How to Make Herbal Oil with Kami McBride

In this episode, I discuss how to make herbal oil for dry skin and *so* much more with Kami McBride. I know you’re going to get so many ideas for your own apothecary of effective, kid-safe home remedies as you listen to Kami!

This episode is in celebration of her online course, Handcrafted Herbal Oils. This course shows you exactly how to make your *own* shelf-stable and potent oils using the simplest of ingredients. (Not to mention, they’ll be a fraction of the cost of purchasing ready-made herbal oil.) 

► ► ► Here's the link where you can register for Handcrafted Herbal Oils:
(Disclosure: This is an affiliate link. By using it, you help support this channel. Thanks!)

By the end of this episode, you’ll know:

► Exactly what herbal infused oils are, plus how they differ from essential oils and why that matters

► Why caring for your skin matters to the health of your nervous and lymphatic systems

► Why quantity matters when working with herbal infused oils

► The many benefits of making your own herbal infused oils, as opposed to buying them

► Why shelf-stability is such a big deal if you’re actually going to benefit from the herbal infused oils you apply to your body

In case you don't already know her, Kami is the author of the Herbal Kitchen, and online courses that help you build confidence and skill to use herbs in your daily life for self-care and as the core of your proactive health plan. Kami's 30 plus years of teaching herbal medicine is steeped in her calling to inspire a culture that embraces taking care of our bodies with healing herbs, a deep connection with the earth, and a lifestyle that passes this knowledge on to our children.

Kami has taught herbal medicine at the University of California San Francisco School of Nursing and the California Institute of Integral Studies. She has helped thousands of families learn to use herbs for prevention and self-care.

Kami's passion for herbal medicine was propelled by an excruciating brain surgery that resulted from a medication side effect. Awakening from the slumber of the standard drug solution approach to health, she started searching for a better way. Fast forward, she has helped people from all over the world deepen their home herbalism skills. Her lifelong work is to inspire deep connection with the medicine of the plants, the lineage of home crafting natural remedies, and the wisdom of our bodies so that we can live a healing lifestyle.

I hope you’ll come away from this episode feeling as inspired as I was by everything Kami shared!

-- TIMESTAMPS --

• 01:14 - Introduction to Kami McBride
• 04:44 - What are herbal infused oils and how do they differ from essential oils?
• 08:04 - How students’ concerns led Kami to start teaching how to make herbal infused oils
• 11:51 - Herbal infused oils are a base ingredient for many other herbal products
• 17:06 - The benefits of working every day with herbal infused oils for dry skin and anxiety
• 22:36 - Why make your *own* herbal infused oils?
• 27:13 - What do you need to know to be able to make high-quality herbal infused oils?
• 31:25 - Before and after photos from Kami’s students
• 33:31 - Why shelf life is such a critical factor to consider
• 34:30 - How to know if an oil is rancid
• 36:32 - Working with calendula infused herbal oil
• 41:06 - Applying herbal infused oils at bedtime
• 43:33 - Introducing other people to herbal infused oils

Connect with Kami

• Kami’s website | KamiMcBride.com
• Kamis book | The Herbal Kitchen
• Instagram | @KamiMcBride
• Facebook | @LivingAwarenessInstitute
• YouTube | @KamiMcBride

Transcript of the How to Make Herbal Oil with Kami McBride Video

Rosalee de la Forêt:
Hello, and welcome to the Herbs with Rosalee Podcast, a show exploring how herbs heal as medicine, as food, and through nature connection. I'm your host, Rosalee de la Forêt. I created this YouTube channel to share trusted herbal wisdom so that you can get the best results when relying on herbs for your health. I love offering up practical knowledge to help you dive deeper into the world of medicinal plants and seasonal living.

Each episode of the Herbs with Rosalee Podcast is shared on YouTube, as well as your favorite podcast app. Also, to get my best herbal tips as well as fun bonuses, be sure to sign up for my weekly herbal newsletter at the bottom of this page. Okay, grab your cup of tea and let's dive in.

I am thrilled to welcome Kami McBride back to the Herbs with Rosalee Podcast. In this episode, we break from my usual format to discuss how to use herbal infused body oils for dry skin and so much more. This is in celebration of her online course Handcrafted Herbal Oils, which shows you exactly how to make shelf-stable and potent oils using the simplest of ingredients. You can find out more about the Handcrafted Herbal Oils course here.

In case you don't already know her, Kami is the author of the Herbal Kitchen, and online courses that help you build confidence and skill to use herbs in your daily life for self-care and as the core of your proactive health plan. Kami's 30 plus years of teaching herbal medicine is steeped in her calling to inspire a culture that embraces taking care of our bodies with healing herbs, a deep connection with the earth, and a lifestyle that passes this knowledge on to our children.

Kami has taught herbal medicine at the University of California San Francisco School of Nursing and the California Institute of Integral Studies. She has helped thousands of families learn to use herbs for prevention and self-care.

Kami's passion for herbal medicine was propelled by an excruciating brain surgery that resulted from a medication side effect. Awakening from the slumber of the standard drug solution approach to health, she started searching for a better way. Fastforward, she has helped people from all over the world deepen their home herbalism skills. Her lifelong work is to inspire deep connection with the medicine of the plants, the lineage of home crafting natural remedies, and the wisdom of our bodies so that we can live a healing lifestyle.

