Oil for Sleep

This aromatic blend pairs lavender and chamomile essential oils. Lavender gives a floral, fresh and slightly herbaceous note, and chamomile, either the Roman or the German variety, adds a sweet, apple-like fragrance underneath it. The pair smells soft and powdery rather than sharp, closer to a linen drawer sachet than to a floral perfume.

The oils are rich in linalool, bisabolol and chamazulene, which is where the blend gets its soft, floral character. Both have long featured in evening aromatherapy routines.

How to use it

Add three or four drops to a diffuser an hour before bed, or one drop to a personal inhaler. Diluted in a carrier oil at about 2%, roughly 12 drops in 30ml, it works as a massage oil or can be stirred into a night cream or body lotion. Ylang-ylang, bergamot or sandalwood extend it if you want more depth. The technique tip: run the diffuser before you go into the room rather than through the night. Twenty minutes is enough to scent the space, and the aroma is softer once the mist has settled than it is straight out of the nozzle. For external aromatic use only.

Details

Also known as

Lavender and Chamomile Blend, bedtime aromatherapy blend