My Maya Moon Oil Recipe

I’m baa-ack! I know it’s been quite awhile since my last post. My hubby and I recently moved to a new apartment and we’ve been having such a good time exploring and settling in to our new town. We have also been busy trying to find a location for our holistic medical clinic (we think we found it!) and making sure we have everything ready to go for opening day. It’s been a packed month and my blog surely took a backseat, but I hope to get back into the swing of things again with weekly posts.

This week I wanted to expand on upon my most recent post about Maya abdominal therapy and offer you all a massage oil recipe that I concocted for self-care. I created it with Rosita Arvigo’s Maya Moon Oil in mind, which is made with sacred Maya herbs sourced from Belize.

Maya Moon Oil is an all-purpose healing oil that has traditionally been used for Maya abdominal massage. I use it on myself when massaging my own abdomen, as it helps increase blood and lymphatic flow due to the healing properties of the herbs it contains. The oil also works wonders for full body massage, yoni care, and as a face or hair serum. Rosita Arvigo’s Maya Moon Oil smells divine, and I promise my own take on the traditional recipe is just as delicious. (My husband always tells me it smells faintly of bubblegum. So yummy!)

Instead of Belizean herbs, my Maya Moon Oil uses plants that are commonly utilized in traditional Western herbalism, so you should be able to find them at your local herb shop or online.

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Shannon’s Maya Moon Oil

It’s time to make an herbal oil infusion! I like to make my herbal oils using the slower solar method of infusing, but please use whichever method you wish. In the following recipe, feel free to estimate the amount of each herb used. "1 part" can equal 1 tablespoon, 1/4 cup, 1 cup, 1 ounce, etc. I am never exact with my measurements when it comes to herbal oils; rather, I just fill a jar half full of dried herbs and cover them with oil, and let it infuse in a sunny window for a couple of weeks. Simple enough!

Materials

• olive oil
• 4 parts damiana (Turnera diffusa)
• 3 parts calendula (Calendula officinalis)
• 3 parts rose (Rosa spp.)
• 2 parts tulsi or holy basil (Ocimum sanctum)
• 2 parts yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
• 2 parts motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca)
• 2 parts lady’s mantle (Alchemilla vulgaris)
• 2 parts lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus)

Instructions

• Place the dried herbs in a clean jar and then fill the jar with olive oil until the oil is about an inch higher than the top of the herbs. Cover the top of the jar with cheesecloth or muslin cloth.
• Place the jar in a sunny window and allow the herbs to infuse in the oil for about 2 weeks, rolling the jar around to thoroughly mix the herbs and oil about once per day. 
• After 2 weeks or so, strain the herbs from the oil using muslin or cheesecloth.
• Add lemongrass and tulsi (holy basil) essential oils to scent (amount will vary depending on the amount of herbal oil). 

Notes

Rosita Arvigo’s original recipe uses jojoba oil in addition to olive oil. Feel free to substitute a portion of the olive oil for jojoba if desired; I omitted it because I didn’t have it available at the time I created the recipe and also because it tends to be expensive. However, it is a great healing oil with a neutral scent, perfect for this type of herbal oil. The original Maya Moon Oil also contains ylang ylang, lavender, and orange essential oils, but I love the scent of lemongrass and tulsi together—I hope you do too! Feel free to play around with different essential oil combinations though and find a scent that you truly love.

Let me know if you tried the recipe and if you made any tweaks! I’d love to hear about your adventures in self-care and DIY herbal oil making. 🙂