How To Make Your Own Scented Oils

We all love the smell of scented oils burning from oil lamps, filling up our homes with the luscious aromas of lavender, gardenia or even citrus. It can be very expensive to purchase this vast array of oils for burning, so why not make your own! You can pick your own scents, from flowery, to citrus, to herbal. It's easy to create your own preference for a fraction of the cost of buying them.

Here's what you'll need to get started:

3 cups of your favorite herb or flower

½ cup sweet cold-pressed almond oil

a mortar and pestle or baggie and rolling pin

2 mason jars, dark jars with stoppers for storage

cheesecloth

unscented lamp oil.

If you are cutting your own flowers, do not use flowers that have pesticides on them! Flowers can, of course, be purchased from a garden shop. You can also use spices and citrus peels using the same steps as below.

Mash the flowers with your mortar and pestle or place in a bag and roll with a rolling pin. This brings out the fragrances of the flowers.

Add the almond oil and the flowers to the mason jar. Shake the jar well to mix and mash the mixture.

Put the jar in your window sill for one week. Shake the jar well once very twenty four hours. Try to make sure the temperature stays between 68 and 75 degrees F.

At the end of one week, put the jar in a dark place. The oil will continue to age and absorb the flowers. Leave for two weeks and do not shake.

Put the cheesecloth over the other jar and strain the oil through it. This will take out the bits of flower. Wring out the cloth to get all the oil out. Throw out the cheesecloth and flowers.

Store your oil in dark bottles to keep out the light. Light dissipates the oil's potency. Dark dropper bottles are available in craft sections of your department stores.

This can be added to your lamp oil for fragrance in your wick burning lamp or can be used in a tea-light oil burning lamp. If you prefer a stronger fragrance, use more flowers, herbs or citrus. Experiment!

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