Other Oils

Lavender is an evergreen woody shrub about 1 meter high (3 feet), with gray-green narrow linear leaves and the most beautiful purple-blue flowers perched on a long stem.

Lavender, whenever this word comes to mind, it strikes fragrance, a sweet flowery fragrance, which itself is so soothing that just smelling a lavender flower can make your mood refresh and relax.

Oil Properties
This oil has herbal touch to it with a light odor and clear with a tinge of yellow in color. This is versatile oil and is used for lot of ailments and moods. The main components of Lavender oil are Borneol, Geraniol, Linalool, Lavendulyl acetate, Linalyl acetate and Cineol.

Apart from its soothing aroma, there are other factors, which help to enhance the quality of oil. Likewise, if the plant material is grown in higher altitudes, it yields more esters, which helps in maintaining oils toxin level and can take out maximum benefit from the oil.

One very interesting things about this oil is that its safe for everyone and that’s why known as oil of children.

History behind this oil
Lavender has been used as a remedy with local inhabitants Rome from 18th century. Used for insect repellant, stomach related disorders and sleep inducers. Fragrance was also a very important aspect of this oil and was used in soaps, perfumes, and other perfumery items.

However, Romans used lavender in preparation for childbirth and lavender was considered as an excellent eradicator of plague. However not only in Rome but also other parts of Europe were also known to Lavender oil. Romans considered it as a refreshing bath agent, used it frequently, and made it popular in England too.

Who can benefit from this oil?
As we talked earlier, this oil is used to help relax lot of common diseases and emotional disturbances. However, lavender is considered as a good Antiseptic and Analgesic agent. Lets put some more light on who can benefit from this oil.

Lavender oil is very effective for peoples who are suffering from Headache, Acne, allergies, anxiety, asthma, athlete’s foot, chicken pox, dermatitis, earache, hypertension, insect bites, insect repellant, itching, burns, cuts, strains, sores, scabies, bruises, rheumatism, migraine, sprains, cystitis, flatulence, whooping cough, stretch marks, labor pain and excellent for oily skin.

Lavender is very well known for its soothing and easing effect on body and is very beneficial for people who have mental, psychological, or emotional disorders. This oils plays a very efficient role in relaxing and calming nerves, easing tension and depression, levels emotional swing, lessen stress, lower anxiety, assists with insomnia, dispel hysteria, lessen exhaustion, improves the level of confidence and removes the problem of vertigo.

Lavender oil is very good for skin and all types of skins. Some very common skin problems like sunburns, wrinkles, patches, or any marks are very embarrassing, for these problems, this oil works wonders and tones up skin.

How to use this oil
If essential oils are not used wit proper methods, they do not give favorable results. Lets find how this oil works.

As we discussed it is a good tonic for skin and this is the only oil, which can be used without diluting it with any carrier oil. Regular bathing with lavender oil helps skin look fresh, toned up and glowing. Just add few drops of oil in the water and have a soothing and relaxing bath. However for aching and stinking feet’s, one can take foot bath that will bring tired feet’s back to life, remove dead skin and make them smell good.

This oil is also good holiday oil, in a sense it works as first aid oil. Why we are saying it works as first aid oil, cause it can be used neat and is excellent for common burns, cuts and other skin disorders.

Massaging with this oil helps improve digestive and immune system. Well there’s a proven fact and results show that this oil is most effective essential oil at relaxing brain waves and reducing stress. This oil can be used alone as well as blends well with carrier oils too.

Lavender oil is considered to have one of the best aroma’s out of all essential oils, that’s how it works great as room freshener, scattering oil in the house releases aroma and works as a good deodorant.

A few drops of oil in the hot water bath will result in a nice sleep and relieve anxiety. However, cool bath results in energizing the body and refreshing it.

Burners and vaporizers are used in vapor therapy for diseases linked to allergies and respiratory system. Cold compresses of lavender oil are used fro arthritis, eczema and sores.

Lavender oil is highly used in beauty products as in lotions, creams, perfumes, and lot more things. Aroma plays a big part to relax a person.

Method of Extraction
Essential oils can be extracted by many methods known but it depends on the plant material the oil is extracted from. As considered steam distillation is the most suitable method to extract essential oil. This oil is also heat sensitive and there are some compounds in this oil, which when exposed to heat can turn toxic, so to avoid this, steam distillation is suitable method for extraction.

In this method, the water vapor that is produced by some generator is forced through the plant material. Now when this steam passes through plant material, it takes along with the aromatic molecules that contain essential oil. What happens is when steam is passed through the plant, it opens up the pores where essential oil is stored and thus the process begins.

Now we got essential oil in vapor form, the steam which then contains the essential oil, is passed through a cooling system to condense the steam, which forms a liquid from which the essential oil and water is then separated.

The temperature of the steam needs to be carefully controlled – just enough to force the plant material to let go of the essential oil, yet not too hot as to burn the plant material or the essential oil.

As essential oils density is lighter then water, it is easy to separate both liquids.

Precautions
A few drops may seem very little but all oils are extremely potent and concentrated. Lavender is considered one of the safest essential oils and can be used “neat” on the skin but you should always be aware that anything could cause an allergic reaction. If you experience one while using Lavender Oil, discontinue use immediately.

How to buy Genuine Essential Oil?
Essential oils have to be Genuine, authentic, unadulterated, pure, holistic, and therapeutic to provide you the desired results. However, it is not so easy to figure out the purity and quality of oils. So many factors contribute for the oil to be pure.

Well as we know, many essential oils are quite expense cause of the process of manufacturing it, like Jasmine oil which cannot be inexpensive cause of its cost of harvesting and production.

Only genuine essential oils can guarantee the anticipated healing effect. This is the fact and one should be aware of some basic factors before purchasing essential oil. Tell me what is the use of purchasing something that is expensive and not genuine. Mostly these oils are mixed with some carrier oils and people are easily fooled. However, blends of essential oil and carrier oil are also available in the market, but that should be specified.

However, there are some important things to note down, like which family the oil belongs too, botanical name of the oil should be specified on the bottle, country of origin also matters, and smelling the oil can also work. One should try to become used to the aroma by smelling them when ever you a get chance, buy from genuine dealer and check out the spellings of oil on the bottle before purchasing.

When buy a oil make sure the documentation should contain information about the growth, harvest, distillation, and chemical make-up of the oil, however, even though we ask, sometimes we don’t get it cause it can be wrong. There are many tests too to check the purity of the oil but they are too expensive. So our suggestion is to know the oil by yourself and do remember the things we have discussed.

Essential oil yields within plants differ enormously. Some plants, such as rose and melissa, have very low oil yields and are consequently very expensive. Others, such as eucalyptus, have much higher oil yields and therefore tend to be less expensive. It should be noted that price is not necessarily an indicator of quality but if all oils on sale are the same price, then this is generally a sign that the oils could be synthetic, adulterated or blended products, often with dilutions of less than 10% of essential oil. Diluted products should be clearly labeled as ready-mixed massage oils.

Therefore, when you are purchasing individual pure essential oils. Do make sure that they are clearly labeled with the words ‘Pure Essential Oil’ and not just ‘Essential Oil’ or ‘Aromatherapy Oil’ which does not specify exactly what is in the bottle and can be very, very misleading.

Blends Well With:
The other oil with which Lavender blends best are Cedarwood, Clary Sage, Geranium, Nutmeg, Lemon, Pine, Clove, Vetiver, Patchouli and Orange.