Making essential oils from scratch can be an enthralling and fulfilling hobby. Done correctly, these homemade essential oils can be used in aromatherapy using an essential oil diffuser or used as ingredients in natural beauty and health products made at home.
There are various methods for creating essential oils, from straightforward approaches to more complicated methods. Choose the one which best meets your goals.
Choose the Right Plant Material
One bottle of essential oil requires considerable plant matter, particularly when harvested from wild or organically grown sources. Growing conditions, weather patterns, insect pests and other external factors beyond control of both growers and wild-harvesters may all play an integral part in altering its chemical composition and therapeutic benefits.
Selecting an ideal plant species to use when creating homemade essential oil is crucial, as various parts contain different aromatic oils that will have different results. Popular choices for this include lavender, peppermint, eucalyptus and chamomile.
Once you have selected your plant material, it is essential to determine the most effective distillation technique. Options may include chemical solvents, enfleurage or expression techniques. Solvent-based methods can be dangerous and time consuming to complete; steam distillation offers an easier, simpler alternative; heating water up with the plant in it until boiling point and then passing it through an impeller that captures volatile essential oil molecules before passing back through an condenser for cooling into liquid form again.
Steam Distilled
Steam distillation is an efficient and precise way to produce many of NOW's popular essential oils. Plant parts are exposed to steam which vaporizes lighter chemicals before condensing into liquid form; producing both essential oil and hydrosol (containing water-soluble molecules).
Before beginning to make your own oil, be sure to clean and sterilize all equipment used. This includes your large pot with lid, heat-resistant glass bowl, herbs and flowers you want to use, ice cubes and distilled water - whenever possible, try to source fresh, raw organic plants!
These five methods vary in terms of time and equipment needed, but all produce pure essential oils diluted with carrier oils. Avoid applying undiluted essential oils directly to the skin, as their high concentration may cause irritation or burns. Proper storage in dark glass bottles will preserve their quality over time; this is particularly important if using medicinally.
Commercial Still
Essential oils are prized for their therapeutic benefits and alluring aromas, yet can be quite costly to purchase in stores. DIY essential oil blending can be an enjoyable hobby that saves you money while guaranteeing its quality and purity.
Homemakers can make essential oils through various techniques, including distillation, vodka extraction and alcohol-based tinctures. Each method yields different products depending on the plant species involved and your time commitment to this project.
Steam distillation uses water to boil plant material and separate essential oil from aromatic water, leaving only lighter essential oil behind that you can collect through a funnel. Be sure to use only clean water in your still and don't mix different species together as this could compromise its quality and produce unintentional contamination of your oil. Also consider drying your materials out slightly prior to distilling for optimal yield results from each batch of materials distilled.
Alcohol-Based Tinctures
At home, there are various methods for creating essential oils. While each method varies in terms of complexity and equipment required, they all result in pure essential oils diluted with carrier oils. The simpler techniques (vodka and herbal infusion techniques) require little hands-on work once measuring and preparing plant materials; additionally they're faster than distillation or solvent extraction methods.
Alcohol-based tint methods are especially suitable for citrus fruit, which contain volatile oils that can be extracted using commercial presses. To use, peels of citrus fruit are placed into a glass jar filled with ethanol; when this separates out any essential oils and other plant material it can be strained out into dark-colored storage jars and stored. Once complete, this tincture can either be added directly onto a base oil for topical application, or directly applied directly. Essential oils should always be diluted prior to topical application.
