Making my own Rose EO?

CraftyRedhead · May 16, 2014

I've been researching it like crazy and have read many reviews on the method in which you soak petals in vodka and freeze the mixture. There are more steps but basically the vodka won't freeze but the EO will. I know that rose oil is especially expensive since it takes a huge amount of flowers to make just a little bit, but I'm trying to get a rough estimate of how much to try. I have a dozen mature blooming rose bushes I've been collecting from, so I have plenty of petals, I'm just not sure when to say "enough is enough". At this point I've probably got about a pound and a half.
I'd love to hear any stories of making your own EOs, I'm really quite fascinated by the whole process.
And to add more, I would love to use the oil in my cp soap, but I have no idea if the vodka extraction could have a reaction?
Sorry so many questions, this is my first go at this!

LunaSkye · May 17, 2014

I'm thinking take all that you can get since you really need a lot of rose petals to make a little bit of EO. I'll also wish you luck as well. Are you going to infuse the rose petals in the vodka and then use the same vodka for the other petals? That's how you can make a perfume (ehow.com had a video), but that perfume would still have the EO suspended in it.

CraftyRedhead · May 17, 2014

I'm planning on reusing the same vodka if needed. I'm thinking that if I accidentally leave any of the EO in the vodka the first time, I'll have a second chance to collect it. It sounds right in my head anyway!

DeeAnna · May 17, 2014

Rose EO yield is about 0.006%. That is 6 grams of EO for every 100,000 grams of rose petals.

CraftyRedhead · May 17, 2014

Wow! That is super low! Thank you, I'll go get more flowers

Shalisk · May 17, 2014

As I understood it there is (yet) no way to get true Rose EO? This will be FO/FW?

DeeAnna · May 19, 2014

No, there really is a true essential oil of rose. It just takes a huge amount of petals to get a reasonable amount. It's not a very pleasant EO smelled right out of the bottle. It needs to be highly diluted to really smell like a real rose. I guess that makes sense, given how little EO is in any given blossom.