Herbal Infused Oils (HIO'S) - A New Frontier in Aromatherapy
Sometimes you can cover up the smell very easy and then, sometime it takes time and a lot of improvising to cover it. Mullein is one of the worst offenders as well as Comfrey leaf. Violet leaf can rate a close 3rd with Lemon Balm/Melissa bringing up the rear very quickly. Then
there are some herbal infused oils that never smell and you use them only for your medicinal formulas. Hopefully by the time you open up your jars to check on them, the alcohol will have done its work and eaten up the moisture, which creates the "stinky" odor.
Now to talking about how to use these herbal infused oils that you have made and let set for a minimum of 1 year. When you open your jar be prepared for either a great, subtle smell or a strong, sour-smelling odor. Take off enough oil to take care of your formula and let the rest set for another long period of time or until you need some more oil. Remember that because
this oil has set and aged that it is much stronger than your normal herbal infused oil. The good thing here is that you can use this oil in drops similar to how you use your essential oils.
My rule of thumb is that 1 drop of essential oil can equal 5 to 10 drops of an aged herbal infused oil. It depends upon the herbal infused oil as to what strength to use as well as
its age. Herbal infused oils can and will melt plastic the same as an essential oil under certain conditions so please, still use glass bottles unless you properly dilute your herbal infused oil. Less
is best is still the best rule to follow. Once you have a feel for working with herbal
infused oils, you will see a new dimension added to your formulas that you have not seen before.
Now for a word about blending. When making herbal infused oil formulas one has to consider how to bring balance to your formula, make it pleasant to the nose, and do its job. Bringing balance to your formula and preparing it to do its job are easy as compared to making it pleasant to the nose. Here we need to remember that when using sour or bad smelling oils that the sweet essential oils will be harmony, and balance thus giving a pleasing smell to the formula. (See the blending section for more information and the following formula.)
When working with fresh Lemon Balm/Melissa herbal infused oil, you will find that it is nearly always sour smelling and has to be mixed with several other good smelling oils like Citronella, Lemon, Lemongrass. These other essential oils are top notes and rarely hang around but when the sour-smelling Melissa is added, they like to stay and hold the fragrance a lot longer. Here is where you will get an opportunity to further your skills at perfumery since we know that most Melissa herbal oil can smell bad. By working with this sour Melissa, you will learn how to compensate for the sour smell and make your formula sweeter and more long lasting.
We know from the research that has been done on Melissa that Melissa is a very expensive
essential oil to obtain due to the low essential oil content of the plant itself. This, in turn, makes Melissa very expensive to purchase (up to $700.00 per oz. in some cases). So we are looking for less expensive alternative and we turn to Melissa herbal infused oil. Melissa is a very anti-viral and anti-bacterial oil. It is great for viral infections that nothing else
seems to work on and is used often in Herpes formulas. It takes as little as a 2 % dilution of Melissa Essential Oil, according to Kurt Schnaubelt's research to be effective with Herpes so we can look at closely at Melissa herbal infused oil and use a 2 to 8 % dilution to achieve a similar
goal. By knowing this we can improvise and make our herbal infused oil work for us at considerably less cost.