Lavender : Lavandula angustifolia (Bulgaria). Lavender oil is used in baths, room sprays, toilet waters, perfumes, colognes, massage oils, sachets, salves, skin lotions and oils. It has a sweet, balsamic, floral aroma which combines well with many oils including citrus, clove, patchouli, rosemary, clary sage and pine. Aromatherapy benefits: balancing, soothing, normalizing, calming, relaxing, healing.
Lavender is just a beautiful herb in your garden. It has gray-green, pointing leaves that grow in a bushy, spreading manner. It is crowned with tall spikes of beautiful pale violet flowers during summer. As an ornamental flower, lavender is unique, sporting exotic fragrance, beauty and a rich harvest of sweet smelling blooms. Old English Lavender, a popular inhabitant of a cottage garden, can grow up to two to three feet high, producing fragrant grayish leaves and blue/purple flowers.
With its flowery fragrance Lavender is the most versatile and useful oil. If you are a newbie to essential oils, you may need to start here by using lavender oil. Called the “Swiss army knife of essential oils”, because of its versatility, lavender is very soothing to sun burnt skin and is used to cleanse cuts and skin irritations.
A drop of lavender oil mixed with a teaspoon of carrier oil, such as grape seed and massaged into the temples and back of the neck will drive away headaches. Mixed with any massage oil, it also helps relieve the pain of arthritis or aching muscles. Occasionally, just a small cotton ball with droplets of lavender near your pillow can help you drift off to a deep sleep.
Lavender essential oil can help reduce anger and frustration, while improving your self esteem. Lavender is found to elicit the emotion of happiness. Lavender has a property of calming and sedating effects. You can also use lavender, by scenting a relaxing and antiseptic bath by slowly adding lavender droplets and letting the bath water run over it as it fills the bath. Fresh lavender flowers are excellent for bath too.
Dried lavender is a tool to experience the sheer aromatic properties in a relaxed ambience. To dry your lavender, strip the leaves or the just opening flowers from the stalk and spread out in a warm place, before using in pot pourris to fragrance your rooms. Around your home, dried lavender stalks can be burned like incense sticks or burned on the fire for their wonderful fragrance.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Three Categories Of Pure Essential Oil
Essential oils can be used for pleasure or for their therapeutic purposes to benefit mind and body. Below is a definition of the three categories of pure essential oils:
ORGANIC
Certified organic essential oils are derived from plants that have been grown without the use of man-made fertilisers, herbicides or pesticides - instead using ecosystem management methods to maintain the health of both plant and soil. There are no inputs such as genetic modification or irradiation. The benefits of organic agriculture include no pollution of the local air or groundwater and no toxic chemicals in the plant or its essential oil, meanwhile maintaining the viability of the local environment.
WILD CRAFTED
Wild crafted essential oils are derived from plants that are not cultivated, but are gathered from their natural, wild habitat. Although they are not organic, they will not have been contaminated by synthetic chemicals (pesticides, fertilisers etc.) and will be growing in conditions favourable to the health of the plant. When wildcrafting is done sustainably, a plan for harvesting must show that the harvest will sustain the wild crop.
ETHICALLY HARVESTED
An ethically harvested essential oil is derived from a herb, shrub or tree that is not harvested so aggressively that the species becomes depleted. As far as aromatic plants are concerned, species depletion is only rarely a problem with herbs (which are mostly easy to grow in quantity) but tends to be more of an issue with slow-growing trees. This denotes sustainable cultivation.
ORGANIC
Certified organic essential oils are derived from plants that have been grown without the use of man-made fertilisers, herbicides or pesticides - instead using ecosystem management methods to maintain the health of both plant and soil. There are no inputs such as genetic modification or irradiation. The benefits of organic agriculture include no pollution of the local air or groundwater and no toxic chemicals in the plant or its essential oil, meanwhile maintaining the viability of the local environment.
WILD CRAFTED
Wild crafted essential oils are derived from plants that are not cultivated, but are gathered from their natural, wild habitat. Although they are not organic, they will not have been contaminated by synthetic chemicals (pesticides, fertilisers etc.) and will be growing in conditions favourable to the health of the plant. When wildcrafting is done sustainably, a plan for harvesting must show that the harvest will sustain the wild crop.
