Making lavender oil and what to do with it

dixie_dean_2

I had a look ont tinterweb and all that but mainly found very complicated methods or ones involving olive oil. This seems strange to me as its not a cheap oil and its quite strong smelling. Does anyone have simple methods, alternative carrier oils and suggestions as to what to do with it?

And another problem: bees? How am I meant to harvest my lovely flowers when they are swarming with big buzzing bees? I could wait till the evening but apparently the oil content is highest in the blazing sun. Any ideas?

Cheers

elona

Try using almond oil as a base instead of olive oil and lavender oil is great for skin conditions and to inhale to help you sleep.

dixie_dean_2

Is almond oil available in supermarkets or just those kinda oil burning/incense type shops?

bootman

I thought you had to harvest it before the flowers were out?

My lavender at this time of year is well and truely over.

flufff

holland and barratt sell almond oil.The oil you produce wont be pure essential if you mix it but should be fine on skin for massage.I'm not sure how it will burn in a carrier oil?
Lavendar in muslim bags would be nice to scent draws

dixie_dean_2

bootman wrote:

I thought you had to harvest it before the flowers were out?

My lavender at this time of year is well and truely over.

From what I've read you harvest the flowers for the oil, between July and August "depending on the season" (no idea what that means!) ideally on a hot sunny day. I might brave the bees on the next hot day as the flowers are probably just past their peak now.

SusanCarter

dixie dean: Any chance you could post the links for lavender oil making that you found?

lovelyjubbly

Last week I watched
The Great Italian Escape with Richard and Sarah Turnbull on Channel4

on it Sarah made Lavender oil, she had a bottle of her own olive oil and used a pestle and mortar to crush lavender leaves and then put them in the bottle of olive oil, this sounded so easy, is this the normal way to make lavender oil, I thought maybe olive oil would be a bit heavy? still i would love to make some as we have loads of lavender.
any ideas?

Penelope_Penguin

Hi there! We have an existing thread on making lavendar oil; some people recommend using almond oil I'll add your post to that thread so that you can browse the replies

Penny. x

mum_of_4

I also thought that the flowers were harvested before they opened, i visited the lavender farms in jersey and i'm sure that is what they said.

lauren_1

I would say either sweet almond or coconut oil would be better than olive, there are several ways to extract oil but the above method is more a infusion/maceration than extraction but still good for lavender.

You can do it with citrus too