If you’re a regular cannabis user or connoisseur, you may have noticed a growing number of cannabis products available at your local dispensary. From tinctures to edibles, cannabis-infused products have become wildly popular, inspiring those who love cannabis to test out their own recipes at home.
One area of cannabis-infused products that have seen a recent rise in popularity are topicals. And although it’s easy to go and buy these salves and creams at your favorite dispensary, you may be surprised at just how simple they are to make for yourself!
If you’re curious about the world of cannabis topicals but you aren’t sure how to make cannabis salve, save yourself time and money by following our guide for homemade anti-inflammatory cream at home.
What Are Cannabis Topicals?
If you aren’t familiar with cannabis topicals, we’ve got you covered. A cannabis topical is a balm, lotion, or oil infused with cannabis that is meant to be applied on the surface of the skin to alleviate soreness or inflammation.
Cannabis topicals, typically, do not possess the ability to produce the type of full-body high one would associate with an edible. But, thanks to marijuana’s medicinal properties, cannabis salves and creams may be the perfect way for the cannabis-curious to get their foot in the door.
What Does THC Cream Do?
In recent years, those who use cannabis realize there are many benefits of consumption through joints and spliffs but there are other forms to use it, too, including making cannabis salves, creams, or other topical medical ointments.
What does THC cream do to better the person using the ointment? A topical ointment, such as a homemade anti-inflammatory cream, is helpful in alleviating any painful areas of the body. This is mostly thanks to the healing and anti-inflammatory properties that THC and CBD contain.
If you’re in the process of making a form of cannabis cream or wondering how to make cannabis salve at home, keep in mind that THC and CBD have different properties that might affect each user differently.
THC is useful for helping with pain, nausea, anxiety, insomnia, and has been used to lower intraocular pressure, also known as eye pressure, in those who have glaucoma. So when put in a topical form, THC cream can lessen those negative effects of daily life. Similarly, people use CBD to help with pain, inflammation, depression or other mental disorders, and nausea and migraines.
Whether you’ve used THC cream or a CBD balm in the past and are looking for ways to make a homemade anti-inflammatory cream infused with THC or CBD because of the cannabis lotion effects, we’re here to help you out in making cannabis cream or salve.
Making Cannabis Salve
Because easing pain in a more natural way is becoming more popular, so is the popularity of CBD and THC oils, creams, and salves. But how does one go about making cannabis salve? Even with taking into consideration all of the options of oils, butters, waxes, and cannabis strains to use, it is a fairly simple process.
A salve is simply a balm that soothes and heals as a form of body protection. Because salves, balms, lotions, and creams are used to heal individual pain, aches, or soreness, it is advantageous to make cannabis salve so you can combine the ingredients in whatever way is wished. A bonus: since salves keep well, it is easy to choose the ingredients to your liking to make the results really come through.
The first step to making cannabis salve or cannabis cream is to spread out the ingredients so you have them ready for the process.
Ingredients you’ll need:
Oil: There are many options for the type of oil you use here, however, be mindful that this salve will be on your skin so having an oil that doesn’t clog pores is vital. When considering an oil, either choose one that is non-comedogenic – or one that has a low comedogenic factor.
A few choices for oil include sunflower, argan, grapeseed, jojoba, sweet almond, rosehip seed, or even the oils you most likely have in your pantry like extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, or avocado oil. Measure out about 1½ cup of oil.
Cannabis: Do your research regarding the amount of THC you want and then choose a cannabis strain to your liking. If this isn’t your first time making cannabis salve, you could experiment and try a different strain that you normally wouldn’t use. But if it is your inaugural cannabis salve-making day, it might be helpful to stick to what is known. You’ll use between 7 and 10 grams of dried cannabis.
Beeswax: You’ll need no more than ⅓ of a cup of beeswax. Other items: baking sheet, saucepan, jar or can (for the salve), cheesecloth, and any essential oil you’d like to use (lavender, peppermint, and cedarwood are some of the most popular on the market).
Do you have all the ingredients sorted? Here’s how to make cannabis salve:
1. Heat oven to 250 °F. “Bake” the dried cannabis on the baking sheet for 30 minutes.
2. When the cannabis is baking, add the oil to a saucepan on low heat and stir continuously.
3. Once the cannabis has baked for 30 minutes, remove from the oven and add to the oil that’s on the stovetop.
4. Stir your cannabis and oil consistently for 20 minutes at a very low temperature.
*Pro Tip: If your burners run hot, you can place your saucepan on a simmer plate to keep the temperature as low as possible.
5. Remove the saucepan after 20 minutes and strain the cannabis oil mixture through a cheesecloth placed on a jar or can.
6. Once the cannabis oil is set aside in the jar or can, melt the beeswax in the saucepan.
7. During the melting process for the beeswax, mix the cannabis oil mixture to the saucepan.
8. Optional: If you were adding essential oils, place a few drops into the saucepan with the beeswax and cannabis oil mixture.
9. Finally, remove your mixture of beeswax and cannabis oil from heat and add to any vessel for your salve.
Making Cannabis Cream
Like making cannabis salve, making cannabis cream is nearly the same process but with one additional step with three more ingredients. And because you can get many of the same effects of cannabis lotion as you would from cannabis salve, you might as well try making cannabis cream!
10. Once you have your mixture of beeswax and cannabis oil, add one cup of aloe vera gel, one teaspoon of Vitamin E oil, and two tablespoons of your choice of either cocoa or shea butter.
11. After you’ve mixed all of the ingredients together, then add the cream to a container.
How Do You Clean Up after Making Homemade Anti-inflammatory Cannabis Cream?
Once you’ve made your homemade anti-inflammatory cream, you will probably want to use it right away. But the prudent task once you’re done making cannabis salve is to clean up, of course.
The first step is to put away any leftover items, whether that’s extra cannabis, oils, beeswax, or gels. Once your work area is cleared a little bit more, the second step would be to clean the baking sheet, saucepan, jar or can, and any household items you might use regularly for cooking or baking.
Once you have a clean area where you were making your concoction, and because your kitchen will likely smell of cannabis, we suggest using Cannabolish products like the Cannabis Odor Removing Lavender Candle or the Cannabis Odor Removing Wintergreen Spray to remove lingering odors.
After the cannabis odor has been removed, now is the time to try out your newly-made cannabis salve or cannabis cream to ease any pains or aches.
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