Homemade calendula cream is the perfect way to incorporate healing herbs into your homemade all-natural beauty and body care products! Calendula is well known for its medicinal benefits. It is a powerful medicinal herb, particularly for skin ailments and rashes. This all-natural calendula cream is an easy herbal remedy to make at home – even for beginners!
Homemade Calendula Cream
I can’t wait to tell you about this! I’m going to show you how to make homemade calendula cream. It turned out so good and is incredibly easy to make.
This calendula cream is thick and rich, almost like a body butter, and can be used like lotion or like a healing salve. In other words, it’s a perfect way to incorporate herbs into your body products!
Calendula, also called pot marigold (not to be confused with regular marigold), is well known for its healing benefits. It’s anti-inflammatory, excellent for the skin, and a powerful wound healer.
It is a potent medicinal herb, particularly for skin ailments and rashes, including eczema, acne and even diaper rash. It would also be a perfect addition to an herbal salve.
Related: 10 Ways to Use Calendula Infused Herbal Oil
Make the Calendula Infused Oil
The first step in making this calendula cream, just like in my herbal salve recipe, is to make an infused oil.
This can be done by putting dried calendula flowers in a jar, cover with a carrier oil, and let it sit for several weeks to infuse.
You can also use the quick method of heating the oil and dried flowers in a pot on low heat for up to 12 hours.
You will need 1 cup total of infused oil for this recipe, but I always figure it’s better to make more than you need so you have it ready for next time! It will keep for quite a while.
Use a ratio of 3 parts olive oil to 1 part coconut oil when making this infused oil. So, if you’re making 1 cup of oil, that means ¾ cup olive oil and ¼ cup coconut oil.
Feel free to incorporate other herbs into the infused oil if you like. Dried lavender flowers or chamomile would be great additions!
Once the calendula infused oil is made, strain out the flowers. The oil will be a nice golden yellow color.
How to Make Calendula Cream
After you have made and strained the calendula oil, it’s time to make the cream.
The first thing you want to do is bring several cups of water in a pot to a boil.
Put about 2 cups of the boiling water into a blender to preheat it. This is to help keep the cream from sticking to the blender.
Turn the rest of the water in the pot down to a simmer and make a double boiler.
This can be done by putting the infused oil and beeswax either in a heat proof bowl on top of the pot of water, or in a glass measuring cup that you place in the simmering water.
Heat until the beeswax melts completely into the oil.
Pour the hot water out of the blender and put the oil/beeswax mixture in.
Cover the blender except for the hole that is used for drizzling liquids in. Turn it on and slowly drizzle the tepid water in. Make sure the water is tepid – not too hot or too cold.
It should become a creamy emulsification quite quickly! You may need to scrape down the sides of your blender once or twice to make sure all of the water gets incorporated.
Let the cream cool a bit and then add the preservative and blend again to combine.
Pour the cream into containers, it will make about 2 cups total. Small glass jars or tins work well for this.
Let the cream set up for several hours before use.
How to Use Calendula Cream
This calendula cream is so amazingly rich and luscious! It is perfect to use on very dry and even cracked skin, or even on minor wounds and scars.
It is better than any lotion that I’ve tried, plus it’s so nice to know that it has beneficial herbs and none of the yucky stuff that might be in the store bought cream. Makes me feel better!
One thing is for sure, this calendula cream smells absolutely wonderful. This is definitely a recipe that I will make again and again. It’s super easy to make and is great for the skin.
Now that I’ve started on the path of making my own herbal remedies and natural healing products I really don’t see any reason to spend the money on buying these sorts of things.
Time to start making them yourself!
If you want to learn more about making homemade lotions and creams, I highly recommend Jan Berry’s (of the Nerdy Farm Wife) Handmade Lotions & Creams ebook collection!
Do I need to use a preservative for calendula cream?
One thing to note, since this calendula cream is made with water it is best to add a preservative of some kind so that mold and other bacteria don’t grow.
While you could technically skip the preservative, it makes the cream quite perishable with a short shelf life of no more than a week. It also needs to be stored in the refrigerator between uses.
The Nerdy Farm Wife has a great post all about natural preservatives for homemade beauty products, so please check that out if you’d like to learn more. She also has a great list of 10 natural preservatives for homemade skincare.
I chose to use Leucidal Complete Protection which is a natural preservative that works well.
More Calendula Recipes
Explore more uses for lovely calendula flowers. Yes, they are even edible!
- 10 Ways to Use Calendula Herb-Infused Oil
- Calendula Lotion Bars
- Whipped Body Butter with Calendula
- Homemade Calendula Lip Balm
- Calendula Salve
- Diaper Rash Salve
- Calendula Soap
- Herbal Bath Salt with Calendula
- Calendula Shortbread Cookies
- Calendula Iced Tea
Calendula Cream
Ingredients
Calendula Infused Oil
- ½ cup dried calendula flowers
- 3/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup coconut oil melted
Calendula Cream
- 1 cup calendula infused oil
- 1 ounce beeswax 4 Tbsp
- 1 cup tepid water
- 2 tsp Leucidal Complete Protection or another preservative (follow instructions on the bottle for amount to use)
Instructions
Calendula Infused Oil
- Combine the dried calendula flowers with the olive and coconut oils in a mason jar. Cover the jar with a lid and shake to mix well.
