Scents are extremely powerful – even the tiniest whiff of a certain smell can transport you in time and space: back to a certain memory, to a specific place, or to be with a particular person. And it doesn’t stop there! Scents in lavender oil are influential enough to invoke and awaken certain emotions within ourselves as they trigger these memories.
This process occurs thanks to our olfactory senses – the olfactory nerve is what gives us our sense of smell. It all starts with that tiny whiff which enters the nose and instantaneously sends signals to different areas of the brain, including those that affect our emotions, mood and memory.
There is even a whole alternative medicine practice called aromatherapy. Aromatherapy is the principle of healing the mind, body and spirit through the olfactory senses. Once such scent used in this practice is Lavender, from the Lavandula angustifolia plant.
Short Summary: We recommend Naturenics Lavender Oil as the best lavender essential oil.
In this article we’ll deep dive into the power of lavender: Best lavender essential oil brands, its benefits, ways to incorporate it into your health and wellness routine, what to look for in a quality lavender essential oil!
Table of Contents
Best 5 Lavender Essential Oil
We have researched, examined and studied over 50+ lavender oil brands in the market. We conclude that below are the top 5 lavender essential oil brands ( based on quality, extraction method, and price) .
1. Naturenics Premium Lavender Essential Oil
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Pros: Our number one pick is Naturenics. Their lavender essential oil is 100% pure, chemical-free and steam distilled. We love this purchase as it comes in a bundle with dropper, a glass roll-on bottle for creating your own blend, and an e-book. They will deliver the e-book via e-mail after purchase, that contains all the info you need for getting started with the powers of essential oils. It is a great package for beginners and essential oil junkies alike.
Size: 30ml
Cons: quite pricey for the bottle size
2. Cliganic Lavender Essential Oil
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Pros: Next up is Cliganic Lavender Essential Oil. This oil is steam distilled, 100% pure, certified organic, free of synthetics, no alcohol, no additives, no added fragrance and not diluted.
We love Cliganic as they are dedicated to highest quality and sustainability in their products. The purity of each batch of their oil is tested by a 3rd party lab, to ensure best quality. They also offer a 30-day, no-questions-asked return, or refund policy.
Size: 10ml or 30 ml
Cons: Quite a sharp scent to new users
3. Plant Therapy Lavender Essential Oil
Pros: Plant Therapy is one of the most beloved essential oil brands, and for good reason. Their products are high quality as well as affordable. We love their KidSafe line in particular, which has been developed especially for the safety and efficacy in children. Plant Therapy lavender oil is USDA certified organic and 100% pure and undiluted. But they also offer pre-diluted roll-ons in a variety of blends. Their quality is third-party tested with the results open to the public.
Size: 10ml or 30 ml
Cons: According to reviews the only downside of this oil is that the scent seems to dissipate quickly.
4. NOW Essential Oils Lavender Oil
Pros: NOW Foods is another beloved health and wellness brand and their essential oils are no exception. It is made from 100% pure lavender oil and steam distilled. As a company, we love NOW Foods as they adhere to the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) program from the Natural Products Association (NPA). It also adheres to the Food and Drug Administration’s Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMP) program. NOW Foods is committed to sustainable sourcing of their ingredients, have environmentally friendly packaging and even green manufacturing facilities.
Size: 118ml
Cons: This particular bottle does not come with a dropper so you will need to purchase that separately.
5. Garden of Life – Lavender Essential Oil
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Pros: Rounding out our top 5 list is Garden of Life Lavender Essential Oil. Garden of Life is third-party Certified USDA Organic meaning the lavender plants were farmed without the use of toxic pesticides, herbicides and fungicides. It is also Non-GMO Project Verified, meaning they have not used GMOs throughout the entire supply chain. Thirdly, it is certified “MK Pareve Kosher” meaning it contains no meat or dairy derivatives. This lavender oil is 100% pure and undiluted, grown on organic farms in France and/or Bulgaria. Bottled in Canada
Size: 15ml or 30 ml
Cons: The smell of this organic is sharper than other brands
5 Benefits of Lavender Essential Oil
1. Lavender Promotes a Good Night’s Sleep
A good night’s sleep is critical to so many of our body’s vital functions – yet many of us do not get enough quality sleep each night. Breathing in the scent of lavender can help you relax both your body and mind so you can get to sleep. Lavender may help you fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and even allow you to get more time in a state of deep sleep. Some have even reported that inhaling lavender before bed helped increase their daytime energy levels. Various studies have confirmed that using lavender essential oil can improve sleep quality as it helps elicit feelings of relaxation and drowsiness. Researchers believe this is due to two chemical compounds in lavender oil, linalyl acetate and linalool, which have both a sedative and pain-relieving effect on several neurotransmitters in the brain.
