What can be more satisfying than preparing and using homemade herbal massage oil, with coconut oil as the base and home grown bio ajwain leaves, basil and aloe vera as supplements, for skin care and hair care for the entire family (including babies)! Presenting to you all, with love, the homemade Herbal Massage Oil | Herbal Massage Oil for Babies!
Not just is it tried and tested, but also liked and loved by me, my entire family and my friends who have benefitted from it. When it has been so beneficial to me, I thought, why not share about it with my veggiepotnpan family here 🙂
The vitamins and minerals rich coconut oil makes the best oil base here.
Aloe vera has lot of health benefits. To name a few, it helps in healing the stretch marks (which is why I prepared this oil with aloe vera, to be used during pregnancy and also during postpartum days, for myself), wrinkles and dark spots. It also helps in rejuvenating hair cells and skin.
I pay special attention in selecting the plants that I grow at home. In the little space, I ensure that I have all the essential medicinal plants around, which double up to be ornamental as well! Aloe vera for one, easily falls into this category. The other plant, in such a category is the Ajwain plant.
Ajwain plant, also called as Sambrani Soppu or Sambarballi soppu or Doddapatre soppu is not just an ornamental plant, but is also one with many medicinal properties, and is used in culinary. It is a big saviour when kids contract cold and cough. Using this plant for the hair, improves its health and that of the hair follicles, and keeps the scalp away from infections. It also improves the health of the skin and keeps it hydrated.
Adding basil leaves or tulsi leaves to the oil, especially in winter, helps keep the babies warm. It also adds pleasant aroma to the oil.
Coconut oil as the massage oil for the baby, nourishes and moisturizes the baby’s skin, thereby adding more and more benefits!
Keeping all these in mind, I initially prepared a small quantity of this oil to check how it works! And voila, it did wonders! During my pregnancy and my postpartum days, it helped me a lot. I also used this oil as massage oil for my baby, before bath.
For the oil that is to be used for adults, you may add few pepper corns as well.
Lets look into the recipe:
Video :
Ingredients: (Makes roughly about 800 ml of oil)
Sambrani Soppu / Doddapatre Soppu / Ajwain leaves: 30 – 40
Basil leaves / Tulsi leaves: Handful
Aloe vera: About 7 to 8
Pepper corns : Few (Optional)
Coconut Oil: 900 ml
Method:
- Clean all the leaves and aloe vera. Remove the thorns from the aloe vera and cut it into small pieces
- Grind the above to a smooth paste. You may add about 2 tbsp. of water while grinding
- Strain it. It yields roughly about 2 cups of the extract
- In a large, think bottomed pan, add the above to the coconut oil and bring to boil. Continue boiling on medium heat until the sediments are of sand like consistency. By now, the oil would have started to turn aromatic
- This roughly takes about 45 to 50 minutes on medium heat. Take it from heat and let cool
- Sieve the oil and store in a clean and dry jar.
Note :
- Before using the oil for yourself or baby, do test for any allergies
- The sand like remnant is the discard. But, I usually use it for a scrub massage. It leaves the skin soft, clean and moisturized. You may try too.
- Use a thick bottomed pan / kadhai for the purpose
- I usually bring coconut oil from my native place, where there are quite a few reliable mills from where I get coconut oil of good quality. When the stock gets over before my next visit, I purchase it from the local retail stores(DM). I used the bio coconut oil as the base, which I normally purchase from DM (A chain of retail stores in Germany)
Homemade Herbal massage oil for babies – My side of the story :
Pregnancy and delivery during corona times had its own set of challenges. Among the several preparations, this too was one! As our parents couldn’t join us here during delivery, they made sure that they sent us parcels of all what was possible from time to time. But certain things couldn’t be sent from there. One among those was the massage oil. As much as I loved to have the traditional home made hair oil and baby massage oil, this time around, I couldn’t get it. So, I decided to do it on my own with the items available.
Mom makes the authentic herbal oil, with all the traditional herbs imparting not just the right aromas, but the right medicinal properties too. She usually prepares it during the rainy season or just after rains, when the surroundings are lush green and she finds the required herbs in abundance. She usually uses herbs like ‘Garike Hullu’/ Bermuda Grass, ‘Garaga Soppu’/ Bringaraj, ‘Jaaji Soppu’ / Pink jasmine leaves, ‘Dasavala soppu’ / Hibiscus leaves, ‘mallige kodi’/ Jasmine sprigs, ‘elikebi’ / ‘Ilikivi soppu’/ Lilac tassel, ‘kappu tulasi’/’Krishna Tulasi’, ‘aithalada beru’/ ‘Kemputha Beru’ / Red root, ‘Lavancha’/ Vetiver and few others , which are very native to the greens of South Canara region.
Back in Germany, I don’t really have access to most of those herbs which mom uses, but I do have few very useful greens in my own garden, which are full of medicinal properties that can be beneficial to babies and adults alike, for the skin and hair care.
Like I say, the satisfaction of labelling the essentials – Homemade – is unmatchable.
This oil and the recipe above, has been tried and tested several times and it does work wonder! Do try to know it’s benefits 🙂
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