them to cool on the counter over night and put them in the fridge in the morning. They're okay on the counter but don't leave them in a hot car or leaning on their side in warm weather. Even beeswax will melt as the temps rise. And for longer term storage, the fridge is best as coconut oil won't keep forever with all that organic material in it.
Oh, and it works. I got bitten by a mosquito last night right between my first and middle finger and it was driving me nuts. I rubbed this on and it didn't itch again until after my shower this morning!
I hope this helps
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