Saturday, August 9, 2008

Prepare your own aroma oil

My mother, being a beautician used to say that aroma treatments are one of the best treatments for your skin. For these aroma treatments, she uses aroma oils, which is the most important thing for the treatment. She prepares various types of aroma oils at home. Here is the general procedure for preparing the aroma oil at your home.

To begin, you need a collection of clean, sterilized bottles and jars. You can recycle jam jars, and glass bottles, but you need to wash them thoroughly first in a hot soapy water, then boil in a large saucepan for 20 minutes.

You will first need at least one standard cup of plant material. Fro your first attempts, se strongly aromatic plants like lavender, rose petals or rosemary. These will give you oil that can be put to many uses around the home.

The oil you use should be related to the purpose you have in mind – you can use baby oil or almond oil for cosmetics, sunflower or corn for general purpose and olive oil for cooking.

Place the plant material in your jar or bottle. If you are using a bottle, you can push stems of lavender or rosemary into the bottle.

Now pour the oil over the plant material, making sure the bottle or jar is full. As a rough rule of thumb, use tow cups of oil to one cup of plant material. You don’t need to warm the oil before you pour it in the bottle or jar.

Now cap the bottle or jar tightly and place it in a warm spot. Leave the oil to infuse for few days, or until the plant material begins to brown. Take the cap off and sniff – if it is not strong enough for you, strain the liquid, fill the jar with fresh plant material and pour the oil back over it. Leave for another few days. Keep doing this until the mixture is as aromatic you want.

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