I made the marigold ointment last week, and have found that it has healed my dermatitis on the palm my hand, I have it on my foot and heel, I went to the beach twice last week, which helped cleaned the skin off my foot. I rub the ointment in my foot, legs, arms & hands, naturally, I need to wear socks to keep the ointment on, but the palm of my hand is just amazing. I will now make the tincture, as I have eczema on the back of my neck and will dab this on when it has cured. Will let you know how it goes.

Back to basics
Robyn

Funnily enough, I just made some of this today, mainly for hand eczema. And I have enough to share with my bro' who also suffers. I found the marigold recipe quite easy to follow although it took most of the day to come to fruition, with the added beeswax.

Watch this space...

I used recipe 2 - cocoa butter, very easy to make, looking forward to making more herb ointments etc.

Back to basics
Robyn

Hello Ladies,
I think some of us may be missing out. Care to share you recipes please?
Calendula is a wonderful herb and I use it in different formats for lots of different things,including as part of a script for treating MRSA. Also for thrush, hormonal problems,for it's ability to work through the liver,fungal infections and gum problems. It is wonderful on the skin, especially for treating burns. Douglas once got badly burnt on his face when a bonfire got out of control and burnt off his eyebrows. I slathered his face in calendula cream and the next day there wasn't a mark on him.

Linda

Hi Linda

I think Robyn and Sandra are referring to the recipes on the Herbmonger section from last March http://www.herbsociety.org.uk/mh-herbmonger-mar08.htm and April http://www.herbsociety.org.uk/mh-herbmonger-apr08.htm hopefully they'll correct me if I'm wrong?

If I'm correct it's nice to get some feedback on the recipes and uses, and lovely to see some new people contibuting to the forum

Debs

Hi Robyn and Sandra

I meant to respond to your post earlier, Robyn, - great to see someone in Australia contributing to the forum!

I find I'm learning all the time where eczema is concerned. I made up a salve last year with calendula, chamomile and SJW and someone from one of my workshops said it was the best thing he'd found to keep his extensive eczema under control. I made up another batch in November and added some violet oil to help moisturise the skin as well. He emailed just before Christmas to say his eczema was dreadful due to all the stress he was under and I suddenly realised that I'd been suggesting the wrong thing - if your eczema is hot and inflamed, you need to cool it down and the last thing you want to do is rub a salve over it which will keep the heat in the skin rather than cooling it and helping it heal.

I didn't have any chamomile water to hand, which would have been my first choice, but I did have some elderflower water (elderflower is cooling), so I gave him a bottle of that. I got a further email from him last week which said the elderflower water had worked beautifully and although the eczema hadn't completely disappeared, it was very low grade and he was very pleased.

I only tell this story in case both of you wanted to experiment with making a calendula water or chamomile water or elderflower water to use when your eczema is red and inflamed. You can find the method on the second Elderflower article in the Hedgerow Herbs series http://www.herbsociety.org.uk/kh-hedgerow-to-kitchen-elder2.htm It's very simple and works really well. I've made elderflower and rose water and was very pleased with both of them.

Best wishes

Sarah