- Put the jar in a cool and dark place to infuse for 4-6 weeks.
- When you are ready to make the cream, strain the calendula flowers from the oil using a fine mesh sieve. If the coconut oil has solidified in the oil infusion, gently heat it by setting the jar in a pan of warm water to melt the oil before straining.
Calendula Cream
- Bring several cups of water in a pot to a boil. Put about 2 cups of the boiling water into a blender to preheat it.
- Create a makeshift double boiler by putting a smaller pan, bowl, or glass measuring cup in a larger pan that has an inch or two of water in it, and bring the water to a simmer.
- Measure out one cup of the calendula infused oil. Top off with extra olive oil if needed to make exactly one cup of oil.
- Put the oil into the double boiler. Add the beeswax to the oil and continue to heat until it has completely melted. A wooden skewer works well as a stirrer.
- Pour the hot water out of the blender and put the oil/beeswax mixture in.
- Cover the blender except for the hole that is used for drizzling liquids in. Turn it on and slowly drizzle the tepid water in. You may need to scrape down the sides of your blender once or twice to make sure all of the water gets incorporated.
- Let the cream cool a bit and then add the preservative and blend again to incorporate it.
- Pour the mixture into jars or tins.
- Let the cream set up for several hours before use.
Notes
- I adapted this recipe from the book Making It: Radical Home Ec for a Post Consumer World by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen of Root Simple.
Have you ever added clay to this recipe? If so how did it work? Feel? Change the texture?
Hi Kristian. No, I haven’t ever added clay to this recipe. If you experiment with it, I’d love to hear about it!
Hi, not sure how to start my own comment, but I tried making the cream and it was too thick. I followed the amounts pretty closely and wonder if I over-blended it. I want to give it another shot and wonder if you might have any ideas as to how to avoid this? Thank you :)
Hi,
While I would like to make the recipe, you do not state how to get the ingredients. I have no idea how to find the majority of those items. Where? How? Please provide more information. Thank you
Hi there. In all of my recipes, if you click on the ingredient in the ingredient list, you’ll be taken to where I bought it.
Do you sell the cream at all? I’d like to test it to see if it helped eczema? Thank you!
Hi Gina. I’m sorry, I don’t sell any of my creams, but calendula has been known to help with skin conditions like eczema.
Are there any other preservatives I can use other than the ones listed? Like alcohol, glycerin etc. etc.
Not for this recipe, sorry!
I had good luck with this lotion and did not use any preservative (hopefully I will use it all up before it goes moldy) I used my stand mixer which works great!
I always strain my herbs ( calendula, lavender, rose petals and rosemary thru a cheesecloth tie a knot in it and use it for my bath! then I compost them, just an idea!! After my bath I slather on this beautiful lotion. Sweet.
Thank you for this great lotion recipe.
Yvonne
Thanks for sharing, Yvonne. I love your idea of reusing your herbs and flowers in a bath! I’ll have to try that.
Hi there, thanks for sharing this recipe. I m finding it very greasy, I used olive oil to infuse the calendula. So I am not sure if it the olive oil, beeswax or if I should put more water in, as I didn’t put all the water in from the recipe.
I also followed a recipe from the Botanical Skin Care Recipe book, and it too is very greasy!
By any chance would you know what I’ve done wrong? or should do.
Thanks so much
Hi Natalie. Olive oil isn’t easily absorbed into the skin, which is why I recommended adding coconut as well. It could be that or because you didn’t add all the water in the recipe or something else entirely. It’s really hard to say.
Try avocado oil. Less greasy
Hello, can you make video tutorial how to make this calendula cream?
Hi there. I do have a video for making this calendula cream! If you click the “jump to video” button under the title of the post, it will take you directly to it.
How do you store it? And how much time? Thank you! :)
You can store it for several months in a cool cabinet in your house.
Could I used hydrosol in replace of water? If so would u need two preservatives? One fir tge hydrosol and one for the cream?
Would an emulsifying wax work better for this recipe rather than beeswax? Mountain Rose Herbs has a great emulsifying wax and I ordered some but have not used it yet. Would it keep the formula from sweating?
hello , where does one get calendula flowers please?
You can get dried calendula flowers from Mountain Rose Herbs.
i suppose you need a separate blender for this? one that will not be used with food afterwards??
You can if you want, but all the ingredients are safe. If they weren’t, I wouldn’t put them on my skin!
Thank you so much for sharing!
I have made it now 3 times and I never get the consistency that you show on the imagesðŸ˜
I try reducing the amount of water thinking that was the issue but still…i have the same outcome. Maybe even worse.
Any tips that you wouldn’t mind sharing with me? Thank you in advance!
Hi Lara, I wouldn’t change the amounts called for in the recipe, but do make sure that the water you are drizzling in is tepid – not too cold or too hot. Using filtered water rather than tap water may help. Also, try not to overmix in the blender if possible.
Hi Colleen
This looks gorgeous,
How much essential oil did you add to your lotion recipe?
