Relax into Your Skin: 6 Beauty Benefits of Lavender Oil

Have you been searching for a natural, gentle solution to your skincare woes? With bonus points for smelling wonderful, too?

Such a thing does exist, and it’s something you’re probably already familiar with – lavender oil.

While lavender has a stellar reputation for relaxation, sleep, and stress relief, lavender oil contains potent, natural compounds that also work beautifully for your skin.

Lavender oil, which is distilled from the plant Lavandula angustifolia, is arguably one of the most popular, versatile, and gentle essential oils. When used therapeutically, lavender oil has been shown to be effective in significantly reducing anxiety, and it's so well known for its sleep-inducing properties that it's infused in everything from nighttime bath products, linen sprays, and even scented products for children.

This is the side of lavender that we all know and love, but if you aren’t including lavender oil in your skincare routine, you’re missing out on some wonderful benefits of this beautiful oil.

Most lavender oil is extracted from the flowers and leaves of the lavender plant using steam distillation. The quality and effectiveness of lavender oil for the health of your skin are highly dependent on the integrity of the oil itself. Pure lavender oil isn’t cut with any fillers, perfumes, or other additives that may irritate, rather than protect and beautify, your skin.

Lavender has a long and luscious history when it comes to beauty. As early as the first century, lavender was being praised for its medicinal qualities, and it was widely used in ancient Egypt as a perfume and beauty tonic.

We can fast forward through history to sometime in the late 1990s when lavender oil began to make a resurgence, and the masses fell in love with its relaxing, floral scent. Since then, we’ve relied on lavender for stress relief, soothing us to sleep, and its calming properties. More recently, lavender oil has also become a shining star in the skincare industry.

Are you curious about all the wonderful things that lavender oil can do for the health and beauty of your skin? Here are six skin health benefits of lavender oil that you might not know.

1. Boosts Collagen Production: If you’re at the point in your life when you’re looking in the mirror and dealing with seeing those first fine lines and subtle signs of aging, then it's a decrease in collagen production to blame. Collagen is part of the supportive matrix in our skin, and as we age, the amount we have drops. Lavender oil has been shown to boost collagen levels and also help speedup healing as a result.
   
   
2. Nourishes With Antioxidants: No matter what your skin type, antioxidants are crucial for keeping your skin healthy. Antioxidants fight against oxidative stress caused by sun damage and the many toxins that your skin is exposed to daily. Lavender oil has high antioxidant capabilities, making it an excellent natural skincare agent for nourishing and protecting your skin.
   
   
3. Soothes Acne: Lavender oil has powerful antibacterial and antimicrobial properties. So powerful that lavender has been looked at in treating serious bacterial infections. With that knowledge, just think about how wonderful it can be at reducing bacterial on the surface of your skin and in your pores that cause acne, all while being gentle and soothing at the same time. Say hello to lavender and goodbye to harsh acne treatments.
   
   
4. Reduces the Appearance of Acne Scars: Lavender oil contains compounds like linalyl acetate that help speed the healing of skin cells. In the case of lavender oil, these compounds work to heal and repair skin cells while also offering anti-inflammatory effects that reduce the appearance of acne scars.
   
   
5. Soothes Inflamed, Itchy Skin: Most of us experience dry, itchy skin at different times of the year. But for some of us, inflammatory skin conditions like eczema, psoriasis, and rosacea are painfully dealt with regularly. Lavender oil reduces inflammation and redness, helps protect the skin, maintains moisture, and is especially proactive in defeating certain types of bacteria that are thought to be behind conditions like eczema.
   
   
6. Living a More Blissful Life: Perhaps one of the most effective ways that lavender oil works to protect your skin has less to do with repairing skin cells and fighting inflammation, but rather supporting your overall health with improved sleep quality and lower stress. Both lack of sleep and stress hormones take a significant toll on your skin. Lavender oil depresses the central nervous system and offers a sedative effect.