Lavender essential oil is one of the most popular and widely used floral scents mainly for it's soothing effects and a great number of applications. We use lavender year round but one season in particular - summer is when we always keep a bottle near by. We go on vacations, picnics and hikes with a bottle of lavender because you never know when it will come in handy.
Here is why:
Bug repellent
Lavender repels insects and if you are bitten, a drop rubbed over the bite will remove the stinging. No more nasty chemicals on your skin or in your air!
Use it: Add 15 drops Lavender to a diffuser with 5 drops of Rosemary for a garden-inspired aroma. Place your diffuser by an open window or on a patio with an outlet.
If you are on the go and you want to avoid any mosquito bites or other unwanted insects our Soothe balm is perfect to bring on your next camping trip.
After-sun care
You've spent a day under the sun and your skin feels hot and red. Prepare a nourishing oil or a gel to help bring the temperature down and soothe your skin.
Tip: Add 6-12 drops of lavender to a 30ml bottle of avocado oil. Shake well to blend the essential oil and use it to instantly calm your sun-kissed skin.
First Aid
Whether you have a bruise, your kid fell down from his/her bicycle or you cut yourself, lavender oil is the fist aid remedy that comes to mind for any of these situations.
Tip: Dampen a cloth or towel with cold water, add 3 drops and apply as a remedy for bruises. To treat cuts, grazes or other wounds wash the affected area with an antiseptic wash first.
Antiseptic wash
3 drops of lemon essential oil
2 drops of tea tree essential oil
1 bowl of warm water
Add the essential oils into the bowl of water and swab the wound gently. Wet a cotton ball and add 2 drops lavender essential oil. Gently tap the affected area. Lavender has the ability to relieve pain and destroy pathogenic bacteria and inhibit growth of viruses which makes it the perfect plant remedy to reduce swelling and to speed up the healing of the tissue.
Deep Summertime Face Clean
Summertime skincare might be light but pollution, daily sunscreen application and traveling might make your skin feel slightly congested and prone to breakouts. All you need is a towel, lavender and tea tree. These essential oils have deeply cleansing and antimicrobial properties which tend to clear blemishes caused by clogged pores. Note to keep your eyes closed during this treatment to avoid any eye stinging. Lavender and tea tree oils are volatile and can be too intense on the eyes.
Summer Face Steam
1 towel
2 drops lavender essential oil
1 drop tea tree essential oil
Directions:
1. Run hot water over the towel. Wring it out and open it across one hand.
2. Add the essential oils into two of corners of the towel and then bring them together to its middle point. Twist the towel to help disperse the essential oils.
3. Close your eyes and place the towel over your face. Make sure to keep an open space around your nose or mouth to be able to breathe. Take several deep breaths with a pause in between each inhalation and exhalation.
4. After 3-4 deep breaths your summer face steam is done. Use the towel to wipe out any excess impurities. Rinse with cool water if you want an extra pick-me-up.
DIY lavender bed linen spray
Making this spray only takes 5 minutes and it will be totally worth your time because when using it will transport you to a peaceful lavender field and make you sleep like a baby. And who can say no to that?
Lavender spray
250 ml distilled water
2 Tbs vodka or rubbing alcohol
40 drops lavender essential oil
Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients in a spray bottle.
2. Shake well and use.
Tip: The use of alcohol in this recipe helps to dissolve the essential oil and makes the scent last longer. We love using this lavender spray on our bedding or pillows to freshen up. Another lovely way to utilize it is to spay your laundry when you are ironing.
Conventional cleaning products often contain chemicals and toxins that may harm our skin and health in general. On the other hand essential oils are all natural, safe (when used with precaution), practical and delightful to work with. Many of them contain powerful antiseptic, antifungal, antibacterial, and antiviral properties that make them very effective at household cleaning.
Below we have described our favorite and, arguably, the best
essential oils for cleaning your home. You may use them on their own or blend them to increase their potency and take full advantage of their combined cleansing properties.
This refreshing diffuser blend will jump-start your day and naturally enhance your concentration.
