Having the ability to make essential oils on your own is very rewarding.
There are many ways to make essential oils but the most effective way is distillation.
This method uses steam to capture the oil, condenses back into water, and then the water and oil are separated.
No chemicals are used in the distillation method.
Since steam is the product used, there is no chance of chemicals leaving a residue in the oil.
The great benefit of this is that it produces pure oil.
The distillation method has three sequences so it has three pieces of equipment.
The first is the tort or still where the plant and steam meet.
The water and oil turn into liquid in the condenser and are kept in the separator.
There are three ways that the steam and plant material can come in contact in the retort: hydrodistillation, wet steam, and dry steam.
Hydrodistillation is where the plant is boiled in the water and wet steam has the plant on a screen above the water.
Dry steam has the steam in a separate container that travels through a tube into the bottom of the retort.
The steam's heat opens up the plant's fibers and the steam itself carries the oil away.
The mixture of oil and water then travel through the condenser.
The condenser is a copper pipe or tube that allows the heat to escape turning the mixture into liquid form faster.
The water and oil then are stored in the separator.
Here the water and oil relax as the oil is sifted to the top.
The separator is made out of glass and once the oil is on top, it is bottled and stored separate from the water.
The leftover water, hydrosol, can be very useful.
The uses of the water vary with each plant.
In the example of lavender the water still smells like its sweet perfume.
This fragrant water can be used to freshen laundry, linens, or the air.
Knowing how to make essential oils is very rewarding.
You can make pure oils that have multiple purposes or buy them from a commercial company.
Just make sure that the company uses the distillation method because it is effective and produces pure oil.