Tag: herbal oil

Tea Tree Oil Antifungal Treatment Stick for Red Spots and Rashes – Garden Therapy
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This homemade tea tree oil antifungal treatment stick helps to soothe red spots and rashes in a gentle but direct way. While it’s always best to look for the underlying cause of skin redness or irritation, this healing balm in a stick allows for quick relief of small spots to stop pain and itching while healing from within.

I consider myself a fan of fungi, except when it’s growing on my body. I’m not talking about sprouting mushrooms out of my ears, although that would actually be pretty funny! I’m talking about when fungus takes up residence somewhere on your skin. It can show up as red patches, acne, itchy skin, and more. We all have microorganisms that colonize our skin.

It’s called the microbiome, and it’s a good thing! Similar to the soil microbes that make healthy soil or the gut flora that makes up a healthy digestive tract, microbes on our skin help protect our bodies and keep us healthy.

But like all things, occasionally, there can be an undesirable fungus or bacteria that takes up residence. In general, skin is self-healing and the best practice is to use natural products on your skin and eat a healthy diet with complete whole foods.

If your skin is flaring up, then it could be a message that something else is going on. I encourage you to go get it looked at by a healthcare professional to investigate the cause rather than treat the symptoms. That being said, if you’re doing all the right things, you can still occasionally have some spots pop up.

That’s where this tea tree antifungal treatment stick comes in handy! This post will cover…

Lavender and tea tree and both powerful herbs with antifungal properties.

Herbal Antifungal Treatment Stick Ingredients

The main ingredients in the antifungal treatment stick are tea tree essential oil, lavender essential oil, and calendula herbal-infused oil.

Tea Tree Essential Oil

Tea tree oil is native to Australia and comes from melaleuca shrubs and trees, or paperbarks. The leaves and twigs are steam distilled to extract the essential oil.

Tea tree essential oil is widely used in skin care products, and I dare say it is overused. While it has antifungal, antibacterial, and antiviral properties, overuse can also cause skin irritation. I also don’t want to remove all the beneficial bacteria, fungi, and organisms that live on our bodies.

So creating a treatment stick with a bit of tea tree oil, is a way to use it in an intentional, directed way, avoiding overuse and the potential complications that come from it.

Lavender Essential Oil

I’ve written much about lavender and skin care because it also has similar properties to tea tree oil while being gentle and calming for the skin. Its potency depends which plant variety is made into essential oil, with Lavandula angustifolia being the gentlest. Adding a few drops of lavender essential oil helps to balance out the tea tree, and soothes the skin.

Herbal Infused Oil

The herbal oil that I used for this recipe is also infused with calendula. I’ve also written extensively about calendula and how to make infused oils. I grow calendula in my garden, harvest the flower heads liberally, dry them, and then turn them into a wonderfully potent herbal oil that I use in many skin care recipes throughout the year.

The blend of tea tree, lavender, and calendula-infused oil, makes it a wonderful way to help bring some relief and healing to the spots on your skin that need a little extra attention.

You can also infuse lavender buds directly into the grapeseed oil as well.

Tea Tree Oil Antifungal Treatment Stick Recipe

My son had a mysterious itchy spot on his chest, at first I thought it was a bruise when it didn’t go away and it continue to itch I knew that it was something else. Certainly not something that causes too much discomfort, but he did scratch it several times a day, so I wanted to try to ease the spot with a bomb that was gentle, easy to apply, and long-lasting.

I came up with this recipe as a gentler way to apply tea tree oil than using a roller bottle. Making it into a solid balm allows it to stay in place longer and requires less application. Putting a balm into a tube is the perfect way to apply an antifungal treatment to the spot and something that he could do on his own.

When I first made this recipe, I tried it on a few of my spots first. One spot in particular had been on my body for more than a year. It didn’t bother me, so I didn’t think much of it, but when I tested the balm on it, it went away in four days! It was clearly a perfect match. I made a bunch more and handed it out to others for testing. After a few tweaks to the formulation, this is now the balm that I use to treat mysterious little red spots, naturally.