FOCUS + ENERGY
Rosemary strengthens the mind, increases creativity and helps with memory retention. Peppermint and blood orange promote clarity and alertness, while also evoking a sense of happiness. All you need is two minutes, a
diffuser and the essential oils above.
In the second part, we look at more medicinal herbs and the essential oils from them. Lemon balm, St Johns Wort, and eucalyptus are starring here. For each plant, we first look at their medicinal properties and common
ailments they may help us relieve and then provide you with practical tips, tricks, and recipes you can make yourself.
In the first part of this article, we focus on elderberry, echinacea, and lavender. First, we look at their medicinal properties, the different forms we can use them and common diseases they may help us relieve. Then we provide you with practical tips, tricks, and recipes you can make yourself at home.
Essential oils are powerful natural medicine that can be incorporated in our daily lives to improve wellness, clean our home, repel pests and insects, improve our garden, enhance our holiday celebrations and so much more. This list includes the ten most versatile and useful essential oils for the home medicine cabinet.
We love Lavender. The oil from this aromatic plant is quite popular and widely used all over the world. In fact, we believe every home should have a bottle. Known for its relaxing effects on body and mind, lavender oil has gained popularity in natural skin care products and treatments. With its antibacterial, analgesic and antiseptic properties, it may effectively be used to cleanse cuts, bruises and skin irritations. In addition, its fresh, floral aroma calms the nerves and balances emotions. Having a small bottle of lavender in your purse or house is almost like having a personal first aid kit, perfume and sedative.
Below you can read about some of the most popular applications of lavender essential oil in your daily life:
1. Calming
Dilute 2-3 drops оf lavender in 1-2 teaspoons of vegetable/nut oil and rub in your palms, the temples, wrists and feet for almost immediate calming effect on the body. It takes about 20 minutes for the chemical compounds in the oil to reach your blood stream and react with your chemistry. For a more speedy effect, you can also use inhalation to draw the scent all the way into your amygdala - the emotional centre of the brain.
2. Sleep aid
Simply put a 1-2 drops on your pillow and relax in your bed. As an alternative rub the mix from above to your palms and feet. Enjoy!
3. Sun and heat burns
Lavender magically heals minor burns. It decreases the pain, redness and swelling. The aromatic oil also prevents scaring and stimulates the cells of the wound to regenerate quicker. Use a salve, balm or some other oil based product that lingers on the skin before absorption.
4. Insect repellant/Insect bite
Not only does Lavender repeal bugs but it aids in healing insect bites and stings. It also stops itching and reduces the swelling.
5. Cuts and grazes
Wash the affected area with antiseptic wash. Once the wound is clean drop lavender oil directly onto the cut/graze. It will stop the bleeding and kill bacteria.
6. Eczema / Dermatitis
These skin conditions are usually aggravated by stress and nervous tension. Aromatherapy massage with lavender helps relieve stress and tension. Take a bath with 2-3 drops of pure lavender oil or mix several drops of lavender oil in 2-3 tea spoons vegetable/nut oil and rub it on the eczema/dermatitis.
7. Nausea / Motion sickness
Place a drop of Lavender on your fingers and rub the area behind your ears and around the navel. If you wish not to put the oil directly on your skin (as it may cause irritation to those with very sensitive skin) you can place 1-2 drop on a tissue and sniff to relieve your symptoms.
8. Dry or chapped skin
Use diluted mix of lavender and vegetable oil and massage the dry/chapped skin.
9. Hay fever
Rub the blend mentioned above between your palms and inhale deeply to help alleviate the symptoms of hay fever.
10. Dandruff
Mix 3 drops of Tea tree and Lavender oil in 2 tea spoons vegetable/nut oil to give yourself a nice scalp massage. For best results, do this several times a week.
11. Nosebleed
To stop a nosebleed, you will need a tissue paper and a chip of ice. Use a drop of lavender oil on the tissue and wrap it around a the piece of ice. Hold that up the base of your nose in the middle of your upper lip and let it remain there until it becomes uncomfortable or until the bleeding stops.
