Can You Make Honeysuckle Oil at Home? What Works

You can make a scented honeysuckle infusion at home, and you can make a flower-scented alcohol tincture, but you cannot make an absolute at home safely. An absolute needs a hydrocarbon solvent, controlled evaporation and a chill step. Home methods give you something else: weaker, less predictable and, with fresh flowers in oil, a spoilage risk. If the goal is the real honeysuckle scent, buying the absolute is the practical route. If the goal is a project, there is one defensible home method, covered below.

Honeysuckle Absolute bottle

Honeysuckle Absolute

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Why an absolute is not a kitchen project

Our how-it-is-made page describes the absolute as a solvent process: hexane in practice, then an ethanol wash and chill. The earlier stage, the concrete, is explained in from concrete to absolute. The solvent is the obstacle at home. The NIOSH Pocket Guide lists n-hexane with these figures:

It is classed as a Class IB flammable liquid. Do the arithmetic on the vapor: 124 mmHg out of roughly 760 mmHg of air pressure is about 16 percent vapor at saturation. That is above the 7.5 percent upper limit, but any air that mixes with it on the way to dilution passes through the 1.1 to 7.5 percent range, and removing the solvent means evaporating it. That is a sentence about physics, not a procedure, and we do not describe one.

Even the ethanol stage is not benign: the same guide gives ethanol a flash point of 55 F (about 13 C), explosive limits of 3.3 to 19 percent, and Class IB status, so warm ethanol in a kitchen is also a flammable vapor. Whatever solvent remains in a finished extract is a separate question, which is why solvent residue in absolutes is something to put to any supplier in writing, and why we do not suggest a home attempt. For a hazard assessment of a particular setup, a chemist or industrial hygienist is the right person, not a craft site.

What home methods actually produce

MethodWhat you getMain problem
Fresh flowers steeped in oilA lightly scented oilSpoilage risk, no known scent yield
Dried flowers steeped in oilA weakly scented oil, refrigeratedShort life, scent strength unknown
Flowers steeped in alcoholA scented tincture, not an absoluteFlammable, scent unmeasured
Steam distillation at homeNot recommended: honeysuckle does not yield an essential oil this way, see the steam distillation explainerNothing usable

The oil route and its food-safety problem

Penn State Extension (updated 4 April 2024) says that oils flavored with fresh herbs or garlic can be a source of botulism. It gives 2 to 4 days refrigerated for fresh-herb infusions and up to three months refrigerated for dried herbs, and its only room-temperature method is a 24-hour citric acid soak of basil, oregano or rosemary. The tested method, Abo and colleagues (2014), covered garlic and those three herbs, not honeysuckle.

This guidance is written for edible oils, and honeysuckle blossoms were not in the study. Applying it to a skin oil from fresh blossoms is inference, and we say so. Our reasoned position is to avoid fresh flowers in oil entirely, as a stored product. It is not a position built on a measured outcome from our own batches. We have made none.

The tincture route

Steeping flowers in ethanol gives a scented alcohol. It is not an absolute, which our page describes as the product of a concrete washed in ethanol and then chilled, so you are skipping both the concrete and the chill. We found no published measurement of what a home honeysuckle tincture holds, so its strength is unknown. The hazard is the one above: ethanol has a flash point of 55 F, so keep it off stoves, candles and any flame, work in small amounts with ventilation, and do not warm it to speed the steep. This is a perfumer's hobby method, and we have not made a batch, so treat it as a description, not a recipe.

If you want the project: a dried-flower outline

This is an outline built from the Penn State guidance, untested by us, so make a small batch and patch test before putting it on skin:

  1. Dry the blossoms completely. Wilted is not dry.
  2. Cover them with a carrier oil from a craft or grocery supplier and keep the jar in the refrigerator.
  3. Strain, label with the date, and discard by three months, sooner if it smells off or looks cloudy.
  4. Use it as a body oil, not as a stand-in for a perfume ingredient.

For how this compares to a bought absolute, see infused oil versus absolute.

Which parts of the vine to avoid

NC State's poisonous plants database lists the berries of Lonicera japonica as the toxic part, with saponins as the toxic principle and a medium severity rating, "toxic only if large quantities eaten". Symptoms listed include vomiting, diarrhea and rapid heartbeat. So pick flowers only, keep berries out of any preparation, and keep the preparation away from children and pets, as our safety copy says for the absolute. The same page says the plant does not cause contact dermatitis. Do not eat any of this. If a child or pet has eaten berries, call poison control or a veterinarian.

Two more cautions. Confirm the species before you pick: ask a local extension office or botanist, since honeysuckle species differ, and nothing above applies to any plant but Lonicera japonica. And Japanese honeysuckle is regarded as a weed in some regions; our invasive species note covers where it is a weed.

When buying is the sensible choice

Run the dosing arithmetic. A 1 percent blend in 100 g of carrier uses 1 g of absolute. A 0.5 oz bottle holds about 14 g (14.2 g by weight, 14.6 g if fluid at a relative density of 0.989), so one bottle covers roughly 14 blends of that size, and its dose is a number you can weigh, which a home infusion cannot give you. Our skin range is 0.5 percent to 2 percent in a carrier, with a patch test first. The certificate behind that density figure is published, and it shows density, refractive index, optical rotation, appearance and smell only.

We sell the absolute and nothing else you would need: carrier oils, dried flowers and bottles come from a craft or grocery supplier. Our absolute is not for internal use.

Honeysuckle Absolute bottle

Honeysuckle Absolute

Honeysuckle Absolute from our own shop, in sizes from 0.5 oz to bulk.

From $13.99

Shop Now →

Sources & Further Reading