Make Your Own Oil of Lavender

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23850, 28 December 1940, Page 4 (Supplement)

Make Your Own Oil of Lavender

Storing Summer Scents 0 1L of lavender, although it has a delightful fragrance from the human point of view, is greatly disliked by insects of all kinds. Just a trace rubbed on exposed parts ol the skin will ensure immunity from those bites and stings which can cause so much annoyance. Hero is a simple way of making oil of lavender which can be stored and kept indefinitely. (Jet a good-sized glass jam-jar, making sure that this is perfectly clean and dry. and cut a number of rounds of cotton wool which will just fit inside it. Then collect a quantity of freshly gathered spikes oi lavender. Soak the rounds of cotton wool in the best olive oil. then put a layer of the lavender in the bottom oi the jar and cover with a round of cotton wool. Add another lot of the lavender and put ill another round of the cotton wool. So continue until the jar is full; then over the top tie closely a double thickness of greaseproof paper. Now stand the jar in a place where it will be exposed to a lot of sunshine, keep just as it is for about a week and then strain away the oil, which will be highly perfumed. A good way to strain the oil is to tie a piece of muslin, or similar material., over the top of the jar and then prop it upside down over a, how l. The oil oi lavender should be stored in a eloselv-stopperod bottle.