ETHICALLY HARVESTED
An ethically harvested essential oil is derived from a herb, shrub or tree that is not harvested so aggressively that the species becomes depleted. As far as aromatic plants are concerned, species depletion is only rarely a problem with herbs (which are mostly easy to grow in quantity) but tends to be more of an issue with slow-growing trees. This denotes sustainable cultivation.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Essential Oils for Homemade Natural Perfume
Natural French Perfume
Ingredients
1/2 ounce (7 grams) sweet almond oil
15 drops lavender essential oil
10 drops sandalwood essential oil
Instructions
Sterilize a small glass perfume bottle. Add all ingredients and mix.
This perfume will be good for six months. Store it inside the bathroom cabinet-out of sunlight.
Citrus Splash
Ingredients
2 cups distilled water
3 tablespoons vodka
15 drops sweet orange essential oil
10 drops Bergamot essential oil (extracted from orange trees)
zest of one lemon
Instructions
Sterilize a canning jar in boiling water. Allow to dry or dry carefully without touching inside of jar. Put lemon zest in the jar. Pour water and vodka over zest. Stir with a stainless steel spoon. Add essential oils, seal and put in cool, dark place for one week. Swirl contents every other day. strain liquid through cheese cloth or coffee filter. Put perfume water into dark (blue or amber) decorative bottle.
This perfume will be good for a year.
Lavender Floral Water
Ingredients
1 cup distilled water
2 1/2 tablespoons vodka
10 drops lavender essential oil
1/2 cup fresh or dried lavender buds (no stems)
Instructions
Sterilize a canning jar in boiling water. Allow to dry or dry carefully without touching inside of jar. Put lavender buds in jar. Pour water and vodka over buds. Stir with a stainless steel spoon. Add essential oil, seal and put in cool, dark place for one week. Swirl contents every other day. strain liquid through cheese cloth or coffee filter. Put perfume water into dark (blue or amber) decorative bottle.
This perfume will be good for a year. The lavender scent combats insomnia, depression, and headaches.
Ingredients
1/2 ounce (7 grams) sweet almond oil
15 drops lavender essential oil
10 drops sandalwood essential oil
Instructions
Sterilize a small glass perfume bottle. Add all ingredients and mix.
This perfume will be good for six months. Store it inside the bathroom cabinet-out of sunlight.
Citrus Splash
Ingredients
2 cups distilled water
3 tablespoons vodka
15 drops sweet orange essential oil
10 drops Bergamot essential oil (extracted from orange trees)
zest of one lemon
Instructions
Sterilize a canning jar in boiling water. Allow to dry or dry carefully without touching inside of jar. Put lemon zest in the jar. Pour water and vodka over zest. Stir with a stainless steel spoon. Add essential oils, seal and put in cool, dark place for one week. Swirl contents every other day. strain liquid through cheese cloth or coffee filter. Put perfume water into dark (blue or amber) decorative bottle.
This perfume will be good for a year.
Lavender Floral Water
Ingredients
1 cup distilled water
2 1/2 tablespoons vodka
10 drops lavender essential oil
1/2 cup fresh or dried lavender buds (no stems)
Instructions
Sterilize a canning jar in boiling water. Allow to dry or dry carefully without touching inside of jar. Put lavender buds in jar. Pour water and vodka over buds. Stir with a stainless steel spoon. Add essential oil, seal and put in cool, dark place for one week. Swirl contents every other day. strain liquid through cheese cloth or coffee filter. Put perfume water into dark (blue or amber) decorative bottle.
This perfume will be good for a year. The lavender scent combats insomnia, depression, and headaches.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
ROSE OIL
Damask Rose oil is extracted from Rosa damascena from the Rosaceae family and is also known as Bulgarian and Turkish rose, Otto of rose and attar of rose.
Oil properties: Damask Rose has a deep, rosy, fresh aroma, the color ranges from clear to a pale yellow or greenish tint and the viscosity is watery to crystalline, when warm or cold respectively.
Origin of rose oil: 'Rosa' comes from the Greek 'roden' meaning 'red', as the ancient rose was thought to have been crimson.Anicenna, the 10th century Persian physician, used the rose as his first plant to distill and a rose distillery existed in 1612 in Shiraz, Persia.
Rose petals were scattered at weddings to ensure a happy marriage and are still a symbol of love and purity and is also used to aid meditation and prayer. It takes about 60,000 roses (about 180 lb) to make one ounce of rose oil.
Extraction: Rose otto oil is extracted from the fresh flowers, picked before 8 am in the morning, by steam distillation and the yield is 0.02-0.05%. The aroma can be damaged if the heat is too high at distillation.
