Friday 16 December 2011

Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh Body Oil

A crate of  clementines from the local greengrocer

As a child, the idea of giving gold, frankincense and myrrh seemed terribly exotic & exciting. I've not really grown up much...

Last year I bought myself some tiny amounts of frankincense and myrrh so that I could actually see, touch and smell them. Both are resin/sap products and the smell is wonderful...

Sometimes I carefully burn small amounts because the fragrance is so wonderful...

My favourite use of frankincense & myrrh is an adapted recipe from James Wong...

I made it last Christmas as a gift for my Mum & she loved it (& I had to test some myself...) It's easy to make & smells wonderful. Here's how I made it...

In a blender whizz up:

400ml sunflower oil (or any other non-fragrant oil)
4 tbsp whole cloves
the rind (not pith) of 5 oranges (I used a mix of clementines, satsumas, oranges)


Then I added a teaspoon each of frankincense and myrrh (& a twist or 2 of black pepper from the grinder for added warmth).

Put the, now very, fragrant mush in a glass/pyrex bowl over a pan of hot water (low heat) & simmer gently for about 1 hour. Your house will instantly smell of Christmas, (even Mr TH emerged from his office to find out what the lovely smell was...!)


Remove from the heat & leave to cool down

Strain and bottle up.

The resulting oil will be a wonderful golden orange colour (gold, frankincense and myrrh...)

It should keep for about 3 months. I use it in the bath and as a body oil. (Do be careful if applying it just before wearing white clothing as it can leave an orange imprint- but this does come out in the wash!)

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

It sounds wonderful - I can smell it in imagination even now!

Ginnie said...

How cool is this! In what kind of shop did you buy frankincense and myrrh? This sounds wonderful. I don't know that I would recognize the fragrance, but I'd love to find out.

Thrifty Household said...

I bought them online (probably ebay?) To me, frankincense is the smell of Catholic churches & myrrh is, familiar but as yet, unplaced...

I bought very small amounts & they cost me a few pounds (about £3-£5 combined I think)

Together with the added orange & cloves they are wonderful!

Karen S Booth said...

What a FABULOUS body preparation! Lovely and I bet it smells exotic!

Lucille said...

I can almost smell it from here. How lovely to give some time to doing things like this at Christmas.

Mrs. Micawber said...

It sounds amazing. How nice to make it yourself!

Belinda said...

This is AMAZING! I wonder if using the essential oils would be just as nice as using the raw ingredients. Not as fun, surely.

SmitoniusAndSonata said...

that sounds heavenly !

Calico Kate said...

This sounds like it smells glorious, think I am going to have to give it a go. Perhaps in the New Year when things have started to go a bit grey.
CKx

Thrifty Household said...

I think using the essential oils would smell as wonderful as the real thing...

Annie Cholewa said...

This sounds wonderful! I have used frankincense in home made candles before, the smell really is divine

Anonymous said...

Gosh those are my sort of scents and I could almost smell it as I read your recipe.

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