2. Lavender can Relieve Stress + Anxiety
One of lavender’s main claims to fame behind its ability to help you sleep, is its potential to manage stress and alleviate anxiety. Acute and chronic stress can lead not only to disease and inflammation, but a host of other issues within the body as well. Finding ways to reduce and mitigate stressful inputs is critical to our overall health and wellbeing. Inhaling the scent of lavender has a calming effect which makes it a potential alternative to traditional prescription medications. The soothing properties of lavender, thanks again to its high concentration of linalool, allow it to relieve feelings of nervousness and other symptoms of anxiety.
3. Lavender can Boost your Mood
The active compounds in lavender have sedative as well as mood stabilizing properties. Lavender, like many other plant medicines, interacts with our parasympathetic nervous system, not only allowing us to relax but also creating a sense of calm as well as boosting our mood and increasing brain activity. The effects of Lavender on the brain are so powerful that you can continue to reap the benefits even after the scent has dissipated.
4. Lavender can Encourage Healthy Hair Growth
Lavender is one essential oil that can both promote hair growth as well as help stop hair loss. A study that applied lavender essential oil to mice revealed faster and thicker hair growth with a significant increase in the number of hair follicles. Lavender also helps to increase blood circulation which can also have a positive effect on hair growth as well as overall scalp health.
5. Lavender is Skin-Healing
It boasts a slew of antifungal, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effects. Lavender essential oil contains several antimicrobial compounds, such as eucalyptol, linalool, terpinen-4-ol, and α-terpineol which can work together to prevent infections as well as heal the skin from burns, cuts, scrapes, wounds, bug bites and even acne breakouts. It also has a soothing and anti-inflammatory properties can relieve redness and calm the skin.
Finally, the antioxidant compounds in lavender essential oil can help protect skin when it comes to environmental stressors that contribute to signs of skin aging like fine lines and wrinkles. Lavender supports the regeneration and development of new, healthy skin cells.
Kielh’s Mid-night Recovery Serum is a replenishing elixir that contains lavender oil and other magical ingredients for youth-looking skin.
Ways to Use Lavender Essential Oil
One of the greatest things about lavender essential oil is the many + varied ways you can incorporate it into your routine! Whether you’re looking to reap some of the mental health or sleep-promoting benefits, improve your skin, encourage healthy hair growth or prevent wrinkles – You can use this magical oil!
1) Aromatherapy
Using lavender oil for aromatherapy will help you soak up some of the relaxing and calming effects of lavender. There are a few different ways you can use it, depending on what you’re looking for. To promote a good night’s sleep, you can try a pillow spray made with lavender essential oil or even a room spray to soak up the scent through your entire bedroom. A lavender essential oil diffuser can also help you distribute the calming scent of lavender. Garden of Life is the most popular lavender oil used for Aromatherapy.
To use lavender for its relaxing and soothing properties, you can make your own roll-on blend of lavender oil. You can mix it with a carrier oil of your choice (coconut oil or jojoba oil or sweet almond oil are great options). The scent is great at relieving stress or anxiety. You can also add a few drops of lavender essential oil to your bath, or mix up a bigger batch of lavender oil in carrier oil to use as a massage oil before bed to soak up all of its aromatic benefits.
2) Skincare
Using lavender oil on your skin isn’t just to relieve stress or to hit the sheets, however, as it’s got some pretty powerful uses for your skin health as well. Those antimicrobial properties we talked about are a great way to help clear up as well as prevent acne and hormonal breakouts. We recommend Naturenics Lavender oil if you have oily or sensitive skin.
Add a few drops of lavender essential oil to witch hazel water or rose water in a spray bottle to create a lavender oil face spray. You can use this spray daily as a toner after washing and cleansing your face. You can also make a roll-on spot treatment that can heal stubborn breakouts and even balance oil production.
