Trash Panda Cleans Up Nice: Infused Oils Four Ways

Unfortunately you can't really make your own essential oils unless you're prepared to build a still, and I’m not doing that. But since you have to mix essential oil with a carrier oil most of the time anyway, why not skip a step and infuse your carrier oil with the delightful herb of your choice?

Most of the methods of infusion listed below are taken from "101 Easy Homemade Products for your Skin, Health & Home" by Jan Berry of The Nerdy Farm Wife blog. The 'Sure I have a yogurt maker or wood-stove handy!' method (and the exact measurement route) is taken from "Pacific Northwest Medicinal Plants" by Scott Kloos.

Infused Oils Four Ways

Supplies:

• Clean glass container (I like Ball canning jars, myself)
• Dried plant matter*
• Skin-friendly oil (Olive, sunflower and coconut oil are easy to find)

Steps:

Fill your jar 1/4 to 1/2 full of crumbled or roughly ground dried plant matter, then the rest of the way with your oil of choice. If you want to be exact, you can weigh it out to be 1 part dried plant matter to 5 parts oil**. It'll smell nice and be useful either way.

The Lazy Trash Panda Method (my favorite!)

Put on the lid and just let it sit for 4-6 weeks in a cool, dark place, shaking it up occasionally.

The Sunny Windowsill Method

Let sit in sunny window sill for 3-5 days. "101 Easy Products for Your Skin, Health & Home" says it might just be done at this point if the weather has been hot enough. If you want to keep infusing it past this point, keep it in a cool, dark place for another few weeks

• "101 Easy Products" says to cover with cheesecloth or a coffee filter held on with a rubber band. This is to let condensation out and keep bugs and dust out. I just put a lid on it and called it good and didn't have any problems
• Note: "101 Easy Products" says that a handful of days of UV exposure is ok. That said, you don't want to leave it out in the sun long term or those rays might cause the quality of herbs and oil to degrade

The Quick Method or The DIY Double Boiler

• Take your open jar of herb and oil and set it down into a saucepan filled with a few inches of water
• Put pan on low heat for around 2 hrs. Try to keep the temperature somewhere around 115 F (46 C) so you don't cook your herbs. If you don't have a thermometer, just make sure you turn down the heat if the water begins to bubble at all
• After 2 hrs, take the jar out of the pan and set it aside to cool

The 'Sure I have a yogurt maker or wood-stove handy!' method

• Take lidded jar and heat it evenly at 100-120 F for 3-7 days, shaking/stirring regularly
• A very warm air vent, a spot a suitable distance from a wood-stove, or a yogurt maker all keep things at about the right heat. Slow cookers or Instant Pots run too hot :(
• Kloos suggests putting the jar in a paper bag to keep off those UV rays if your real warm spot it a toasty windowsill

When your oil is suitably infused, strain and pour it into your final clean container. I used a fine wire sieve for straining, and cheesecloth with do as well.

Review

The Lazy Trash Panda Method is the one I turn to first, with the Sunny Windowsill subbing in if it's summer. I haven't tried the DIY Double Boiler, but it is a method I see posted/listed frequently.

I recently infused some sunflower/coconut oil with lavender (see pics above) using both the Lazy Trash Panda Method and the Sunny Windowsill, and they seemed to work equally well. In both cases the lavender scent is fairly subtle, and got more of the herbal side of lavender than you usually find in commercial products. Interestingly, you can definitely taste the lavender if you try it - it's really good. Makes me want to figure out a way to use the stuff in cooking. Shortbread?

I also infused some of the oil with lavender using the Trash Panda Method, then infusing it again with calendula for about a week using the Sunny Windowsill. I think it worked well, at least from what I can tell by how it smells (nicely of lavender) and the color change (a cool orange from the calendula). I've put it in a roller ball applicator and I'm using it as moisturizer and lip balm...well, lip oil if that's a thing.

====================

*For the most part, you want to dry whatever herb you're using before you put it into the oil to infuse because moisture means mold.
** Weigh the dried herb first, which gives you the 1 part. Then multiply it by five and now you have the number of grams of oil you want to add.
====================

References:
101 Easy Homemade Products for your Skin, Health & Home by Jan Berry. Page Street Publishing Co., 2016.
Pacific Northwest Medicinal Plants by Scott Kloos. Timber Press Inc., 2017.