青黛膏 Qing Dai Gao – Indigo Ointment

Procedure:
Grind the 4 ingredients into a fine powder
Melt beeswax and add castor oil
Let cool down to room temperature and mix in the powder
Fill into jars
Apply to affected area several times a day depending on severity

Functions:
Topically resolves toxic-heat type skin ailments.

Caution is to be taken, since it contains the powder, it is not to be used on open wounds due to risk of infection. One should pay attention not to stain clothes due to its azure, bluish colour. Generally indicated for more heat type situation, it seems to work better on heat-type acne after the black and white heads were pricked to bleed first. Recently in a video by Andrew Nugent-Head, he explained that in dermatology oil based ointments are more suitable for heat conditions as they extinguish the fire by cutting off the air supply to the area, whereas damp conditions are more appropriately treated with alcohol based tinctures to dry out the dampness.

PS: A paper about the application of Qing Dai Gao for psoriasis can be found here:
http://lcm.amegroups.com/article/view/5450/html