If you search how to make lavender oil, you will get two completely different answers mixed together, usually in the same article. That is because two different things are called lavender oil, and only one of them can be made in a kitchen.
We distil on our farm in Richmond, British Columbia, so we make one of them commercially and the other one at home like everyone else. Here is the difference, and the method for the one you can actually do.
The two things called lavender oil
Infused lavender oil is a carrier oil — olive, almond, jojoba — that has had dried lavender sitting in it long enough to take on the scent and some of the plant's oil-soluble compounds. It is mild, it goes straight onto skin, and you can make it this afternoon.
Lavender essential oil is the concentrated volatile oil pulled out of the flower by steam distillation. It is not mild, it must be diluted before it touches skin, and you cannot make it at home in any meaningful quantity.
Almost everyone searching for a recipe wants the first one. Almost every recipe online calls it the second one. That is the whole confusion.
How to make infused lavender oil at home
What you need
- Dried lavender buds — about one part buds to two or three parts oil, by volume. Loosely packed, not crammed.
- A carrier oil. Sweet almond and fractionated coconut are the easy ones. Jojoba keeps the longest, because it is technically a wax rather than an oil and does not go rancid the way seed oils do. Olive oil works and is what most people have, but it brings its own smell.
- A clean, completely dry glass jar with a lid.
- Cheesecloth or a fine sieve for straining.
- A dark glass bottle to store the finished oil.
Use dried lavender, not fresh
This is the one rule that actually matters, and the one most guides bury.
Fresh lavender still holds water. Water trapped under oil, at room temperature, in a sealed jar, is how you grow mould — and because it sits at the bottom under a layer of oil, you often do not see it until the whole batch is ruined. Dry your lavender fully first, or start with buds that were dried properly.
If you are drying your own: hang small bundles upside down somewhere dark and airy for two to three weeks. Dark matters. Sunlight bleaches the colour out and takes a good deal of the scent with it.
Method 1 — cold infusion (better scent, slower)
- Put the dried buds in the jar and pour over the oil until the buds are covered by a couple of centimetres.
- Seal it and leave it somewhere warm and bright for two to six weeks. A sunny windowsill is the traditional spot.
- Give it a shake every couple of days.
- Strain through cheesecloth, squeezing the buds out properly — a surprising amount of oil hides in them.
- Bottle in dark glass and store somewhere cool and dark.
For a stronger result, strain out the spent buds after a few weeks, add a fresh batch to the same oil, and run it again. Two infusions makes a noticeably better oil than one.
Method 2 — warm infusion (same day)
- Put the buds and oil in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, or in a slow cooker on its lowest setting.
- Hold it warm — not simmering, not frying — for two to four hours.
- Let it cool, then strain and bottle as above.
Heat gets you there in an afternoon, but it costs you some of the top notes. If the oil is for scent, take the slow route. If it is for a balm or a soap where it will be heated anyway, warm infusion is fine.
How long it keeps
Roughly six months to a year, depending on the carrier. Jojoba goes furthest; olive and almond are shorter. Keep it out of the light and away from the stove. If it smells sharp or like old nuts, it has turned — that is the carrier oil going rancid, not the lavender.
Why you cannot make essential oil at home
It is not a trade secret. It is arithmetic.
Steam distillation needs a still, a condenser, a heat source you can hold steady for hours, and above all volume. It takes an enormous quantity of flower to yield a small bottle of essential oil. A few plants from the garden will not produce a usable amount — you will spend a day and get a slick you cannot even get out of the vessel.
The small countertop stills sold online do work, in the sense that they are real distillation. What they mostly produce is hydrosol, with a trace of oil on top. Which is genuinely worth doing if you enjoy the process — just do not expect to fill a 30 ml bottle.
What actually happens in our still
We cut in the morning, when the oil content in the flower is at its best and before the day's heat has taken any of it off.
The cut lavender goes into the still and steam is passed up through it. The steam carries the plant's volatile compounds with it, moves into the condenser, and cools back into liquid. What collects then separates on its own, because oil and water will not mix:
- A thin film on top — the essential oil, which we draw off.
- The water beneath it — the hydrosol, carrying the compounds that dissolve in water rather than oil.
Nothing is added at any point. We distil each of our three cultivars separately — Melissa, Superblue and Grosso — because blending them would flatten out exactly the differences that make each one interesting.
So which one do you want?
Make the infused oil if you want something to put on your skin, if you enjoy the process, or if you have lavender in the garden and want to do something with it. It is a genuinely good product and it costs you an afternoon.
Buy the essential oil if you want a diffuser blend, a soap, a balm, or anything where you need concentration. That is the part where the still earns its keep.
Buy the hydrosol if what you actually wanted all along was to spray lavender on your face and your pillow — which, for most people asking this question, it was.
Ours are all grown, cut and distilled on our farm in Richmond, BC. The full range is on the essential oils and hydrosols page.