This post and photos may contain Amazon or other affiliate links. If you purchase something through any link I may receive a small commission at no extra charge to you.
It’s pretty dang neat but oranges actually grow here. And lemons and limes and all of that jazz does really well here, too. There are these little oranges that you can get at the store for like 8 for $1 and Rob and I have been going nuts on them. We’re also getting after blood oranges, Cuties and Cara Cara oranges. We seriously just came back from the store where I got silicone caulk, he got a bunch of salt and sand and $9 worth of oranges. :)
And why shouldn’t we go nuts? they are in season and reasonably priced. It’s awesome. And since I also like to use orange oil in homemade cleaners and beauty products I made Rob start putting all of his peels to the side so I could harvest the oil from them. Waste not, want not!
You might be wondering, what can you even do with orange oil? If you love the smell of citrus it is FAB in homemade lotions and scrubs. You can add orange oil to vinegar to make your own natural cleaner for around the house. And since it’s antibacterial naturally it makes an awesome addition to your own homemade hand sanitizers I shared the recipe for a while back ago.
So grab yourself a bunch of oranges of whatever variety you prefer and be sure to put a little box in the kitchen for the family to throw their peels into and you’ll be on your way to a ton of homemade orange oil in no time!
For this project you will need:
- Large amount of orange peels
- Knife
- Glass container with tightly fitting lid
- Cheese cloth
- Vodka
Here are my orange peels hanging out on my homemade drying rack I made some time ago. To dry well you want to remove as much as the pith (white part) as possible. For the oranges with thinner rinds, like cuties, you are going to have a hard time separating it out. But, say, Cara Cara oranges have a TON of pith. You’re not going to get oil out of those and it’s going to add a lot to your dry time. Use a sharp knife to remove as much of the orange peel as you can. Toss it all some place to dry. I used my rack, hanging in the guest room closet, but you can also just put them up on a cookie sheet on top of the refrigerator, too. Just give them a stir every once in a while.
In all, I let my peels dry out for 10 days but that was a bit of overkill, truly.
A mason jar works really well for this but I had these cute little jars and I wanted to use them. It was a terrible idea as the lids didn’t seal too well. You definitely want a tight seal.
With your peels nice and dry you can kind of snap them or crumble them in your hands. Break them up just a little bit and put into your jar(s).
Now don’t use your fancy vodka for this next step because that’s just a total waste. See this stuff I’m using? The bottle says premium but it’s anything but :) The bottle is plastic and it cost me just over $4 with tax for an entire fifth or 750ml.
Pour enough cheap-ass alcohol in to cover your orange peels.
Close your jar up and give it a good, vigorous shake for at least several minutes. Set off to the side and repeat several times a day (or whenever you think to) for 4 days up to 7 days.
As the alcohol starts to leech the oil out of the peels the liquid starts to take the orange color away from the peels and it tints the liquid inside.
Place cheese cloth or a coffee filter over a bowl large enough to catch all of the liquid and pour the contents into the cloth.
Wrap up the cloth and give it several good squeezes to wring out all of the liquid.
Transfer the liquid to a clean jar (you can wash the one you started using in the first place) and, leaving the jar open, place a paper towel over top. Set someplace you don’t need to worry about it tipping over and wait a couple of days for all of the alcohol to evaporate off leaving you with pure, amazing orange oil.
Now isn’t that amazing? I always love making something at home for pennies so much better than spending good money on it. Once you start making your own orange oil and using it around the house you’re going the LOVE it, I guarantee you :)
Hi there! I made this and I have a question. So, I soaked my dried up peels in cheap vodka as you instructed. When it was time to strain, I strained with cheese cloth and then covered jar with cheese cloth to allow alcohol to evaporate. After 2 days I had grit settled in the bottom so I strained again using a coffee filter and again covered with cheese cloth to allow vodka to continue to evaporate, but two days later I noticed more grit. I’m going to strain again but you never mentioned this happening. I have a second round of peels drying to make more but wanted to reach out before I make second batch. Did I do something wrong?
Honestly I’ve never had this happen to me. Let me know if your second batch works out that way?
Can’t wait to make orange oil
That was a trip how your Orange oil just was made.
I think I might try your method.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I am going to have the best aroma filled three room apartment there is
Thank you for sharing
Thank you. I love orange oil ❤️
Thanks for this great post! I have used this method to create vanilla essence, but hadn’t thought to allow the alcohol to evapourate.
If you use a sharp peeler to peel oranges before removing the rind you can easily compost the pith. Same process works with lemons for lemon oil and if using the freezer separation method you have lemon cello base and lemon oil in one batch😜
Hi,
This information is amazing – natural with no additives that is harmful.
I’ll give this a try and add it to my next badge of my DIY black soap that I use for bathing.
Thanks for sharing!
Hi! I was wondering if I can leave the orange peels indefinitely. Also I bought an orange essential oil but I dont think is strong enough. Do you think is a good idea to also put some pieces of orange peel in there? Thank you so much for your content!
I’ve never tried leaving the orange peels in. I would think that it would be fine. If you give it a try could you let us know how it works?