Chemical composition: The main chemical components of Rose otto oil are: Citronellol, Geraniol, Nerol, Farnesol, Geranic and Eugenol.
Precautions: Damask rose oil is non-toxic, non-irritant and non-sensitizing but should not be used during pregnancy.
Therapeutic properties: The therapeutic properties of Damask rose oil are: anti-infectious, anti-depressant, antiseptic, anti-spasmodic, aphrodisiac, astringent, bactericidal, diuretic, emmenagogue, hepatic, laxative, sedative, splenetic and general tonic.
Uses: Damask rose oil soothes the mind and helps with depression, grief, nervous tension and stress and is helpful for poor circulation and heart palpitations.
For the respiratory system Damask rose oil can assist in cases of asthma, coughs and hay fever, and on the digestive system for liver congestion and nausea.
Rose otto oil can be used for irregular menstruation, leucorrhea, menorrhagia and uterine disorders. On the skin it can be used for broken capillaries, dry skin, eczema, herpes, mature and sensitive skin, wrinkles, and rose water can be used for conjunctivitis.
Summary: Damask rose oil gives a feeling of wellbeing and happiness, it helps a nervous mind, can be helpful on the respiratory tract, for digestive problems, for menstrual problems and as skin care.
Burners and vaporizers: In vapor therapy Rose otto oil can be helpful with: allergies, asthma, baby blues, headaches, migraine, nervous tension and as a relaxant.
Blended oil or in the bath: As a blended massage oil or diluted in the bath Rose damask oil can assist with: allergies, baby blues, asthma, hay fever, headaches, depression, migraine, scar tissue, nervous tension, stress, poor circulation and as a relaxant.
Oil properties: Damask Rose has a deep, rosy, fresh aroma, the color ranges from clear to a pale yellow or greenish tint and the viscosity is watery to crystalline, when warm or cold respectively.
Origin of rose oil: 'Rosa' comes from the Greek 'roden' meaning 'red', as the ancient rose was thought to have been crimson.Anicenna, the 10th century Persian physician, used the rose as his first plant to distill and a rose distillery existed in 1612 in Shiraz, Persia.
Rose petals were scattered at weddings to ensure a happy marriage and are still a symbol of love and purity and is also used to aid meditation and prayer. It takes about 60,000 roses (about 180 lb) to make one ounce of rose oil.
Extraction: Rose otto oil is extracted from the fresh flowers, picked before 8 am in the morning, by steam distillation and the yield is 0.02-0.05%. The aroma can be damaged if the heat is too high at distillation.
Chemical composition: The main chemical components of Rose otto oil are: Citronellol, Geraniol, Nerol, Farnesol, Geranic and Eugenol.
Precautions: Damask rose oil is non-toxic, non-irritant and non-sensitizing but should not be used during pregnancy.
Therapeutic properties: The therapeutic properties of Damask rose oil are: anti-infectious, anti-depressant, antiseptic, anti-spasmodic, aphrodisiac, astringent, bactericidal, diuretic, emmenagogue, hepatic, laxative, sedative, splenetic and general tonic.
Uses: Damask rose oil soothes the mind and helps with depression, grief, nervous tension and stress and is helpful for poor circulation and heart palpitations.
For the respiratory system Damask rose oil can assist in cases of asthma, coughs and hay fever, and on the digestive system for liver congestion and nausea.
Rose otto oil can be used for irregular menstruation, leucorrhea, menorrhagia and uterine disorders. On the skin it can be used for broken capillaries, dry skin, eczema, herpes, mature and sensitive skin, wrinkles, and rose water can be used for conjunctivitis.
Summary: Damask rose oil gives a feeling of wellbeing and happiness, it helps a nervous mind, can be helpful on the respiratory tract, for digestive problems, for menstrual problems and as skin care.
Burners and vaporizers: In vapor therapy Rose otto oil can be helpful with: allergies, asthma, baby blues, headaches, migraine, nervous tension and as a relaxant.
Blended oil or in the bath: As a blended massage oil or diluted in the bath Rose damask oil can assist with: allergies, baby blues, asthma, hay fever, headaches, depression, migraine, scar tissue, nervous tension, stress, poor circulation and as a relaxant.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Essential Oils In Daily Use
Recently, people worldwide use Essentiak Oils, the main products of Aromatherapy. Here are some Aromatherapy Tips for you, showing you that Essential Oils can really work in daily health and beauty care right at you home.
Apart from these most common recipes, you can also prepare hundreds of them by using correct amounts of essential oils.
