DIY Lavender Essential Oil Tincture- Think Ahead Handmade Gift Ideas Series
I’m so excited to officially launch our Think Ahead Handmade Gifts series today!!! I hope that you all had a chance to read my post on Tuesday where I introduced the concept of the series and gave you all the opportunity to sign up for our Handmade Gift Givers Club. If not, hop on over to our Handmade Gifts Made Easy post and take a peek!
Basically the concept is simple. Handmade gift giving is AWESOME, but it takes some advanced planning to do a really good job of it. We want to help all of you stock your gift closet. That means planning ahead, thinking seasonally, creating lists of people who you give gifts to and what they like and getting in the habit of making handmade gifts each month to give throughout the year.
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It’s July and lavender is in bloom so today I’m going to teach you how to make a lavender “essential oil” tincture.
6 years ago, I planted a tiny little culinary lavender plant in our community garden plot. For 6 years the plant has sat there, growing each year, attracting bees to our garden with it’s beautiful, scented buds. Occasionally I have chopped a handful off and brought it home, stuck it in a vase on our table and delighted in the fact that we grow such lovely lavender. Not once have I used this lavender for anything other than visual enjoyment. What was I thinking???
There are so many INCREDIBLE recipes and DIY projects that you can make with lavender. I decided that this is going to be the year that I tackle some of those projects– Lavender sugar, lavender tea, lavender sea salt, lavender oil and today’s post… Lavender “essential oil” tincture.
So before we get going with this DIY post we should start with this question:
What is essential oil?
According to Google, “an essential oil is a natural oil typically obtained by distillation [steam, steam/water, water] and having the characteristic fragrance of the plant or other source from which it is extracted.”
Now, most of us don’t have access to a distillery to distill the natural oils of our favorite plants or herbs, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t get a lot of the amazing benefits of an essential oil by making our own DIY tincture version at home.
What is a tincture?
Tinctures are liquid extracts made from herbs, usually extracted into alcohol.
Tinctures can be taken orally to cure a wide variety of ailments, but they can also be used in a variety of different ways where you would commonly use an essential oil.
For example, you can use this lavender tincture:
– In your ultrasonic diffuser to scent the air and help you fall asleep.
– Mixed with a bit of coconut oil as an after bath lotion to help little ones fall asleep.
– Mixed with witch hazel as a natural bug spray to keep mosquitoes at bay.
– In our lavender yoga mat spray (the spray also makes a lovely cleaner).
– In a linen spray to scent sheets.
– As an extract to flavor lip balm.
– To add lavender flavor to make lavender lemonade.
– To scent bathwater for ultimate relaxation
– Lavender flavored cocktails
– As an extract in your baking (Yummy! Lavender shortbread anyone???)
Plus much much more!
What Occasions Can You Give A Lavender Tincture For?
Really the possibilities are endless, but a few of our favorites are:
– Mother’s Day
– Birthdays
– New Baby
– Housewarming
– Christmas
– Get better soon/ hospital gift
And let’s not forget all of the things you can make with your tinctures too that would make wonderful gifts!
Ready? Read on to learn how to make DIY Lavender Essential Oil Tinctures.
How To Make DIY Lavender “Essential Oil” Tinctures
Materials:
– 1 litre/1 quart mason jar
– 2-4 cups of lavender flowers (If you are buying your lavender or have a limited amount of lavender flowers in your garden you can get away with 2 cups of lavender flowers. The more you can stuff your mason jar with lavender flowers, the stronger it will be! If buying lavender, you can find it here.)
– 1 litre of vodka or grain alcohol (You can use the cheapest vodka you can find for this tincture. You do not want to use rubbing alcohol as it will leave behind a very strong odour.)
– 2 coffee filters
– Dark bottles to store your lavender tincture in
– Blender, food processor, mortar and pestle or something to crush your lavender flowers with (get creative… you could even put it in a plastic bag and whack it with a rolling pin!)
Instructions:
Step 1: Remove the flowers from the stalks of your lavender. I left the top of my stalks on that the lavender was connected to, but removed the bottom of the stalks.
Step 2: Crush your lavender slightly. I put mine in our blender and pulsed it a few times. You want to have the natural oils start to release and bruise the lavender. You DON’T want to end up with lavender mush.
Step 3: Put your lavender into a mason jar and fill the jar with vodka.
Step 4: Put a lid on your mason jar and leave it to “brew” for 1 week, shaking once or twice a day. Within 24 hours your lavender tincture will take on an amber color.
Step 5: After brewing time is over, strain your lavender tincture through a coffee filter to remove all of the flowers. I strain mine into a 4 cup measuring cup, rinse my mason jar, dry it and then do a second strain and strain it back through the coffee filter into the clean mason jar.
Step 6: Put a clean coffee filter on top of your mason jar and leave it for 1 week to let the alcohol evaporate from your tincture.
Step 7: Congratulations! You’ve made your first batch of DIY lavender essential oil tincture! Strain the tincture through the coffee filter 1 more time to remove any remaining sediment and then pour the tincture into dark colored bottles for storage. You want dark bottles so that light doesn’t effect the integrity of your tincture.
Bam! Item 1 done for your handmade gift giving gift closet!
Like this idea? Build on the skill!
You can make tinctures out of all kinds of herbs and citrus rinds! Experiment!
A few of the ideas we’re considering making are:
– Lemon peel tincture
– Rosemary tincture
– Oregano tincture
– Rose petal tincture
We’re really, really, really excited about this new series and would love for you to pin it to Pinterest to help spread the word about our love of handmade gifting!
Make sure share pictures as you make your DIY lavender essential oil tincture and any other handmade gifts you are creating! Tag #HCFHandmadeGiftClub on your social media posts! We want to see what your working on, you inspire us! Also check out our handmade gift ideas tag for more great ideas!
Tell me… Who are you going to give your lavender essential oil to and for what occasion?
The post DIY Lavender “Essential Oil” Tincture- Think Ahead Handmade Gift Ideas Series appeared first on Hello Creative Family.