Ingredients

Makes 3 x 10 ml sticks (lip balm tubes). See recipe card below for exact measurements.

Jump to Recipe

Materials

Weigh all your ingredients ahead of time.

Make it!

Melt the wax, over medium-low heat in a Turkish coffee pot, double boiler, or a small pot with a pour spout.

Add the oil when the wax is liquefied and melt all of the ingredients together. Stir constantly and keep a watchful eye on the oils. You want them to just reach the melting point and not overheat. When the oils have melted and combined, add the essential oils and stir well.

You can store this recipe in small pots or tubes. If you are using pots, pour the hot liquid into the pots and leave untouched until set.

If you are using tubes, fill each tube halfway full and let cool slightly. This will set the bottom of the tube so that a hole doesn’t form in the top of the lip balm when cooled. Before the balm is fully set, fill the rest of the way.

Leave untouched to set for an hour, then apply as needed.

NOTE: always do a spot test before using widely on your skin. Test a small area on the inside of your arm and wait 24 hours to see if you have a reaction.

Fungal Treatment Stick FAQ

Can this be used on the face?

Yes, you can use this on the face. It should be okay for both dry and oily skin. I recommend doing a spot test first and waiting 24 hours to see if there is any reaction.

Can I add shea butter to this recipe?

You could add shea butter to this recipe since it is also known to be antifungal. It would stay on the skin topically more rather than go into the skin, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

I decided to omit using any kind of butter for this recipe since I wanted to absorb it better. I tried a variation where I used 55g of calendula-infused grapeseed oil and 10g of shea butter, but I didn’t like it as much as this recipe—this recipe gets drawn right into the skin.

More Healing Recipes for the Skin
Tea Tree Oil Antifungal Treatment Stick

Use this all-natural antifungal stick to treat red spots, pimples, and rashes.

Melt wax over medium-low heat in the Turkish coffee pot or a small pot with a pour spout.

Once melted, add in the oil, stirring constantly. Once combined, stir in the essential oils. Do not let oils overheat, and only heat until combined/reached melting point.

Pour into small lip balm tubes. Alternatively, pour into small pots. If pouring into tubes, pour until halfway full, let cool slightly, and then fill the rest of the way.

Leave untouched until fully cool.

Test a small area on the inside of your arm and wait 24 hours before applying to other parts of your skin.
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Stephanie Rose

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October 4, 2024
Healing Lemon Balm Lip Balm for Cold Sores – Garden Therapy
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Lemon balm’s antiviral properties make it a popular herb for the treatment of cold sores, chicken pox, bug bites, and other little red spots. This recipe for lemon balm lip balm not only has a bright and cheery lemon fragrance, but it also is a great way to prevent and treat cold sores.

Lemon balm is the herb for little red spots. It makes a fresh and delicious tea and grows like crazy in the garden, but in herb circles, it’s known for so much more.

This powerful and plentiful herb is one of the best ways to treat AND prevent cold sores from happening. I use it year round, helping to stop the annoying red dots from popping up. And as a bonus, I have a use for all the lemon balm that never stops popping up in the garden.

Making your own lip balm is quite easy, and infusing it with lemon balm is also a simple process. Here’s how you can make your own lemon balm lip balm for cold sores.

Get to Know Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis)

When I first started gardening I used to pull out lemon balm by the handfuls and throw it into the compost bin. While I love the fresh, bright, lemony smell and the pretty mint-like leaves, it grows like crazy and seems to be in every spot of the garden. Now, that I’ve mostly cleared it out of all the spaces where it was growing naturalized I can’t help but wonder

“What the heck was I doing!”

That wonderful lemon balm has so many uses! And so now I start lemon balm from seed, place it in the garden, and happily harvest any extras that might pop up.

Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) essential oil is one of the most expensive essential oils you can buy. Because of its price point, it’s not very commonly used in aromatherapy. But it’s also reserved because it is incredibly powerful in strong concentrations (like you’ll find an essential oil).

