Herbal oils

Posted by hilda on May 5, 2010 · 1 Comment 

Herbal oils are great fun to make, and so versatile! You can use herb oils as such for skin care, hair care or in food. Or you can use it instead of plain oil in any recipe that calls for a vegetable oil.

To make a herb oil, you just need some vegetable oil and fresh or dried herbs. If you use dried herbs, you can use a bit less, since they shrink when they dry up. As the oil base, try olive, sesame seed, jojoba, almond  or possibly rapeseed oil. Dry oils as sunflower seed and thistle oil are not so good, as they have a risk of going rancid from the sunlight.

Place a bit of herbs in a clean, dry, glass jar and pour the oil over them. Make sure the herbs are completely covered in oil, other wise they might go moldy. And don’t fill the jar up completely, leave at least a few centimeters.
Leave the jar to stand in a sunny window for a couple of weeks. If you like,  you can lightly shake the jar every day.
Strain the oil and you’re done!

Any herb, spice or flower can be used for herb oils. Some of my favorites are:

• rosemary - use as such as a hair oil (just massage into lengths and scalp and wash off after having  waited at least 30 mins. The longer the better), body oil or in cooking. Lovely salad dressing!
• basil - suits acne skin, and also great when cooking
• calendula – great for most skin types. I use calendula-jojoba oil as my face oil daily.
• lemon peel - can be used as a hair oil for blonde hair or to lighten hair, or as a salad dressing.
  
• chamomile – also lightens hair color, or as a skin oil for sensitive skin
• daisy – makes a wonderful skin oil for acne and greasy skin

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