Infusing oil with herbs is a great way to add color, scent, and beneficial properties to natural skin care and soap recipes. As the basis of home skin care recipes starts with good quality oils, adding herbs allows you to enhance the oils and design customized and unique recipes for massage bars, bath melts, lotions, soaps and more. Using homegrown herbs harvested from your own organic garden is a fun way to personalize your products, but you can also purchase bulk herbs from reliable sources that will be just as effective. No matter how you do it, adding herbs to oils make your beauty products uniquely herbalicious!
It All Starts with the Oils
Infused oils can be substituted in most recipes for natural beauty: soap, body butter, lip balm, and scrubs. Some good choices for oils to infuse are:
- Coconut oil – nourishes and hydrates skin, good for sun-damaged skin
- Sweet almond oil – moisturizing and skin softening
- Grapeseed oil – easily absorbed into skin; light, non-greasy feeling
- Olive oil – greasier but very moisturizing, can clog pores so not for the face
- Jojoba oil – closest to the skins own sebum so it is a great carrier oil and cleanser
Adding Herbs for Healing
Herbal Oils vs Essential Oils
Three Ways to Make Herbal Oils for Natural Beauty Recipes
My journey and infusing oils started when making calendula and chamomile oil for really gentle bum balm for my son’s diaper rash and I’ll admit that it’s expanded to a bit of an obsession. It’s quite fun to try new recipes with different herbal infusions to see the benefits and the natural colors that are produced.
Simply soaking herbs in oil isn’t enough to infuse the oil; it needs to be heated. Luckily, there are a few ways of doing this so you are sure to find one that suits your needs. The following describes how to infuse oils using the stovetop, a slow cooker, or the sun!
The common thread to all methods is to pack as many dried herbs as you can fit into a container, and then pour over the oil so that the herbs are completely submerged. Choose herbs that are completely dry (moisture and oil don’t mix). When the infusing is finished, strain the herbs from the oil with a fine sieve once, then pour the oil through a coffee filter or cheesecloth-lined fine sieve. Store the oil with a tight-fitting lid in a cool, dark place. Generally, infused oil will last up to the best before date on the original package label. Olive oil should last for 2-3 years and coconut oil will last for many years, although spoiling could happen more quickly if contaminants were introduced in the infusing process.
Stovetop Oil Infusing
Use a double boiler to slowly heat the oil and herbs. Pack a handful of herbs in the top of a double boiler, and pour oil over. If you are using coconut oil, which is solid at room temperature, then melt the oil first before adding the herbs. Fill the bottom pot with an inch of water and set the double boiler on medium-low heat to warm up, then turn down to low for a few hours or until the oil becomes aromatic.
Slow Cooker Oil Infusing
The slow cooker method takes longer but it requires less attention than the other methods. Just set it and forget it!
If you have a small slow cooker, or you are doing a large amount of oil, you can add the herbs right into the ceramic bowl and set it on the lowest setting for 8-12 hours.
Note: When making her herbal oils in a crock pot the biggest thing to watch out for is condensation from the lid of the crock pot. If condensation drips into the oil, then it can introduce mold and bacteria. If you’re putting the oils and herbs directly into the crock pot then leave the lid off while you infuse the oils.
To do a number of different herbs in separate oils, you can put the oil/herb combination in mason jars and set those in the slow cooker. Put a lid on each of the jars and leave the lid off the slow cooker. Infuse for the same timing: 8-12 hours on low.
Sun-Infused Oil
Pack herbs into mason jars and pour oil over them. Screw on a lid and set in the sun for 8 hours. The summer sun can be very hot, so this method is best used in cooler months and with large jars. Overheating the oils can remove some of the beneficial properties and this method is one you will have to watch more closely. It doesn’t use any power beyond the sun so you can infuse oils right out in the garden as you harvest your herbs!
Hello! So I’ve got some fresh lemon balm that I harvested today(some with the flower intact) I would like to make a tincture for my kids and some infused oil. So if I do dry the herb out first in order to make the shelf life of these concoctions longer,does that decrease the potency of the lemon balm?
Thank you in advance!
Hi Alea, I have a number of recipes and articles on lemon balm here: https://gardentherapy.ca/?s=lemon+balm
I have been infusing oils for years, however I have never infused coconut oil and I would love any tips to infusing coconut oil. I thought about infusing some with chamomile and lavender.
Hi Melissa, I do it the same way, but melt it first. It preserves much better as well when it is a solid.
Please….can someone tell me: if I do multiple lidded pint jars containing different oils and herbs, in the crockpot and Leave the crockpot lid off as instructed, do I need to put water in the crockpot so it’s like a double boiler? I like the idea of not having to watch the pot but my husband thinks I then need to add water. Help! Marilyn
The crockput heats up the water and so it gives the jars more even heat. If your crockpot runs warm, then you should not use it, but if not, you can add a bit of water. All crockpots are different so it really comes down to figuring out the best for you.
Hi. Love all your recipes. I do have a question though. Now, does every flower or herb need to be dried first? Or can say Calendula be dry and oil poured in. I’m going to try leaving my jar in the sun. As well as other opinions you shared. Just confused about herbs being dried and Calendula having to be dry. Thanks so much 😊
Hi Catherine, yes, in most cases they need to be completely dry as any moisture will introduce bacterial growth and spoil the oil much more quickly. In some cases like lemon balm and st john’s wort, the herbs will only work when fresh so I recommend reading more about that here: https://gardentherapy.ca/lemon-balm-lip-balm-for-cold-sores/ and https://gardentherapy.ca/st-johns-wort/
Hello. We happen to live on the same coast and, as you know, aren’t guaranteed 8 hours of sun on any given day outside of summer, especially the lower it gets on the horizen (it doesn’t even dry clothes on the clothesline). Does it HAVE to have sunlight to work? Thank you.