I made this lilac enleurage on the recommendation of my friend Sophie – I had wanted to make lilac water to use for a facial spray, but the scent of lilacs doesn’t take well to hydrosols. She suggested making an enfleurage and here we are. It works perfectly with delicate lilacs and is such a pleasant way to catch their scent.
Enfleurage is an old method of perfume making that has largely fallen out of fashion (it has started up again on more commercial scales recently). It involves taking delicate flowers and pressing them into a neutral fat to extract the scented oils naturally present in the flowers. It can be used for virtually any flower, but I only use the method for florals that don’t work well in hydrosols.
After extracting the scent from the blossoms, the fat mixture would be mixed with an alcohol to extract the scent into that again – to make perfume – but you can also use the scented shea butter as is. Use it as a cream or mix with other ingredients to make something like this face cream.
If you’d like to do more with lilac, try making a honey lilac syrup and turn that into a lilac lemonade.
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
- Lilacs: choose blossoms that are at their peak and harvest as soon as the dew is off in the morning. They will have the strongest scent then.
- Fat: any unscented solid fat can be used, like refined coconut oil or shea butter. I usually don’t buy refined shea butter and picked this up by mistake but it’s perfect for enfleurage.
Step by Step
I was away from home for a few days after starting the mixture and didn’t have my camera, but there’s not much to it!
Step 1: pick your lilacs and remove the blossoms.
Step 2: spread some shea butter onto a piece of parchment paper in a lidded container and top with flowers.
Step 3: cover the container and set in a cool, dark place.
Step 4: after 24 hours, either change the blossoms or remove them. Once the fat is scented enough for you, it’s ready to use.
Recipe Notes
I use parchment paper because it’s easier to remove the fat from it rather than scraping out of a container. If you prefer not to use it, then don’t.
There aren’t specific measurements provided for this guide because it doesn’t really matter. You simply need a thin layer of fat and a layer of lilac blossoms.
A lidded jar will work, but you’ll have a thicker layer of the shea butter and it will take longer to get the scent into it. Try to use something that’s fairly wide, like a lidded casserole dish or container as pictured.
How to Store
Storage: keep in a cool, dark place for up to a month. If you see a thinner liquid under the layer of fat, it’s from the flowers and doesn’t mean that the enfleurage has spoiled. It can be removed with a syringe.
Expert Tips
- Don’t keep the green: the stems and leaves should be carefully removed so that you’re only using the blossoms. The stems will add a bitter, unpleasant smell.
- Keep it thin: the thinner the layer of fat, the more scent you’ll get in a shorter amount of time. Commercial enfleurage is done with special presses that allow for this.
- Melt on a very low temperature: if the flowers are sticking too much to remove, very gently melt either in a warm water bath or on a radiator before straining.
- Choose the flowers carefully: as with any foraging, even though the flowers won’t be eaten, it’s important to harvest from a place that doesn’t have high vehicle traffic. Try to find some bushes that aren’t near a road and give them a sniff first.
More Homemade Cosmetics
Beeswax Lip Balm
Homemade Deodorant for Sensitive Skin
Face Cream for Sensitive Skin
Calendula Salve
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Lilac Enfleurage
Ingredients
- Lilac blossoms to cover
- 60 grams refined shea butter or any amount
Instructions
- Harvest your lilacs as soon as the dew has dried, ideally mid-morning. You don't need much – one stem should be plenty. Carefully remove the blossoms.
- Spread the shea butter onto a piece of parchment paper and place into a lidded container (a glass kitchen storage container or lidded casserole dish are great).60 grams refined shea butter
- Gently press the lilac blossoms into the shea butter, making sure no green stems or leaves are mixed in. You need just enough to cover the fat.Lilac blossoms
- Place the lid on the container and set aside in a cool, dark place for 24 hours. Remove the blossoms and smell the shea butter. If it hasn't taken on the lilac scent, repeat the process until it has. If the blossoms are too difficult to remove, very gently melt the shea butter and strain through a fine sieve to remove.
- Once the enfleurage has reached the scent you'd like – note that it will never be as strong as an artificial perfume – remove the blossoms for the last time and transfer the shea butter to clean containers to store. It will keep for about a month in a cool, dark place.
* For American cup measurements, please click the pink link text above the ingredient list that says ‘American’.
Nutrition is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate. If this information is important to you, please have it verified independently.
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