DIY Calendula Eye Balm
Ease those tired eyes with this incredible Calendula Eye Balm. This eye balm is so soothing, you will feel like your eyes are sparkling. It moisturizes, reduces fine lines, and is anti-inflammatory to reduce puffiness.
Making it yourself allows you to control the ingredients you put on your face, including the delicate skin around your eyes. The recipe includes step-by-step instructions for infusing your own oil with dried calendula and then using that to create this DIY Calendula Eye Balm.
Out of curiosity, I looked up Calendula Eye Balms for sale and the going rate was over $45 USD! I’m sure this recipe is double the amount I saw for sale, and I already had most of the ingredients.
Growing Calendula
Many of us are scouring the seed catalogs and planning or even planting our spring gardens. Calendula is at the top of my list this year. This incredible plant can be grown in pots, in the vegetable garden, herb garden, and is hugely ornamental, making it a pretty addition to any perennial or annual border. It is a fantastic companion plant for most other plants and is a great friend of beneficial and pollinating insects.
Beyond being beautiful in the garden, calendula, in its many forms, is edible. The gorgeous orange or yellow petals can be tossed in salads or used as a garnish.
If you are thinking of growing Calendula for its many medicinal qualities, just make sure it is Calendula officinalis. The officinalis part of any botanical name was given to the plant to show their therapeutic medicinal qualities back in medieval times.
The medicinal qualities of Calendula go well beyond skincare, but since this is our focus in this recipe, we’ll stick to those qualities. Calendula has proven itself in its role of wound healing and contributing to healthy glowing skin. Some of us might be old enough to remember the old wives’ tale of putting butter on burns. This is because butter used to be colored yellow with calendula. We know now that butter is not going to help heal any burns. Luckily for us, calendula still has all its healing powers.
Infusing Oil with Calendula
I heard recently about a fast way to extract all the goodness from the plant material without heating it up. Usually, without heat, it takes weeks for oils to extract all the beneficial plant properties. A quick first step uses alcohol to speed up the process.
Preparing Calendula for Infusing – One Day Ahead of Time.
Needed:
- 1 cup dried Calendula petals.
- 10 to 15 ml of rubbing alcohol.
- Mini food processor.
Step 1
Chop up the Calendula petals using a food chopper, herb grinder, or mini food processor. It smells delicious!
Step 2
Add 10 to 15 mL of rubbing alcohol and continue to chop Calendula petals.
Step 3
Leave alcohol-dampened Calendula petals exposed to air for a couple of hours. Blend again. This allows the alcohol to evaporate.
Step 4
Place Calendula petals in a sealable container overnight. This lets the alcohol begin the extraction process. The theory behind this is the fastest way to make extractions is by making tinctures that are alcohol-based. The alcohol breaks down the cell walls to make the plants’ goodness more readily available. But since we’re not making a tincture, we’re making eye balm, we only use a little bit and allow it to evaporate.
The Next Day
Cover the Calendula with Oil. I’m using a mix of olive oil for its richness and sunflower oil for its lightness. Grapeseed oil is another great light choice, as are coconut, avocado, or almond. Any of your favorite plant-based oil is probably a good choice.
The next day, look how much golden color the calendula has given the oil already!
Just one more day, and we are ready to make DIY Calendula Eye Balm!
The first step is to filter the calendula oil. I double-filtered this batch with metal sieves. And pressed it just with a fork to squeeze out as much oil as possible. I let any remaining particles sink to the bottom of the oil so that they were not poured into the final eye balm product.
Step 1
The First Filter
Step 2
Pressing out the excess oil with a fork.
Step 3
Passing oil through a slightly finer sieve after allowing any remaining particles to sink to the bottom.
Now we are ready to use the Calendula Infused Oil to make our Eye Balm. We have collected our ingredients and containers.
Our Eye Balm Ingredients are a ratio of:
- 1/3 grated local beeswax
- 2/3 Calendula Infused Oil
- 10 drops Elderflower and Rosehip Infused Oil we made previously.
Step 1
Place grated beeswax in a heavy glass or metal container. This is our final container. We are making the eye balm directly in it so that we don’t waste any ingredients and cleanup is easy. For larger amounts or if you do not have a heat-resistant container, you might melt ingredients together in a hot-water bath, or double broiler.
Step 2
Simply pour Calendula-infused oil over grated beeswax.
Step 3
Add in other ingredients of your choice. It is popular to use a few drops of essential oil, vitamin E, or other ingredient known for its skin benefits. I’m using the elderflower and rosehip oil from a previous recipe. Lavender or orange essential oil are also nice options for this eye balm. Stir together.
Step 4
Place in a warm spot. On top of the woodstove or in a recently used oven with the heat off are good choices. Just hot enough to melt the beeswax into the oil but cool enough to not harm any of the beneficial ingredients. Beeswax has a melting point of 144° F (62° C).
Step 5
Once melted, give a good stir and place in a cool spot to harden. I’m just putting this in the fridge for an hour or so.
Step 6
In the meantime, you may have noticed we made extra Calendula-infused oil. There are a plethora of future uses for this. For now, we are going to store it in a dark amber glass bottle to protect the contents from deterioration from light. In a cool, dark place. This can last up to a year. I’ll be using it well before the time is up!
And voila! Our DIY Calendula Eye Balm!
Recommendations
Do a skin test on yourself or others before using this on the face, of course. This is just to ensure no sensitivities to any of the ingredients. It is best to apply with your ring finger as this is your most gentle finger, and the skin surround the eye is delicate. For your best eye health, keeping this Calendula Eye Balm about ½ an inch from your eyeball is recommended.
I confess I put some of this around my eyes just as I sat down to tell you all about it. I am ecstatic to confirm that my eyes feel fabulous. Being bright-eyed after sitting in front of the screen typing is an unexpected and more-than-welcome outcome.
Dr. Nicole Apelian’s Top Tips For a Radiant Glow, no Matter What Your Age:
Calendula is an outstanding anti-aging herb, calendula encourages collagen production and curbs collagen degradation. It is also antibacterial and anti-inflammatory. Additionally, calendula softens the skin, supports cell rejuvenation, and reduces the appearance of scars. It prevents and heals dry skin, wrinkles, and photodamage as well.
I use Calendula as an anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, astringent, antifungal, and antiviral. Because Calendula has immunostimulant properties I find it very useful for disinfecting and treating minor wounds, conjunctivitis, cuts, scrapes, chapped or chafed skin, bruises, burns, athlete’s foot, acne, yeast infections, bee stings, diaper rashes, and other minor irritations and infections of the skin. Calendula is found in my First Aid Salve, as well as my Joint and Movement Salve.
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Love this! I have been growing Calendula for decades and using it in my healing salve, deodorant, baby balm, etc.. Just one thing I would change. Rubbing alcohol is toxic. I would use Ethanol, the kind of alcohol in drinking alcohol. Rubbing alcohol is isopropyl alcohol and is really bad for the liver, way more than ethanol. I do not use it on my skin for any reason, hand sanitizer for instance. We only use ethanol for all applications. Everclear works or vodka should work too.
Your recipe uses dried calendula – can I use fresh flowers? Just trying to save on using the electric dehydrator and we are coming into the Wet Season here is tropical north Australia, so drying naturally is difficult.