Welcome back to the show, Kami.

Kami McBride:
Hey, Rosalee, it's really good to see you. I'm so grateful to be here.

Rosalee de la Forêt:
Oh, well, I'm excited that you are my first ever repeat on the Herbs with Rosalee Podcast, so, yay.

Kami McBride:
Aha, Good. That's good.

Rosalee de la Forêt:
And with good reason, because we're good friends, we have deep mutual respect for each other, and we love to chat.

Kami McBride:
And I even drove 900 miles one time all around some mountains to come see you.

Rosalee de la Forêt:
Yeah, exactly. Which was so worth it for me. So that was such a fun trip.

Kami McBride:
That was great.

Rosalee de la Forêt:
Well, I'm so excited to have you here today to specifically talk about herbal oils, because we both love herbal infused oils so much. And we also both feel almost offended on behalf of the herbal oils because they do not get the representation and the awe and the love that we think they deserve. And some of that comes from just people not knowing about them. Some of it comes from people who don't know how to make them well, and so they make them in ways where they're too weak or they go moldy or rancid. Some of it just comes to availability. You just can't find herbal oils the same way you can find, say, tincture.

So we're going to sit down, have this conversation today about everything, herbal oils, and especially how to use herbal oils for dry skin, for anxiety, and all sorts of other things. So I thought maybe we should just start way back at the beginning, Kami, and you can explain what are herbal infused oils?

Kami McBride:
Okay, yeah, that's a good question, because there's a lot of confusion. I get emails all the time where people were interchanging herbal infused oils with essential oils. So they're just two completely different animals. So herbal infused oils are where you take the whole plant material, you take the entire plant, and you infuse it in a carrier oil. So a carrier oil like olive oil or jojoba or sesame oil. And so you're infusing the whole plant into a carrier oil. And then after certain different steps, different plants require different things, and you extract the constituents from the plant into the oil and then you strain it out.

Whereas an essential oil, which essential oils are really popular, so it's easy to confuse. Essential oil is where you take hundreds of pounds of plant, and then you distill them. That takes a lot of equipment, you distill the plant down and you extract certain volatile constituents. And then your end product is highly concentrated. So your herbal infused oils, it's just the whole plant and you get what you get. Where the essential oils, they're diffused down. You start out with hundreds of plants, and so you end up with a very highly concentrated product that is... you can't slop around in the essential oils like you can the herbal infused oils, right?

So herbal infused oils, that I teach, you can leave them out on the counter, they can spill and your dog can lick it up. You know what I mean? They are safe. Whereas essential oils belong up on the top shelf with all the first aid, with the tinctures, and other whatever that the kids can't reach. So there's just a big difference. And the essential oils have a lot of contraindications.

So that's why I love the herbal infused oils, because anybody can make them. All you need is oil, plant, and a jar and a funnel, you don't even need the funnel, and some cloth. You don't need all that equipment. You just need a little bit of plant. So it's really the home herbalist... It's really home herbal medicine, and you just don't have... Whereas essential oils, you really got to think about the contraindications and who's around it. And so it's just one of the safest home remedies. There's no problem with your kids, your animals. So I love that for that reason.

Rosalee de la Forêt:
I love that too. I think of herbal oils as being so nourishing, and they're nourishing the way food can be nourishing. And because of that we can turn to them every day, several times a day. There's no upper limit in that way that we can really turn to them for support and healing over and over again.

Kami McBride:
Yeah, I love that. There's no upper limit. As much as your body will soak in is what you can do.

Rosalee de la Forêt:
Yep. You, Kami, are famous for your love of oils, right? That is kind of like you are so known in the herbal world for your herbal infused oils and love of them. And your passion for teaching about them in really sophisticated ways that really up level people's experience of the oils. So how did this happen? What brought you into this love of herbal oils?

Kami McBride:
Well, so the thing is that I've worked with lots of students and lots of clients since 1988. I had a clinical practice since 1991. I've been teaching for a very long time. And I really did learn this, I really learned, there's lots of great remedies, there's lots of great recipes, but there's just this whole level of population that's just not going to do it. It needs to be easy. They need to not have to think about the contraindication. If they have to think about contraindications or that they could hurt somebody, forget it, they're not going to do it.

And I would have these clients and students, who's like, "This is the best remedy for this." And it was just like, "Okay, they're not doing that." And they wanted something that they didn't have to worry about their kids around it. They wanted something that was truly safe that they could cut their teeth on. And so over time I was just like, "It's the oils." It's the oils that is like the, what do we call it? Compliance, people will comply and actually do.

And so what I found is that I really started calling it the least amount of effort for maximum return home remedy, okay? And that is, I love making tea, but you got to make it every day or every other day. I love making pesto, but you got to make it. And it's like, with your oils, you can make a quart, and then you have it all year. You don't have to make it over and over. And it's so versatile.

And so the other thing that I really saw my students getting overwhelmed with is like, "Well, should I use a tincture? Should I use a tea? Should I use compress? Should I use which thing for which thing? And how much?" So then it was just like, "It's the oils." It's like have your oil, you have your salve, and it covers more bases than if you have 10 other things in the cabinet.

