Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Lavender Oil

I've been shopping for essential oils to add some fragrance to things like lavender for my homemade laundry soap, sachets to tuck inside my pillow and clothing drawers, and anything else I can think of.  I also wanted orange to make some orange cleaner.  My word, you would think the stuff had gold in it!

So what's a diy girl to do?  Google it of course.  There were lots of sites that required stills, or complicated recipes.  But I just wanted a simple recipe that would smell good.  I found Aromatherapy at Home was just what I wanted. 

I have a lavender plant, but it flowered earlier this summer.  However the leaves are very fragrant, so I decided to try those.  I snipped the top part of the stems off and used the whole stem, discarding any woody parts. 



Since I already had safflower oil on hand, I used it.  For my purposes, I think canola oil would have been fine too.  I made it two days ago, and it is already smelling divine.  Tomorrow I will strain it and add fresh leaves.



It was so simple.   Find a jar with a lid that seals ( I used a cleaned out hot fudge sauce jar).  Stuff your plant material inside.  I filled it pretty full.  Pour the oil in almost to the top, put the lid on and set in a window sill.  Shake every 12 hours for 48 hours.  Strain it through a piece of muslin into a glass bowl, squeezing it to extract as much of it as you can. Add more plant material to the jar and pour your oil back in.  Do this as many times as you want until you like the smell.  I'll let you know how my lavender oil turns out.  Next up - orange oil.

6 comments:

  1. ooooh do you think I can do this for diffuser oils? I love love Lavendar!
    Tana

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  2. looks very nice!
    Kisses:)

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  3. Fantastic idea. Homemade is always best.
    BTW, Canola oil is poison and irradiated. Google it for yourself.

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  4. Tana, I think it would work in a diffuser, but I've never tried it. If you try it, let me know if it works!

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  5. Hello there.....I also use lavender to scent my vinegars. They smell wonderful, and cover the pungeant taste. It's great with salads. You can also steep rose petals for a rose tea, or some rose water to set open on a windowsill...use vodka to keep it fresh. Try lavender and oatmeal in a doubled cheesecloth sack to run under the faucet in your tub for a relaxing bath.

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