Lavender Essential Oil: A Multi-Purpose Natural Remedy

Lavender essential oil has many applications, including cosmetic, aromatic, and even medical ones. The calming and relaxing properties of lavender set it distinct, making it a special essential oil. It is excellent for sensitive skin in particular and balances all skin types, soothes irritability, and relaxes the senses.

Lavender oil is a versatile oil used in essential oil practices. In addition to antispasmodic, analgesic, detoxifying, hypotensive, and sedative actions, it is said to have anti-inflammatory, antifungal, antidepressant, antiseptic, antibacterial, and antimicrobial qualities.

For over 2500 years, lavender essential oil has been the world’s most widely used oil. The lavender plant is a perennial evergreen that prefers an oceanic environment and does well in rocky, dry terrain.

The distillation process is used to separate the oil from the lavender flowers. The small glands on the petal’s outer ring contain the lavender essential oil. You can find lavender essential oil infused in different forms and easily available in food stores, online stores, drugstores, and marts.

Here are all the different ways you may use lavender oil to improve your skin, hair, body, and mental health.

Lavender Essential Oil Benefits For Skin Health

Lavender is one of the most beneficial and useful essential oils for the skin since it has many beneficial properties, including calming, soothing, nourishing, repairing, treating, detoxifying, and rebuilding collagen. Due to its small molecular size, it may easily penetrate the skin and promote healing from the inside out.

You can use lavender oil to improve your skin in a variety of ways, as seen below:

1. Fights, Reduces and Prevents Acne

Many skin conditions, including eczema, psoriasis, and other allergies, can be treated with lavender essential oil because of its significant antimicrobial, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory properties.

Additionally, it is a tried-and-true method for treating acne flare-ups and preventing blemishes. Acne usually pops up when our skin is unable to produce enough oils. To compensate for this dryness, the skin tries to overproduce the skin oil (sebum), which can lead to breakouts, clogged pores, and acne. Lavender essential oil is non-comedogenic, reduces acne, calms inflamed skin, and moisturizes the skin gently.

2. Reduces Age Spots and Wrinkles

In addition to nourishing the skin to a healthy glow, lavender’s potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects also help prevent wrinkles and minimize the appearance of age spots and dark blemishes. Antioxidants defend against the barrage of free radicals that attack your skin and hasten aging signs.

Supplementing your skincare regime with lavender essential oil will help protect your skin against premature aging, age spots, fine lines, and wrinkles.

3. Possesses Abilities to Cure Wounds

Lavender oil aids in the quick recovery of minor burns, cuts, scrapes, and bruises due to its antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. It also fights and prevents further wound infection. Additionally, its calming ingredients offer much-needed respite from sunburn.

4. Protects Against Infections

Lavender works against some types of fungi in addition to assisting in the eradication of bacteria as an antibacterial. For ringworm and athlete’s foot, it has been discovered to be a very effective treatment. Infections caused by viruses, such as cold sores and warts, can also be cleared up and the inflammation reduced.

5. Soothes Itchiness From Bug Bites and Deters Insects

Lavender works as a powerful insect repellent, soothing itchy, irritating bites, and stings. Moths are well known to be deterred by lavender sachets placed in closets, and lavender spray is effective in keeping mosquitoes, flies, ants, fleas, and bedbugs away.

6. Detoxifies Skin

Because of its antioxidant properties, lavender essential oil protects and heals your skin by scavenging free radicals that lead to oxidative damage. The potent antioxidant properties of lavender can aid in the body’s detoxification.

A hot bath containing 10 to 15 drops of lavender essential oil can provide your skin with an ultra-detoxifying all-over treatment and its well-known benefits for promoting relaxation and restful sleep.

Lavender oil balances the skin’s moisture barrier; hence, your skin isn’t overly dry or oily. Massage lavender oil on areas that are too dry to promote soft, itch-free skin.

Lavender Essential Oil Benefits For Healthy, Shiny Hair

Due to the nourishing qualities of lavender essential oil, it is also recognized for enhancing general hair health. This potent substance has several positive traits, some of which are discussed here:

1. Stimulates Hair Growth

When applied regularly, lavender oil promotes the growth of new hair and improves scalp health and hair thickness. Moreover, blending lavender with thyme, rosemary, and cedarwood essential oils on the scalp can considerably reduce the amount of hair loss brought on by pattern-based baldness or alopecia areata.

2. Enhances Hair Health

Lavender oil is antibacterial; thus, it might stop or curb the occurrence of dandruff. Due to its inherent anti-inflammatory properties, it assists in reducing dryness and inflammation of the scalp.

