Aromatherapy » How to Make Essential Oils

Essential Oils Recipes

Jennifer — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 14:48:28 +0000

Recipe to Make Your Own Essential Oil

Essential oils are the oils obtained from plants by various methods, such as distillation. They are called essential oils because it carries a distinctive scent, or essence, of the plant. The use of essential oils has a history dating back at least a thousand years and has been used for medicinal uses, skin care and aromatherapy.

If you are fortunate enough to have an herb and/or flower garden, or have access to fresh cut herbs and flowers, you can make your own essential oils quite easily. Sweet almond oil with Vitamin E will be the base of all your essential oils. Vitamin E will act as a natural preservative. You essential oils will last 6 to 12 months if kept in a dark, dry, and cool place. Remember to sterilize your containers and start with clean utensils.

Ingredients: Day 1, Repeat for days 2 through 4

1/2 Cup Sweet Almond Oil
couple of drops of vitamin E
1 Cup packed fresh herbs OR 1/4 cup chopped fruit peel, such as orange, grapefruit, lime, lemon, etc. or 1cup freshly cut flowers. Rinse herbs, fruit or flower petals thoroughly.

Day 1
Every day for four days place 1 cup of flowers or 1/4 cup herbs or chopped fruit peel in the plastic bag.

Close the bag securely and lightly tap the materials in the bag. Do not beat them to a pulp, as this is a gentle process.

Add the sweet almond oil and the flowers, herbs or citrus peel into one wide mouth glass jar. Close and shake gently to distribute the almond oil thoroughly. Place bottle in warm place.

Day 2:
Transfer the materials in the jar into a cheesecloth or gauze and strain the oil into the second glass jar. Squeeze as much as possible to extract all the oils. Discard material.

Day 3, Repeat Day 1

Day 4, Repeat Day 2

On the 4th day, when all oils have been extracted into jar 2, strain the oil one last time. Pour into pretty bottle

Below are some fun recipes.

Scented Rocks (A Nice Alternative to Potpourri)

1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup salt
1/4 tsp. essential oil in your favorite scent
2/3 cups boiling water
Food coloring, if desired

In bowl, mix dry ingredients well. Add essential oil and boiling water to dry ingredients. (Scent will be strong, but will fade slightly when dry.) For colored stones, blend in food coloring, one drop at a time, until desired shade is reached. Blend ingredients and form balls. Allow stones to dry. Place rocks in a bowl or dish to scent a room.

Oriental Nights Perfume

4 drops sandalwood
4 drops musk
3 drops frankincense
2 tsp. jojoba oil

Mix all the ingredients together and shake well. Allow perfume to settle for at least 12 hours. Store in a cool dry place.

Luscious Body Polisher

2 C. plain yogurt
1 T. wheat germ
1 T. honey
1 T. almond oil

Omit almond oil if skin is acne-prone. Mix all ingredients. Dampen skin in shower and massage mixture all over. Rinse with warm water. Rinse immediately with cold water to boost circulation.

Lemony Lavender Toner

3 drops lemon oil
3 drops lavender oil
3 teaspoons of distilled water

Use a soft cotton ball to massage mixture into the skin after cleansing. Follow with a moisturizer if desired.

Carol Belanger, author of 300+ Skin Care Recipes.

For wonderful homemade skin care recipes, including body scrubs, facial peels and masks, etc., visit Complete Skin Care Therapy

Essential Oils – A Holy Anointing Recipe For Christmas

What’s in a holy anointing recipe? Essential oils and hopefully therapeutic grade essential oils are the ONLY ingredients. I have thought about this in regards to a “spiritual” recipe for aiding you in your holiday celebrations particularly spiritual celebrations honoring the birth of the Christ child. Let’s first look in the Bible. There are only a few oils that the biblical writers deemed holy enough to call them “holy.” They are frankincense, myrrh, spikenard, galbanum and onycha. There are actually 35 different plants named by name in the scriptures but only these five got the special designation of holy. Of these five, only frankincense and myrrh have traditionally been used by churches in their incense.

A Recipe for Anointing

Frankincense will lend a particularly holy fragrance to your recipe and the myrrh will give a musky tinge to the body of the blend. Galbanum is actually a wonderfully earthy oil and will add a bit of grounding to the recipe. Onycha is styrax benzoin and can render a sweet vanilla-bean like fragrance to the recipe. Should you choose to add the spikenard, I would do so very sparingly since it is in the valerian family of plants and will give a “dirty socks” kind of aroma to your blend.

So here is the recipe:

12 drops of frankincense

6 drops of myrrh

2 drop of galbanum

1 drop of onycha (optional)

1 drop of spikenard (optional)

To use this blend for anointing in a spiritual service, I would add it to 1 teaspoon of virgin olive oil. Better yet, I would add it to a clear vegetable oil since olive oil tends to be greasy. You can use jojoba oil or fractionated coconut oil or almond oil. This will make about a 50% dilution. If you want to diffuse this blend rather than use it as an anointing oil, then don’t add the vegetable oil since it will clog up your diffuser. Just diffuse the frankincense/myrrh/galbanum mixture. The fragrance will give an “old world” kind of churchy aroma.