So it was really this thing of the whole time I've been teaching, because I started teaching in the 1980s when nobody even heard of herbal medicine and I really had to crack through some cement. I lived in a very conservative town and I literally had to crack the cement and try to like, okay, what are people going to do? It's not like that now. So I really put a lot of effort into that.

What's the easiest thing? The most comprehensive? The most versatile? And so you get your oil, you turn it into a salve, and then more people use it. And then you turn it into a Chapstick and now you've just leveled the playing field, everybody's got Chapstick. And so it also just became a way to turn people on to this herbal world. I mean, I used to stand on the corner, "Hey!"

So you make Chapstick, and then all of a sudden everybody's like, "What's that? And I remember when my son was little, one of the moms came over, and she's like, "Well, you gave all the kids some Chapstick, can I have some? What is that?" So now you have this thing that everybody's like, "What is that?" Especially, I'm really into bringing up our nieces and nephews and the neighbor kids and all the younger ones, they start using these salves themselves without any like, "Oh, don't do too much." They just can use them. And then they have the experience of making themselves feel better.

And so it wasn't mom making a tea. It wasn't mom or auntie or neighbor saying, "Here, you got to take this syrup." It's like they're doing it themselves, because it's in their pocket. And so I really found it a way to infiltrate the schools, infiltrate playgroups, like, "Oh, Chapstick." So that's one of the reasons why I just got so into it because I found it was one of the best ways in.

Rosalee de la Forêt:
So with that, so we're talking about herbal oils and you're mentioning some things we can do with herbal oils and let's just spell those out for folks, because that's one thing I love about herbal oils is they're so versatile. So you make this base product of your herbal oil, which you can use as an oil, and then you can make all these other things. So you mentioned Chapstick or lip balm, salve, maybe you could explain what a salve is, in case someone doesn't know.

Kami McBride:
Salve is where you take an ounce of your infused herbal oil and you warm it up a little bit and you add beeswax. And the main thing about salve is that it doesn't run. So it's like, sorry, you put this in your purse, and it's like pretty soon, even if the lid's on really tight, pretty soon it's all over the place. But your Chapstick and your salve, they kind of stay in one spot. So they're there for when you're traveling, and you can make your body butter. And...

Rosalee de la Forêt:
With the salve, what do you use salves for?

Kami McBride:
Oh, what do I... The salve?

Rosalee de la Forêt:
Mm-hmm.

Kami McBride:
Well, actually I use the salve very... It can be used for dry skin, cuts, scrapes, scratches, pain, bruises, contusions, neck aches, depends on which oil you're using.

Rosalee de la Forêt:
Okay, sorry, maybe I should have said, what can't you use salve for?

Kami McBride:
Yeah, you want that A to Z first aid list, because I can rattle it off. Starting with, A, acne, bruises, burns, cut, eczema, growing pains-

Rosalee de la Forêt:
Wow.

Kami McBride:
... inflamed skin, muscle pain, nerve pain, neck pain. It's just like cracked skin, stretch marks, scars, whiplash. So my son, he used to have brutal growing pains. He was one of these kids that he woke up in the morning and he didn't stop until I made him stop. And he would wake up in the night screaming at the top of his lungs. And so here you're like sound asleep and you have a seven-year-old in the next room screaming at the loudest they can scream, "Ugh!" And it was his growing pains, both legs. His legs would just be like, ah, because he just played so hard.

And I would come in there, and St. John's wort. St. John's wort healed it. And so after a year, year and a half, he would wake up screaming, "Mom, I need some St. John's wort! St. John's wort! Hurry mom! Hurry! Hurry!" You had a kid screaming in the middle of the night for St. John's wort. Well, I'd be like, "It's on your dresser next to your bed, but sure I'll come in and do it for you."

So he had this experience of this oil, of St. John's wort, completely soothing and taking away his growing pains. And I have hundreds of students that have had that same experience. And what remedy is there for that? There's not really a remedy. That's incredible. Now he, as a kid, now he knows about herbal medicine working and that right there is invaluable.

Rosalee de la Forêt:
Yeah. Yeah. All right. So lip balm, salve, and I cut you off. You were mentioning some more luxurious things like body butter.

Kami McBride:
Yeah, you can add beeswax, and you can also add cocoa butter or shea butter or different butters to turn it into a lotion or a butter. You can also take your herbal oil and add salt to it, and then now you have a body scrub that you can scrub on your body when you're in the shower. So there are a lot of really cool ways to apply the oils, for sure.

Rosalee de la Forêt:
Yeah, as I said, that's one of my favorite things about the oils. And I love that so many of the things can be both medicinal and luxurious. You could say, "Oh, lip balm is just... make your lips moist." But you can make a lip balm for cold sores. You can make a lip balm for severely chapped lips, that might happen because of sun exposure or because of the winter harsh weather. With body butter, it makes your skin feel luxurious, but can also be wonderful for treating dry skin, really dry skin.

