Whidbey Boo Boo salve

by Ritual Mischief

$18.00

Ah life! The sunshine, the hard work, the gardening, the playing, and the falling down! This salve is for the minor scrapes, cuts, and abrasions that are part of living, working, and playing: part of well-lived lives. Made with local, well-listened-to and loved plants. We make this for ourselves and friends out of plants we listen and gather—plants that are trusted friends. And, we are all adults here, so please check with a trusted medical professional--and your trusted parental others--before using this with young children. We do have friends with kids who use this with kids of all ages, but best to be cautious with kiddos!

Ingredients: Organic olive oil infused with local calendula, chamomile, dandelion flowers, purple dead nettle, and cottonwood buds, plus local beeswax. The calendula, chamomile, and purple dead nettle were grown here at Ritual Mischief on Whidbey. The dandelion flowers were grown here at Ritual Mischief and also ethically wild gathered on Whidbey in fields where they live well away from roads and poison spraying. The cottonwood buds came from windfall branches after winter windstorms gathered here on Whidbey, from along the East Skagit river, and from Arlington, WA (at our friends' wonderful Mountain Tree Farm). We use local beeswax from Maya Farm on Whidbey and Hive Harvest on the Olympic Peninsula and a tiny bit from Brambleberry in Bellingham, WA.   

Size/container: Food safe, reusable (or recyclable), 2-ounce, metal screw-top tin. If you'd like a larger tin of this, let me know. I'm thinking about doing a 4-ounce tin. See the Packaging page of this website for more details. 

To use: Use a clean, well-washed fingertip to apply a bit of salve to well-cleaned minor cuts, scrapes, and abrasions. One to three times a day, as needed. Cover with a clean bandage when that's helpful. Consult your trusted medical professional (doctor, nurse practitioner, naturopathic physician, or clinical herbalist, for example) for more serious cuts/scrapes/abrasions, and if your skin doesn't heal as expected, and also before using this salve with young children. As with all our products, if your body or their body doesn't like this salve, stop using it. 

What our relationships with local plants bring us! Your experience of the flowers, plants, and tree buds in this salve may be remarkably different from ours: that's the nature of relationships with the living. See medical disclaimer below. And. Here is what our relationships with the local plants and trees (interconnected with our relationship with the land, local wise women, and ancestors) in this salve bring to us:

  • Calendula - Infused into olive oil, calendula just seems to adore human skin! We use this skin healing and tissue and cell repair champ for scrapes, cuts, abrasions, chapped, and sometimes mildly sunburned skin. Has antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties, aka Boo Boo Superpowers. 
  • Dandelion flower - We find the dandelion flower-infused oil that we make to be both calming and mildly pain relieving, similar to lavender in some respects. And there's just something about the sunny disposition of the flowers and the bright yellow infused oil that is also uplifting to the spirit. Uplifted spirits are useful when you have a boo boo. 
  • Purple dead nettle - Another lovely, just-outside-our-doorstep friend that too many overlook as a "weed." Here we use it for its astringent (skin contracting) and styptic (stop bleeding) properties. It has antimicrobial (anti-bacteria and anti-fungal) properties, too. Thank you, humble and quiet beauty.
  • Cottonwood buds - Oh this powerhouse! Here, after just a few seasons of working with them, we can verify what so many other herbalists say (most recently I was reading Pacific Northwest Medicinal Plants by Scott Kloos, such a lovely book). Namely, that they reduce swelling, help prevent infection, and promote rapid skin regeneration, which is how they ended up in this salve. In listening to a dozen other herbalists, I'm also convinced that cottonwood bud oil will likely extend the life/shelf life of this salve well out beyond our other salves, but I haven't been making it long enough to know for sure. Here we also use our cottonwood bud-infused oil for joint and muscle pain and carpal tunnel pain and inflammation in other offerings. We’re so blown away by it that we added it to most of our body oil blends as well.
  • Chamomile - In this salve, we use chamomile-infused olive oil (not essential oil) because it's gentle (on the plants themselves and on us), and we believe its antimicrobial properties can help reduce the chance of infection. It also contributes a lovely scent to the balm. Pulled from the garden and infused into olive oil, it is a gentle, trusted friend. That said, if you're allergic to flowers in the Asteraceae family (chamomile's family), this may not be the boo boo salve for you. 

Medical Disclaimer: You should probably avoid this salve if you have a known allergy to the Asteraceae family (where chamomile flowers live). And as with all our products, if your body doesn't like the plant, listen to your body. To make well-informed decisions for yourself, seek the guidance of your qualified health provider, such as your medical doctor, nurse practitioner, naturopathic physician, and/or clinical herbalist with questions regarding your medical conditions, dosage information, and possible ingredient interactions with prescription drugs. This is especially important if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, taking prescription drugs, have a chronic disease or any chronic health concern, if you have allergies, or if you have never touched, worked with, or used products with these plants in them before. The information on this page is for general reference for further exploration and study. It is not intended as a replacement for professional medical advice. See the Medical Disclaimer page of this website for more details.

Shipping & Pick Up

We ship via U.S. Postal Service. Viva la public services! Whidbey Island friends & friends visiting Whidbey, save on shipping by picking up orders at Ritual Mischief on the west edge of Langley. Choose the Pick up delivery method at checkout if you intend to pick up your order, and we'll email or text you when it's ready and then arrange a convenient pick up time for you.

Refunds

If you order a product that doesn't work you, we will refund your money for up to 15 days after you received it. Proof of purchase required.

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