How to Make Lotion With Products From Your Garden

Making lotion at home is easier than you think. All you need are a few simple ingredients and some plants form your very own garden to be able to make this lotion recipe. Today we are making garden basil lotion.

This Summer we grew copious amounts of basil because I can’t help myself and have to try every variety I can find. I love all the varieties so I plant them every year and then by the end of the summer I have moe basil than I know hat to do with. I can only make so much pesto people! So, because we love a good bath and body recipe here at the farm we decided to try and make basil salves and lotions.

Lemon Basil Lotion

This whole month we have been talking about herbs that are easy to grow in your home with the easy Aeorgarden system. I like this herb kit because it is easy and it doesn’t take up very much space in my house. I can have fresh herbs year round without having to do very much work. It really is a time saver.

So with all these fresh herbs I wanted to make as many different recipes as possible. I wanted to give you a good balance of edible recipes and bath and body recipes as well as some fun herb projects.

For this lotion we will be using Lemon Basil. If you haven’t heard of or grown lemon basil then you are in for a treat. Think sweet lemon flavor and scent almost like fruity cereals. The oils that you can create from this plant not only smell delicious, they also have great benefits for your skin.

Medicinal Benefits

Basil has many medicinal attributes both from the ingested plant as well as applying it topically. In this case we are talking about the topical benefits. Different varieties have different types and amounts of chemicals that make up the plant. Basil Essential Oil is abundant with anti-oxidants, minerals and vitamins which to nourish, repair, calm, soothe, smooth, and brighten the complexion.

So with all these amazing attributes and the added bonus of smelling AMAZING we had to try out some recipes to use this great plant on our skin.

Basil Salve

The first thing to try is the easiest. Take you favorite carrier oil and some fresh basil leaves and let them soak in the oil for a month or two. The essential oils leach into the oil and you can use this on it own on your skin or turn it into a lotion.

Methods of Extraction

There are a few methods of extracting the essentials from basil leaves. The first one is the slave that we just talked about and the second is heating up a pan of oil and letting the basil leaves gently steep in the oil.

You can do this same method with water basically making a basil tea and then using that in your lotion recipe. If you use the tea method you can only make a lotion not a butter or a salve so think about how you want to apply your basil.

Another way of using the basil is to blend it in a food processor with a little bit of oil or water (again if you use water you will be making it a lotion). Once the basil os completely processed into a pulp you will strain it through a fine cloth like cheese cloth. Strain the juices and use them in your recipe as called for.

If you happen to have an essential oil still on hand then we definitely recommend this method for the purest form of the basil oils.

Either way you are going to have a fragrant, lovely lotion to apply to your skin. Try some of our other lotion recipes.