Kami McBride:
I mean what you're touching on is all these things, they can be used for prevention, preventing dry skin, preventing colds, even. They can be used more for luxurious self-care. And they're used for acute care. Acute, some of the things I've talked about before. So as far as being so versatile, it's like prevention, self-care, relaxation, acute care, first aid, and then also recovery. It helps you to recover from some things too. So that's a lot of different stages of the human experience, right?

Rosalee de la Forêt:
Mm-hmm.

Kami McBride:
For it to apply to.

Rosalee de la Forêt:
And let's talk a bit about dry skin, because that's an interesting thing that oils help. Because on the one hand it's very obvious, you put some oil or luxurious body butter or cream on your skin, and it helps relieve those feelings of dryness. But dry skin isn't always just about dry skin. We can also see that kind of reverberated in our nervous system. So I'm wondering if you can just mention that a little bit about how body oiling and really taking care of yourself with oils can help you mentally as well.

Kami McBride:
So the thing is, of course, the skin is our largest external organ. The surface area is huge. But if you look at a photograph of the skin and what's right underneath the skin, right underneath the skin are the nerves. The nerve pathways are right under the skin. And also the lymph is right under the skin.

And so if you take and you take your fingernail and you scratch your skin right now and it's all white and crusty and dry, it's your skin is dehydrated. You're dehydrated. And so when you moisturize and you really give these fats to your skin, it sinks in and it also creates a better environment for your nerves and your lymph to work. And so your lymph houses your immunity. But your nerves, it's like anxiety, stress, tension, your nerves are right underneath your skin. And if your skin is dry, I know without a doubt, if you deal with any kind of stress or tension, anxiety, it will be slightly or maybe even more, much more, there's gradients, but it will be worse if your skin is dry. I have seen that, I can't even tell you how much I've seen that. And it's not just, if you put the oil on right now, it's like you make a habit of it and you oil every day.

So I would invite you to try this experiment and get oil or salve on your body every day for two or three weeks. Just every day before you bed, take a warm shower and just oil up and wrap yourself in your robe, in a towel, so you don't get oil on everything. And do that for two or three weeks every day. Then don't do it for five days. I guarantee you will notice a difference. You will notice a difference. My family and I, we just moved up to the mountains where it's much dryer. We have been so much more grouchy. I'm like, we were arguing and I go, "Just stop. Everybody's dehydrated, forget it. We're not going anywhere with this. We haven't had enough to drink. We haven't been oiling."

It makes a big difference in how you feel. And even it treats, it can treat your anxiety. So I remember in the mid "90s, I was studying with Dr. Lad, at the School of Ayurvedic Studies, and there was a woman that came to class, she was late, she was really late. She was one of my classmates. And she had been rear-ended on the way over and she was obviously disheveled and she was shook up. She had just been in a car wreck. And so Dr. Lad stopped class and he just put his hands around her and he's just, oh my god, he's so amazing. And he said, "Oh, it's the perfect time to dip you in oil." And you had this image of just dipping her in oil.

So you go into the treatment room, and it's like how much oil can the body soak up? A lot. So you warm the oil and you just keep applying it. You keep applying it. And then you get in the bathtub and you get as much oil in the bathtub and you calm and you ground out the anxiety, the trauma from the car wreck. He was like, "You are going to oil yourself twice a day with warm oil, every day. You're going to scalp oil." And it treats the anxiety and the shock. And so I saw that firsthand and it really impressed me. And so when I'm starting to feel a little whatever, I oil. I just think of doctor Lad: "It's the perfect time to be dipped in oil."

Rosalee de la Forêt:
Well, I love that story. And just everything you're sharing so much, because, one, using infused oils for dry skin and nourishing the nerves, nourishing the lymph system is just something you don't always hear about. But also something that I'm really cluing into what you're saying, Kami, is the quantity, which I think is one reason that people might not get what they're looking for in oils, because they're not understanding how much to use. And this is another reason why herbs can be underrated. Because if you try and buy your own infused oil, I mean it's just difficult to even find it in that kind of quantity versus making your own. Where, like you said, you can make a quart of it, and you can't buy that at all.

Kami McBride:
No.

Rosalee de la Forêt:
It's really... I mean, you could, I guess. But it takes a lot of work, because it just comes in little two ounce containers and they cost a lot of money. And making your own is just so different. And I love too, Kami, how you talked about how easy it is. You don't need a still. You don't need the special equipment. You just need your couple things, a jar. But there are some tricks to making herbal infused oils. And one thing that I love about your class, Handcrafted Herbal Oils, and over the years watching so many students go through them is seeing how much their oils change before and after class.

So I guess I would love to hear you talk about just why you think it's so important for people to make their own oils versus try to buy them. I hope I left something for you to talk about in there. But I think that's very compelling about why is this something that we need to have in our kitchens and in our homes?

Kami McBride:
Yeah, that's so true. Because, again, the issue of the day is overwhelm. It's like, "Well, should I learn how to make this? Should I learn how to make... Which herbal medicine? Which application?" There's a lot. And so you already hit on it, you make your own because it's affordable. You buy one ounce of calendula oil right now, and you can find it between 10 and $20 an ounce. So that's why this is the most underused herbal remedy. Elderberry syrup has hit the big time, turmeric milk's been on the cover of... echinacea has been on the cover of Time Magazine, fire cider.

