honeysuckle oil or perfume

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honeysuckle oil or perfume

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marzdragon

Joined: 28 Apr 2005
Posts: 11
Location: Tulsa Oklahoma,USA

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 7:27 pm Post subject: honeysuckle oil or perfume

I have a ton of honeysuckle and roses and want to do something with them other than potpurri(sp) . Does any one know how to make an infused oil or perfume?I heard about soaking them in vodka, but dont know the procedure. Also, I just bought and planted bee balm after visiting this site yesterday. It is a tiny thing( about 3 inches tall) but I'm sure it will be great. How big do they get? Thanks a bunch.

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42207
Location: North Devon

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 7:45 pm Post subject:
Don't know the answers to either of those. Sally-in-Wales is the expert on this stuff, and she's usually around at some point. When she is I'm sure she'll answer. Or someone else may know. I just didn't want you to feel that your first question was being ignored.

marzdragon

Joined: 28 Apr 2005
Posts: 11
Location: Tulsa Oklahoma,USA

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 7:59 pm Post subject:
thanks, I can wait for the answer. very cool site, but I have to get used to the dialect. but dont get me wrong. I love it.

Nanny

Joined: 17 Feb 2005
Posts: 4520
Location: carms in wales

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 8:11 pm Post subject: honeysuckle oil
hi marzdragon i used to be american but now i understand the english language a bit better i might be able to help with the dialect sometimes.....................

sally_in_wales
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Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 8:12 pm Post subject:

Mm, honeysuckle, how lovely

Your best bet with honeysuckle is to pack the flowers into shallow trays or bowls of fat (you could use a salve made with beeswax and a vegetabe oil if you prefer), leave it for no more than two days, barely warm the mix until it liquifies, strain out the flowers and repreat with fresh blossoms. You'll need to do this several times using the same fat base until the salve is saturated with fragrance. It would then be possible to extract the scent from teh pomade into alcohol, but I would be tempted to just use the salve as a semi solid perfume.
You could experiemnt with soaking the flowers in oil, but you will find the scent is not as stable as it will be with the basic enfleurage method suggested above. I havent tried honeysuckle directly in alcohol, but I suspect it wont transfer well- alcohol is pretty brutal stuff on delicate blossomsand the scent rarely reflects the nature of the flower.
Remember to use it very cautiously on the skin first time round, many strongly scented flowers are also potential sensitizers, and you don't want to come out in a rash!

sally_in_wales
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Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 8:18 pm Post subject:

Oh yes- your bee balm (melissa officinalis I presume?) will get roughly knee height or a little higher, and then will quietly spread sideways. I love it (so do my bees). Its also useful in perfumery, though the essential oil is restricted legally in perfumery(too strong for use in perfumes) but you can safely use sprigs of balm in sachets, bath posies and infusions. Makes a nice addition to summer drinks as well.

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 8:35 pm Post subject:

One of my books has instructions for making essential oils - basically pack as many flowers as you can into an enamel kettle (I've never found one, which is why I never done it - yet!) top up with water, and then boil it. Connect a tube to the spout and pass through a bowl of ice into a container lower down (you need a stool or something for the ice, so its downhill all the way) and collect the water at the bottom. It will be a flower water, with a very small amount of essential oil floating on the top. You have to skim this off with a pippette. You can use the flower water too.

OK, its not exactly quick and easy, but if you've got loads of flowers I'd be tempted to give it a go. It's my kind of project, but I imagine its not everyones cup of flower water!

sally_in_wales
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Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Sat Apr 30, 05 9:05 am Post subject:

Treat what comes out of your kettle still as 'enriched' floral water, its highly unlikely you'll be able to collect any oil off the surface unless you are running literally gallorns of the stuff! But a very nice way to make floral waters to liberally squirt around the place. You can also steep herbs or flowers in water with a little alcohol in before running it through the still- the alcohol will help tincture out any scents not water soluble, and as long as the distillate is under about 1% alcohol its ok legally (I'll double check that figure, I do somewhere have a letter from the nice people at Customs and Ecxcise who were very confused when I asked them but eventually decided that low alcohol perfume experiments were ok)

marzdragon

Joined: 28 Apr 2005
Posts: 11
Location: Tulsa Oklahoma,USA

Posted: Sun May 01, 05 12:03 am Post subject:
what parts of the beebalm can I use for tea? is it like mint and use the leaves and flowers? can the leaves be used sugared like mint?

sally_in_wales
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Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Sun May 01, 05 5:42 pm Post subject:
Use nice sprigs off the fresh shoots for tea, also great added to a jug of iced water, if you have a sweeter tooth add a spoonful of honey to the jug and you end up with a very mild 'lemonade' which is wonderfully refreshing on hot days. I've never tried sugaring the leaves but I would think it would work well, what a nice idea

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