Essential oils are often used as a form of medical treatment centuries ago , but they also make great natural perfumes for the body and your home. Whether it’s adding a few drops into your bath to rejuvenate your mind, or massaging it on the pulse points of your body, it’s one of the many luxuries that nature has to offer.
Essential oils can often come with a hefty price tag depending on its ingredients, brand and purpose. But if you’re hoping to create a collection of essential oils for yourself, or gifts for friends, you’ll be glad to know that it’s absolutely simple and inexpensive to make your own! While it’s more common to extract the natural compounds of their botanicals through distillation, there’s really no need to go through all that trouble and mess to get what you want! Oil and alcohol, and a lot of fresh botanicals are all you need to make your own essential oil and perfumes!
Extracting with oil
The simplest way to create your special blend of essential oils is to soak your fresh ingredients (herbs, flowers, pods) in oil for days. Flowers and herbs often contain its own natural oils, which is generally where its scent comes from. So extracting the fragrance of your favorite botanicals using oil is quite possibly the most natural way of doing it. Here’s a simple guide to making rose oil:
1. Soak equal parts of olive oil and rose petals/buds in a ceramic pot for 2 or 3 days. Store the pot in a cool, dry place.
2. After a few days, grab a sieve and strain the flowers, gently pressing the petals with a spatula. Doing this will have release the natural oils from the rose, and it’ll diffuse into the oil.
3. Add more fresh rose petals into the fragrant oil and continue the straining process for up to eight times, or until your essential oil reaches the desired strength you want.
4. When it does,you can choose to let the oil set for another day, or immediately transfer them into tightly sealed bottles. Store in a cool, dark place.
You can use this method to create your own personal scents by combining a variety of flowers. To make your own vanilla perfume, just use a few vanilla pods, tonka beans, some jasmine and a little bit of lemon!
The scent intensity of extracting flowers with oil is generally mild. If you want a brighter burst of fragrance in your oils, then try extracting oils with alcohol!
Extracting with alcohol
Undenatured ethyl alcohol is your weapon of choice, but if you can’t find it, vodka will be your best best. A lot of perfumes contain alcohol because it evaporates from the skin quickly, and the scent is much more potent than natural oils. The only downside to making your own perfume with alcohol is that it may cause skin irritation. However, it’s still relatively easy to make!
Here’s a simple guide to extract rose fragrance with vodka:
1. Using an opaque glass container, combine equal parts of rose petals with pure vodka, and let it set for a couple of days. Using a clear glass container can alter the composition of the alcohol.
2. Strain the flowers according the steps in the oil extraction guide, and then transfer the mixture into a container, and freeze overnight.
3. Once the mixture has frozen, scrape the oil that’s congealed on top of the mixture. You can re-use that oil for potpourri.
This method works best on delicate flowers like jasmine, lavender, daisies, and rosemary too.
Now that you know how to make your own essential oils, don’t forget to test it on your skin to check that it doesn’t irritate your skin. If you’re giving it as a gift to friends and family, always check if they have any allergies to certain botanicals first.
On a side note, here’s your chance to have fun and experiment!
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