Anti-Tension Massage: 2 drops petit grain oil + 2 drops lavender oil + 2 drops sandalwood oil: in 20 ml carrier oil. Apply on the neck, shoulders, and temples.
Circulation Improvement Massage: 6 drop lavender oil + 4 drops rosemary oil + 2 drops vetiver oil: in 4 oz. of sesame oil.
Bedtime Massage: 3 drop sandalwood oil + 2 drops chamomile oil: in 20 ml of carrier oil.
Backache Massage: 2 drop eucalyptus oil + 2 drops lavender oil + 1 drop lemon oil: in 20 ml carrier oil. Focus on areas of tension with fingertips.
Pain-Relieving Massage: 3 drop pine oil + 3 drop eucalyptus oil + 3 drops frankincense oil: 20 ml carrier oil. Apply on sore joints.
Relaxing Full-Body Massage: 3 drop neroli oil + 2 d jasmine oil: in 20 ml of carrier oil.
Headaches: Peppermint, inhaled directly from the bottle, or rubbed with a little carrier oil under the nose and at the temples can be very soothing for headaches.
Allergies: Mix one drop of cypress and one drop of hyssop in the palm of your hand and then apply the mixture to the back of your tongue every few hours to relieve hay fever symptoms.
Colds or flu: Blend three parts ravensare, one part naiouli or eucalyptus, one part lemon, one part rosewood, and one part lavender. Add about 50 drops of this mixture to a diffuser, or add 6-8 drops to a bowl of just boiled water, place a towel over your head, bend over the bowl and inhale.
Nausea or stomachache: Put two drops peppermint oil on a sugar cube and suck the cube slowly. Or, add a few drops of peppermint oil to hot water and drink as a tea.
Cuts, scrapes & scratches: Lavender oil can be applied undiluted to soothe and help heal minor cuts and abrasions.
Arthritis: Add 10 drops each of rosemary and chamomile to a warm bath and soak for 10 minutes.
There are many other essential oils, for treating everything from acne to diabetes to depression. Most oils are not harmful if inhaled, but care should be taken to apply topically on the skin, and never take any essential oil internally without the advice of a skilled professional.
Please share your comments to this article, thank you.
Apart from these most common recipes, you can also prepare hundreds of them by using correct amounts of essential oils.
Anti-Tension Massage: 2 drops petit grain oil + 2 drops lavender oil + 2 drops sandalwood oil: in 20 ml carrier oil. Apply on the neck, shoulders, and temples.
Circulation Improvement Massage: 6 drop lavender oil + 4 drops rosemary oil + 2 drops vetiver oil: in 4 oz. of sesame oil.
Bedtime Massage: 3 drop sandalwood oil + 2 drops chamomile oil: in 20 ml of carrier oil.
Backache Massage: 2 drop eucalyptus oil + 2 drops lavender oil + 1 drop lemon oil: in 20 ml carrier oil. Focus on areas of tension with fingertips.
Pain-Relieving Massage: 3 drop pine oil + 3 drop eucalyptus oil + 3 drops frankincense oil: 20 ml carrier oil. Apply on sore joints.
Relaxing Full-Body Massage: 3 drop neroli oil + 2 d jasmine oil: in 20 ml of carrier oil.
Headaches: Peppermint, inhaled directly from the bottle, or rubbed with a little carrier oil under the nose and at the temples can be very soothing for headaches.
Allergies: Mix one drop of cypress and one drop of hyssop in the palm of your hand and then apply the mixture to the back of your tongue every few hours to relieve hay fever symptoms.
Colds or flu: Blend three parts ravensare, one part naiouli or eucalyptus, one part lemon, one part rosewood, and one part lavender. Add about 50 drops of this mixture to a diffuser, or add 6-8 drops to a bowl of just boiled water, place a towel over your head, bend over the bowl and inhale.
Nausea or stomachache: Put two drops peppermint oil on a sugar cube and suck the cube slowly. Or, add a few drops of peppermint oil to hot water and drink as a tea.
Cuts, scrapes & scratches: Lavender oil can be applied undiluted to soothe and help heal minor cuts and abrasions.
Arthritis: Add 10 drops each of rosemary and chamomile to a warm bath and soak for 10 minutes.
There are many other essential oils, for treating everything from acne to diabetes to depression. Most oils are not harmful if inhaled, but care should be taken to apply topically on the skin, and never take any essential oil internally without the advice of a skilled professional.
Please share your comments to this article, thank you.
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