It is more common to see herbal preparations as tea, honey, and infused oil for the home herb lover. I love it as a herbal infusion in skin care products, as a powerful cleaner, and skip the essential oil altogether.

Herbal Benefits of Lemon Balm

Lemon balm is used as a calming herb that soothes anxiety and helps to tone the nervous system. Not to be confused with herbs like chamomile and hops that help to promote sleep and rest, lemon balm is calming but also uplifting.

It helps to reduce anxiety and depression symptoms and lift spirits. Perhaps this is also how it helps its cold sores, which are caused by stress. It’s antiviral properties mean it also helps to prevent more cold sores from popping up.

Cold Sores (Ugh.)

Cold sores on the face are caused by the Herpes Simplex 1 virus (HSV-1). I got this delightful gift from my mom, and I try pretty darn hard not to pass it on to my kiddo. Cold sores are a real bumme; they hurt and itch, and it feelsl like you have a painful watermelon growing on your face for everyone in the whole world to see.

And they have the delightful habit of popping up when you are sick, on vacation, getting photos taken, or hosting an event. Which makes sense, because the virus lies dormant in our body until it is triggered by stress or a reduced immune system.

They are called cold sores because they usually accompany a lower immune system caused by the common cold, but for me, they’re actually more frequent in times of stress, both emotional and physical.

When I’m feeling stressed and run down, I’ll inevitably pop up a cold sore on my lip. Or if I go out into the sun without wearing sunscreen lip balm. Usually it’s after a period of no sun exposure, and then a sudden change to direct sun on my face like a sunny skiing day, a tropical winter vacation, or the beginning of the summer at home.

This is why I now always have a supply of lemon balm lip balm for cold sores when they show their ugly faces.

Harvesting Lemon Balm for Infused Oil

The best time to harvest lemon balm is before flowering. This is when most of the volatile oils are available in the leaves and stems. Pinching back the plant by a third will also increase its robustness and fullness.

You can happily harvest a bunch of fresh green lemon balm leaves from the top third of the plant and the rest of the plant will be quite happy and grow back denser and sturdier.

Be sure to only harvest and use healthy-looking green leaves. Any decay, brown spots or powdery mildew is not something that you want to add into infused oils. Add the cuttings into a salad spinner and rinse well with water. Then spin to remove all topical water.

Lay the lemon balm out on herb drying screen and allow it to wilt for 24 hours. Lemon balm doesn’t usually have any pests but if there are any, this will give them a chance to go find a new home. More importantly, it allows a lot of the water to release.

In most cases, I strongly recommend that herbs are dried prior to infusing them into oil because when water is introduced to an oil infusion, it can also introduce bacteria and mould growth.

In this case, lemon balm infusions are much more effective using the fresh leaves. Lemon balm studies have shown some antibacterial properties, and some sources report antifungal properties as well, both of which will help to keep the oil from growing bacteria and fungus.

Even so, if I’m using the fresh herbs I’m sure to make it in small batches and use it up quickly, within 4 to 6 weeks. Additionally, if you notice any discoloration, sediment, or indication of mould or fungus, discontinue use immediately.

Lemon Balm Lip Balm for Cold Sores

Because we are using the fresh herb I recommend using a heat infusion method, rather than cold infusion which will take 4 to 6 weeks and itself. See how to do the heat infusion in this post: Three Ways to Make Herbal Oils for Natural Beauty Recipes.

Materials

Ingredients

See exact measurements in recipe card below.

Jump to Recipe

Make it!

Melt the wax, over medium-low heat in a Turkish coffee pot, double boiler, or a small pot with a pour spout. Add the oils and butter when the wax is liquefied and melt all of the ingredients together.

Stir constantly and keep a watchful eye on the oils. You want them to just reach the melting point and not overheat.

Fill each tube halfway full and let cool slightly. This will set the bottom of the tube so that a hole doesn’t form in the top of the lip balm when cooled.

Before the tubes are starting to set, fill the rest of the way, so there is a convex curve on the top (be careful not to spill over the edges). When the lip balm cools, it will shrink so it should end up having a flat top. If you need to even out the top, a heat gun works really well.

