Why infuse oil?

This is a great way to have the natural benefits of herbs, without using essential oils which are much more potent. This also bypasses the need to purchase a factory-made product like essential oils, and give the power back to you in your natural kitchen and apothecary. 

What to use infused oil for?

You can use infused oils (depending on the recipe) for body recipes or even food recipes! These are versatile and an essential in creating diy items for your home. They take a bit more patience, but the benefits are sweet.

Choose your carrier oil

There are many oil you can use as your carrier oil for your infusion. You can find a list of many options here, and find out individual benefits for each. Mountain Rose Herbs is full of incredible knowledge about herbs and oils. I encourage you to find out more information about ingredients there, making sure they are right for you. For carrier oils, I like to keep it simple and stick to 5 that I reuse often for face and body recipes. You can use most carrier oils interchangeably. If you don’t have one called for in the recipe, swap it for another. Here are my favourite:

Sweet Almond Oil, for Vitamins A and E, penetrates easily into the skin, and works great as a moisturizer.

Agan Oil, absorbs easily into skin, contains tocopherols and phenols, carotenes, squaline and fatty acids, making it a truly luxurious oil

Camellia Seed Oil, nourishes and hydrates as a gentle moisturizer. Cold-pressed from the seeds of the tea plant. This oil “can help cultivate a bright and glowing complexion” and a little goes a long way.

Jojoba Oil, has advanced molecular stability “wonderful for the skin because it has absorption properties that are similar to our skin's own sebum”

Olive Oil, great for hair, body, and cooking! This is one of the most versatile oils, most stable, and has a great conditioning effect in body care recipes.

Recipe

Now infusions do not need to be exact, but here is a ratio that can help you with approximates to use as a guide:

- 1 oz dried herbs or flowers
To every 
- 10 fluid oz of carrier oil

1. Place herbs in sterilized container and cover with the carrier oil at room temperature
2. Make sure herbs are all covered in oil and there are no air bubbles
3. Place container in cool dark place for 4 weeks (less if in a rush, but it won’t be as potent)
4. Strain the herbs from the oil, sweezing the herbs (either through a fine strainer or cheesecloth), to extract as much oil from the herbs as you can.
5. Poor the oil into a sterilized dark coloured glass bottle and store in a dark cool place.

Disclaimer: Letterpress is not trained in medical, skin, or naturopractic medecine.
Please do your own research or talk to your healthcare practitioner and be mindful of your allergies. Perform a patch test first, before putting anywhere on your body. For more education information online, check out The Herbal Academy. You can also use the Essential Oils Pocket Reference for more detailed information about essential oils.