Essential Oils – Creating Another Festive Anointing Recipe For Christmas

Christmas is a beautiful season to celebrate with healing fragrances such as those described in the Bible. There are several references to anointing with “myrrh, aloes, and cassia.” Psalm 45:8 and “I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon.” Proverbs 7:17

These are actually quite exotic fragrances and when put together in a blend can be very powerful physically and spiritually. At Christmas the fragrance of spices fill our homes, why not our churches as well?

First let’s examine the healing properties of these single oils.

Myrrh (Commiphora myrrha) was mentioned between 14-16 times depending on your Bible translation. This was the midwives oil in the Old Testament since it was used in childbirth to prevent infection. There are several references to its use for skin conditions, oral hygiene and embalming. Women believed it preserved a youthful look and is found today in some of the more expensive face creams. It is anti-infectious, antiviral, antiparasitic, anti-inflammatory, hormone-like and it supports the immune system. Myrrh is used for emotional releasing since it has a gentle calming effect and can instill deep tranquility, inner stillness and peace.

Aloes is actually the ancient name for Sandalwood (Santalum album). The sandalwood tree is actually a parasitic tree that grows off the roots of other trees. It was Nicodemus in the New Testament who came bringing a “mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds” to embalm the body of Jesus. John 19:39 Sandalwood proved to be a great assistance in meditation and was considered an aphrodisiac. This is one of the oldest oils known for its spiritual qualities. It too is excellent for skin care and it enhances deep sleep. For the mind and spirit it can be clarifying and stilling.

Cassia (Cinnomomum cassia) is related to cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum) but is much sweater in its fragrance. Traditionally the ancient world used both cassia and cinnamon as ingredients in the holy anointing oil given to Moses and considered cassia and cinnamon as “oils of gladness” and “oils of joy” since they both have mood elevating effects. Cinnamon is the stronger of the two oils and tends to be harsh by comparison. Both are highly antibacterial, antiviral, anti-fungal and immune system builders.

Creating the Recipe

To create an anointing oil, be sure to use only therapeutic grade oils. Perfume oils can have alcohols, extenders and artificial fragrance. Myrrh and sandalwood are very gentle and can be used on the body without diluting. This is not true for either cassia or cinnamon which are both high in aldehydes and can burn the skin when used alone and not diluted. Since we will be adding enough myrrh and sandalwood to our blend recipe, it is not necessary to dilute with a vegetable oil unless you are creating an anointing oil for a healing service or Christmas service. In that case you can add the oils to a teaspoon of carrier oil like almond, jojoba or other vegetable oil.

12 drops of myrrh
10 drops of sandalwood
2-3 drops of cassia

Want to learn more about anointing with healing oils? I’d like you to claim your free instant access to a Special Report on Five Biblical Oils when you subscribe to my free short ezine newsletter on energy healing and aromatherapy at http://www.ISHAhealing.com

This Free Report includes descriptions of myrrh and sandalwood. Look for the subscriber box on the left-hand side of the page.

The Institute of Spiritual Healing and Aromatherapy teaches classes throughout the United States on both aromatherapy and energy (spiritual) healing. I’d like to invite you to explore our educational offerings.

From Linda L. Smith, Director of the Institute of Spiritual Healing & Aromatherapy, a national program in Christian healing.

How To Make Your Own Essential Oil Blends

Jennifer — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 03:25:25 +0000

One of the pleasures of aromatherapy is discovering your creative expression in the medium of scents. Commercial perfumes are mainly blends of essential oils and then stuck in fancy bottles. You can discover your own essential oil blends for specific moods or purposes without having to rely on Madison Avenue to tell you what you should smell like. Making your own essential oil blends is easy and enjoyable.

Equipment Needed

For making your own essential oil blends, you need an eyedropper, bottles of essential oils and some small dark bottles with secure tops. It is good also to have a few books on aromatherapy to help you choose your blends, but it is not absolutely necessary. Make your own essential oil blends on newspaper or something you don’t mind accidentally ruining. Essential oils can sometimes leave a permanent stain.

You might want to also have a vegetable-based carrier oil if you want to make your own essential oil blends meant to go on the skin. Most pre essential oils will really irritate the skin because they are so strong. Suitable carrier oils include jojoba, apricot kernel, grapeseed, coconut, sweet almond and olive oil.

Notes

For best results, you need at least one drop of oil from each of the three “notes” assigned to scents. Notes means how they hit the nose. Top notes are what you immediately smell, but they soon fade away. Base notes last the longest and are usually the strongest scent overall. Middle notes are exactly that – they can be scented longer than top notes, but usually not as long as middle notes. Some oils like patchouli are assigned different notes depending on who you read. In that case, use your own judgment.

