Crafting your own calendula oil is fairly simple if you have the flowers. If not, growing them each summer in your garden is a great addition to your flower and vegetable beds. Read on for how I infuse olive oil with dried calendula to make a fantastic face and body oil. Oh and you can use the same oil to make your own salad dressing too if you want. How’s that for natural living??
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How to make calendula oil
For those of us who scroll fast through the words to find the recipe or the how-to,
here you go!
The details, fun facts, and benefits of calendula are in the words shared here if you care to keep reading.
Materials:
- Quart mason jar
- Lid and ring
- Olive oil (enough to fill the jar), organic is best
- Calendula flower heads (fill the jar at least half way)
- Sunny windowsill
- Fine mesh strainer
- Large mixing bowl
- 2ml Amber bottles (optional!)
How to:
Once you have enough flower heads, whether you grow them yourself or purchase the calendula, fill a quart mason jar with the heads. Be sure they are thoroughly dried out. When in doubt, dry them for a week longer. The moisture in the flower can ruin the oil infusion.
Pour choice oil into the jar until all flower heads are completely covered up with oil. Use the lid and ring to secure the top. Set the jar in a sunny windowsill for 6 weeks. Longer is okay too.
After at least 6 weeks, use a fine mesh strainer to strain oil into a large mixing bowl. One with a pour spout side is a great option if you are planning to bottle your oil.
Now you are ready to bottle your calendula oil! Save a few flower heads to add to each bottle or jar. It’s aesthetically pleasing to the eye in a clear bottle and you have the added bonus of continued infusion making the oil a little bit stronger.
Notes:
You can most definitely pair down this recipe to a pint jar or smaller to make very small batches just for your own use at home. Keep the extra dried calendula flower heads stored in an air tight container like a mason jar until you are ready for your next infusion.
What is the shelf life of calendula oil?
Generally calendula oil infused in olive oil can last up to 1 year. I would recommend using all of your oil by then.
By infusing calendula oil in small batches, this should not be a problem to use up your infused oil within a year. This is assuming you use your oil daily for, say, face moisturizing.
If you are a soap maker or are looking to gift or sell your infused oil, then making calendula oil in larger batches like a quart jar listed above would be fine. Be sure to let your recipient know via the label when it’s best used by.
To improve storage, store your oil in dark bottles like good olive oils come in dark glass bottles and in a cool, dark place.
How else can I use calendula oil?
If you make your own soap, this is a great oil to have extras of on hand.
Or like I mentioned above, this recipe makes a great salad dressing! Calendula is edible. Simply add some vinegar to your lettuce with this oil drizzled on top and enjoy homegrown herbal goodness.
I like to add a little oil to my dish soap recipe for hand moisturizing properties. A tablespoon of calendula-infused olive oil would be a great option as well.
What is calendula?
Calendula is a beautiful flowering plant with medicinal properties. Proper name: Calendula officinalis Linn. (CO). Often called “pot marigold”. Of the daisy family, it is NOT the same as ornamental marigolds you traditionally see in the summer and in gardens.
Love them or hate them, more information can be found at the “trUsTeD” source of NIH’s website.
As always, I will recommend you do your OWN research. I am not a medical doctor, nor an herbalist. This is not medical advice and you can read more in my Disclosure located on every page of my website.
What are the benefits of growing calendula?
When you grow your own calendula in your summer garden, you earn the added benefits of a beautiful garden as well as pollinators such as bees and butterflies.
You will also be confident in knowing how your flowers were grown, what was sprayed on them, etc.
If you add any flowers to your summer garden already like sunflowers, marigolds, bachelor buttons, cosmos, or just wildflowers, might I suggest adding calendula too?
Why use calendula oil in your skincare routine?
Calendula is a powerhouse of a plant I highly encourage you to research independently to gain your own understanding and trust with it.
This plant has been used in medicine for a thousand years or more.
Calendula boasts properties of:
- soothing skin irritation and sun and wind burns
- healing scratches and scrapes (When made into a salve, can act as a natural alternative to neosporin).
- reducing redness
- balancing skin tone
- reducing fine line and wrinkles
- loaded with antioxidants
- slowing skin aging
- soothing psoriasis and eczema
- has antibacterial properties
- plumping up skin
- encouraging collagen production
- gentle enough for baby skin (can be used to make salves and diaper rash creams!)
I recently burned my wrist while cooking dinner. I didn’t even think of my aloe plants but instead walked straight to my calendula oil and applied a drop. Immediately the burning sting was gone and by morning, I couldn’t tell where my skin was burned. Granted it was a small burn spot on my wrist but I was still left amazed and how it truly felt calendula oil worked faster and better than straight aloe from the plant!
Again, please see my DISCLOSURE statement for this blog and my writings.
How do I collect calendula for infusing later?
Collect flower heads as they bloom and dry them all season long. Simply clip the flower head off with as little stem as possible.
I like to air dry my herbs. Depending on where you live, your climate, humidity, etc., you may consider using a dehydrator. If air drying is an option, here is how I do it: EFFECTIVE PRESERVING OF HERBS.
Once dried fully, I add flower heads to quart jar to fill it up. That’s the jar I will fill with olive oil to infuse the calendula as soon as the jar is full.
Then start adding more flower heads to a new jar if I need to.
Be SURE your flower heads are fully dry. If it doubt before infusing, let them air dry for one week longer. Moisture in your infusion will spoil the oil.
Other oils to infuse with:
I do not have personal experience with infusing calendula with any other oil except olive oil but it has been noted in books that you can infuse with jojoba oil and even sunflower oil.
Follow along for more
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