Homemade Essential Oils - Lilacs - Part One

On this beautiful day in spring I felt energized with the crafty spirit, and decided to do something about it.  How could anyone be expected to do housework on a day like today?  So off to the yard I went... and found inspiration for a blog.

In my research I  recently found a couple of recipes for making your own homemade essential oils... and they sounded easy.  One of my favorite flowers is LILAC, love the scent, love the color!  So I decided to put aside everything and go pick some flowers. 

Here is my version of Homemade Lilac Essential Oil.  It's not a pure essential oil, and not to be taken internally, but if you're looking for a perfumed oil to use in some bath and body products here you go.

Step 1)  Pick the flowers.  You need two cups of well packed flowers for this.

Seeing as though this was all going to end up in a mason jar, and the mason jar holds two cups, I just crammed all the flowers into the jar and kept packing it down.

Step 2) Slightly bruise the flowers with a Mortar and Pestle.

Now, although I totally have been encouraged to buy a mortar and pestal by my craft enabling husband, I never have.  Up until recently I could never justify it.  So today I used a paper plate, and plastic spoons, which soon turned into paper plate and a pyrex measuring cup.    

Step 3)  Pour Sweet Almond Oil into a mason jar and add flowers.

My lazy self originally decided to just cram all the flowers into the mason jar, then pour a cup of oil in on top, but I was honestly nervous about how that would work out.  So I did it the proper way.  Then I realized I used the recipe for herbs (not flowers) and kicked myself... so for my next batch, which will probably be violets, I'll only use half a cup.

Step 4) Keep it in a warm place (out of sunlight) and shake it once per day.

This jar is FULL.  Shaking is supposed to further bruise the plants, but there's no wiggle room that I can see.  Maybe over time the flowers break down and there will be wiggle room??

So this is where I am at today, waiting and hoping it will turn out okay.  This is kind of a one shot deal this season.  Although, maybe I'll skip housework again tomorrow in lieu of more lilac picking.  :-)


Here are the next steps I'll be following in the days and weeks ahead.

Step 5) Place it in a dark place for a couple of weeks.

Step 6) Shake the jar a final time, then strain it through gauze or cheese cloth into another container.  Squeeze it well to get all the goodness you can out.

Step 7)  Put in dark containers to extend shelf life.

I'll post an update in a couple of weeks with the results!

Thanks for reading my first blog!