Another Tincture Thread - Try it, You'll like it

I have gotten a sponsor who is really interested in producing some distinctive topicals for various purposes, including soap, lip balm for cold sores, acne treatments and of course the pain formulations, and maybe even for hair treatment and for sure massage oils for the upscale market. I already produce his GD for his business and he thinks he has customers for it. He's been giving out a lot of samples and there does seem to be a niche for these kind of specialty formulas and he serves a very upscale area and cannabis infusion is very trendy, as long as it works.
 
For this reason and others I'm going to be infusing and working with a new oil, sweet almond oil, as an alternative to coconut oil. It has numerous skin and health benefits separate from those from the coconut oil. It's also a lighter oil but it can take enough heat to make a transfer from GD. 
 
You'll be seeing more posts about root oil and its incorporation into a few products, including a poultice for emphysema and the acne formula in combination with other oils. It's been a while since we've had any projects but I've been spending the time well by doing research. While we may be slow here on the thread for a few days, I am still working on new things and getting my basics lined up so it will be somewhat coherent when I unveil it. 
 
We've got a lot coming up. Stay tuned.   
 
Here's a little refresher: http://www.cannabis.info/USA/library/3090-buried-treasure-hemp-roots/

 

Infused Almond Oil --  There's not a lot to tell here. It's a simple solvent transfer into cold pressed sweet almond oil. Since I'm mainly using it for topicals, I only made it a 1:2 ratio of GD to oil, specifically 0.5oz/1oz. or 2g/oz. From this point I'll dilute it in fresh oils and will try find the right ratio for various uses. I have also just found a use for the 3 quarts of MCT oil that I've been thinking about tossing so cannabis studies are becoming useful. We've had others on the forum that use these oils but not for the things I'm go to be doing.
 
After much research I have discovered that most cannabis creams and other topicals seldom have more than 20-30mg of cannabinoids per ounce of product which is probably why the pain creams we make here at home, whether me or Stiggy, Ironhead or anyone else here, are so good. We use a lot more active ingredient. It's going to be a challenge trying to figure a happy medium between my own use products and a commercial product that will stand out. 
 
Anyway, here's the pictures...you know, "if there isn't pictures, it didn't happen" sort of thing. There's not much to show. The first one is the sweet almond oil I got at Whole Foods. The next one is the oil and the GD sitting on my griddle plate that I used for the transfer. The GD is the dark layer on top. Over the course of the next couple of hours, the griddle got up to 300F and the oil never reached more than 195F and that was at the end. I know this because I bought a laser thermometer. The last picture is the finished infused oil. It was hard to see so I set the flashlight to show it.   
 

 

 

 
 Where?   

 

 

 
Yeah, you infuse it the same way. MCT oil is medium chain triglyceride oil and contains coconut, palm kernel and another tropical oil. MCT's are the good fats.   

 

 
I don't know about that but I've had a similar idea about using nitrous oxide to pressurize the cannabinoids into the alcohol. Not the same but similar. I'm curious what it would do. You can do a lot of things with the right equipment.   

 

 
It's used to make an infused cocktail and I've already met someone who's made the drink. I believe with a little adaptation it could make the GD extraction a little better. It's on my "to do" list but not a big priority right now.   
 
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bella/2013/04/weed-infused_alcohol_recipe_mezcal.php

 

 
That loss when depressurizing is the thing that would concern me. I also would not use the heat but instead freeze everything. The secondary extraction might be best for that. That's a little down the road yet on my priority list, though.   

 

 
It seems to be going well. In fact, someone actually noticed that it was growing again in the vacant lot. It seems to be coming in a bright white, salt but no pepper. However, it seems to be getting darker on the sides. It doesn't matter to me, though, as long as it grows. I still rub a few drops of my concentrated Dragon oil into my scalp twice a day and it really seems to help. My scalp used to hurt all the time from all the keritosis and now it doesn't. I had a bunch of black lesions that are starting to fade and fall off. The scalp has a healthier look to it with a rosy glow from the new blood flow instead of a zombie white/mottled. 
 
The sponsorship has suffered a bit of a hiccup but is still in place. We were supposed to be getting a lot of bud shake but when the first sample was delivered to me, it turned out to be previously used and is fairly useless. We were told it would be last year's but that it was still untouched. There's a little head to it when smoked but nothing to write home about. I'm still processing it since it's to be used for topicals and see how that works out. It will be good for experimentation, I guess, but we're not going to get any more of it. We still have fresh fan leaf and roots and trim coming from the fresh harvest in a couple of weeks. It really pisses me off, though, about someone trying to pawn off used material, and charge for it. We got the sample for free but it's not worth any money. I'll finish the batch tomorrow and we'll see how it works out. 

 

 
I'm against the idea of calling cannabis "Death anything" because Death is not an objective. Life is the objective, so "Lettuce of Life" would be better suited.