Essential oil of the week: lavender oil

« « Aromatherapy essential oils are used for skin and hair care | Technorati » »

Wednesday, August 8th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed

Lavender

Everyone knows lavender oil, even if they know nothing at all about aromatherapy.

Lavender flowers and oil have been used for thousands of years: the ancient Romans put lavender heads in their public baths, and in the medieval period lavender was a standby, used for centuries to keep away bugs and disease.

The lavender used in aromatherapy is common lavender (known as Lavendula augustiflora or Lavendula officinalis).

Lavender essential oil is healing for both the body and the mind. You can use lavender for minor burns (use neat), inflammation, skin irritation, headaches, migraine, insomnia, nausea, and arthritis.

Lavender Water - a classic delight

This lovely scented water is easy to make. Use it as a spray to tone your skin, and relieve stress.

1 pound lavender flower heads
2 pints spring water

Find a pretty jar which will take the lavender heads and water. Then heat the water, and put it in the jar with the heads. Shake the jar, then put it in a sunny location for a day.

Filter out the heads using a coffee filter. You can add more lavender heads to the water and stand it in the sun for another day if you want a stronger scent. Store the water in the fridge.