Make your own essential oils

Health food stores and specialty supermarkets carry essential oil in
small vials. When buying essential oil, it is prudent to check to see
if what you have in your hand is pure essential oil and not one that
is diluted. Sometimes it is hard to find the essential oil you want
and have to special order it. Essential oil is a little pricey to
begin with and if you have to special order it, the price goes even
higher. Essential oils are always mixed with carriers which are oils
that are mild and have no scent. This is because using essential oil
at full strength can irritate your skin.

Making your own essential oil at home is not hard, just have to have
some patience. You can use any herb or flowers to make essential
oils, it just depends on your preference. Let' say for the purpose of
this project, you want to make mint essential oil. ( If you are using
flowers, do not use petals that have been sprayed with pesticides,
i.e., flowers from florists.)

What you need:

Organically grown mint
A clean jar with a lid
Carrier oil: Sweet almond, jojoba, safflower (pick one)

The amount of mint you need will depend on the size of your clean
jar. You will need a fresh batch of leaves everyday for the next
week.

1. Crush the mint leaves with your hands and pack them loosely into
the jar.

2. Pour the oil into the jar and fill it to cover the leaves. Cover
tightly and set aside in a warm place.

3. Next day, strain the oil off the leaves and crush a new batch of
leaves. Pack into the same jar with the strained oil. Top off with
new oil, close the jar and set aside in a warm place for a day.

4. Repeat step three for the next five days.

On the last day, pour into smaller bottles and label them carefully
and refrigerate to extend its shelf life. You can make your own
perfume by adding about 15 drops of essential oil into a half ounce
of Vodka or Everclear. Another thing you can do is to add 30 drops
of essential oil to 8 ounces of your body lotion (unscented).