I mentioned I was getting into making infused-essential oil blends. This of course led me into making beauty products, one of which is a rose-frankincense ointment I’ve been putting over my eyelids. The issue I have with my eyelids is that I was getting chunky bits of skin and tabs there – a hazard to aging – and I just didn’t have the money to go to a specialist about it. It’s been about 2 weeks of me playing with my products as I make and experiment, and I noticed today that the skin over my eyes has improved. I don’t know what I did right, but I hope to do it again.

I’ve been making things from scratch, but during the days I played with making and selling soap (that everyone does so I left them to it) I realized that the donkey milk soap base you get makes simply *the best* soaps for my purposes. It was 40% off today, so I got a big block with a simple goal: gather my oil blends and make a liquid soap face wash.

The soap I made was a success, and my face feels very good right now.

So why an infused-essential blend oil?

Because essential oils, for all their hype, don’t carry a lot of the properties infused oils do. They’re mostly about the essence, the scent. They’re potent, they smell amazing, and they can be toxic because they’re concentrated plant essence. When using them, you dilute them to keep your soap project from culling the creeps.

Infused oils are different. You put dried herbs into a carrier oil like grapeseed or sunflower, and you let those plants marinated for up to 4 weeks. I also baby the mixture. I heat it, I stir it, I bomb it with love. Even with that attention, I’ve discovered where people claim you can have a jar ready in four hours that’s not necessarily the case. While you’re waiting, the oil soaks up some of the herb’s qualities: the antioxidants, the anti-inflammatory agents, the stuff that actually does the work on your skin.

What you end up with is a concentrated, stable oil that holds onto those properties. It doesn’t just smell like rose; it carries the tannins, the polyphenols, the vitamin C. It doesn’t just smell like frankincense; it holds the boswellic acids that studies have shown can protect against UV damage and support collagen production.

But, the scent doesn’t come out as potently as it does with essential oils. So I decided on a compromise. I’m using my infused oils to make ointments, balms, and now soaps. I really want those vitamins, those anti-aging properties, those things that have people complimenting the shine on my hair. But I also want them to smell amazing.

Unfortunately, another drawback to infused oils is their shelf life. Depending on the carrier oil you use, you’re looking at anywhere from 6 months to a year if you store them properly.

The ointment I’ve been using around my eyes is simple: rose-infused and essential enhanced oil, frankincense-infused oil, beeswax, shea butter, and a touch of coconut oil and aloe gel. That’s it. No preservatives, no emulsifiers, no ingredients I can’t pronounce. Just plants, time, and heat.

I’m not making medical claims here. I’m just saying that two weeks ago, I had skin tags and rough, flaky patches on my eyelids that made me feel older than I wanted to feel. Today, they’re smoother. My skin feels softer.

Did the rose do it? The frankincense? The combination? Something else I’m doing? I don’t know yet. But I’m going to keep experimenting, keep documenting, and keep refining the recipes until I can say with confidence: “This is the one.”