Thank you! I just added a few drops of each.
I’m a little confused because I thought okive oil wasn’t good for ezcema but this cream is said to help with ezcema
I think what works for some, may not work for others. If olive oil is aggravating to your skin, don’t use it.
This came out splendidly! I used Thieves essential oils. I can’t wait to get new infused oil going for Christmas gifts. Thank you.
I enjoyed making this recipe but it makes my blender such a greasy mess. I wash it with hot water, tried the dish washer in extra hot but ultimately had to wipe down every piece with a paper towel. How do I avoid such a difficult clean up?
I solved this problem by using my Kitchenaid
Stand Mixer with the whip Accesory. Worked like a charm! I also use cook top cleaner to cut through grease.
How much natural preservative would I add?
I’m about to start radiation therapy for breast cancer. They recommended moisturizing twice daily. I am going to make this with Leucidal, the natural preservative I use. It says to use 2-4%. Will calculate before whipping.
aren’t calenula and marigolds the same flower? Also, can you use fresh flowers instead of dried? Thanks!
My recipe 25 years ago was simple. 1/2 lb lard. Heat it up and remove from heat. Test the oil by touching the plant in oils -should hear a WEE bit of crackle. Cut fresh flowers and leaves in the midday sun, a few chops and throw them in and promptly put the lid on them. Let sit over night..Warm up to strain. Let sit on paper towel to ensure any water and condensations is gone and keep in the fridge. Lasts until the next season. I did not buy any antiseptic cream for my 2 kids form that day forward. Even for the husband who was in construction. Rashes and all. To this day (30 years) I still make it that way …..simple, and give it away.
I saw similar recipe using lard and infusing calendula in it for other two days for ten minutes each day. I would like to know what kind of lard should be the best for this recipe, commercial, such as Crisco or Vegetable Shortening or homemade, such as pork lard. Thanks for your reply.
Hello, I made a batch of the cream with chamomile tea instead of water. The cream feels great and very cooling on the skin but it is day 2 and it is sweating. I put 1 jar in the fridge, where the cream solidified and if I touch it the water and oil separate. Another jar I left outside and it was fine yesterday but today this jar is also sweating. Do you know what could be the possible reasons and is there something I can do about it now? Thanks in advance!
I don’t have a blender are there other ways to blend this together?
I’d really like to try this. Just one question: How much dried calendula per cup of oil? Thanks.
Honestly it doesn’t really matter! I just fill my jar about 3/4 full of dried calendula, then cover it with oil.
This sounds amazing. I’d like to use rose hydrosol. Do you think that would work? Thank you :)
Hi, I am very interested in trying this lotion recipe. Do you know if I could possibly substitute fresh aloe, (right from the plant), in place of the water, or in place of part of the water? Thanks
I don’t think that would work, but I’ve never tried it so I’m not sure.
I have done it, using fresh aloe plant – the gel from inside, it does not turn out right, even though i have a good blander. I use aloe vera gel, store bought, completely instead of water and it works very well. I like the healing properties of aloe.
Hi hun! Quick question I’m confused. I always thought oils and water when combined can cause mold to grow? Is this true? I want to make this because I been infusing calendula for 7 weeks now. The water does go into the oil mixture? Also is it distilled water or just boiled tap water? Is any preservatives added ? Can I used a kitchen aid instead of a blender? Sorry so many questions.
I address most of this in the post :) Boiled tap water is fine, the water does go into the oil. I do not add a preservative, but go ahead if you want to. I’ve never tried it with anything other than a blender.
Can you use avocado oil and what would replace the coconut or oil if you don’t use it?
I am infusing my first batch of calendula oil in my crockpot with coconut oil. Do you think it matters if the oil is a standard coconut oil and not fractionated?
I am super excited to try your body butter recipe. Thank you!
I don’t think I’ve ever used fractionated and it’s never been an issue for me.
I’ve made 2 separate batches of this over the last couple of months, & I’m having trouble emulsifying the water to beeswax/oils. The first time, I mistakenly used a stick blender & it was to watery, so I put it in an actual blender & it was a better, however still sweats at room temp. The second batch I made I was careful to only use a blender; it’s a little better, but I’m still getting a lot of water. The product itself feels great, I just find myself dumping excess water out before using it. What could I be doing differently? I wondered if I used Shea butter in addition to the beeswax, maybe it would help. Or maybe I could use less water? Advice?
It can be a bit touchy. Is the water you use tepid? I find that if it’s too warm I have a similar issue. I’m not sure how much adding shea butter will help. Also, some have mentioned that adding a little borax helps to emulsify it.
what kind of skin problems does it heal
I have used sunflower oil for my infusions with great success! Sunflower oil is gentle enough for a baby’s skin.
This sounds like a wonderful recipe.. however Im wondering after I make the Calendula infused Oil.. What do I do with the leftover Calendula after I strain it… Do I throw it away.?? I would imagine it would have some potent medicinal properties.. I look forward to hearing back from you..
Most of the properties that we are interested in will be in the oil, not in the flowers anymore… so I usually just compost them :)
You can use the leftovers in homemade soaps if you like that. Works well.