But people have not gotten the jaw-dropping experiences and help from the oils, because they don't use enough. If you have something going on, you need a lot of oil. You need a lot of oil. You don't just put on that little ounce. One time I sprained my ankle, I was at a gathering, and they had an herbalist there, and she brought over this one ounce of St. John's wort and arnica, and she's like, "Here." And she put a little on my ankle. I was like, "I'm sorry. I'll pay you later. Can I just have that little bottle?" And I just poured the whole bottle on my leg right then and there. She's like, "Wow, you really need a lot, huh?" I go, "Oh, yeah. Do you have any more?"

She was just going to rub. She just put a little in her hand and was going to... I was like, "No, no, no, no, that's not going to work." And so you need a lot. And so it's like, if you don't have it on hand, you're not going to use it. Or if it's going to cost you a $100, you know?

Rosalee de la Forêt:
I know, I'm trying to actually do math in my head right now, which I'm not great at. But I'm like-

Kami McBride:
Yeah, do the math for a quart.

Rosalee de la Forêt:
... one ounce is $10. That's on the low end, right?

Kami McBride:
Yeah. Yeah.

Rosalee de la Forêt:
So when you make your quart, which is 32 ounces-

Kami McBride:
32 ounces.

Rosalee de la Forêt:
... you're looking at $320.

Kami McBride:
Yeah, nobody's going to do that. And then they're still going to dole it out. They're going to be like, "Oh, that's so expensive. I'm just going to use a little bit." No, you need to have a quart on hand. You need to have a big old whatever, so you can just go pump, pump, pump, and you're not thinking about how much you're using. And then as soon as it's all dried in, you use it again.

So I was in a really, really bad car accident about 30 years ago. My truck was totaled. I was hit by a car from the side. I didn't even see it coming. And it threw me into oncoming traffic. And that oncoming traffic, it just happened to be a Mack truck, like "Hello." So when you look at that truck that I was in, you think, "Oh, wow, sorry for that person." But somehow I wasn't meant to go.

It was one of these experiences where the angels came in and time stopped. And I was seriously injured, but here I am. But I came out of that and I had been holding onto the steering wheel and my wrists, my hands, the nerves in my wrists were torn. I had torn and I couldn't use my hands for a long time. But I just so happened to have several gallons of St. John's wort from my summer oil making.

And the doctors are like, "Oh, you're down for a year. You're not going to be able to work for a year, dah, dah, dah." Well, it took me about five months. And they were just like, "Wow, that was a lot."

And it was the oil. It was me having oil every day, all the time, compressing my wrists. I used all that oil. I had it. And I would've never healed myself that way. And so you need a lot. Just when it's time to be dipped in oil, hopefully, you're not going to have to deal with that. Hopefully, you can just lounge in the bathtub with your body butter and all of that. But if your nerves are deranged, the oil is the antidote, and you want to have enough on hand.

Rosalee de la Forêt:
I'm so glad that you had oils to turn to in that time, Kami. Well, so one reason that you and I get along so well is, again, our love of oils. And also we both have this deep desire to help people make herbal things well, because that is really a big problem, especially now I think with social media and stuff, there's a lot of bad information out there. A lot of people kind of making it up as they go along. And then they become teachers the next day and share this kind of stuff. And they just make all the classic mistakes in their enthusiasm to love herbs, which I totally get. But there are definitely ways that oils can go wrong. So I'm wondering if you could speak to that a little bit of just when people make their oils, what goes wrong?

Kami McBride:
That's how it goes. I mean, the reason why I'm so good at this is because in the 1980s there were no mentors, I was just... And, yeah, the reason why I know so much is because I've made every single possible mistake there ever in the history of this world around making oils. I had so many moldy batches trying to figure it out, "What? What is going on?" And even now, I had a student two years ago, she's like, "I'm doing this." And she literally took two days and she watched every video there was on YouTube and Google for making oils. And she was just like, "OMG."

She said, "It is terrible what's out there. It's so incomplete. It's so whatever." And so it's interesting, again, the oils are something that the refinement of their oil making just hasn't quite made it, I mean, into the mainstream herbal medicine making. And so I started massage and herbal school at the same time. And so the oils have just been it for me since the very beginning. And the thing is is that, I see people just getting a bottle and putting the herb in and putting the oil in, putting the lid on, waiting six weeks. The thing is is that each plant has what it likes. It's kind of like tea, do you do an infusion, decoction, quick steep, long steep, cold infusion? There are nuances.

You can just make a tea, put a tea bag in. But then there's like, "Well, what about that four-hour infusion? And what about a decoction?" And there's a refinement in our medicine making. And so, yeah, with the oil, it's the same thing. There are nuances for each plant that you need to consider. And it's kind of a long road figuring it out on your own. I mean, I spent a solid decade just kind of slopping around. But, again, that's one way to learn.

But that's why I really encourage people to get into my course Handcrafted Healing Herbal Oils. Because what I do is I've created a framework of the questions that you need to ask for every herb, because every herb, things are a little bit different. There's these nuances, again. Again, think about the tea thing.