A blend of lavender, tea tree, frankincense and rosemary in a non-comedogenic carrier oil like jojoba oil or grapeseed oil can help clear up pimples without excessively drying your skin.
The anti-inflammatory benefits of lavender can relieve redness, alleviate the appearance of acne scarring, even out blotchy patches and help soothe sunburned skin. For an effective after-sun treatment for stressed out skin, try combining a few drops of lavender essential oil with aloe vera gel and coconut oil and apply liberally to sunburned skin.
If anti-aging is on your radar, it’s never too early or too late to protect your skin from the scavenging nature of free radicals. Kiehl’s Midnight Recovery Oil has a high content of lavender essential oil, squalene and omega fatty acid which are proven to be the magical ingredients for reversing ageing process.
Thanks to their antioxidant properties which protect your skin from free radicals and stimulate the growth of new skin cells, they work to prevent wrinkles and signs of aging.
3) Hair Care
Lavender is also a nourishing element to use in your hair care routine to encourage healthy hair growth, balance oil production on the scalp and help alleviate hair loss. You can simply add a few drops of lavender essential oil to your hair products like shampoo, conditioner or hair serum. Alternatively you can create your own hair oil – mix lavender oil + rosehip oil + coconut oil or argan oil and massage nightly into your scalp to stimulate blood circulation and also soak in lavender’s calming scent at the same time. Finally, you can mix up a conditioning hair mask once a week to promote growth and overall scalp health.
4) Massage Oil
Lavender oil is one of the best oil to use for massages. But if you are applying it to a larger surface area of skin for massaging, it’s best to dilute it with other carrier oils that are mild. Examples of mild carrier oils are olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil or almond oil.
Plant Therapy Store offer a great pre-diluted option of lavender oil that is specifically used for massage.
Types of Lavender Essential Oil and How to Choose?
If you’re committed and ready to start soaking up all the benefits of lavender essential oil, then there are some important details you’ll need to know in order to choose a high quality oil. Essential oils are not FDA regulated so it is up to you as the consumer to be knowledgeable about the product you are purchasing. But don’t worry- that’s what we’re here for!
Purity
First, when it comes to therapeutic benefits, you want to make sure the oil you purchase is pure lavender essential oil. There should be nothing listed on the ingredient list except for Lavandula angustifolia. If another oil like fractionated coconut oil, almond oil or any other carrier oil is listed, this means the lavender has been diluted.
Essential Oil vs Fragrance Oil
It is important to recognize the distinction between pure essential oils and fragrance oils. Essential oils, extracted directly from plant material, contain therapeutic benefits. Fragrance oils are simply artificially created scents. While they may smell exactly like their essential oil counterpart, contain none of the healing properties.
Steam Distilled
The quality of essential oils has a lot to do with the extraction method. Or the way in which the oils are extracted from the raw plant material. The best quality oils are steam distilled. Naturenics is the no.1 lavender oil using steam distilled method.
Organic
You know this one already: choose organic whenever possible! Non-organic essential oils might contain a variety of pesticides and herbicides. Keep in mind however, that smaller brands might not be able to go after an expensive USDA organic certification. But this doesn’t necessarily take away from the efficacy or quality of their product.
Packaging
Finally, make it a point to pay attention to the packaging of your essential oils. A dark amber or cobalt blue bottle is ideal for protecting the oil from UV exposure. It is because UV light can oxidize oils and strip away their therapeutic properties. Glass is also preferable to plastic as essential oils can degrade plastic over time. Plus, glass is a more eco-friendly material.
Lastly, check out if the product comes with a dropper, or if the lid contains an orifice reducer for easy dispensing. This is going to be a matter of personal preference and how you plan to use the essential oil.
Conclusion
Lavender has actually been used throughout recorded history by the Egyptians, the Romans, and later on in Ancient Greece. Stemming from the Latin word “lavare,” lavender literally means “to wash”. It is no surprise that many of its uses are as a scent added to baths, beds, clothes, hair and skin.
Naturenics Premium Lavender Essential Oil is the best lavender oil in the market. It is one of the most versatile and popular essential oils used in aromatherapy, but its benefits don’t end there! It is a powerful oil with a myriad of benefits, both inside your body and out.