FAQ About Lemon Balm Lip Balm

Is Vaseline lip balm good for cold sores?

A petroleum jelly lip balm like Vaseline can moisturize a cold sore and help ease the discomfort and pain that can come from it. However, it won’t actually heal the cold sore. Lemon balm has antiviral properties that can help prevent cold sores and the calming nature of the herb reduces the stress that causes them.

What could trigger a cold sore?

Most of the time, the virus (HSV-1) lies dormant until something triggers it. This can include stress, fatigue, being on your period, exposure to strong sunlight, an injury in the affected area, and having another infection.

Is it okay to put lip balm on cold sores?

Lip balm helps to keep the area moisturized and prevent the sore from drying out and cracking. But once you use a lip balm on a cold sore, it is contaminated. Dispose of the lip balm after the cold sore heals.
Lemon Balm Lip Balm

This lemon balm-infused lip balm is ideal for treating and preventing cold sores.

8 g extra virgin coconut oil

12 g lemon balm infused organic grapeseed oil

6 g beeswax

4 g raw cocoa butter

Melt the wax over medium-low in a small pot with a spout.

Once the wax is melted, add in the oils and butters.

Keep stirring. Let the combination just reach the melting point, but don’t let them overheat.

Fill your lip balm tubes halfway and let cool slightly. This stops a hole from forming in the middle.

Once starting to set, fill the tubes the rest of the way until there is a convex curve on top. This should shrink once cooled into a flat top.
More Herb-Infused Recipes for Healing Skin Care
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Stephanie Rose

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August 21, 2024
Herbal Guide to St. John’s Wort: How to Grow, Harvest, and Use St. Johns
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St. John’s wort is a cheerful, useful plant that any herbalist can easily add to her medicine cabinet. Here is the history of the plant and how to grow it (or forage it). Plus, learn the benefits of St. John’s wort, plus three different ways you can use it.

Recently, I was out for a walk with my herbalist friend, Lori Snyder, and we started talking about St. John’s Wort. I met Lori a few years ago when she left a comment here on Garden Therapy, and I immediately recognized her name as a local herbal teacher in Vancouver who offers many herb walks and plant talks. I messaged her directly to say hello, and a friendship was born!

Over the years, I have attended many of Lori’s herb walks, and plant medicine talks both in-person and online. On the day we chatted about St. John’s Wort, it was blooming all around us and Lori mentioned that with the worldwide uncertainly and stress, folks could really use some of its wonderful benefits.

I invited Lori to share her wisdom with us today. I will hand it over to her now so you can get to know my dear friend and this timely healing herb.

While no longer popular, St. John’s wort has a long history of herbal use.

Herbal Guide to St. John’s Wort

Written by Lori Snyder

St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum) is often labeled a weed which is not really her true identity nor a representation of her true gifts. After all, “wort” is an old English word for “herb”.

The History of St John’s Wort

Like so many ‘weeds,’ there can be a lot of conflicting information. Sometimes, we forget how long these medicinal healing plants have been growing with us and helping us stay balanced and healthy.

Back in the 1800s, if your neighbour was sad, overwhelmed, and anxious (like many of us are today), you would have thought they were possessed! The village herbalist would recommend they drink St. John’s wort flower tea and after 6-8 weeks the neighbour would have reported that they felt like a light inside them had turned back on. That’s because this magical healing plant is said to help with mild to moderate depression.

This has been proven true in modern times as well. In fact, research in Germany has recognized St. John’s wort to be helpful for depression officially since 1984.

St. John’s wort flowers from May to August, and the seeds ripen from July to September.

Growing the St. John’s Wort Plant

St. John’s wort is described as a mid-size perennial with yellow flowers which differs from other Hypericums by the “perforations” in the leaf, filled with red resinous glands of hypericin and other active compounds.

Planting: St John’s Wort spreads by seed and well as an active vegetative root.

Height and Spread: It will grow to 0.9 m (3ft) by 0.6 m (2ft in).