12. Cold sores
Dilute 2 drops of lavender and bergamot oil in 5 ml clear alcohol like vodka and apply directly on the cold sore when you notice it at first.
13. Headache
Apply a cold compress containing lavender oil to your head and lie down. Replace the compress with a new one when it reaches body temperature.
14. Sore muscles
Lavender oil can also be used to help relieve tight or bruised muscles. Use it in a massage blend and rub into the skin around affected areas.
15. Acne and other blemishes
Often caused by the skin’s overproduction of sebum and bacteria, acne plague many people. The antiseptic properties of lavender act effectively in managing them. Apply undiluted lavender oil with a cotton swab directly on the inflamed spot. If you have very sensitive skin use a dilute 1-2 drops of Lavender oil in a teaspoon of vegetable/nut oil.
We all know about the tremendous potential of essential oils to benefit us both physically and psychologically. They can improve our health, as well as our spiritual and emotional well-being. Ever since antiquity, man has used essential oils therapeutically and recreationally, as we know various ways to introduce them into our system, such as bath soaking, inhalation, or evaporation. Massage, however, has proven the most effective and pleasant method of application allowing us to absorb these magical substances through our biggest organ - the skin.
Massage itself is a great medicinal tool that has been part of many cultures and their traditional healing practices for thousands of years. In ancient India people believed that we become ill when we are in misbalance with our environment. They used touch therapy to help create balance. Ancient Chinese massage methods were established based on the idea that illness occurs when there is a deficiency or imbalance in the energy flow within our body. Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, for example wrote: “The physician must be experienced in many things, but assuredly in rubbing.”
Massage offers great relief for many body ailments like pain, fatigue, and muscle tension. When used in combination with essential oils, however, it becomes much more effective as the oils and their application method mutually enhance each other for the greater benefit of the recipient. The potent combination of a healing touch with the therapeutic power of essential oils is unsurpassable for several reasons.
Although massage is performed superficially on the surface of the body, it affects the muscles directly underneath as well as on the underlying tissues, organs, and body systems. Physically, the different massage strokes increase circulation blood and lymph throughout the whole body leading not only to pain relief and relaxation, but also to effective distribution of the essential oils that our skin absorbs. The skin itself gets warmed up, increases its elasticity and opens up its cellular walls inviting all of the beneficial fatty acids, nutrients, and other substances into our bloodstream and from their within our whole organism. That is why, even if we help a particular body area, say a tense neck, by massaging it- the main effects of relaxation are felt in the entire body physically and emotionally. The mind and spirit are calmed together with the tight muscles. The accompanying feelings of well-being and connectedness represent the spiritual and energetic benefits of aroma-therapeutic massage.
Knowing the general effect of massage on the body, one can easily compliment its benefits with the proper blend of essential oils depending on the problems that need treatment. For example lavender oil has proven very effective antiseptic and antiviral aid for the body while it also relaxes the mind and calms the spirit. Therefore, it could successfully be used to treat muscle pain from an illness or prolonged exercise as well as a stress or anxiety disorder. Similarly, mint and rosemary improve our mood and memory, ease breathing and enhance concentration making them perfect if one has to study or focus on work. For deep depression, a full body massage with a blend of happy oils like orange, rose or geranium can do wonders.
The examples of aromatherapy massage blends are numerous, but one must remember that essential oils alone are very concentrated and powerful substances that must be diluted in base oils before coming into contact with the skin. There are different rates of dilution for the different oils and wide variety of carrier oils to choose from. Jojoba oil, for example, has similar structure to the sebum our skin naturally produces. That makes it perfectly emollient as it penetrates and nourishes the skin quickly and deeply leaving a silky feeling. Coconut and almond oils, on the other hand, are rich in vitamins and have complex fatty acids structures. This makes them ideal for general conditioning, dissolving essential oils and improving our skin’s elasticity. Almost any neutral oil can be used as a base, popular ones being olive, almond, grape-seed oil, but when making a choice, it is important that we consider unrefined, virgin oils before anything else.
