Calendula Oil: Uses and Benefits

Let’s talk about calendula oil uses! Calendula oil has countless benefits and is so anti-inflammatory and nourishing that it can be a cornerstone of your skin care. Calendula (Calendula officinalis) moisturizes and reduces inflammation. It’s also vulnerary and helps to regenerate the skin. Calendula is a great herbal oil to use for self-oiling practices, which are especially important for self-care right now.

 

 

Why We Need to Oil Right Now

Self-oiling is particularly important this time of year. Right now, at the end of summer, you have accumulated the season’s heat — especially if you’re like me and are around a lot of fire. Where I live, there’s fire, the sky is orange, there’s smoke. But even if you’re not around fires, by late summer you have an accumulation of heat.

It’s adding up and things are getting hotter, but then you also have the beginning of fall starting to come in. Have you noticed the change in the light? I was watching the leaves fall today. There have been some breezes — they’re not summer breezes, they’re autumn breezes.

Let’s say you go to bed at night and it’s warm. You don’t have any covers on. Then, you wake up in the morning and your feet are cold. You have this fluctuating temperature of “hot, cold, hot, cold” going on. Between the accumulated heat and the autumn breezes coming in, you have a lot of change.

That heat and dryness starts to irritate. If you tend to be irritated, anxious, or tense, it can increase in this late summer-autumn season because of the increased heat, wind, and dryness. It all kind of meets in the body.

During this transitional season, it’s important to stay moisturized. It’s easy for the skin to dry out because of the change in the weather, the wind, and the heat. Your nerves live right under your skin, so if your skin is dry, your nerves are drying. The nerve synapses communicate in a moist environment, so oiling your skin is so important.

Calendula oil has many benefits that make it ideal for this time of year. Here are some great calendula oil uses…

 

 

Calendula Oil Benefits for Skin

Calendula oil is a vulnerary. Vulnerary herbs increase the rate in which skin cells regenerate and rejuvenate. Calendula oil benefits include reducing itchiness and irritated, red, inflamed skin as well as healing cuts, scrapes, and scratches. Calendula oil uses for the skin include:

Wounds: Calendula can be used for slow-healing wounds. If you have a cut or a scrape that’s starting to scar or heal over, calendula will increase the rate at which it will regenerate and heal. It also helps to reduce redness of old sores.

Bites: You can put a little bit of calendula oil on a spider bite. I have a student that told me that she had a bunch of spider bites and the calendula oil helped heal the spider bites quickly.

Circulation: Calendula oil increases circulation and gets your blood and lymph moving. If you have any kind of congested lymph or stagnation, calendula oil is really good for moving it. It’s also good for boils; you can use calendula compresses and rub the oil in the area and that will help to increase the circulation.

Feet: I love to soak my feet in calendula oil. I don’t know about you, but my feet are pretty scrapy and scratchy from walking barefoot in the garden. Soaking your feet in calendula oil can reduce inflammation and heal up any cracks and scrapes.

Dry Skin: It’s also incredible for dry patches like your elbows or any skin inflammations. Breastfeeding moms can use calendula oil on chapped and sore nipples.

 

 

Calendula Oil for Pain Relief

Calendula is one of the herbs that we use in trauma oil. I like to combine calendula and St. John’s wort oils. This blend helps to relax muscles, tension, and stress. It’s great for whiplash, neck pain, and a sore neck.

I got my massage license in 1988. I’ve been doing massage for a long time, and I’ve made my herbal oils the entire time. This combination of calendula and St. John’s wort takes care of so much muscle pain, strain, tension, and muscle trauma. It’s an amazing oil.

Now here’s the skinny on calendula oil. Ready to learn about Saint John’s wort oil?

 

Antifungal Benefits

Another benefit of calendula oil is that it’s antifungal. My teenage son currently has athlete’s foot. We’ve been soaking his feet in calendula oil and cedar oil (made with dried cedar leaf). Cedar and calendula together are amazing for fungus and athlete’s foot.

 

 

How to Use Calendula Oil

Again, calendula is incredible for any kind of acute or chronic skin inflammation. Calendula oil is a powerful vulnerary and has benefits for cuts, scrapes, scratches, and skin that’s dry, cracked, chapped, or sore. Calendula also helps to increase circulation in congested, stagnant lymph or any part of your body where there is stagnation. It’s one of the main oils we use in trauma oil for muscle pain.

There are really no contraindications that I know of. Calendula is one of those herbs that used on babies. It’s used on elders. Anybody can use it.

However, it’s always good to do a patch test as some people have sensitive skin. Take a little bit of oil, put it on, wait 30 minutes, and just make sure you don’t have any kind of allergic reaction.

Calendula oil belongs in every home apothecary. It’s super easy to grow and in many places, you can grow calendula all year round. This is a very abundant, sustainable plant. You can also use calendula oil to make a salve or put it in your lotions.

 

Ready to make the most potent herbal oils that work? Check out Handcrafted Healing Herbal Oils

 

I would love to hear from you! Do you have an oiling practice? Have you experienced any calendula oil benefits? Please share in the comments below.