How to Make Your Own Essential Oils
Essential oils are useful for a variety of purposes. They can be used for medicinal reasons or healing of the mind, for example. Most people buy their oils in small bottles ready to be used. However, you can sometimes make your own essential oils.
Sweet almond oil can be used as a base for essential oils. It is best if combined with vitamin E, because this is a natural preservative. To make a small amount of essential oil, use one half cup of the sweet almond oil with vitamin E.
Choose the type of essential oil you want to make. This will usually depend upon what plant materials you have at hand. If you have a rose garden, you might want to make rose oil. With an herb garden, you could make oil of thyme or oil of oregano. If you are making essential oils in winter, you could use citrus peels, such as lemon or grapefruit. To get started making essential oils, take your plant material and put it in plastic bag. Start with a cup of tightly packed flowers. Or, use a quarter cup of packed herbs or chopped fruit peel. Close the bag.
Tap the bag with a hammer or a kitchen mallet to slightly bruise the material. Do this gently so as not to turn your plant matter into mush. You want the oils of the plant substance to be brought out ever so slightly. This is the basis for your essential oils.
Next, it's time to put the contents of the bag in a wide mouthed jar with the sweet almond oil. Put a top on the jar and shake it gently until all the ingredients are mixed thoroughly. Make sure the plant matter is saturated. The essential oil will start to form. It takes some time for the essential oils to be extracted from the plant material in this manner. So, leave your jar in a warm place for the rest of the day. This will give the natural oils time to permeate the sweet almond oil.
On the second day, put some cheesecloth over the mouth of a second wide mouthed jar and pour the mixture from the first jar through it and into the second jar. At this point, you don't need the first batch of plant matter you gathered. Throw it away along with the cheesecloth.
For the next three days, repeat the same procedure, using another cup of flowers or a quarter cup of fresh herbs or chopped fruit. Always strain the mixture from the previous day through cheesecloth into a clean jar. This will assure that your essential oils are pure.
When all these steps are completed, you have made your essential oil. You only need to bottle it and it will be good for six to twelve months whenever you need it. To bottle it, strain it through cheesecloth a final time. Then pour it through a funnel into small, dark bottles. Close the tops with stoppers.
If you do any flower or herb gardening at all, you might be surprised at how many different essential oils you can make. You can put them together from ingredients in your own back yard.
