I don't recall who asked, but this afternoon I was reading through Michael Moore's Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West, and he had this to say about salve making and alcohol (p25): "This is an efficient method of making salves out of plants that are not very oil soluble, by using alcohol as an intermediate solvent. Grind up 1 part (by weight) of herb, place it in a container with a top, moisten it thoroughly with 1/2 to 3/4 part (by volume) of pure ethanol or 90% rubbing alcohol, and let it set covered for at least two hours. Place it in a blender, cover it with 7 parts (by volume) of vegetable oil (preferably olive), and blend the hell out of it. Blend it until the side of the top is warm, turn it off, and pour it through a cloth inside a strainer placed over a bowl. Squeeze out all the oil and toss the remnants. As an example, grind 3 ounces of Oregon Grape leaves, moisten the mixture with 1 1/2 ounces of Everclear (95% ethanol), let it set for two hours, scrape it into a blender, add 21 ounces of olive oil, and blend it for five minutes while you lay a piece of cheesecloth over the strainer on a mixing bowl; when you find that the glass container is warm, turn the blender off, pour the mean green slurry into the cloth, let it drain while stirring with a rubber spatula, grab the sides of the cloth, and squeeze out the rest of the oil. At this point you will have 17 or 18 ounces of dark green oil, impregnated with Oregon Grape alkaloids--and green hands, green spatula, green bowl, green strainer, green blender top, and a cloth-covered oily mass to discard."

Yes! I always add alcohol to my resinous oils, like calendula. It pulls the color out more