Dandelion Salve Recipe & Uses

Learn how to make dandelion salve using the flower buds of the common weed that possesses a ton of uses and benefits.

Dandelions are considered a weed by many people, but they have a ton of benefits and uses. Actually, there are dozens of recipes and things you can do with dandelions.

They grow all over our property throughout the year, and I’ve learned to snatch them up as soon as I see them, while leaving plenty behind for the bees of course!

I learned this the hard way, as with many things on the homestead. I noticed they would pop up all over the place, I’d make a mental note to go pick them in the next few days, and by the time I’d go outside to do it, they’d be gone!

Dandelion flower usually open up in the morning and close at night. After just a couple of days in flower, they close for good, developing seeds inside the closed head. That’s another good reason to leave some behind – to let some go to seed.

There are still uses for the leaves and closed heads of dandelions, but if you’re wanting to use the flower buds, you have to move fairly quickly unless your yard is completely covered in them.

Related: How to make a Peppermint Headache Salve

Dandelion Benefits

All parts of the dandelion can be used, and they’re usually eaten or steeped into a tea. This is because dandelion contains sugars, iron, zinc, calcium, boron, and many more minerals, as well as vitamins K, B, A, C, and E.

It’s also a diuretic and supports kidney and liver function.

However, it has awesome benefits for your skin as well, making a healing salve a great choice for applying dandelion topically. It’s anti-inflammatory properties are well documented.

• It can soothe skin irritations, making it great for chapped, dry, and itchy skin
• Great on sunburns
• Eases pain of sore muscles, making it a wonderful choice for those with arthritis

I could go on and on about the healing properties and benefits of dandelion, and what’s more exciting is it’s backed by science. It’s even been proven to kill cancer cells, though you should know it’s not an outright cure. Still amazing!

In this article we’ll focus on the topical use of homemade dandelion salve, as well as how to make it.

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Dandelion Salve Recipe

Ingredients for Dandelion Salve

• Dandelion flowers
• Carrier oil
• Beeswax

Now I’ve read many different dandelion salve recipe posts, and of course, they’re all more or less the same. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?

The best thing I learned about making healing salves since starting a few years ago, is that you don’t actually need to measure things out once you get the hang of it. In fact, an herbal salve has only 3 base ingredients. Here’s a post I shared a while back about that:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Victoria🌻Modern Homestead Mama (@modernhomesteadmama) on Mar 15, 2019 at 1:42pm PDT

What you NEED for an herbal salve:

• Herbs (in this case, dried dandelion flowers)
• Carrier oil (you can choose whichever you like. I really like using almond oil)
• Beeswax (this is my favorite beeswax, but I ran out of it for this recipe)

From here, you can customize your salve however you like. The sky is the limit. Many of my salve recipes include shea butter or cocoa butter, like my all purpose healing calendula comfrey salve, while others are nothing but base ingredients, like my yarrow salve.

It’s really up to you! That’s what drew me to working with medicinal plants in the first place. Once you start to learn the benefits of different ingredients and herbs, you can make any recipe your own!

All of this to say, that I did not measure the amount of dandelions, oil, or beeswax used in this recipe. I simply eyeballed it. It goes without saying that using more beeswax will result in a balm-like salve, while less beeswax makes a creamier salve. It’s all personal preference.

The ratio I use for making salves is 1 part beeswax to 3 parts infused oil. I don’t measure the flowers or herbs anymore, I simply fill up a mason jar about halfway, and pour the carrier oil to the top of the jar, completely covering the petals.

How to Make Dandelion Oil

Step 1: Collect dandelion flowers.

The one thing you don’t want to do is collect flowers that have pesticides on them. Be sure to always keep that in mind. I wouldn’t suggest foraging for these in public areas unless you can say without a shadow of a doubt, that you know they’ve not been treated with anything.

The best thing you can do is collect them from your own property, since you know exactly what has been in or on your yard. You can also ask neighbors if you can pick any dandelions growing in their yard, given that they don’t spray pesticides.

In fact, they’d probably be happy if you did!

You can use whichever parts of the dandelion you want to make a salve, but most people stick to the flower heads. Simply pop the heads off and bring them in your house to dry.

Step 2: Pick an infusion method.

There are 2 main ways to infuse your oil: cold infusion or heat infusion. Whichever method you choose, it’s recommended that you let the dandelion flowers dry out at least a little bit. Skipping this step could lead to mold in a cold infusion (ask me how I know), and a shorter shelf life for either method.

Cold Infusion

This is my preferred method for infusing oil. It’s considered the “traditional” way to infuse oils. I call it the “lazy” way. I love projects that require little maintenance, and cold infusing oils is certainly one of them, though it does take quite a long time. The longer you let it infuse, the better, but I generally shoot for about 6 weeks minimum.

To do a cold infusion of dandelion oil, fill a mason jar up about halfway, maybe a little more with dandelion flowers. Pour your carrier oil of choice over the flower buds until the jar is full. Make sure the petals are completely covered and put a lid on.

From here, you can stick your jar of oil and dandelion flowers in a cabinet and shake it a bit every few days (or when you remember). After about 6 weeks, strain the flower petals and you have a super potent, beautiful dandelion oil!

Quick Infusion

I chose to quickly infuse my oil for this post, as I wanted to publish it in time for people to snag some dandelions and make their own salves as well this Spring. I was also a bit scared of my infusion molding again, even though I dried the flowers out sufficiently this year.

A quick infusion, or heat infusion requires you to heat up your oil and dandelion flowers and let it simmer and infuse for several hours. It really speeds the process up when you’re in a pinch.

My sister-in-law uses her crockpot for heat infusions, while I typically prefer doing a double boil setup on the stove. If you have a proper double boiler, you can use that. I usually take a measuring cup or mason jar, fill it with the flowers and oil, and stick it in a small pot of water.

Bring the water to a light boil and turn that sucker back down to a simmer and infuse your oil for several hours. When it’s done, strain the flower buds out, and voila! You now have a quick dandelion oil!

I heated my buds up straight in a small pot this year, and it worked just fine because I kept a close eye on it the entire time and had the heat set as low as it would go. I don’t recommend this for beginners though, as it’s easy to burn your plant material. I’ve made that mistake before.

How to Make Dandelion Salve

Now that you have your dandelion oil ready to go, simply set up a double boiler and add some beeswax. The ratio of infused oil to beeswax is about 3:1. 3 parts infused oil, and 1 part beeswax. Add some more beeswax if you want a salve that’s closer to a balm.

Heat until the beeswax melts, stir, and pour into a mason jar and let it set. 

Your dandelion salve should last several months, up to a year in the right storage conditions!

What have you made with dandelions? Do they grow in your yard every Spring? I’d love to hear any tips or recipes you have! Leave a comment down below.

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