Fresh herbal oils can be made right in the comfort of your home using homegrown herbs and a few other essential ingredients. They can add flavor to your next meal, be added to hot tea or even applied topically for healing and beautifying purposes. The way to make fresh herbal oils is fairly simple. Depending on the herb used and the purpose it is intended for, you can create a variety of fresh herbal oils to benefit your daily health routine.
What You’ll Need For Herbal Oils
- Fresh Herbs (in this case, we will use basil)
- Olive Oil
- Mesh strainer
- Mason jar
- Bottle with spout
- Mortar & pestle
- Funnel
How to Make Your Own Herbal Oils
You will want a little more than half of a mason jar filled with fresh basil leaves. Remove the basil leaves from their stems. Crush the basil leaves using a mortar & pestle to release the oils and juices from the basil leaves. You can also break the leaves apart with your hands and mince them with a knife.
Add the basil leaves to a mason jar. To be sure the mason jar is free of any bacteria or germs, you can boil the mason jar is hot water to sanitize it. Once the mason jar is sanitized and dried, add your basil leaves.
Next, add olive oil to the mason jar, filling to the brim. I recommend for culinary purposes, using extra virgin olive oil for taste purposes. I chose olive oil as the carrier oil because it works for both cooking and beauty products.
Close your jar with a lid. Place your jar on a sunny windowsill. The heat from the sun will help further extract the natural oils from the basil leaves allowing the mixture to blend together. Allow your mixture to sit in the sun for a minimum of 2 - 3 days.
Using your strainer and funnel, pour your basil oil into a bottle with a spout. Discard the basil leaves left on the strainer. A bottle with a spout makes it easier to pour when ready to use. Voila! You have just created your very own fresh homemade basil oil!
The shelf life of basil oil differs in every batch. About 2 weeks out of the refrigerator if sealed. About 1 month to 6 weeks in the refrigerator if sealed.
How to Use Your Herbal Oils
Herbal oil using this extraction process is not the same as pure essential oil. However, it can still be used to flavor dishes and it can be applied topically. Only a few drops is necessary in most dishes because of the oils potency. Basil oil, specifically, can be applied to hair when massaged into the scalp to stimulate hair growth. Basil oil can be applied to scraps and cuts because of its natural antibacterial properties. You can apply it to your bath as a skin moisturizer and as an aid for fatigued muscles. It can be gently massaged into the stomach to help relieve digestive issues or taken orally by adding a few drops to hot tea or to a homemade meal.
Every fresh herb has different benefits. It helps to have an abundance of fresh herbs grown at home to be able to make the oil anytime you wish to use it. You will find there are hundreds of uses of fresh herbs with just a little time and the right ingredients!
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