I love infusing my own herbal oils
I love every and each ingredient I use in my products, they all bring something special and truly unique to the skin’s health. Of them all I am probably most proud of the herbal oils I infuse myself, using plants we grow on our bio-dynamic/organic farm. Well, most of the plants, as we don’t grow green tea or cloves, and my chamomile isn’t giving me enough for what I need to infuse. But for the rest I have loads of gorgeous calendula, aromatic bushes of sage, peppermint, lemon balm, oregano, thyme, lavender as well as many beautiful and healthy eucalyptus trees.
Okay, but how to from flower or leaf to herbal oil? Many people ask me about this process, which is where the magic happens. It’s called the slow sun-infusion method. In order to get all the goodies (aka active compounds) from the plants, you need a high quality carrier oil, in my case certified organic extra-virgin cold pressed olive oil. But firstly I need the plant material, that is lots and lots of flowers and leaves. So I go and pick them fresh from my garden, get them on the drying rack nicely for a few days until most water content has gone, then pack them in a large glass jar or bottle and top up with olive oil. I then put the jar in a window sill covered with a brown paper bag (ie. recycled envelope) and let sit and infuse beautifully for minimum 12 weeks. I then squeeze out the precious oil and put it in a dark glass bottle away from light, just waiting for mama to make a fresh batch of body butter or facial oil. With some plants such as peppermint, lemon balm and calendula, I repeat the infusion with a fresh batch of dried plant material to give extra strength to the herbal oil. Sometimes I triple-infuse it, just because I love experimenting.
I really enjoy each part of this slow-infusion process, be it through the colours, scents or energy of plants. And I believe this gives extra power to the herbal oil beyond its therapeutic properties.
Love,
Stefania
