So, I recently asked a new friend about tips for making essential oils, this is what he had to say!
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For starters, I do recommend a book to get. This being "Your Backyard Herb Garden" by Miranda Smith. This is a superb book for novice as well as for the experienced. To get a general idea of what the book looks likehttp://www.amazon.com/Your-Backyard-Herb-Garden-Gar…
Now to make your own essential oils one must remember that when you make your own, you bypass the heat method that is commonly used by companies. Heat breaks down the true essential oil of the plant, therefore what I do is use a carrier or base oil like almond oil, olive pumace oil or safflower oil. I prefer safflower since it has Vitamin E already in it and for making my soaps, this is a huge plus.
To make an infused oil (home made essential oil) chop or cut the entire plant up...leaves, stems, flowers. You can cut it on a cutting board or with a scissors right into a mason jar. Fill the jar with the plant material, leaving a 1/4 inch of space from the top. Pour your base oil (slowly) over the plant material to cover. Make sure ALL the plant material is submerged. If there is plant material sticking out of the oil, it may mold.
If you are using any plants that have a high water content like comfrey, chickweed, calendula, you will want to wilt those plants in a dark warm place, attics work well for this. I put them in a cupboard so no sun or any other kind of light will enter it. I wilt them on flat baskets or hang them up using rubber bands, which will flex as the water content dissipates.
You will want to label the jar and include the common name of the plant, the botanical name, the date and where you harvested the herb. A good way to learn botanical names is to label your preparations with both names Example: Peppermint/ Mentha Piperita and if you don't know the name of the herb, look it up as this will make you more familiar with the names and images of the plants. This way, you will also see the name every time you look at the jar.
After 6 weeks strain the plant material; you can use a cheese or other cloth or a potato strainer (I use a cheese cloth). When I use a cloth I squeeze the cloth and rub the oils on my skin. I suffer from skin issues so I do this every chance I can with the new infusion. If you want to bathe with the plant after you have squeezed out the oils, you can wrap a rubber band around the material and toss it in your bath water. But its only a one time usage. Put your infused oil, what you squeezed from the cloth, in a dark bottle and label it all over again the same way you did the first time and store in a dark constant temperate place. Your oil is now ready to use. You can use the oil directly as a massage or healing oil and/or you can turn the oil into a salve or lotion. Only select essential oils can be used for culinary like peppermint. If you wish to know what is what, get that book I spoke of at the beginning of this long ass email :)
Its much easier to do than to write, and so if you have questions, do contact me and I will help you through it more. I do want to add that infused oils are preferred by herbalists as they extract all of the healing qualities of the plant including the oil soluble vitamins and minerals. I prefer this to the water distilled essential oils which are lacking in many of the healing qualities and because they are an extraction of a strong component of plant can cause harmful effects. Infused oils rarely if ever cause any type of concern.
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| Calendula, or Marigold blossoms |
With most herbs that don't have a water content, you just chop them up. For instance, flowers like wild roses, calendula, comfrey, you will need to dry these. For lilacs which is a bush, you don't need to dry ahead of time. To think about water content, anything that is a flower will have water inside it. A bush or tree however, does not, therefore you can go right ahead and chop up. Bee Balm, Valerian are of the flower category, same with dandelion. So anything that has a flower to it, is in the flower category and should be dried first.
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| Lilac blossoms |
Hope this makes a little sense :)
