Melting Solid Oils

We have in the past discussed various ways of melting (or at least softening) the very thick, sometimes even solid, essential oils, absolutes, or CO2 extracts.  

The easiest way is to set the bottle in a cup or bowl of VERY hot water, and let it gently warm. As it warms most thick oils will soften and become pourable.

The main problem with the above suggestion is that some of our oils are sold in the tiny two ml bottles.   Now, it is impossible to warm a 2 ml bottle in hot water. The water level will be so shallow that the water will cool before the contents of the bottle warm up.

An email from an old friend solved THAT problem quite nicely.  It was a "lightbulb" moment for us. Of course...the perfect solution! (and one that we had never thought of.)

If you've read the description of our Rosa Alba CO2 extract you've seen that it is  "thick and creamy.  We have found that it responds well to gentle warming, and will dilute very easily in slightly warmed Jojoba Oil."

Here we go again.  "Gentle Warming."

THIS is how to gently warm a tiny bottle or vial of a thick oil:

 At cool room temperature there is NO WAY to pipette the undiluted White Rose.   But let it sit for a few minutes on the gentle warmth of an Aroma-Stone, and voila!  pourable, pipette-able, blendable.

I wish I had known this when I was interviewed by AromaWeb for their article on 'working with thick oils and absolutes."

There is another solution for very small bottles.  If you wear a bra, you have a very convenient way to very gently warm the oils to body temperature.  The Aroma Stone gets a bit warmer, but NOT warm enough to damage your precious oils.

One of the things that I LOVE about what we do is that we never ever stop learning!