Where lotion stops, a salve keeps going

The hand salves — Lavender and Mint — are the everyday ones, made for knuckles and cuticles that get washed twenty times a day. The muscle salves are targeted: Cooling around menthol, eucalyptus and peppermint, Warming around chili oil, ginger and lemongrass, both with arnica. Behind them sits a small-batch herbal line built on single botanicals — calendula, comfrey, chickweed, jewelweed.

A salve is built the opposite way from a lotion. Lotion is mostly water held together with emulsifying wax, which is why it sinks in fast and disappears. A salve has no water in it at all — it is oils, butters and beeswax, melted together and poured. That is why it sits on the skin instead of vanishing into it, and why a little goes a long way.

The Rinse salve base is olive oil, beeswax, coconut oil, cocoa butter and shea butter, finished with vitamin E. Beeswax is what makes it a salve rather than a balm in name only: it sets the whole thing solid at room temperature and forms a breathable film that holds the oils in place. Cocoa butter melts at body heat, so the salve softens the moment it meets your hands rather than needing to be worked in.

The line splits into two jobs. The hand salves — Lavender and Mint — are the everyday ones, made for knuckles and cuticles that get washed twenty times a day. The muscle salves are the targeted ones: Cooling is built around menthol, eucalyptus and peppermint, Warming around chili oil, ginger and lemongrass, both with arnica. Alongside those sits a small-batch herbal line made with single botanicals — calendula, comfrey, chickweed, jewelweed.

Apply to the spot that needs it, not all over. At night is best; a salve has all the time in the world to work while you are asleep. Handmade in Monroe, Georgia since 2003.