Blending

Choose which empty bottle is to have the blend. Then, fill with an eyedropper from the other essential oils. If you want to make a pure essential oil blend, then you need twenty drops of middle and top noted for every ten base note oils. If you are making a massage oil, then for every ten drops of essential oil, you need 90 of the carrier oil. Don’t worry if you loose count. Near enough guess is usually still good. If you are unsure, then do a patch test. Put a drop of your new blend on your arm, leg or wrist and see if there are any adverse reactions after 24 hours. If not, your new blend is safe for you. After you make your own essential oil blend, store it out of sunlight in a cool, dark place.

You Can Learn How to Make Essential Oils at Home

Jennifer — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 03:13:34 +0000

If you have been wondering how to make use of the beautiful roses that are growing in your garden, or if you have an herbal patch with fragrant plants, you can learn how to make essential oils yourself so you can enjoy them long after the plant goes dormant for the winter. You can easily do it at home using a simple distillation method using water and steam.

Steps to How to Make Essential Oils at Home

The first thing you need to do when learning how to make essential oil at home, is to buy or make the essential oil still you will use to extract the oil from the plants. A good manufactured still can cost a few hundred dollars if not more. If you are planning a home business using essential oils, then this might be the right choice for you.

If you are more mechanically inclined you can build your own still. There is much room for variety and innovation and if you plan only to learn how to make essential oil for your own use, exploring the do it yourself possibilities may make more economical sense.

The next thing you will need to do is to gather the raw materials. Harvesting your plant at just the right time to get the most out of it is vital. If you have a certain type of plant or plants in mind, you should do some research to find when the best time to harvest the plant to get the most intense scent. If you decide not to grow your own, you can visit markets where plants are sold and speak to the person on duty about which plants will be best as you are learning how to make essential oil.

Once you have your plant material, it is now time to dry it. Though drying will reduce the amount of oil you get from each of the plants, it can greatly add to your yield per batch because you can fit more biomass in the container this way. Dry your plants slowly and do not put them in direct sunlight. When you are learning how to make essential oil, it is a matter of preference whether you want to dry your plants or not.

Now you are ready to add water to the still. Use spring or filtered water for the best results when you are learning how to make essential oil. If you have bought a distiller, read the instructions thoroughly. Be sure you add enough water to complete the process and if you are unsure, stay near and check the water frequently until you become more familiar with how to make essential oil.

Add the plant materials to the still and avoid cutting or breaking them, as this will cause you to lose some of the precious oil. Pack tightly, close and boil. Of course it isn’t as simple as we have made it out to be. Learning how to make essential oil is something that you should research thoroughly before attempting. You may find that once you learn how to make essential oil, it becomes a relaxing and rewarding hobby, and produces results that the whole family can enjoy.

How to Make Lavender Essential Oil At Home

Jennifer — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 03:14:32 +0000

Learning how to make lavender essential oil at home can be a benefit to any household. Lavender essential oil has a plethora of uses. It has been used throughout history to protect the skin from infection, calm nerves, soothe headaches, decrease muscle pains, soothe light burns like sunburns, dull menstrual pain, and ease the symptoms of rheumatism. It is even gentle enough to be used on the tender skin of babies.

How To Grow Plants To Make Lavender Essential Oil

Lavender can be grown in many different climates as long it gets full sun and is well drained. Common lavender such as Lavendula angustifolia, Lavendula Vera, or Lavendula officinalis should be grown instead of the Lavendula stoechas, which does not have the right qualities for making lavender essential oil. The stems of the flower should be gathered right away after the flower has opened for maximum potency.

How To Use Plants To Make Lavender Essential Oil

Steaming the stems of the lavender flowers makes lavender essential oil. The vapor that is released from this steaming is stored in tanks and left to cool. The vapor becomes the essential oil during the cooling stage. So, to make lavender essential oil at home you will need an oil still of some kind. You can buy an essential oil still or you can make your own.

To make your own small oil still you will need:

An open flame, such as on a gas stove, or a campfire
A pot with a grate on top, such as a vegetable steamer to put the stems on
A condenser to collect the steam and cool it. This can be made of a coffee can, which covers the pot and stems, with a copper pipe connected to it. The pipe should be immersed in cold water to aid in the cooling of the vapor
A separator to separate the essential oil from the water vapor. You can buy essential oil separators to go on homemade stills at many essential oil stores.

Put enough filtered water in your still to last during the entire process. With a small homemade still, like the one above, the process will take around half and hour. With a larger still it can take up to six hours. Make sure the water doesn’t touch the lavender stems in the grate. Heat the water slowly on a low fire.

The stems can be stacked on top of one another as long as they do not touch the top part of the condenser. Also, make sure that the stems do not touch the edges of your water container.

Once the process is complete, collect the oil in clean bottles and store in a cool dry place.

Now you know how to make lavender essential oil.