My #SundayScentExperience from this week is about lavender….angel of the flowers. With her simple flower and her sweet scent she is almost everybodies favourite (I know of exceptions, but i’ll get to that later).
There are many different lavenders and they usually get al mixed up.
Of course there are many cultivated lavenders but the ones we derive essential oil from are ‘True lavender’, or what the Englisch call ‘French lavender’, the Lavendula officinalis.
Then there is the ‘Spike lavender’, or Spijk as we call it in Holland.
This is the latifolia Lavendula or spica it blooms with a small greyish blue flower and the leaves are broader and more rough than true lavender. Its blooms a month later.
This plant originates from the Pyrenees and there are actually two chemotypes: the ‘French spike’ that has more camphor and the ‘spanish Spike’ that has more cineol.
Essential oil comes from steamdistillation of the flowers and beware – this is all together a complete different oil as the smooth lavender that most people are familliar with!
It is possibly a hybride crossing from lavender and rosemary and has quite a lot of cineol, like the rosemary – cineol is the component that gives the ‘eucalyptus-like’smell. There is a relative high amount of kamfer (borneone) in this oil which makes it not the soft skin oil that true lavender makes.
Of all lavender oils this one is the strongest in killing microbes and aromatherapists may use it for nasty infections near toenails. If you use it for diffusion at home – it is a nice oil for coughs and flu that has dizzyness as a side effect.
The ‘other lavender’ is Lavendin; Lavendula hybrida.
This is the deep purple flowers you often see in the villages of the Provence.
Lavandin is supposed to be a hybride crossing from true lavender and spike lavender. It has a bit cineol in its oil, indeed ( a mere 10%) but there are more alcohols (monoterpenic) in this oil – which explains the effect on the endocrine system: Lavandin is the First choice when you need to balance out hormonal fluctuations.
There is more oil to gain from this plant than from true lavender so mostly this oil is a bit less expensive.
The scent is a bit stronger and more known from perfumery. I use this oil succesfully for women in transition
Then the lavender we (almost) all love and adore: Lavendula angustifolia – or true lavender.
This is a truelly special oil!
In France they distill an AOC oil (like the wine); which means that this oil meets some demands, like being cultivated above 800 meters.
In Holland we call this Mountain lavender; it has a little bit more coumarines in it which make the scent a bit like haish.
This oil is excellent for calming fears because it has a positive effect on the parasymphatic nervesystem. Lavender is a balancer in many ways and it is the only oil that is very save; you can even use this pure on your skin if there is a bug bite, a small wound or a ‘clean infection’( tea tree is for the ‘dirty infections).
A drop is enough, then.
When going on holiday, dont’t go without lavender – insect bites, jellyfishbites and small wounds heal quickly with a drop of lavender and it kills the pain and itch too…
But any true lavender is calming, though you might want to know that there are almost as much activating components in lavender as there are calming ones – if you use too much of this oil the activating get the better half!
So this is an effective sleep inducing oil (there is plenty off scientific evidence and i know that in elderly care lavender works better than sleep medication, especially in the long run) but you have to watch the dosis: if lavender comes to mind when you are in the bedroom, then its ok. If you are struck by the scent of lavender than you used too much and kan kiss your good night rest goodbay…..
Lavender is used in many hair and skin products, its an very good skin oil indeed; it keeps the skin soft and fight infections like acne (combined with Palma rosa and geranium Bourbon it achieves true miracles for acne) and it is an excellent scar-oil, even effective for older scars, combined with calendula carrier oil.
Lavender comes from the Latin word ‘lavare’ which means washing, bathing. This tells you so much about the spiritual aspects of this oil – you can get rid of almost every negative vibes when you use lavender. Vaporate lavender after hot discussions or domestic arguments – everybody will calm down and loose the negative vibes quickly.
Aromatherapists that work on energetic level with essential oils use this oil to balance the energies from the chakra’s.
Then there is the lavender that goes with this picture: this is the Lavendula stoechas. There is oil distilled from this plant but this is not a safe oil, its quite toxic so better not used in aromatherapy. The plant is lovely though – one of my favourites!
And the bees like them too!
(all pics are my own)
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Let's steem some #scent today!