Decorative Oil Bottles

*** WARNING ***
These are ONLY for decorative purposes and are not meant to be used in food. After further researching this, I found that there is a danger of botulism poisoning if used for food purposes. This is because when food is placed in an anaerobic environment, as when placed in oil, there is a danger of botulism forming its lethal toxins. So again, THESE ARE ONLY TO BE USED FOR DECORATIVE PURPOSES. You COULD use them in food, but ONLY within a couple weeks of preparing them, AND it is kept in the refrigerator. But oil congeals when kept cold and it looks horrible.
*** OK, I'm done with my disclaimer!

OK guys, I realize this is kind of a 'girlie' project, oh well. This makes some nice gifts and the woman in your life, friends and family love handmade gifts.

I've made these before, but the hardest part of doing it is finding nice bottles. Empty decorative bottles are incredibly expensive. If anyone knows a good source of decorative bottles that aren't too expensive, let me know.

I found some olive oils in fancy bottles marked down drastically at Kroger's recently. I bought about a dozen of them, they were marked $2.00 and $2.50, so I got as many as I could at the time.

First I had to remove the labels. Many will come off easily after being soaked in water. A few of them were very stubborn and I had to use mineral spirits. I just had to be careful not to get the spirits near the opening. I don't think anyone would like mineral spirits flavored olive oil!

Then I got my garlic out, then cut a few things out of my herb garden; oregano and a little chives, including one flower top of the garlic chives.

I gently smashed some garlic cloves with a butter knife


I smashed it to release some of the oils from the garlic. I placed several garlic cloves in the jars. In some bottles I also placed a sprig of oregano. Here is a before and after picture

Here's a hint, to remove garlic smell from your hands. Wet your fingers a little bit in water, then sprinkle salt liberally on the affected areas, and rub it in (don't do this with an open cut on your hands!) then rinse the salt off. POOF! Gone!

In others I placed a few lengths of chives, in one of them I placed a flower top from the chives


Basil works well this also. To make dipping oils, just be imaginative and use spices that would work well in a dipping oil; hot pepper flakes, or basil/oregano/chopped garlic, whatever you want to use. Here is a bottle with a little hot pepper flakes and chopped garlic


These make nice gifts and I was able to do this for about $2-$2.50 per bottle.