Herb Infused Oils

It’s very easy to make herbal oils. There are two styles of oil making, hot and cold (though cold is a misnomer, it does use some warming).

I’ll step through making a cold oil using Calendula (Calendula officinalis) flowers but you can use any herb that you want to make an oil from.

How to make Calendula oil

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Step 1

Gather your flowers and leave them in a safe place for a couple of hours. This lets them wilt, removing some of the moisture from the flowers. Moisture will cause the oil to go rancid quickly.

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Step 2

Once they’ve wilted a bit (this can take varying amounts of time, depending on the weather and season) chop or tear the petals finely and put them in a jar.

Include the base of the flowers and unopened flowerbuds.

Step 3

Cover the petals with oil. You can use many kinds of oil. Avocado oil is great, you want an oil that will permeate the skin, not one that stays on top and doesn’t soak in. My favourite is grapeseed oil. It’s relatively cheap and penetrates well.

Step 4

Gently stir or agitate the mix of oil and flowers. The idea here is to release any air bubbles that may have been trapped.

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Step 5

Cover the jar so that bugs and dust can’t get in. Place the jar in a warm, but not hot, place for a week or so. Windowsills in the sun, the top of the fridge or near the stove are good locations.

If you have a good, oil proof cover on your jar, you can try inverting the jar every couple of days.

Here’s a little tip – if you cover the jar with plastic wrap, when the mix gets warm, moisture will evaporate and then condense and collect on the plastic. You can remove the plastic and dry it off. That removes a little more moisture from the oil and will help it keep longer. I do this every day until the moisture stops forming.

Step 6

After a week, stir the flower and oil mix, this helps to distribute the herb’s goodness throughout the oil a bit more evenly.

Step 7

After another week, strain the oil and remove the solid materials. Put the strained oil into a jar, close it tightly and store it away from light.

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There you go! The good oil on oils.

You can find out how to make your oil into an Herbal Salve by clicking on the link.