Zone: USDA plant hardiness zones 5 through 10.

Soil: St John’s Wort grows well in sand, clay, rocky soil or loam, and tolerates acidic to slightly alkaline pH.

Light requirements: St. John’s wort can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade.

Watering: St. John’s wort prefers moist soil.

Flowering: St. John’s wort is in flower from May to August, and the seeds ripen from July to September. The species is hermaphrodite (has both male and female organs) and is pollinated by bees and flies. The plant is self-fertile.

Invasive Species Alert

In the US and Canada, St. John’s wort is often considered a noxious weed, also referred to as Klamath weed. The BC Invasive Species Council warns that St. John’s Wort can cause injury to light-skinned cattle and has a protective covering on the seeds that allows it to survive for up to 10 years. Additionally, a single plant can produce up to 100,000 seeds.

Keep in mind that what is a weed to some is a wildflower to others. St. John’s Wort is full of wonderful properties beneficial for people, the land, and our pollinators.

St. John’s wort is a perennial, and self-fertile.

Foraging the St. John’s Wort Plant

You might find the St. John’s Wort plant growing anywhere soil has been disturbed. This includes open woods, grasslands, in dry sunny places, along roadways, in the cracks of sidewalks, alongside pastures, or even in your garden. I know Stephanie has some growing in her garden because I harvested some to infuse in oil on her windowsill during my last visit.

You can identify St. John’s Wort by holding the leaf up to the light to look for the small glands that look like holes. The flower has ten times more glands than the leaf or stem, which is why it is so often used in herbalism.

Harvesting St John’s Wort

Its prevalence means that planting it in your garden is unnecessary; you can very likely find wild plants with plenty of flowers to share.

I have harvested from late June into late August.

The best time to harvest is in the mid-day when the medicinal properties are at its height. Harvest the flower tops, leaf, and stem. The stems are quite stiff so best to use scissors.

Never harvest more than 1/3 of the plant.

St John’s Wort Benefits

Now that you know how to identify and harvest this fascinating plant, let’s talk about why you should do so. The benefits of St. John’s wort are well-worth your efforts—here are just a few.

St. John’s Wort for Depression and SAD

The chemical component of ‘hypericin’ is known to interfere with monoamine oxidase (MOA), which contributes to depression. Pharmaceutical products also act as MOA inhibitors; however, St. John’s Wort is slower-acting and has few side effects.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, we can have long cloudy winters with little sun so I use this daily on my face as my moisturizer which is very effective for SAD. Some people who are fair-skinned report that they are more sensitive to the sun when using St. John’s wort oil; however, the sun is not as strong in the winter so anyone applying it then should be fine.

Those with fair skin should be cautious about using St. John’s wort oil on their skin when the sun is strong.

Digestive and Nervous System Benefits

St John’s Wort is also used for the digestive and nervous system. It improves the absorption of nutrients and normalizes stomach acid levels which fluctuate as we age. Helpful for ulcers, heartburn and bloating.

It is also helpful with bedwetting, menstrual challenges, menopause, liver tension as it gently decongests and strengthens both liver and the gallbladder.

St. John’s Wort as a Pain Reliever

St. John’s Wort is said to be very helpful as a pain reliever and repairs skin tissue. I use it for my sciatica, applying the infused oil on my lower back and down my leg where the pain is.

St. John’s Wort Side Effects and Warnings

Please do not take St. John’s Wort with antidepressants without the supervision of an herbalist or medical practitioner. Like any herb, it is important that you research it and check with your health care professional before using it, as it might have any interactions with drug medications.

A research paper in 2000 was published, which raised a new concern. St John’s Wort extract was shown to improve liver function. Although this would normally be considered to be a good thing, this paper raised the concern that improved liver function might cause pharmaceutical drugs to be broken down more quickly and could mean that people who needed to have a drug active in their system 24 hours per day, could now, in theory, have a gap where the drug was not active.

This could potentially be a problem.

