Infused Oil. What is it? How is it made? These are excellent questions that I get asked frequently.

An Infused oil is a Mascerated Oil. Masceration is a fancy name for chopped up into small pieces. And Infusing Whole Plant Material into a carrier oil has much better results if the plant material is chopped up very fine and small.

So do you use fresh plant or do you use dried plant? That depends on the plant and the climate where you live. Usually about 95 percent of infused oils will need to be made with dried plant that has been ground into a powder. There are a few plants that can be made fresh or dried and at least one other plant that is traditionally made with fresh plant material almost always. The key to infusing an oil and it NOT growing mold is to keep water and air out of the oil. Fresh plant has water in it but some plants by nature are dryer than others. Some plants also have less water content so they tend to not mold when you try to dry the flowers. If you are in a wet humid climate, it is possible you may need to dry your plant material in a dehydrater.

In 2024, I tried to hang my Clary Sage two different times under fans to dry them for an infused oil. Both times I was having humid weather and my Clary Sage molded in just a couple days. It is a plant with too much moisture content so it does need to be dried before infusing it into an oil. I was able to dry my lavender under fans at the same time, but not my Clary Sage.

Lavender is a plant that is much drier with less moisture content even when it is fresh. I distilled my remaining Clary Sage because it is distilled as fresh plant straight from harvest to distillation. No chance to mold. An infused Clary Sage oil for me will have to wait until my 2025 harvest to try again.

St. John’s Wort Infused Oil is traditionally made only with fresh plant material. There are those who live in parts of the world that can not get fresh St. John’s Wort and have made it with dried plant for years. They say it works well. They work with the material that they can get.

On Alba Ranch, St. John’s Wort grows like a weed everywhere. I use fresh plant because it is what I have here. Fresh plant gives the beautiful RED color that is seen in an infused SJW oil.

Lavender, Rosemary, and Helichrysum Italicum are several plants that I grow at Alba Ranch that can be infused fresh or dried. So far with two years harvest under my belt, I have only infused these three in a fresh plant application.

Thyme and Lemon Thyme also can be infused fresh or dried. Both of the last two years harvest of thyme was delayed behind all the other plants until eventually the snow came and buried the plants. I missed the harvest both years. Next year, I must do Thyme and Lemon Thyme Infused Oil as well as more distillation for hydrosol.

Lavender, St. John’s Wort, and Helichrysum are the three plants I have infused the most. Many quarts and half gallon jars set up to infuse. I harvest my plant when it is dry. So no harvesting with heavy dew on the plant or right after a rain or water session. Water introduced into the carrier oil will allow the oil to turn rancid and go off sooner.

My goal is to extract as much as possible of a broad spectrum of the plant goodness without mold. And to have the longest shelf life as possible without perservatives.

I originally googled information off the web about how to make an infused oil. I obviously got many differing opinions and results that weak at best. I had batches that grew mold and had to be tossed out. I had others that did not pick up any smell of the flowers or so little that I could still smell the olive oil. I knew there had to be a better way, so I started looking for a master herbalist to learn from. I found Kami McBride’s online course of Handcrafted Healing Herbal Oils and bought it. It was the best choice I have made in an online course ever.

I chose to use organic olive oil for my carrier base. It is a good overall oil. Less people have fewer allergic reactions to olive oil. Olive oil is a neutral temperature energetically. Some carrier oils are warming and some carrier oils are cooling. Depending on where you live and what season it is, that warm or cool effect may not be wanted. I chose a neutral one for that reason.

In my herbal course, I learned which plants needed to be infused dried and which could be done fresh. I also learned about using an alcohol in trace amounts as part of the infusion process to help the plant break down better. An herbal infused oil can be made without this step, but certain parts of the spectrum of each plant is not able to infuse into the oil without the alcohol. Since my goal is a whole plant infused oil with the broad spectrum of the plant infused, I want that part of the plant constituents. Using this mid level solvent method, which is how pharmacists were taught to extract plant material in older days, has given me a better oil. My oils are darker colored, stronger smelling, stronger working oils. Their shelf life is stable for longer time periods than what I was getting before. I really enjoy this infusion process and would never infuse without the trace alcohol now for any plant. I know the infused oils that I am making now are much better quality than I made previously.

How do you use an Infused Herbal Oil? Can it be used in a balm? Look for that coming in part two of my next blog post.