Lavender Hydrosol
What It Is and Why You Should Be Using It
We get many questions about our lavender hydrosol, but the biggest question is, what is it? Lavender hydrosol is produced during steam distillation for essential oil. Once the steam travels through the plant matter and collects the beautiful compounds stored within, the steam condenses into a liquid that is made up of water and oil which we then separate. Lavender hydrosol is the water component. It has most of the same properties and active compounds that essential oil does but has the distinct ability to be used directly on skin without being diluted.
Lavender hydrosol can be utilized for so many things that it is almost unbelievable. Below is an example of some of the things that we use it for, but this is by no means an exhaustive list.
- Skin health: Lavender hydrosol is the best, completely natural, straight-forward way to treat, heal, nourish, and moisturize your skin. Lavender hydrosol has anti-inflammatory properties along with being naturally anti-microbial, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and anti-viral. It is the perfect way to tone the delicate skin of your face to heal blemishes or redness from other skin issues. Lavender hydrosol can also be useful in the treatment of wounds, burns, sunburns, rashes, bug bites, owies, itchies, and most general skin issues. It is even great for just cooling off hot, sweaty skin. This makes it indispensable for gardeners, campers, sportsmen, outdoor activities, folks who work with their hands, and it is a must have product for skin care of any kind!
- Hair and scalp: Lavender hydrosol just happens to be a lovely hair rinse that can promote hair health and help make it shine. With the added benefit of being naturally anti-fungal, it can treat dandruff and relieve an itchy scalp without leaving weird greasy chemicals on your skin and won’t leave you smelling like a pickle or a beer. You can spray this right on your scalp in the middle of the day, while at work, and maintain your hair style and smell like a lavender field. Callie is currently using it to regrow her hair with amazing results!
* Side notes on hair growth with Lavender Hydrosol: Lavender has lots of hair growth properties and these are backed up by studies to show that it helps to block DHT on the scalp. DHT blockers are the most effective way to treat hair loss. Lavender has been tested on mice and it has shown significant increase in hair growth and the number of active hair follicles. This is how Callie is using it to grow her hair: She puts the Lavender Hydrosol in a hair dye bottle that she got at the beauty supply store. After she finishes shampooing and conditioning her hair, she applies the Lavender Hydrosol to her scalp and works it in a little. DO NOT rinse it off, just towel dry your hair after your shower and enjoy success!
- Bathing: Lavender hydrosol is a beautiful addition to your bath water! You get all the benefits of all the points mentioned previously, plus the added benefit of soothing sore muscles. After long hot days of lavender harvest and distilling, Callie enjoys adding this to her bath the most. It is good to be the Queen! It is refreshing, calming, and hydrating. It also helps relieve sunburn, rashes, and broken skin. Additionally, it makes an exquisite foot bath to help sooth sore, tired feet.
- Bugs hate lavender: Lavender is high in camphor, which is why you can use lavender hydrosol as an all-natural bug repellent. We are talking about the best summertime, camping, boating, campfire, skin care that travels well, refreshing, and skin healing bug spray you can find. The mosquitoes don’t stand a chance and if it happens that you forgot to put hydrosol on before you go out, hydrosol will be there to soothe your skin and the itching of bug bites afterward.
- Other Uses: The items above only include all the great benefits of using hydrosol for skin, but there are so many other ways to use it. Some of the other ways we use it around the farm include, but are not limited to, deodorizing shoes and yoga mats, steaming/ironing clothes, linen spray, all-natural cleaner for your home, window/glass cleaner, air freshener/deodorizer, and it’s even great for refreshing the coats of dogs and other animals.
These are the ways that we have used it, and it has been a GAME CHANGER here at Belle Terre Lavender!