Making Essential Oils from Herbs

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Making Essential Oils from Herbs

 

These are not actually essential oils, they are infused oils.

Essential oils are made by distilling using steam.

 

Cindi

 

Making Essential Oils from Herbs

(Copyright Ceci Henningsson, 1994)

 

What you need and how to do it:

 

A " carrier " oil. The intended use decides which one. Edible oils are

sold in super-markets everywhere, and can often be used for other

purposes than just eating. In herbal cosmetic shops like the Body

Shop you can buy pure or blended oils for special purposes like

bathing and massage. You can experiment with different oils for

different purposes, but never ingest any oil that wasn't specifically

made for the purpose. It's important that you use new oil with the

best before date well ahead, as fragrant oils don't keep as well as

essential oils. Wheatgerm oil can be used as a preservative if you

find that your oils don't keep well.

 

The herb. For this purpose it doesn't matter if it's fresh, dried or

even frozen. Herbs are sold in many places. Occult shops often have

quite an assortment, but the supermarket in your area may sell some

of these much cheaper. Supermarkets often have herbs in either the

spice department (notably fennel and cardamon), the health food

department (notably rosehips and buckwheat) or even the hot drinks

department (notably chamomille and cocoa). Specialized health food

stores and natural cosmetics boutiques often have herbs too. Or, you

can opt to grow your own.

 

If you will use the oil on your skin, make sure that it won't

irritate or cause allergic reactions. You may want to consult a book

on aromatherapy if you are using fragrant oils for healing. Some oils

are considered aphrodisiacs, and can be quite fun to use for massage.

A practical consideration is the availability of a given herb. Herbs

may be unavailable for many different reasons. Maybe it isn't

traditionally used in your part of the world, it may be illegal for a

number of reasons, it could be surrounded with superstition or it can

simply be out of season.

 

A bottle. Fragrant oils are sensitive to light so try avoiding

crystal clear bottles [blue or amber glass is the best]. You will

often want to use just a spoonful of the oil, so a squirt cap is

useful. Shampoo bottles can often be used, as they are generally

about the right size and have caps which are made so you can easily

take a small amount without having oil run down the outside of the

bottle. Plastic bottles will often be found to take on some of the

aroma of the contents, so you may want to throw them away after one

use, or always keep the same oil in the same bottle.

 

Label all your bottles carefully with the name of the herb, carrier

oil and date of manufacture!

 

This is how to do it:

 

The basic principle is easy: Put the herb in the oil, and wait. If

you are bothered by herb particles in the finished product, you can

use a tea egg or a small bag of muslin or nylon suspended by string

in the bottle, and remove them when you find the fragrance strong

enough. This requires a bottle with a wide opening. If you don't have

such a bottle, you can strain the oil in a wire-mesh tea sieve

instead. If you aren't bothered by herb particles, you can often

leave the herb in the oil until you've used it all up. This works

particularly well with antiseptic herbs like peppermint, but can in

other cases make the oil go stale.

 

The time it takes for an oil to become pleasantly fragrant depends on

the herb and the oil, what you consider pleasant and the conditions

you keep them under. You will have to experiment with concentration,

stirring, and time to find out which works best under your

circumstances. With some herbs crushing can speed up the process.

Seeds like fennel are among those. Many herbs vary quite a lot in

strength depending on a range of factors, so sometimes you will have

to adapt your recipes. The best thing is probably to develop your

intuition with regards to herbs. As a rule of thumb, two weeks to

three months should be adequate.

 

After the wait, you will have your very own homemade essential oils

prepared for whatever use you see fit! Essential oils are better than

synthetic oils because you can use them without worrying about

getting a

 

plastique smell when burning them, or having an allergic reaction to

strange chemicals.