Lavender oil also acts as a conditioner for the hair and keeps it lustrous and manageable.

3. Natural Head Lice Treatment

Using lavender and tea tree oils diluted in coconut or olive oil for three weeks has been discovered to eliminate head lice. It is more effective than typical over-the-counter remedies.

General Health Benefits Of Lavender Essential Oil

According to several kinds of research, drinking lavender tea can relieve digestive problems such as nausea, intestinal gas, upset stomach, and abdominal puffiness.

Lavender has been used to ease pain from headaches, sprains, toothaches, and sores.

1. Enhances Mood, Stress, and Anxiety

Numerous studies support lavender’s soothing and relaxing effects on mood, stress, anxiety, and depression. Per that, it’s also claimed that the effectiveness of lavender oil in lowering anxiety was identical to that of a prescription drug. It is also noted that lavender helps with sadness, sleep issues, and anxiety. Additionally, it has been demonstrated to lessen PTSD symptoms and postpartum depression. Even the emotional and mental well-being benefits of lavender have been discovered.

2. Helps Relieve Migraines and Headaches

Lavender is one of the most effective essential oils for relieving tension or migraine headaches. It acts fast to reduce stress and anxiety, relax the body, and calm the mind because it is a natural sedative.

3. Improves Mental Wellbeing

Interestingly, due to its strong antioxidant characteristics, lavender oil has been demonstrated to ease the symptoms of dementia and memory loss. According to some sources, Lavender is a powerful natural remedy for other brain-related nervous system illnesses, such as stroke.

Lavender Essential Oil Benefits For Body Health

Did you know that lavender also boosts our mood? It has been demonstrated that the aroma of lavender helps us feel more relaxed and calm.

1. Enhances Insomnia and Sleep

The most crucial factor for achieving optimal health is getting good sleep. Numerous studies have demonstrated that lavender, because of its relaxing and soothing effects, is a natural choice to increase sleep duration, the amount of time needed to fall asleep, and decrease insomnia. It has been discovered to raise the percentage of deep sleep in both men and women, enhance sleep quality scores for people who experience insomnia in their middle years, and even improve sleep quality in young mothers.

2. Relieves Various Pain Symptoms

Lavender oil is a safe and efficient natural pain reliever for various pains, including sprains, backaches, and muscular and joint discomfort. Numerous studies back up its usage for various pain disorders, including rheumatism, labor pain, menstrual cramps, neck pain, and arthritis.

3. Helps Blood Pressure and Heart Rate

The peril of a heart attack or stroke raises due to the additional stress hypertension places on the heart. Lavender has been found in a few trials to reduce blood pressure and heart palpitations, notably in patients recovering from open heart surgery.

4. Decreases PMS and Menopausal Symptoms

Lavender aromatherapy twice daily has been found to help lessen hot flashes. Regular aromatherapy massages with lavender, rose, rose geranium, and jasmine oils also reduce pain, depressed mood, and hot flashes. The emotional symptoms of pre-menstruation have also been proven to be improved by lavender aromatherapy.

Hot flashes can be lessened by 20 minutes of lavender aromatherapy twice daily, according to a small study. Hot flashes, despair, and pain were reduced with regular aromatherapy massages using lavender, rose, rose geranium, and jasmine oils. Premenstrual emotional symptoms have also been proven to be improved by lavender aromatherapy.

5. Alleviates Respiratory Discomfort

In bronchial asthma, lavender’s powerful anti-inflammatory properties have been reported to help reduce mucus and airway inflammation. In particular, when lavender is combined with other essential oils, this may also be true for other respiratory ailments like cold, flu, cough, and sinus congestion.

How To Use Lavender Essential Oil?

The lavender essential oil can be utilized for different purposes, but be cautious while applying it directly since it can cause irritation or allergic reactions for some people. Perform a patch test before using it in full bloom.

For Healthy Skin

Add 9 drops of lavender essential oil to 1 tablespoon of carrier oil – jojoba or sweet almond oil. If your skin is sensitive, reduce the dosage.
Using the same dilution ratio, you can add lavender essential oil to a face cream without any aroma.
Use body lotion, hand cream, or foot balm infused with 100% pure lavender oil.

For Hair

Combine lavender essential oil and carrier oil, such as coconut or olive oil, in equal amounts. Massage your scalp with the mixture and allow it to stay for 10 minutes. For optimal results, leave it on throughout the night.
To an ounce of unscented shampoo or conditioner, mix 5 drops of lavender essential oil.

