Q&A for How to Make Rosemary Oil

Jojoba and coconut oils are the best carrier oils to use, as they mix very well and create a great natural beauty product.

Yes. Many people like to put a few drops of rosemary oil in their lotions, soaps, and shampoos before using them. To do so, mix a small amount of product in a small bowl with a few drops of rosemary oil.

It's perfectly fine to use dried rosemary instead. One large tablespoon of crumbled, dried rosemary equals about three to four sprigs of fresh rosemary.

Yes, you should sanitize the jar to minimize your chances of being exposed to dangerous bacteria.

Yes; you can summer it on a hot plate in the glass jar for 3 hours instead.

Yes! Dried rosemary is just as fragrant and flavorful as fresh rosemary. In fact, if you use dried rosemary, your oil will have a much longer shelf life.

Yes, you can. Any edible oil can be used in these recipes. However, grape seed oil is flavorless. If you use olive oil, your edible oil will have a smooth, mellow rosemary taste. If you use grape seed oil, the flavor might be flat.

Yes. It is best when mixed with lavender and neroli or sandalwood and clary sage.

Yes, you can. It is suggested on websites about carrier oils. There are many, many types of oils you can use, such as sweet almond oil and others.

You should heat the oil with the fresh rosemary to 1) dehydrate the rosemary and help extract the aroma and 2) improve the product shelf life by killing bacteria and fungi that might be on the leaves. Don't overheat/boil the rosemary, or you'll burn it and ruin the aroma.

Personally, I like avocado oil. It has less of a taste than olive oil and a higher burning temperature.

Extracting rosemary essential oil from the actual rosemary plant requires a long process of distillation that is too involved to describe here - it's best if you use the "request an article" feature to see if this can be written sometime. Remember that while the rosemary oil described in this article is edible, you shouldn't consume any kind of essential oil.

No, this is infused oil. Infused oils don't evaporate and can cause diffusers to malfunction.

Based on end-use, you can pick any oil for infusing dried rosemary. Rosemary-infused jojoba oil shouldn't be used for culinary purposes though, only for non-consumption uses.

It's better to leave rosemary to dry inside your home. If it gets humid or wet outside, unwanted mold might grow.

Rosemary can repel mosquitoes, but lemon balm and citronella are stronger. Lavender and lemon grass also work.

Yes, the instructions say to strain the oil through a metal colander or a cheesecloth, then discard the leaves.

Leave it to dry on a rack or bread tray, one of those big plastic ones. Leave it indoors or outside on a sunny day. Even better, the sun is a good sanitiser for bottles. Or, you could wipe it down with a clean cloth/tea towel.

I'd use MCT oil, because coconut oil itself is a solid at room temperature.

Yes; in fact, that’s probably a better method than the oven. You could also just tie the rosemary with string and hang it up somewhere to dry. Doing it this way, your rosemary should be dried in one or two weeks.