The benefits of the herb rosemary, or rosmarinus officinalis[1][2][3], were already hailed in the Minoan Civilization[4]. Rosemary is a kitchen herb, but a medicinal herb as well. Medicinal herbs[5][6][7][8] are available as tinctures, tablets, pills, teas and essential oils. These are for internal use, oral use. Essential oils however are also used externally. The term medicinal is an indication that nobody should use these without consulting a well-trained professional therapist, or a medical doctor who also studied these herbs and/or its oils, how to use these, when, for which health problems, and what the dosage should be.
Rosemary is known for its benefits for the skin. It is present in almost all skin products like shampoos, creams, massage oils, and body oils. Four out of seven Cretan Garden soaps are made out of rosemary-infused olive oil[9][10][11][12]. The other three soaps are made out of lavender-infused oil[13], oregano-infused oil[14] and sage-infused oil[15].
Your home-made body oil and body scrub
Body oils are expensive. You can make your own body oil. Your skin will love it, and your wallet as well. Follow the next steps and enjoy the result.
- 500 ml organic extra virgin olive oil
- 30 gram dried organic rosemary leaves
- Put the dried rosemary in a casserole that is big enough for the half liter olive oil plus the 30 gram rosemary leaves. Warm the oil up to 38 – 60 degrees Celsius and keep the casserole in this temperature for about 48 -72 hours. During this time all the goods are extracted from the leaves into the oil. This process is named infusing. Another method: add the olive oil and herbs in a bowl, or casserole and keep it for some weeks on a warm sunlit spot in the house. Stir the oil-rosemary mix during the infusing time every day. I infuse olive oil as well, for making soap, but I offer the oil more time to infuse. At least three months.
- When the oil is infused you can filter the herbs out, by using a sieve. If you want to make rosemary pulp you can add the oily herbs in the kitchen machine and pulverize these.
- Take an empty bowl or casserole, and put a cheesecloth in the sieve.
- Put the rosemary-olive-oil pulp from the kitchen machine cup into the cheesecloth, and let it leak out for a while, till all oil has disappeared.
- Make this process more efficient by pouring the filtered oil for the second time over the pulp. At the end you can take the rest of the oil from the pulp when you take the four points of the cheescloth together and press the oil out. Your hands will become very oily but you can remove this with kitchenpaper.
- Fill an empty, well cleaned and dried fluid soap dispenser and add about 20 drops rosemary essential oil, or an essential oil of your own choice.
- The rest of the infused oil can be stored on a cold place, for instance in the refrigerator. Put a lid on it.
- The left-overs of the rosemary pulp in the sieve can be used as a body scrub. You can store it for instance in an empty, clean, glass glass jar in the refrigerator. Before using a body scrub to exfoliate your skin, read my blog post: Exfoliating the skin[16].
How to use the body oil
The best moment to use a body oil is after a shower or bath, before drying your body with a towel. Pump some body oil from the dispenser into the palm of one of your hands and devide the oil over both hands. Apply the oil on the entire body. Massage the oil into the warm and wet skin. In this way you do not need so much oil, the oil is easier to spread, and because the skin is warm the oil is easy to be absorbed. Then pat the skin dry. You will discover that the skin is not oily, and after drying the skin shines and looks younger, healthier. In case your skin is really dry it will take some weeks before your skin is back to normal again. You can use the body-oil every day.
Instead you could massage the entire body from head and hair, to toes according to the Indian abhyanga massage before taking a shower. Read more about this massage in my blog post “The skin”[17]. The used oil is also a with herbs infused body oil.
Other uses: after a day at the beach, in the sunlight, in the hot dry wind, the salty seawater, or in winter when being outside in the cold, or 24/7 in a warm dry room. You can use the rosemary body oil also as a hair mask.
Attention: the rosemary aroma is uplifting, stimulating, energizing, and therefore best not to be used before sleeping. In case you would like to create a body oil for a good night rest, use lavender instead of rosemary.
Benefits of rosemary-infused body oil
- Anti-aging
- Improves elasticity
- Moisturizes
- Protects the skin
- Can be used in cases of eczema and acne
- The aroma of rosemary uplifts the psyche
- The aroma creates beneficial effect on the central nervous system
- The aroma stimulates the 3rd chakra, balances the 5th chakra[18]
- Photo: Karolina Grabowska from Pexels
Sources and additional information
- Rosmarinus officinalis L. (rosemary) as therapeutic and prophylactic agent – Journal of Biomedical Science
- Gallery Rosmarinus officinalis – Flickr
- Rosemary essential oil – New directions Aromatics
- Herbs for Health and Beauty in Minoan Crete of 2000 BC – Explore Crete
- Historical review of medicinal plants’ usage – PubMed
- Herbs – Multerland
- Herbal medicine – Multerland
- Chinese Traditional Medicine – Multerland
- Rosemary soap – Cretan Garden
- Lavender-Rosemary soap – Cretan Garden
- Patchouli-Rosemary soap – Cretan Garden
- YlangYlang-Rosemary soap – Cretan Garden
- Lavender soap – Cretan Garden
- Oregano soap – Cretan Garden
- Sage soap – Cretan Garden
- Exfoliating the skin – Cretan Garden
- The skin / Abhyanga massage – Cretan Garden
- A Beginner’s Guide to the 7 Chakras and Their Meanings – Healthline
- Rosemary harvest in Morocco – Medicine Hunter
- How to Make Herb-Infused Oils for Culinary & Body Care Use – Mountain Rose Herbs
- Effect of Olive Oil on the Skin – ResearchGate
- Virgin olive oil as a fundamental nutritional component and skin protector – ReasearchGate
- Olive Oil in Botanical Cosmeceuticals – ResearchGate
- Enhancement of antioxidant and skin moisturizing effects of olive oil by incorporation into microemulsions – ResearchGate
- The foundation for the use of olive oil in skin care and botanical cosmeceuticals – ResearchGate
