“Simple Salve - Simply Perfect”
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 Rose Vanelle and Pain Free Stuff.
Our wax comes from the hives of domestic honeybees, and our castor oil is cold-pressed, 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 Use It - Testimonials
People use Simple Salve for such a wide range of uses because of its unique ability to stimulate and support cellular and organ membranes throughout the body.
→ Search Testimonials: News and Reviews
“My husband no longer takes daily antihistamines.” — Stephanie T
“No more paper thin bruised and bleeding skin.” — Sue G
“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.
I’m Ready To Be Salved!
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: Salvation!
Science illustration showing ricinoleic acid activity, smooth muscle contraction, circulation, reduced swelling, and membrane signaling associated with Vancoction castor oil and beeswax salves.
Simple Salve Science
Ricinoleic Acid
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.
Less Swelling 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.
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.
Enough Science For Me!
That’s all I needed. How do I begin?
→ Start Salving: Salve Me Up!
How EP receptors help regulate circulation, fluid movement, swelling, irritation, and protective surface linings throughout the body.
The Science Behind The Science
Smooth Muscle Activity
EP3 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 allergies and irritation.
→ Learn More: Reducing Allergies and 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.
→ Learn More: 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.
→ Explore: The Breathing Pumping Belly
Phospholipid-rich foods provide the building blocks needed for cell membranes and renewal, and slowing down the aging process.
Building and Maintaining Healthy Membranes
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 explains 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 work best together.
→ Nutritional Support: Nutrients of the Estuary: Simple Sources
What Works Against Healthy Membranes
Many modern products and medications 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.
Over time, this may contribute to thinning skin, bruising, dryness, irritation, swelling, poor circulation, and reduced tissue resilience. Many people have seen this happen gradually with age—skin becoming fragile like crepe paper, tissues becoming slower to recover, and irritation becoming more persistent.
Products and substances commonly associated with these kinds of problems can include petroleum-based skin products like Vaseline and ChapStick, talcum powder, heavily processed fats lacking phospholipids, and some medications associated with tissue thinning, dryness, or altered signaling over time—including aspirin, statins, Benadryl, and other antihistamines.
Simple Salve works differently. Rather than simply coating the surface, it works with the body’s tissues, membranes, and movement systems.
But membranes also require structural materials. Cell membranes are constantly repaired and rebuilt, and that process depends heavily on phospholipids and other nutritional building blocks. Without proper membrane support, signaling, fluid movement, and tissue resilience may not function as efficiently.
This explains why Simple Salve works best with internal nutritional support.
→ Learn More: Aging & Cell Renewal: The Role of Phospholipids
The Belly Ritual
Where rhythm begins — breath, movement, and simple daily care
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
Get Your Salve On
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.
→ Get Salvy: Our Salves