Make a Relaxing, Fragrant Oil to Sooth Your Body and Mind
Lavender oil is perfect for a relaxing body massage: it sooths tight muscles and gives relief from physical exhaustion, stress and tension.
It also helps alleviate headaches and has antiseptic and anti-fungal properties that are beneficial for various skin conditions. Let’s see how to make this superb oil.
The ingredients are very simple:
- 500 ml of almond oil (highly nourishing) or any other oil of your choice (sesame oil is light and odorless, while coconut oil is easily absorbed by the skin).
- 150 g of freshly picked lavender plant flowers
- 1 big canning jar
Put your freshly picked flowers in a big canning jar, filling it almost up the rim. Pour oil inside the jar, making sure to completely cover the flowers. Close, place in a sunny and warm place, and every once in a while shake the jar.
After 30 days strain the oil using a strainer or a fine cloth and decant into a dark bottle. Store in a cool, dark place.
Check out the video below, she gives a really good explanation on making lavender oil, our recipes don’t match 100%, but hers is equally good.
The right time to go to the field and harvest lavender plants is in the summer (from June to September), when their flowers are in full bloom and abundant with fragrance.
You can also grow your own plant if you have a garden or keep it in a large container if you have a sunny terrace.
Refresh Your Senses With Lavender Water
Create calming, beautifully scented water using lavender plant flowers. It will sooth and refresh skin overexposed to cold, wind and sun, and be a perfect light fragrance to wear throughout the year.
Ingredients:
- 200 lavender flowers
- 1 liter 32% ethyl alcohol
- 1 large, dark glass jar with hermetic lid
Pluck fresh flowers from their stems, gently break them up with your fingers into tiny pieces and set them inside the jar. Fill the jar up to the top with ethyl alcohol, secure the lid and let macerate in a cool, dark place for 2 to 3 weeks.
Remember to agitate the jar for a few seconds every day.
After the solution has finished macerating, proceed with filtering: take a strainer, cover it with a few layers of cotton gauze and strain the solution through it, making sure to press out all the liquid from the flowers.
Pour the liquid into small dark bottles and store in a dark and cool place. Use within 2 years, for after this period it will start losing its fragrance.
Dry Lavender Flowers Yourself and Make Teas and Scented Sachets
Pick lavender plant stems with flowers that are not fully open yet. Hang stems with flowers facing down and make sure that there is enough space between each of them, in order to enable air to circulate and prevent flowers from detaching and falling down.
Keep them in a dry and well-ventilated area, away from direct sunlight. Once dry, delicately remove flowers from stems and place them in a dark, well-closed jar.
Use dry lavender plant flowers to prepare relaxing tisanes or to make infusions you can apply on your face.
To create scented sachets, pick lavender flowers when they are in full bloom and scent and place them on a large table in a shady room to allow them to dry.
Once dried, crumble flowers into tiny pieces, wrap them in a piece of natural fiber fabric or linen cloth and tie up with a nice ribbon! That’s it!
To enhance the sachets’ fragrance, pour a few drops of lavender essential oil inside and place these delightful bags in your closets and drawers to impregnate your clothes with a beautiful, natural scent.
Has this post inspired you to make your own fabulous oils and fragrances? If yes and if you are a lavender lover, please, tell us about some more ways to use this magnificent flower. Share your ideas in the comments below.
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