Making Herbal Oils

[Wyrdsister]

Merry Meet all!

Does anyone here work with creating oils with herbs themselves, rather than combining essential oils?

If so, I'm interested in the process you use, such as:

- do you have a particular base oil that you use? If so, why do you like to use this oil?
- do you simply add the herbs to the oil, or do you crush them up before adding?
- do you use charged crystals in your oils?

I am interesting in beginning to work with oils, but I haven't come up with any really good resources so far. Any tips, tricks, and tid-bits of info would be great!

Thanks in advance!

Wyrdsister

[eaglewolf]

~We use strictly vegetable oils. Our personal favorite is almond. Sunflower seed oil is another we use often. We use vegetable oil because it never breaks down the integrity of the herbs, and they are all natural :). Infusion seems to be much better when vegetable oils are used.

~9 times out of ten we bruise the herbs, from time to time we just add them. We NEVER crush them...

~I hear others have had great results with crystals, but we have never used them personally.

Our process is very simple. We use pint canning jars. Place the herbs in the jar, lightly compressing so there is still enough room for the oil to completely surround all herbs. Pour in the oil until the herbs are covered. At this point we take a knife or fork and run it along the inside of the jar to let out any air bubbles which have become trapped under the herbs (take care not to compress the herbs any more than you already have). Cover the jar with plastic wrap just to keep the dust out.

We usually let the oil sit for 3 to 5 days, at which point we strain the oil through cheesecloth into another jar. Seal the jar and let it stand for about 2 weeks. Most of the heavy residue should settle to the bottom by then.

After the settling period, we pour the clear liquid into our oil bottles with leakless tops... and that's it (I think).

Hope this helps...

~ew

Wish my wife was here, she is the oils expert, but I think I covered everything.

[ravens eye]

What do you mean you 'bruise' the herbs...?

-Krissy

[mol]

Originally posted by eaglewolf

Hope this helps...

~ew

Wish my wife was here, she is the oils expert, but I think I covered everything.





Very interesting process. I would also like to know what "bruising" means and also, what kind of oil can this make? Just a fragrant oil?

[Wyrdsister]

Thank you, eaglewolf (and thanks to your wife as well :) ) This is a very interesting process and I appreciate you sharing this with us. I smell an addition to my grimoire... ;)

Looking forward to anything else you might have to share,

Wyrdsister

[eaglewolf]

Well, we call it bruising, but I have heard some call it scarring...

Bruising is when you take an herb and "tenderize" it, so to speak. I use the term tenderize because we actually use a meat tenderizer to pound the herbs a little.

The desired effect here is to break the skin of the leaves and stems (if used) to allow better infusion of the herbal properties into the oil.

Although bruising is not necessary, it brings us better results.

Hope this helps...

~ew

[Lynnaea]

Bruising = rub the herbs between your palms to mash them
or put them in your morter and crush slightly with your pestle.

Some oils take longer than 3 days, smell some and see. I make mullien flower oil for earaches but putting the flowers into olive oil on the full mooon, and leaving until the new moon. (it's a recipe given to me by a Cherokee medicine person)

I have Gardner's old recipe for sacred oil. "To make the anointing ointment, take some glazed pans filled half full with grease or olive oil. Put in one sweet mint, marjoram in another, ground thyme in a 3rd, and it you may have it, patchouli, dried leaves pounded. Place pans in hot water bath. Stir and cook for several hours, then put into linen bags, and squeeze grease through into pans again, and fill up with fresh leaves. After doing this several times, the grease will be highly perfumed. Then mix all together and store in a well-corked jar."

[Yvonne Belisle]

Bump :)