Essense of Lilac by Susan L.

  It was astounding how many different ways there are to make a distillery for capturing essential oils or fragrances from herbs and flowers. Some were incredibly complicated with tubes and burners. The easiest one was to simply place a pie plate in the bottom of a large pan, pour some water in the bottom, add whatever you want to extract the oils or scent from. Place a glass lid with a handle upside down on top of the pot. Heat it on low heat until it simmers. The condensation gathers on the lid and drips into the pie plate because of the handle. Voila!
  I used the cooled, boiled water that had been poured over the crushed lilac blooms to distill. Because I don't own a pot with a glass lid, covering the top with tin foil that was angled down towards the centre worked just fine. I wondered if putting ice on the foil would make the yield higher and create a more efficient way of collecting the distilled fragrance. Perhaps doing it on a cooler day might be better, too.
  I didn't boil away all the water like was suggested on one of the sites. What was left over is more concentrated and unfortunately, a rather unappetizing brown. Don't know if that's how it should be.
  So much to learn, so little time!
  It might be wise to get a neutral nose to do some quality control. I think it has a bit of a cooked spinach undertone perhaps caused by the small amount of green from the flower bases but I could be wrong.
  I will admit, it's much easier to simply pour boiling water over the flowers. It was also suggested to use warm oil, olive or coconut, to create a scented moisturizer.
  There's plenty of lavender in the garden. Once the new growth has fully come in, maybe it's worthwhile seeing if using an oil will capture another of my favorite natural fragrances.
  How nice it would be to pull spring and summer scents out when a howling blizzard is raging and it's minus thirty for the fifth day in a row!
  "Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing." 2 Cor 2:14-15