At Hempsley, we love learning about the benefits of various herbs and other nutrients, so naturally we wanted to figure out how to incorporate them into our lives.

At first, it felt like a lot of work. We did some research on making infused oils, and almost every recipe involved a mason jar, dark closet, cheesecloth, and lots of time.

We simply aren't that patient.

The recipes were sitting there, waiting to be made into beautiful blog posts for you, but they never got made. And if we weren't going to take the time to make them, how could we possibly expect you to?

Then we found LEVO.

LEVO is a kitchen appliance for infusing herbs in butter or oil — without a mess. If you've ever tried to make a DIY project in the double boiler, you'll understand why this is so fantastic.

LEVO is a compact little machine, no bigger than your standard coffee maker, that arrives in a beautifully packaged box that has obviously been designed for the experience of being opened. Its "buttons" are an intuitive touch screen that make operating it feel sleek and easy, and the cord wrap on the back is a great design detail that makes for clean storage. 

Every time you use it, you have to clean only the four pieces you see here — and they are dishwasher safe! It even came with a handy little manual with cleanly illustrated instructions for use, but after you use it once, you'll never need the instructions again. 

Getting the LEVO set up is quick and painless:

Please note: Images are from setup of the LEVO I, which is no longer being sold. We are working on updating this page with new photos of the LEVO II, but all instructions have been annotated with updates. 

1. Attach silicon dispenser to the bottom of the metal dish. This little silicon piece is clamped shut during infusion; the dispensing button allows the finished oil to flow through at the end — mess free! Note: In LEVO 2, this silicon piece screws onto the basin instead of sliding over it, as in the pictures shown here.
2. Hold the dispensing button while lowering the silicon dispenser in place.
3. Place the stirrer in the center of the dish. It's magnetic and will scoot itself into place.
4. Add herbs to pod. 
5. Place pod into dish with magnetic strip facing the front of the machine. There is embossed lettering that reads "Place Pod Here" with an arrow.
6. Add oil or butter, in liquid form or solid (it will melt!) 
7. Set the time and temperature according LEVO's app calculator based on the oil and herb you're infusing.
8. Once infusion is complete, place a jar under the dispenser and push the dispense button. 
9. Dis-assemble the LEVO and put its few parts into the dishwasher for easy cleaning!

Some things to know: 

• The minimum amount of oil that LEVO can infuse is 5 oz (10 tbsp).
• One thing we've noticed with the herbs so far is that only the herbs that are steeped in the oil will be infused, so if you only plan to infuse a little bit of oil, you should only use a little bit of herb.
• You can pause mid-infusion and stir the herbs up (LEVO even comes with an herb press that managed to go MIA during this photoshoot), but we of course forget to do that. It still always turns out great.

LEVO can be used to infuse nuts, seeds, cloves, roots, vegetables, flowers, fruit, and tons of other things with about any oil you can dream up —from extra virgin olive oil to lard to honey! You just fill the pod with whatever you want to infuse. Yeah, it's that easy.

They even have an interactive online calculator — below is a screenshot of what it told us to do for this combination, lavender and coconut oil. When you're done, just press the dispensing button and it flows effortlessly and mess-free into whatever container your heart desires. Again, if you're a frequent DIY-er, you'll have a serious appreciation for how easy the LEVO makes things.

So... What can I make?

We were out-of-this-world thrilled when our LEVO arrived, but then we had a moment of panic: what the heck do we make with it? The amount of ingredients you could combine was almost overwhelming, and we'd never played with oil infusion before.

We decided to start simply by infusing some coconut oil with lavender, two ingredients that are pretty familiar (compared to some things). We know from our herbal blend research that lavender can be great for sleep and anxiety and coconut oil is great for moisturizing your skin, so we thought that this would make a great massage oil/moisturizer — and we were right!

LEVO's superpower is versatility.

We originally made lavender-infused coconut oil to use as a body oil (we like to end our days with a nightly self-massage to help release toxins, improve circulation, tone muscles, and relieve stress), but the oil turned out to be so much more useful than that.

• We put it in our hair. Lavender can help soothe dry, brittle hair!

• We put it in our coffee, and our lemonade. Herbal flavored drinks are hot right now.

• We made it into icing to top our sugar cookies. Our friends thought we were fancy!

• We used it as a base for an essential oil blend roll-on. 

• We made a bath salt scrub.

Now we have an entire library with recipes and DIYs using the LEVO — click here to check it out!

Click here to explore LEVO products in our shop