And so it's like you want to get this foundation of how to think about the herbs and each individual herb that you're going to make with before you just plop it into a jar. And you absolutely want to make your oils with shelf stability in mind first. If you're just plopping stuff in a jar and you don't really understand the shelf stability of why, you want to know... So the thing is you get on Google and it's like there's all these demonstrations, but nobody tells you why. Why? Why do you do it that way? What does that do for your shelf stability?

And then just one quick tip that we can talk about here is, I made up an acronym, it's called FLAHM, you don't want to flahm your oils. And FLAHM is F-L-A-H-M, and that means fluctuations in light, air, heat, and moisture.

Okay, so fluctuating FLAHM, you just remember that, don't FLAHM your oil. That's one simple thing. Even if, you know, you don't have all the nuances for making it that you definitely want to get. But after, once you have your oil, you don't FLAHM it, don't get it into a lot of light, air, heat and moisture, and have that fluctuating. Because then your shelf life just... Especially then if you didn't begin making your oils with understanding shelf life, and then you do some of that and then it's just... Go to the health food store and smell the oils, the infused oils, most of them are not doing too good.

Rosalee de la Forêt:
Yeah, there's that rancidity. Which then, I know of people who, they go and they buy their infused oils from the store or they make their own in a way that's not shelf stable. Those become rancid. But then they start making the body butter and the creams and everything, which now we're talking about a lot of ingredients that are not cheap, and then the whole product is just ruined, because it wasn't there at the first level.

Kami, I was just thinking, I already mentioned this, this is one of my favorite things to see from your students is the before and afters of their oils. And so often what we see is these kind of pale, lackluster oils, I call them disappointing oils. And then after Handcrafted Healing Oils Course...

Kami McBride:
Rosalee, please be kind.

Rosalee de la Forêt:
Well, they are though. They are. And then after the Handcrafted Healing Oils course, they have this vibrancy to them that is just so palpable. I mean, you can just see it. But what people don't often take the picture of is they're like rancid, moldy oils, which are two separate things. That would be another, "Before Kami, my oils went moldy all the time, went rancid all the time." It wasn't just the lack of color and vivaciousness, but it was also this kind of gag feature too.

Kami McBride:
And you don't want that on your skin. It's not good for you. And you're right, just a mentioning, yeah, you start with an oil that's like halfway. But, see, the thing is that the herbs are amazing, because even if your calendula oil or your St. John's wort or whatever oil you've made is at... Usually when people come to me, their oils are at about 60 to 70% capacity, and I take them up to a 100% potency.

And so at 60, 70% capacity, you still get a lot of results. It still heals the skin. It still does all these things. People are like, "Well, I've been having results for years." I'm like, "Okay, I guarantee, money back guarantee, as I take you up to a 100%, it's going to change the game for you."

So people are having results, even when the oils aren't very colorful and all those disappointing oils that you were talking about, they still have results with those. But if you're going to... I mean carrier oils have become more expensive, and then if you turn a body... I mean all the ingredients have become more expensive. If you're going to do that, you want things optimum, right? Because, again, like you said, I'm into helping people, and if you're going to give them an herbal remedy, don't you want to just feel confident? You're like, "Here, I made this amazing salve. I'm not sure what the shelf life is, but should be good for a while."

No, you are the caretaker, you are the herbal person that's bringing them herbal medicine. You want it to work. You want to know it's going to work. You want to be completely confident. And you want that person to get the best healing possible. I mean, that's what it's all about, right?

Rosalee de la Forêt:
That's so true. You don't want to be like, "Here's this salve. Hope, hope it works." That's not what you want to do.

Kami McBride:
Not, "I hope it works," because it will work some. Not, "I hope." It's the shelf life. I mean it definitely doesn't work as well, but the shelf life is an issue. All these oils and salves gone bad. No, uh-huh, you do not want that on your skin. Now your body is having to deal with free radicals. So now it just puts more pressure on your body.

Rosalee de la Forêt:
And for people who don't know what rancidity is, a great tip for that is when you smell an oil and it smells like an old crayon, that's the best description I've ever heard, smells like an old crayon. And once you know the smell of a rancid oil, you'll never forget it. There's something off about it. No one smells a rancid oil and thinks like, "Oh that's great." There's something off about it. But if you haven't yet smelled a rancid oil. Again, once you smell it, you'll never forget it.

Kami McBride:
And one of the things I do in class is I help train your nose so that you can start to smell oils as they're going bad. It's kind of like, once it's gone bad, like you said, it's like, "Oh, okay, I got it." But can you smell something as it's starting to turn? You develop a nose even more nuanced. It's like, "Hmm, that is starting to turn." Many people would, "Oh, it's still okay." So we develop an even more refined nose. So it's like you feel confident and you have something in your hands that you could have a quick win, right away. You don't have to take it internally. You put it on externally, and whatever you're treating, you can have a quick win that you feel confident in. That's what I love about these oils.

Rosalee de la Forêt:
Absolutely. And let's talk about some wins, because you've already mentioned some great stories. I've heard a lot about St. John's wort, which is so wonderful for the nerves. And you told with your own wrists and how that was so healing with the St. John's wort. And I've heard so many stories over the years, thoracic outlet syndrome, sciatica, all sorts of painful nerve issues that St. John's wort is just so amazing for. Another favorite of mine is calendula. And I'm wondering if you could mention some of your favorite ways to work with calendula, some of your favorite gifts of calendula, because that is one that also goes really well into oil.

