Clearly, grapeseed oil will always be one of the first choices for massage - not only for its easy slip but it also takes on the properties of other botanicals very well, and as such makes a wonderful base for maceration and making lipophilic extracts.
Using Grapeseed Oil To Enhance Botanical Preparations
One such reason to do this, is to leech healing properties from plants that would not otherwise produce an oil, or that do so but at a much higher cost than to make it effective. Consider how you could add Melissa, Jasmine or rose to a blend, integrate even more properties to a product, supplementing just a drop or two of the essential oil.
Likewise, only oily constituents and relatively small molecules pass through distillation. Boswellic acid, in Frankincense essential oil, for example, or the cannabinoids from cannabis plants do not find their ways into Essential Oils. Macerations have different chemical compositions to essential oils.
Calendula officinalis, for example, is wonderful for skin conditions like eczema and donate these well and cheaply to macerations made with fixed oils such as grapeseed oil.
HOW TO USE GRAPESEED OIL TO MAKE A BOTANICAL MACERATION
Best practice is to cut your blooms or herbs and then let them dry for a week or so. Moisture in oils can make them go rancid.
Place half of your dried plant matter into a double boiler and cover with grapeseed oil or similar.
Gently heat for at least an hour.
Run the concoction through a coffee filter (or press through a sieve or cafetiere) to separate off the oil from the botanical.
Return the infused grapeseed oil to the double boiler, repeating the process with the other half of the botanical matter.
Strain off, this time using a double filter paper to ensure a pure solution and leave it to cool.
Decant into sterilized containers and label carefully.
Grapeseed Oil Benefits For Soap Makers
Grapeseed oil has a sap value of 0.130.
It creates a creamy lather and is very conditioning to the skin and hair. Grapeseed oil makes tremendous shampoo bars.
Grapeseed oil does not have a very long shelf life so is not recommended to be used in concentrations of more than 5%
