UPDATE:  The winners have been announced (at the end of the article) but please read about this wonderful healing product and consider buying some for yourself.

Miracle Salve, made by Kerry’s Herbals, is a wonderful product that I’ve been using for a decade.  I now have the opportunity to share it!  Seven lucky readers will win a free jar of Miracle Salve!  Two winners will get the two-ounce jar (that’s a couple months’ supply, even if you have serious skin problems) and another five winners will get the half-ounce jar (that’s enough to get a good sense of what this green goo can do for you).

Miracle Salve is made entirely of natural plant oils and beeswax.  It truly is green–not only is it less environmentally damaging than a product made from petrochemical distillates, but it’s literally green in color, a shade similar to my Earthling’s Handbook logo.  It has no added fragrance but simply smells like its ingredients: a pleasant, herbal smell that I like a lot better than the smell of petroleum jelly. This smooth, creamy salve soaks into irritated skin, soothes the stinging, and speeds healing.  It’s awesome for rashes, scrapes, and super-dry skin.  Kerry’s Herbals says it even can be used to treat corneal abrasion, which means it must be safe enough to put into your eye!  I haven’t tried that, but it’s never caused any discomfort when I apply it–unlike so many treatments that sting at first.

I first discovered Miracle Salve when my son Nicholas was a few months old and I was looking for something that would prevent diaper rash or heal it once it got started, without any scary side effects or residue on his cloth diapers.  Someone on a discussion board recommended Miracle Salve, so I ordered a two-ounce jar.  It worked so well that I soon ordered a six-ounce jar, and we went through a couple of those before Nicholas was toilet-trained.

After that, it took us a long time to use up the salve–but that’s only because Nicholas inherited his father’s coordination, instead of mine, so he didn’t have the constant skinned knees I had as a child!  I don’t get hurt so often as an adult, but when I did, I always found that my jar of Miracle Salve was still good; despite the all-natural ingredients, it didn’t rot or become grainy or anything like that.

Years later, we welcomed baby Lydia to our family, and one of the things I bought in preparation was a new big jar of Miracle Salve.  I coat her with it when I change her diaper before bedtime or a long car ride or any other time when she may be wearing a wet diaper longer than usual; the oil protects her skin from moisture.  I also put it on after she eats spicy food to reduce skin irritation when the spices come out of her.  If she does get a diaper rash, Miracle Salve helps to clear it up.  I also put a thin layer of salve on her cheeks and calves during the winter, when her skin was dry and flaky.  (I tried plain coconut oil for that, but Miracle Salve worked better.)  I also use it on my hands, which I wash very frequently these days!

Miracle Salve does not stain cloth diapers; it washes right out–whereas creams that include petroleum jelly, zinc oxide, or fish oil can leave a sheen on the cloth that reduces absorbency.  It can make oily spots on clothing, but those also wash out with hot water and soap; I’ve never had a lingering stain from Miracle Salve.

Last week, I cut my finger mysteriously–I was hurrying around, getting ready to leave work, when suddenly there was blood all over my left index finger.  I had to apply direct pressure to slow down the bleeding enough that it wouldn’t instantly soak a plastic bandage.  Later, I could see that I’d somehow taken off a strip of skin several layers deep.  It hurt, and it was really in the way of everything I needed to do with my hands.  By the next day, I was thoroughly irritated with this inconvenient injury–and then I remembered Miracle Salve.  I dabbed it onto the cut and put on a fresh bandage.  No more pain!  Just 12 hours later, the cut was healed so that it was barely visible and didn’t need a bandage, and after another two days I couldn’t even see where it had been.

Are there any downsides to Miracle Salve?  Well, it is a bit more complicated to apply than creams that come in a flip-top tube, because you need two hands to open the jar–but I like the fact that I can use every last dab from the jar, whereas a tube is hard to empty completely.  The moisture barrier created by Miracle Salve is not as reliable as a zinc oxide cream, so once in a while I use Burt’s Bees Diaper Cream (made from zinc oxide and plants–no petroleum, no smelly fish oil!) when Lydia gets an especially bad rash; usually one or two rounds of that will clear her skin, and then I can go back to Miracle Salve, which smells so much nicer.  In extremely hot weather, Miracle Salve can become almost liquid, but this is merely an annoyance–if you put it in the refrigerator, or just wait until the weather cools, it goes back to its normal creaminess.

To enter the giveaway, simply post a comment telling me why you want to try Miracle Salve!  (Giveaway is open to United States residents only.)  The comment form will collect your email address (it will not be made public) so that if you are a winner, I can contact you to get your mailing address; you will then receive your salve directly from Kerry’s Herbals.  I will select the winners by a random drawing at noon EDT on April 15, 2015. Step right up for your chance to win this useful, all-natural product made in USA by a small family business!  Many thanks to Shannon for agreeing to donate the salve for me to give away.

Visit Works-for-Me Wednesday and Waste Not Want Not Wednesday and Mom’s Library and Friday Favorites and Fitness Friday and Simply Natural Saturday and the Healthy, Happy, Green, and Natural Party for more great tips!

UPDATE: The winners of two-ounce jars are

• Julie Bagamary
• Bill Jentz

The winners of half-ounce jars are

• Michelena
• Carolyn Tait
• Dana L
• Kathryn
• Jessica @ A Cocoon of Books

I will be emailing all of you to get your mailing addresses.  Thanks for playing, everyone!