15.10.2024, jupiter

How Frantsila’s Salves Are Made

Frantsila’s salves are functional, natural remedies crafted to meet a variety of needs, from skincare to soothing muscle tension. These salves are a natural alternative, handmade by Maria Haapala, who reveals the process behind these miracle balms.

If anyone’s workspace smells delightful, it’s Maria’s.

The salve-making room is tucked away at the back of Frantsila’s factory. Though it’s a bright and clinical space lit by fluorescent lights, the fragrance within is like stepping into a summer meadow. That’s because the scent comes from the dried medicinal herbs used in the salves.

Maria has been crafting Frantsila’s salves for over eight years. She explains that the room’s scent changes depending on what she’s bottling that day.

“When I’m making Lavender Salve, the scent always helps me relax.”

That’s precisely the purpose of the Lavender Salve: its aroma calms the mind before sleep and also soothes the skin.

Today, Maria is going to show how these salves are made.

The Secret Is in the Herbal Oils

Like all Frantsila products, the journey of the salves begins in their organic fields in Hämeenkyrö. Once the medicinal plants, herbs, and flowers are harvested and dried, they are finely ground at the facility and brought to the factory.

“Making the salves is completely manual,” Maria explains. “And it requires a lot of precision.”

Frantsila offers six different salves, and they’re always in different stages of production. The first step is preparing the herbal oil infusion. Maria pours the ground herbs into large buckets of plant oils—mainly sunflower and olive oil. She then stores the mixture in a warm room for a week, stirring it occasionally to ensure even extraction.

After a week, Maria presses the mixture to extract the oil and allows it to settle for another week, so the sediment sinks to the bottom. Then, she filters the oil by hand.

On bottling day, Maria heats the filtered oil on the stove. On another burner, she melts beeswax in a stainless steel pot. When both mixtures reach the right temperature, she combines the ingredients.

A long metal salve-filling machine, her one-person production line, sits along the wall. Maria pours the warm mixture into the machine’s funnel, and it flows into waiting jars. She weighs the jars to ensure consistency, seals them, and within minutes, the salve solidifies.

Maria’s record is filling 880 jars in a single day.

Maria’s Favorite Salves

Maria is an introvert, and she enjoys working in the quiet of her workspace. Sometimes, the fragrance of the salves takes her on a journey. Her absolute favorite is the Pine Tar & Resin Salve, a powerful balm she uses to soften dry heels, while her husband, who works in construction, uses it on mosquito bites. This disinfecting salve is a staple in their home.

To Maria, the scent of the Pine Tar & Resin Salve represents freedom. It transports her back to her childhood in Oulu, where she spent long summer days exploring the deep green fern forests with the neighbor’s children, never hearing her mother’s calls to come home for dinner.

The scent of pine tar also reminds her of her late father and his pine-tarred wooden boat, which the family would take out into the Gulf of Bothnia to check fishing nets near Hailuoto Island. Sometimes, they would find seashells.

Maria’s other favorite is the warming Tiger Balm, which she applies to her shoulders. She loves its deep orange color and powerful aroma, a mix of peppermint, rosemary, ginger, and meadowsweet.

“I usually use it in the mornings and carry that scent with me to work,” Maria says, laughing.

Do You Know Frantsila’s Salves?