Simple Salve

VanCoction Simple Salve - a castor oil and beeswax offering inspired by ancient healing traditions and modern science.

What is Simple Salve?

Simple Salve is two ingredients, beeswax and castor oil. Both beeswax and castor oil are antiviral, antifungal, and antibacterial. Simple Salve is also the base salve for our Rose Vanelle and Pain Free Stuff.

Our wax comes from the hives of domestic honeybees, and our castor oil is cold-pressed and hexane-free. 

Like other nourishing plant oils, castor oil is deeply hydrating and moisturizing for the skin.  You’ll notice a difference right away. But if we look at how it works below the surface, we begin to see why Simple Salve is so powerful at the cellular level.

Why People Keep Using It - Testimonials

People use Simple Salve for such a wide range of uses because of its unique ability to stimulate and tighten the cellular and organ membranes throughout the body, including the skin.

“My husband no longer takes daily antihistamines.” — Stephanie Treadwell
“No more paper thin bruised and bleeding skin.” — Sue Grenke
“The lump in my breast is gone.” — Nora

Historical Use

Simple Salve has been used in different forms for thousands of years. Not because of theory—but because people saw what it did.

One of the clearest examples is its historical use for childbirth. Castor oil has long been used to stimulate the contractions needed to begin labor. That wasn’t guesswork. It was observation—repeated over generations.

That same fundamental action—stimulating movement and contraction in the body—is what makes Simple Salve so effective in everyday use.

The Science

90% of Castor Oil is a unique fatty acid called ricinoleic acid (RA). No other oil on earth has any substantial concentration of RA.

The human body does not digest RA like a typical dietary fat, but it has powerful transdermal absorption and stimulates metabolic actions at the cellular level. It stimulates contraction of the smooth musculature underneath the skin and around our other organs. This facilitates the distribution of essential elements, and the metabolism of oxidized byproducts.

Simple Salve acts as a timed release for castor oil and its remarkable properties. The beeswax slows absorption, allowing the castor oil to stay in contact with the skin and tissues longer instead of absorbing all at once.

Why it Reduces Pain

RA slows down cellular production of prostaglandin, a swelling hormone. RA helps tell cells to return to normal function instead of remaining stuck in an overreactive state.

It lessens swelling, and swelling causes pain. Less swelling reduces pain.

Cell Membranes Regulate Life

Every cell in the body is surrounded by a membrane. These membranes help control what enters the cell, what leaves it, and how it communicates with the surrounding environment.

Simple Salve works at the membrane level. It interacts with receptors embedded within cell membranes helping regulate contraction, fluid movement, swelling, and surface protection.These receptors are highly active in tissues involved in circulation, glandular secretion, vascular regulation, mucosal surfaces, and protective tissue linings throughout the body.

Smooth Muscle Activity

P3 receptors help regulate rhythmic contraction throughout the body’s smooth muscle tissues. These movements help circulate fluids, regulate vessel tone, and reduce stagnation and swelling.

→ Read more: EP3 Receptors and Smooth Muscle

Histamine and Irritation
EP3 receptors help regulate histamine responses by supporting smooth muscle movement, fluid clearance, and membrane-level signaling. Rather than   suppressing symptoms, this pathway helps clear irritation.
→ Read more: EP3 and Histamine: Reducing Irritation Naturally

Mucosal and Protective Surface Linings

EP4 receptors are highly active in tissues that produce thin protective secretions, including the respiratory tract, gut lining, eyes, and other exposed surfaces. These secretions help maintain hydration, movement, and barrier protection.

→ Read more: EP4 Receptors and Membrane Barrier Protection

Vascular Tone and Circulation

Blood vessels constantly contract and relax to regulate pressure and flow. EP receptors help coordinate these responses at the membrane level.

→ Read more: The Breathing Pumping Belly

Membranes Need Structural Materials

Cell membranes are not static. The body constantly repairs, replaces, and rebuilds them.

EP receptors are embedded within these membranes, meaning receptor signaling depends partly on the quality and condition of the membrane itself

This may help explain why people can experience very different responses to Simple Salve. If the body lacks the supporting nutrients needed for membrane maintenance and renewal, signaling and fluid regulation may not function as efficiently.

In other words, topical support and internal structural support may work best together.

→ Read more: Nutrients of the Estuary: Simple Sources

What Works Against Healthy Membranes - The Problem with Knockoffs

Many modern products work against the body’s natural membrane functions instead of supporting them. Some suppress signaling. Some dry tissues out. Some interfere with repair cycles. Others simply coat the surface while doing little to support the living structures underneath.

This may help explain why so many people develop thinning skin, poor circulation, dryness, irritation, swelling, or reduced tissue resilience with age.

Products and substances associated with these kinds of problems can include statins, aspirin, Benadryl, antacids, petroleum-based skin products, Vaseline, Chap Stick, talcum powder, and heavily processed fats lacking phospholipids.

For example, some medications are associated with thinning skin, bruising, dryness, and reduced tissue quality over time. Petroleum-based products may temporarily coat the skin, but they do not participate in membrane signaling, contraction, or renewal the way living fatty structures do.

Simple Salve works differently. It works with the body’s tissues, membranes, and movement systems rather than simply covering the surface.

→ Read more: Aging & Cell Renewal: The Role of Phospholipids

The Belly Ritual

A simple nightly ritual using Simple Salve, massage, stretching, and breathing to support circulation, flexibility, fluid movement, and natural motion through the abdomen.

→ Start Here: The Belly Ritual 

Buy Simple Salve

Two ingredients. Thousands of years of historical use. A completely unique fatty acid found in no other common oil on Earth. Simple Salve is more than skin deep.

→ Our Salves:  Shop Vancoction