To Promote Mental Health

Diffuse lavender essential oil for 15-20 minutes at a time, using 3-5 drops per cup of water.
If not, take a few deep breaths from the bottle into each nostril to get relief immediately.
Including lavender in your warm bath or shower regularly helps lessen tension and lift your spirits. Use a shower gel, bubble bath, or bath salts infused with lavender oil.
A hot compress that has been infused with lavender essential oil can be very beneficial for headaches or migraines as well as for stress relief. You may also apply warm lavender oil.

For General Health

In addition to diffusing lavender oil, you may spritz your linens with lavender spray and tuck a lavender sachet under your pillow for better sleep. It has also been demonstrated that a warm bath before night enhances sleep.
If you have any kind of persistent discomfort, a warmed lavender heat wrap is the perfect remedy. Discomfort relief from muscle, joint, and other types of pain is another benefit of using lavender massage oil.
Add 5-7 drops of lavender essential oil into a bowl of hot water to help treat colds, the flu, or other respiratory ailments. Cover your head with a cloth or towel and inhale the steam for 5 to 10 minutes.

Use Only Pure 100% Lavender Essential Oil

Due to the lack of regulation surrounding essential oils, buying the incorrect product in place of a pure lavender essential oil can be very simple. If you want to be sure that the lavender essential oil you purchase is 100 percent pure, keep an eye out for the following:

Avoid “fragrance” or “perfume oils.” Fragranced oils are precisely what they sound like an oil with a synthetic aroma or perfume added without any of the therapeutic and health advantages of a pure lavender essential oil that has been extracted from the plant.
Examine the label. If other components have been included, they should be the only pure essential oil of lavender, devoid of any filler, and the country of origin. Look for the Latin name Lavandula angustifolia on the products for its originality.
Reputable businesses package essential oils in dark-colored glass vials, usually in either blue or brown hues, to preserve their quality. Because they are so potent, pure lavender essential oils eventually break down plastic bottles.
Look for an established, reliable business or brand that has been in the essential oil business for a while.
Price comparison: Depending on various manufacturers’ production and procurement processes, costs can fluctuate widely. The scarcity or availability of each base ingredient can significantly impact the price of pure essential oils, even within a single brand. However, it’s likely not original if you discover lavender essential oil for a dirt-cheap price.

Ready To Dive Into The Lavender Lifestyle!

There are still a few things to consider if you’re prepared to embrace the lavender lifestyle. The following are a few points you should bear in mind before using it or suggesting it to others.

If you have a lavender allergy, stay away from using this oil.
Pregnant or nursing women should not use it. There are no studies to sufficiently establish the safety of it for expectant and nursing mothers.
Parents are recommended to use this oil on youngsters carefully. Regular use with kids is not advised.
This oil contains an extremely high amount of antioxidants due to its high concentration. If your digestive system is delicate, consuming more than 2-3 drops is not advised.
Before using this oil to promote sleep, follow your doctor’s advice if you are using sleep medicine prescribed by your doctor.
Use diluted lavender oil only for massaging. Always incorporate it into a cream or oil combination.
Lavender may help reduce minor anxiety, but it shouldn’t be used as a substitute for mental health care for any major anxiety issue. Consult your healthcare provider if you have signs of anxiety, such as persistent concern, exhaustion, insomnia, or a quick heartbeat.
Because different dilution ratios are used in different products, the amount of pure essential oil varies. Depending on how long the plant was distilled, pure essential oils also contain varying amounts of substances that can have health advantages.

You may incorporate the lavender essential oil into your everyday routine in these ways and take advantage of this gentlest essential oil the most.

FAQs

Q: What are the side effects of lavender oil?

A: Based on studies, some side effects of lavender essential oils are acute eczema, contact dermatitis, and facial dermatitis allergic reactions, which rarely occur.

Q: Can you use lavender oil on sensitive skin?

A: This safest and mildest oil can gently moisturize your dry, oily, or sensitive skin without irritation. So it is safe to use on sensitive skin. Just do a patch test to be on the safer side.

Q: What are the medications to avoid when using lavender aromatherapy?

A: It is good to avoid sleep-inducing drugs such as benzodiazepines and barbiturates when using lavender aromatherapy.

References

https://www.verywellmind.com/lavender-for-less-anxiety-3571767

https://www.healthline.com/health/lavender-oil-for-hair

https://www.purplle.com/magazine/article/lavender-oil-benefits-and-uses

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/265922#benefits

https://www.webmd.com/diet/health-benefits-lavender-essential-oil

https://draxe.com/essential-oils/lavender-oil-benefits/

https://www.kamaayurveda.com/blog/lavender-essential-oil

https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/benefits-of-lavender

https://www.sonomalavender.com/blogs/news/lavender-essential-oil-benefits