Kami McBride:
Calendula is just incredible. You can have so much success with that oil and that salve, because it's not only one of the most powerful vulneraries, which helps the skin to regenerate, but it also, it stimulates circulation. So whatever it does, it activates things more. It delivers more. It gets things moving. Much of the problem on our skin, like when we get a bruise, contusion, cut, screened is the immune system goes to the site, everybody goes to the site, and then all those short-lived immune cells, they die at the site. And so that's why we have bruises. It's all the dead cells that came to stop the infection to stop the bleeding. But then when you have all those dead cells, then the body, it's like, then the future cells that come in to heal, they can't get in and then the waste can't get out. Does that make sense?

Rosalee de la Forêt:
Mm-hmm. It's a traffic jam.

Kami McBride:
Right? It's... Yeah. Huh?

Rosalee de la Forêt:
It's a traffic jam.

Kami McBride:
Yeah, it's a traffic jam. And so that's what takes the body so long to heal the bruises and contusions is because the body gets stuck there. It's just part of the process. And so the calendula comes in and it gets all that moving quicker, and so that the body can get in and heal and the waste can get out, and the vulnerary can work. All your topical skin stuff, I had one student, Beatrice Chris, she was in class and she had made a bunch of oils and she had this thing on her skin that she said, she's like, "I've had this for 20 years." She says, "But Kami said that it does amazing things for the skin." So she started putting it on her skin every day and she just didn't really believe it. And then it went away.

Rosalee de la Forêt:
Wow.

Kami McBride:
She literally, she texted, eventually, "Oh my God." She says, "I've tried everything. I've been to the dermatologist. I've been to every aesthetician. I paid thousands of dollars anyway for all these different creams and peels and stuff." And that's what happens when you have a super potent, good oil. It's like it can heal things that, I don't know, you got something you need ready... Your skin, it just heals the skin. And, also, it's really good to put in with your other... So with St. John's wort or with comfrey. So comfrey oil, comfrey oil's amazing healer, and the calendula just helps deliver it. So when you start using comfrey and calendula together for an injury...

So I have a student, I mean, I literally have thousands of stories just like, "Oh, tell this one. Tell this one." But this is more recent. I have a student, last year, she's a horse trainer and she's seen hundreds of horse injuries, because she's been doing it for several decades.

And she sent me a message and she was out in the field. She had her oils with her, and she said that her horse started dancing, did a little dance on her ankle. She says, "My horse decided to dance on my ankle." A 1,000 pound horse crush injury, ankle crush injury. And usually she would've just gone to the ER or whatever. But she was away, she wasn't close. It wasn't going to be until the next day till she could get to a doctor or clinic. So she had calendula comfrey oil and she wrapped it and she soaked her ankle in it all night. And the next morning she emailed me, she text me, I actually have it written down, she says, "I was blown away." She said, "That oil defied reality and defied gravity."

Rosalee de la Forêt:
Wow. Oh, my God.

Kami McBride:
She said, "My pain, it was at an eight, it was down to a one or two. The inflammation had gone down, and I didn't even go to the clinic."

Rosalee de la Forêt:
Wow.

Kami McBride:
And I'm like, "Yeah, I've heard..." She couldn't believe it. So that's the power of comfrey, and then a little calendula to just keep it there and deliver it. It's so powerful.

Rosalee de la Forêt:
I love comfrey stories, and that's such a great tip with the calendula. There's another reason that I use the oils that we haven't mentioned yet. And that's for the sun and protection from getting sun. When I was younger, I got a lot of the sun exposure. I loved to go to the beach and I didn't really pay attention to stuff like covering up. Now, I'm great at covering up. I don't go out in the full sun. But with that, in regards of just seeing what that can do down the road, I'm just luxuriating in herbal oils every night. There's not a night that I don't use herbal oils. And my favorites right now are St. John's wort and calendula. I love those two.

I also love Tulsi or Holy Basil oil. That one is just, Oh, to put it on just before bed, I love it. I just sink into it every night. And the other one I'll mention is chamomile infused oil, which is just so calming before bed. I just love all of those. So sometimes I'll use more than one a night. Sometimes for a whole week I'll use calendula. Sometimes I mix them up, but I just can't imagine going to sleep without first oiling all of those.

Kami McBride:
That's really true. Oil every night. And if I don't, I found that my body will wake me up and be like, "We're just not getting there like we normally can. Could you just do your little thing and then it'll all be better." I literally get woken up like, "Oh God, I got to oil my feet." I'll fall into bed or something and forget. And my body wakes me up so that I can get a better night's sleep. That seems a little crazy, right? I mean, I finally figured it out. I'm like, "Wow, I am waking up because I didn't oil."

Rosalee de la Forêt:
That's a wonderful way to prioritize oiling before you go to bed. Well, Kami, I'm so grateful that you're here to share your love of oils and all the different ways that we can use oils. I'm still chuckling inside my head about your A to Z. I mean, there's probably so many reasons to turn to oils to rely on them. So many different things we can make with them.

