Lilacs are one of my favorite spring flowering shrubs. I love the scent of lilacs – delicate yet powerful enough to fill my entire yard with fragrance.
Reasons To Preserve The Scent Of Lilacs
Sadly the old-fashion lilacs – which I think are the most fragrant – quit blooming long before I get tired of the scent.
While it is possible to dry lilacs, the scent is lost in my experience.
The best method I have found to preserve the scent so I can use it throughout the year is enfleurage.
I’m all about finding ways to do it yourself because I like to be as self sufficient as possible.
Enfleurage Makes Preserving The Scent Of Lilacs Easy
The oldest-known method for fragrance extraction and preservation of flower essences is known as enfleurage.
This method, which involves pressing the flowers into some type of lard or oil, is used for delicate flowers whose scent cannot be preserved well using typical methods such as tincturing or distillation.
It is ideal for homesteaders or anyone who wishes to preserve the scent of the flowers they grow.
Delicate flowers such as lilac work well using this method.
This is easy to do at home and the resulting product can be used in a variety of ways.
Lard is the typical fat used for this process, but a variety of oils can be used including the one I chose, organic cocoa butter (affiliate link).
Cocoa butter can be added to a variety of homemade body products.
Lilac infused cocoa butter will be the perfect addition to my goat milk soap I will be making soon.
How To Extract The Amazing Scent Of Lilac Flowers
Do you love the lilac scent? Learn how to preserve the scent of lilacs yourself. You can use the fragrance extraction in homemade bath and body products.
Materials
- Fresh lilac flowers
- Organic cocoa butter
Instructions
- Pick the lilac flowers early in the morning right after the dew has dried.
- Remove the individual flowers from the main branch and put them into a pan. Remove as much of the stem as possible.
- Set up the double boiler, which is two pans, one set inside of the other, that is used to melt chocolate, oil, candle and a variety of other products that could burn or catch on fire easily if they were set directly on a stove burner. The pan on the bottom should be filled about half-full of water. The smaller pan which will set inside the larger one should contain the oil. I chose organic cocoa butter.
- Bring the pan with the water to a rolling boil.
- Set the second pan containing the oil of choice inside the first pan. Keep an eye on it so it does not get too hot.
- As soon as the oil begins to melt, lower the heat and keep the oil stirred.
- When the oil is melted, pour it into the pan you will be putting the flowers into.
- You want the flowers completely submerged in the oil. To make sure they do not float on the oil when you are done, set a smaller glass pan inside the larger pan that contains the oil and flowers.
- Remove the pan before the oil completely dries or you will have a problem separating the two pans.
- Cover the pan with a lid or plastic wrap to keep dust and debris out while the cocoa butter hardens.
- Allow this to sit for a few days to absorb the scent of the flowers. This process can take up to two weeks or longer.
- Remove any spent flowers and add new ones as necessary until the cocoa butter takes on a strong enough scent to suit you.
- Once the cocoa butter has absorbed enough scent to suit you, cut it up and melt it - flowers and all, using the double boiler method.
- Stain the cocoa butter using cheesecloth to remove the plant material. Be sure to squeeze all the oil from the cheesecloth so you do not lose any.
- Pour the melted, strained cocoa butter back into a clean pan and allow it to harden again.
- Once it is hard, cut it up and place it in a sealed container in a cool, dark place until you are ready to use it.
Recommended Products
Sheri Ann Richerson is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
Lilac Absolute Of Essence
Materials
- Lilac flowers
- Ethyl alcohol
Instructions
- To make an absolute of essence, submerge the dry, fresh lilac flowers in ethyl alcohol. Ethyl alcohol is pure wood or grain spirits.
- Allow the lilac flowers to soak for several days making sure they remain submerged in the ethyl alcohol, then remove them by straining the liquid through cheesecloth.
- The leftover liquid will be slightly scented.
- Do not cover the absolute once the flower material is removed. The alcohol will evaporate over time and the only thing left will be the absolute which can be used in aromatherapy, natural medicine or natural perfume making.
Recommended Products
Sheri Ann Richerson is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
Potpourri And Natural Fragrance Extraction
How To Make Lilac Potpourri
Learn how to make lilac potpourri using flowers from your own garden. Also learn how to dry the flowers, refresh the scent and make the potpourri last.
How To Use Hydrosols
Many natural skin products contain hydrosol instead of essential oil. Learn how to use hydrosols in your everyday life plus find out where they come from.
Lemon Balm Essential Oil Extraction Techniques
Make your own scented oils and hydrosols with plant material from your own garden using essential oil extraction techniques.
Would Shea butter work for the enfleurage process?
Hi Jen,
Shea butter would work just fine.
Sheri Ann
Would beef tallow work?
Beef tallow typically has a smell. It would most likely change the overall smell. It can, of course, be rendered and purified to remove the smell if you want to go to that much work. So, yes, it would work.
Great post! Can you do this with Coconut Oil? Anyway you could mix the two together afterwards – with or without the alcohol evaporated?
Thank you! Yes, you could use coconut oil if you wish.