It's Been An Amazing Decade: The Cannabis Salve Recipe That Started It All

It's been 10 years since I wrote my first book, The Cannabis Spa at Home. It started with one recipe, my classic olive oil and cannabis salve formulation.

The Cannabis Spa at Home was the first text to be published on cannabis topicals in the modern era.

The cannabis salve recipe that started this train a' rollin ;)

In my new book, Your Cannabis Experience (Skyhorse Publishing, April 4, 2023) I talk about some of my experiences writing my first book, as well as a revisit of the recipe technique in The Cannabis Spa at Home in 2012 - 2013 (Skyhorse Publishing 2015).

Cannabis-infused olive oil salves were already a staple in my household, and I had dozens of different ways to make these. They are so elegant due to the simplicity of making them along with the fact that they ticked all the boxes for quality, texture, ease of use, effectiveness, and a luxurious aesthetic.

Cannabis salves or cannabis topicals as a whole are a relative newcomer, an ancient practice that has been revived in the era of plant medicine legalization. 10 - 15 years ago there were very few external-use cannabis commercial products on the market.

The salves contain two basic ingredients that everyone with a kitchen already has in the kitchen spice cabinet: herbs and olive oil. With these two elements you can make the following: a hard salve, a smooth ointment, or massage oil. Nothing else is required.

Pure olive oil has three wonderful properties. First, by using the freezer and refrigerator you can turn the olive oil into a hard salve (freezer), or smooth ointment (refrigerator), and by leaving at room temperature the herbal olive oil infusion will be liquid and ideal for massage oil applications. Second, olive oil has high oleic acid content which makes it ideal as a carrier fat for cannabis topical applications where skin penetration is desired. Oleic acid has been used in topical applications for more than 150 years in pharmaceutical formulations as an excipient. Third, olive oil is low on the comedogenic scale which means that it is less likely than say, coconut oil, to clog pores or cause breakouts.

Olive oil has also been shown in chemistry experiments to be one of the most efficient extractors of cannabinoids from cannabis.

I have always enjoyed exploring the fragrances and tastes of the home spice cabinet. It lends so much to any cannabis infusion—you can dial in all kinds of special effects with various spice cabinet herbs and spices when they are paired with cannabis in a topical salve or cannabis infused ointment. Want a cannabis salve that is warming and soothing for joint or muscle pain? Pair cannabis with kitchen spices like ginger, cinnamon, clove, and cayenne pepper and infuse this into olive oil, strain, and pop the final oil into the freezer for a hard salve or the refrigerator if you prefer a soft ointment. To maintain the form that you have chosen, hard salve or soft ointment, store the product that you have made in the freezer or refrigerator, respectively, and use as needed for a cool and soothing therapeutic experience.

Here are four tips whether you are following the recipe from my books or just kind of winging it (which you can absolutely do with this cannabis herbal olive oil infusion):

1. Always have a pure and high quality olive oil on hand. Cheaper olive oils are sometimes adulterated with other oils! I have always preferred a California extra virgin olive oil for the freshness it brings to this sort of salve recipe.

2. Make sure that your cannabis is very dry. You may decarboxylate ahead of time, or not. If you want a topical formulation higher in THC or CBD then you will want to decarb. If you prefer THCA or CBDA then you can do a cold infusion of the dry cannabis flowers or shake.

3. Ensure that your kitchen spices are fresh. Don’t use old or outdated herbs and spices to ensure that the infusion in rich in the terpenes and other compounds that these herbs and spices have to offer.

4. The addition of herbs and spices has the advantage of enhancing the fragrance of the cannabis infusion which, depending on your preferences, may or may not be too pungent alone. If you prefer to dial back the fragrance of whole cannabis flowers even more, opt to make your infusion with hashish or an extracted cannabis resin. Personally, I like the smell of cannabis and I like it when it’s paired with kitchen spices so I always opt for using my own homegrown cannabis flowers whenever possible.