Bee & Boswellia
The past two days I've been slowly moving the studio into the finished garage. Managed to get a new set of super wide shelves, and dug up a short fold out table that was buried under boxes in storage. Now all I need is a heavy duty chest of drawers and a few slabs of granite remnants -- oh, and bags and bags of resins, woods, herbs, and spices. I've got a fine array of mortars and pestles, and a couple of herb grinders. The nifty bulk spice grinder is still on the wish list. It just isn't a possibility at the moment. I will make do until I can make do no longer.
I've discovered dozens of things I had no idea I had -- like patchouli oil. I've found four bottles of patchouli oil in varying degrees of fullness in sizes ranging from 1 to 4 ounces. And plum tree resin. And a huge bag of whole vetyver root. And nearly untouched boxes of brand new bottles and jars. I'm a bit disappointed with myself. I've got all this inventory and I act like I have nothing!
For the past week or so I've been co-infusing boswellia sacra resin with bee propolis in fractionated coconut oil. All the while it's been brewing, I've been researching the properties of both raw materials and found that I've made a pretty potent medicine here. Marketing it as a medicinal is a no-no, so it has to be marketed as a balm or moisturizer when it will have healing properties which surpass simple moisturizing and em-balming. It can be used as part of a facial care regimen, in fact, it may be a really great anti-ageing cream/oil/balm -- but it can't be marketed that way either. I may not sell it at all and keep all the gooey goodness to myself. Use it on my wrinkles or on my hands when I chip woods and get blisters on my knuckles. During the daylight hours, it is gently warmed on a coffee cup warmer, and at night it gets switched off and cools down. In the morning when I come to check on it, I find the clear amber 'oil' on top has gelled slightly. The texture is interesting -- not quite an oil, definitely not a balm.
When I feel it has infused long enough, it will be strained and developed into a balm using some nice raw beeswax I procured from the same beekeeper who provided the propolis resin. I may keep some as is -- an elixir. So far I've used it on a few skin issues -- dark spots on my hands, and another spot on my shoulder, and both have begun to decrease in size and fade. I'm not saying this balm/elixir is responsible as it may just be that giving these skin issues more attention than they normally receive is responsible for the 'improvements'.
I've discovered dozens of things I had no idea I had -- like patchouli oil. I've found four bottles of patchouli oil in varying degrees of fullness in sizes ranging from 1 to 4 ounces. And plum tree resin. And a huge bag of whole vetyver root. And nearly untouched boxes of brand new bottles and jars. I'm a bit disappointed with myself. I've got all this inventory and I act like I have nothing!
For the past week or so I've been co-infusing boswellia sacra resin with bee propolis in fractionated coconut oil. All the while it's been brewing, I've been researching the properties of both raw materials and found that I've made a pretty potent medicine here. Marketing it as a medicinal is a no-no, so it has to be marketed as a balm or moisturizer when it will have healing properties which surpass simple moisturizing and em-balming. It can be used as part of a facial care regimen, in fact, it may be a really great anti-ageing cream/oil/balm -- but it can't be marketed that way either. I may not sell it at all and keep all the gooey goodness to myself. Use it on my wrinkles or on my hands when I chip woods and get blisters on my knuckles. During the daylight hours, it is gently warmed on a coffee cup warmer, and at night it gets switched off and cools down. In the morning when I come to check on it, I find the clear amber 'oil' on top has gelled slightly. The texture is interesting -- not quite an oil, definitely not a balm.
When I feel it has infused long enough, it will be strained and developed into a balm using some nice raw beeswax I procured from the same beekeeper who provided the propolis resin. I may keep some as is -- an elixir. So far I've used it on a few skin issues -- dark spots on my hands, and another spot on my shoulder, and both have begun to decrease in size and fade. I'm not saying this balm/elixir is responsible as it may just be that giving these skin issues more attention than they normally receive is responsible for the 'improvements'.
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