For example, if a woman was taking the contraceptive pill and St. John’s Wort, then there could now be a time during 24 hours when her pill would not be actively working in her body, and she could, in theory, become pregnant.

How to Use St. John’s Wort

There are three ways I’d recommend to use this helpful plant: an oil, as a tincture, and as a dream pillow.

How to Make St. John’s Wort Oil

Infusing fresh flowers and leaves into vegetable oil makes a soothing facial oil that has many uses. Only fresh flowers can be used for infusions, not dried plant material.

Infuse it into vegetable oil and place it in a sunny window to infuse in the sun for one month.

The infused oil will turn a beautiful red. Then, strain out the plant material, bottle it, and label it.

How to Use St. John’s Wort Oil

There are many ways you can use this oil. A few ideas include:
- as a facial oil
- for back pain
- sciatica
- neuralgia
- arthritic joints and arthritis
- help heal wounds
- heal surgical scars
- assist with bruises and sprains
Make a Tincture

You can also make it into an alcohol tincture for seasonal affective disorder, liver congestion, shingles, nervous exhaustion, menopausal moods, viral infections, and jet lag.

Alcohol tinctures are used to extract different chemical components that are alcohol soluble. Some folks are very precise in preparing weight and volume, but I prefer the simple folklore method of 1 part plant to 2 parts alcohol.

Make sure the plant material is completely covered, shake daily for four weeks, then strain out the plant and label your bottle with the date.

Tinctures can last up to 10 years.

Dose 1-4 ml 3x daily. I suggest noticing how you react to any type of stimulus as to the best dosage for your body type.

DIY Dream Pillow

Make a dream pillow with flowers and leaves and place it into a small cloth bag or a square piece of fabric and gather to tie up.

Place under your pillow for nightmares, bad dreams, and fear of the dark.

Final Thoughts About St. John’s Wort

Friends helping friends is a good motto and I am grateful to Stephanie Rose for inviting me to write for Garden Therapy. We met a few years ago and over time have been growing our friendship.

There is a lot of information and research on this bright little yellow flower that offers so much healing for us emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and physically. I am so grateful for her teachings and now we can harvest her medicine vs. spraying her with poisons that eventually poison us as we are all part of the same web.

Chief Seattle once shared….The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life; he was merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

Blessings, dear friends,

All our relations,

~ Lori

More Herbal Guides to Enjoy:
3 Ways to Use St. John’s Wort

St John’s wort is a fascinating plant filled with helpful medicinal properties. Learn three different methods for utilizing it, and enjoy the benefits.

St. John’s Wort Oil

1 cup vegetable oil

1 handful St. John’s wort flowers must be fresh, not dried

St. John’s Wort Tincture

1 part St. Johns wort

2 parts alcohol

DIY Dream Pillow

1 cloth bag or square piece of fabric

1 handful of flowers and leaves

To Make the Oil

Pour the oil into a glass jar, and add the flowers.

Let it sit on a sunny windowsill.

Infuse for one month.

Strain the flowers out and re-bottle the oil.

To Make the Tincture

Combine the alcohol and plant, making sure that the plant material is completely covered.

Let it sit for four weeks, but make sure to shake it daily.

Strain out the plants and rebottle, then label.
About the Author

Lori Snyder is a Métis herbalist and educator sharing stories and teachings with children and adults in Vancouver, BC, for the last seven years. She has studied horticulture, aromatherapy, herbalism and permaculture and has a deep love for nature. Tsuu T’ina, Anishinaabe, Cree, Nakoda, and Nipissing Nations are mixed with her Scottish, French, and Celtic ancestry. She loves honouring the plants and their medicines which are growing all around us.

You can find Lori on her website, on Instagram, on Facebook and at the Artists in residence at Hastings Community Centre.

You can also take a fascinating online course with Swallowtail tours featuring Lori’s teachings, or join her at the Earthgleaners community guild where her teachings are being featured in July-Sept. If you are in (or will be in) the Vancouver area, you can even join her for an Airbnb experiences plant walk!
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Stephanie Rose

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August 2, 2024