And for anyone who's interested in knowing how to make your own oils that are potent, that are shelf stable and on and on and on, then you will not be disappointed with Kami's Handcrafted Herbal Oils class. She's had thousands of students. I hear from people all the time who just had their minds blown by this class. So I highly recommend that you check that out. You can find that in the show notes or in the video description. Was there anything else you'd like to add, Kami, before we go?

Kami McBride:
Yeah. There is. There's one thing, and another thing that I know a lot of my students deal with is getting other people on board, so that you're not the lone ranger in your family or in your community. I mean, it's changing. It's getting a lot better. And so the other thing that I just really love about the oils is that one of the things that I have just heard over and over and over again, we heard with my student that said, "It defied gravity," is that the oils, they change a perception of what's possible for healing. So they literally change people's perception of what is actually possible to heal with plants. So the oils, they have this amazing way to just shift perspective. And to me that is really powerful, because people think, "Oh yeah, herbal remedies, I'll go to them."

And then when people say, "Wow, I cannot believe that happened," and it just completely changes everything. I feel like that's a really big culture, I mean, to evolving and shifting our culture. So they create a mind shift. I've had people go, "I got a really bad burn. It was a second degree burn. I did the St. John's wort oil. And I was just wondering if... What happened? Did I actually, really burn myself? Wasn't it really a bad..." I've had people go, "That was a bad burn, right? That actually happened." Like, "Yeah, that happened. That was a really bad burn. And the St. John's wort healed it in like a day or two."

So when people do that, it shifts how we look for our medicine, what we reach for our medicine, what we feel empowered to maybe take a next... I am about us becoming empowered to take care of ourselves as much as we can. And so for me, the oils, they do that.

Rosalee de la Forêt:
I love that. That makes me think of a story. So my first class I ever took in the herbal world was a lip balms and salves class. And I became obsessed. I was just completely obsessed after that. And so I just started making salves and then trying to give them away, because I made so many salves, jars and jars and jars of salves. I was like that person who has zucchini at the height of summer trying to give it away. That's how I was with my salves.

So I made this Arnica salve and I sent it to my friend in California, and she is a dancer. And so I just sent it to her. Didn't think a lot of it, I mean, I was really just giving it to anybody who I could give it to, because I was just pumping out so much. And so she writes me back and she's like, "Oh, my gosh, that stuff is magic."

And I had sent her a big eight ounce jar. That's how much salve I was making. I sent her a big eight ounce jar. And she says, "It's gone." And I was like, "What do you mean it's gone?" I mean this is just such a short time later. And she said, "Well, I started using it. My bruises just disappeared. So within days, I'm giving it to all of my fellow dancers. And so we've all been using it. We can't believe it. Just our bruises magically disappear. I need more." It was so great. But that was one of my earliest successes. And I love that there was this troupe of dancers who are just suddenly all about the Arnica and calling it magic.

Kami McBride:
Yeah, magic. That's what people go, "That's magic." "Yeah, it's magic." It just shifted perspective of what you can do to take care of yourself. You're like, "You don't have to go to the store and get that over the counter thing that destroys your gut, destroys your gut, destroys your gut. And then you pass that dysbiosis, that gut disruption generationally onto the next child. And then pretty soon, that's why we're so sick." It's like, "No, you don't have to do that. You can take care of yourself."

Rosalee de la Forêt:
We didn't even talk about all of the garbage that's in so many of the cosmetics, and not herbal creams, but so many of just the face creams that are out there. So many of the standard things you can buy in your average store are just filled with so much garbage. And that's another wonderful reason to make your own and just have pure, simple ingredients.

Kami McBride:
Yeah, I mean, I just say, it's like, "Master the art of your herbal oils and you can just ditch the toxic body care products, nourish and rejuvenate your skin, and take care of your family's health."

Rosalee de la Forêt:
I love it.

Kami McBride:
It's like all these different things.

Rosalee de la Forêt:
I absolutely love it. Well, Kami, that seems like a great place to stop, because that just sums it all up right there. Well, I'm so grateful that you're able to join me again. It's always such a pleasure. And thanks for taking time out, for sharing your love of oils with all of us.

Kami McBride:
Thank you, Rosalee. As always, I love what you do. I love all your videos and all your lessons that you're putting out. And to me, it's like, I just love how you take all these concepts and just make it palpable for anybody to understand. And that is the true gift of a teacher. So thank you very much.

Rosalee de la Forêt:
Thank you so much, Kami.

Thanks for watching. Don't forget to click this link to get more in-depth information about herbal infused oils from Kami. If you enjoyed this interview, then before you go, be sure to subscribe to my newsletter below, so that you'll be the first to get my new videos, including interviews like this. I deeply believe that this world needs more herbalists and plant-centered folks. I'm so glad that you are here as part of this herbal community. Have a beautiful day.

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Rosalee is an herbalist and author of the bestselling book Alchemy of Herbs: Transform Everyday Ingredients Into Foods & Remedies That Healand co-author of the bestselling book Wild Remedies: How to Forage Healing Foods and Craft Your Own Herbal Medicine. She's a registered herbalist with the American Herbalist Guild and has taught thousands of students through her online courses. Read about how Rosalee went from having a terminal illness to being a bestselling author in her full story here.