As far as adding orange peels to your essential oil I’d take a small amount and put it in its own jar and give it a go. Again, I wouldn’t see what it would hurt but I’d hate for you to ruin an entire bottle of oil!
So I used little oranges and then scrapped off all the white really easy with a mini bread knife. I think I’ve lost some of the “orange ness” from the other side… do you think this will reduce the strength of my oil I’m going to attempt to make?
The more peels the more oil that can come out of them. I’d just keep adding peels as you eat your little oranges. Best of luck!
This extraction is also the way to make Limoncello, which is a popular way to get sloshed in Italy. In Sorrento, where this booze originated, the lemons are about the size of a nerf football and have lots of warts, and those warts are made entirely of zest in addition to a pretty thick zest all over. You take a microplane and shave that off of a bunch of them and soak it in Vodka or Grappa for a week or so in a dark place. After that you strain through a coffee filter (A rubber band will hold one on top of a jar) and then add the resultant bright yellow alcohol to a simple syrup. Keep it in the freezer. You can drink it diluted with cold water for a less incapacitating drink, or go hardcore and drink it straight.
Thank you for these awesome ideas!
I love everything about orange, I was looking for something like This . I am starting with this new product , made with the skin of the orange and other organic products for the skin and I have been looking for information on how to get the most out of everything that refers to the skin of the orange and I found this information very good and helpful by the way .Thanks to you for taking your time and making our life easier!
Thanks for sharing. I love using what I have around the house. This is great!!
I was just wondering if there was a way I could make this without liquor. Like is it possible to do it without vodka?
You could use rubbing alcohol but it might be a little difficult to find right now.
When I worked in a Dental office we use something called orange solvent to clean with. It took off all the dirt and grease spots. I can’t wait to make this. Right now my peels are drying.
This is such a great find, I wanted to recycle styrafoam and it called for D-limoneno, which was very expensive . When I looked it up it was 100% orange oil,which was also costly. Now I have it. Also thanks for all the comments.
Where did you buy the wonderful bottles?
Hobby Lobby during half off of glass!
This is awesome stuff.
I bought some orange oil and tried to make some with vinegar, but I will try the alcohol and see how that works.
Thanks for the instructions.
how many days approximately will the alcohol take to evaporate?
And… can I use this for my skin?
Yes! You can use it for your skin, though it’s a bit harsh for my own. It can take up to 2 weeks for it to evaporate completely.
I love this idea. We have several orange trees and i have wanted to use our peels for cleaning products. Do you know the ratio of water to oil for cleaning by any chance? I know the citric acid is probably pretty strong concentrated so I am hoping it will go a long way :)
great post!
I’ve used 1/4 ounce to 16 ounces of water with much success!
Can you use this diy extract in homemade skin care and beauty products? And how long will it store?
Yes, I do!
I bought orange oil and put maybe 3 to 4 tbl. In a regular spray bottle and fill with water and this is my cleaning solution. Works great
Silly questions: How does one know when “all” the alcohol has evaporated? Is it necessary for “all” to be evaporated? How long does it take? It has been three weeks and I can still taste alcohol (predominately).
Wow! I’m not sure why the alcohol taste hasn’t gone away! I haven’t used mine for food, just for cleaning but I went ahead and gave mine a taste. The smell of alcohol is completely gone but I don’t know that the taste actually is. It’s definitely a very strong flavor that might be a really concentrated orange peel flavor rather than alcohol, but it definitely is sharp. Are you planning to use this for food?
If you have a way to hold the liquid at 180 f, the alcohol will evaporate out and leave just the oil in an hour or so. (Ethyl Alcohol evaporation point is at 173.3. f)
Wow! Thanks so much! I bet if I research this and try to figure out how to do just that. I appreciate your time and knowledge!
During if you could use 91% rubbing alcohol or do you have to use vodka
Rubbing alcohol ink would work as well if this is not to be ingested.
For the large firm skinned oranges you could use a veggie peeler to take off the outer layer of rind before peeling or a micrplane. I do this with lemons and limes also for making flavoured butters, salts and peppers for seasoning.
I love this idea. Thank you so much for posting
Is the drying necessary? Could one use fresh orange peels? I ask because I have nowhere to dry them that would not be disturbed by kids and pets (yes, even the fridge).
I don’t know if it necessary, but I dried my in the oven. I put them in a cookie sheet and let them cook for two hours at 200 degrees. That did the trick.
I use fresh. My family just dumps the peels (in my giant mason jar with a spigot) from the cuties and I put the alcohol on top and run liquid through the peels a few times a day. I let my last batch sit for about two weeks and my oil is much thicker then my last batch.
This is wonderful info! Thank you for sharing!
put the filtered liquid in the freezer. neither the oil nor alcohol will freeze, but will seperate. the oil will be the top layer that you can carefully pour off. the remaining vodka, even the cheap stuff, will have a faint orange flavor. waste not!
Awesome! This is good to know :) My Rob does something similar when he cleans walnut oil for oil painting. I didn’t put 2 and 2 together but you’ve got it down! :)
you can increase the oil yield, and get quicker results, if you dice or mince the cleaned peels. this increases the surface area in contact with the alcohol.
Awesome! Thanks for the tip!