How to Make Lavender Essential Oil At Home
Learning how to make lavender essential oil at home can be a benefit to any household. Lavender essential oil has a plethora of uses. It has been used throughout history to protect the skin from infection, calm nerves, soothe headaches, decrease muscle pains, soothe light burns like sunburns, dull menstrual pain, and ease the symptoms of rheumatism. It is even gentle enough to be used on the tender skin of babies.
How To Grow Plants To Make Lavender Essential Oil
Lavender can be grown in many different climates as long it gets full sun and is well drained. Common lavender such as Lavendula angustifolia, Lavendula Vera, or Lavendula officinalis should be grown instead of the Lavendula stoechas, which does not have the right qualities for making lavender essential oil. The stems of the flower should be gathered right away after the flower has opened for maximum potency.
How To Use Plants To Make Lavender Essential Oil
Steaming the stems of the lavender flowers makes lavender essential oil. The vapor that is released from this steaming is stored in tanks and left to cool. The vapor becomes the essential oil during the cooling stage. So, to make lavender essential oil at home you will need an oil still of some kind. You can buy an essential oil still or you can make your own.
To make your own small oil still you will need: 1.An open flame, such as on a gas stove, or a campfire; 2.A pot with a grate on top, such as a vegetable steamer to put the stems on; 3.A condenser to collect the steam and cool it. This can be made of a coffee can, which covers the pot and stems, with a copper pipe connected to it. The pipe should be immersed in cold water to aid in the cooling of the vapor; 4.A separator to separate the essential oil from the water vapor. You can buy essential oil separators to go on homemade stills at many essential oil stores.
Put enough filtered water in your still to last during the entire process. With a small homemade still, like the one above, the process will take around half and hour. With a larger still it can take up to six hours. Make sure the water doesn't touch the lavender stems in the grate. Heat the water slowly on a low fire.
The stems can be stacked on top of one another as long as they do not touch the top part of the condenser. Also, make sure that the stems do not touch the edges of your water container. Once the process is complete, collect the oil in clean bottles and store in a cool dry place. Now you know how to make lavender essential oil.
