Lavender is a scent that is familiar to most of us: from the heady scent of fresh lavender carried on the gentle breeze of a balmy summer evening, to dried lavender sitting in a little bowl on the dresser at your grandmothers’ house, as smells go, it’s one that carries memories and associations for many people. It’s also a charming, familiar-looking plant, with its long elegant stems reaching up towards the sun, dark green leaves and tiny purple flowers emitting their captivating smell.

Our Soothe range is inspired by the rolling hills of the Cotswolds, where lavender fields surround golden stone villages with streams running through them. It’s a place for us that epitomises relaxation, long summer days and country walks with friends. For many though, the quintessential images of lavender fields are those under the sun-drenched skies of Provence, and it is from France that we source the lavender used in our Yougi products. French lavender is rarer than some other lavender species, and in its country of origin is often referred to as ‘lavande papillon’ or ‘butterfly lavender’, as the tips of its flowers look like the wings of a butterfly resting on a plant. As you walk through the fields that our lavender comes from, it almost feels like you’re surrounded by thousands of tiny purple butterflies about to take flight - it’s quite the spectacle of nature.

The locals in the south of France are passionate about the ‘blue gold’ that covers vast swathes of the land there, so much so that there’s even a museum dedicated to the lavender plant and all its glories in the beautiful Provençale town of Lubéron. 

Here at Yougi, we share that passion. We adore the scent of our lavender true essential oil, which is carefully produced from those little purple flowers by a process known as steam distillation. This is an ancient technique that creates a pure, concentrated essential oil from the lavender plant, which we then use in our carefully-formulated recipes, creating the perfect scent balance for your self-care routine.

 History of Lavender Essential Oil

Lavender has been used for centuries in traditional medicine as an ingredient in teas, balms and salves, and was widely used in hospitals during World War I to treat injured soldiers. After the lavender plant was introduced into the United Kingdom in the 1600’s, Queen Elizabeth herself became a fan, requesting that lavender jam always be present at her tea table and using lavender tea as a cure for her migraines. Where she led, other women followed, and lavender exploded in popularity during the Elizabethan era. 

Therapeutic benefits of Lavender Oil

But perhaps lavender’s best known role is in helping us to relax, and ultimately, to sleep. It is a grounding, calming scent and lighting a candle containing lavender essential oils - such as those in our New Romantic or Soothe ranges - can really help you settle down for a refreshing night of rest. Research over the course of a month-long study has shown that the use of lavender oil is known to improve symptoms of insomnia and depression, and a systematic review of scientific evidence around the use of lavender for treatment of sleep disorders showed promising results. 

If you need a little help relaxing before bed, why not add a few drops of our Soothe essential oil to your pillow or bed linen, or curl up with a good book and light one of our gorgeous three-wick Soothe candles?

You can also read an over view of all our ingredience here.

References:

Kate Louise Fismer, Karen Pilkington, Lavender and sleep: A systematic review of the evidence, European Journal of Integrative Medicine, Volume 4, Issue 4, 2012, Pages e436-e447, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eujim.2012.08.001. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1876382012010700