John Strauss Design Blog

                                   Lavender

This October at the High Point Furniture Market, I gave out little vials of lavender infused sesame oil. To back up to the Summer, this is how I made it. First start with blooms of fresh lavender;

Blooms of fresh lavender. I once saw fields of lavender in Southern France and fell in love with the plant. The smell makes me feel good.

 I rinsed the lavender flowers and stems so not to accidentally infuse any fauna, and let the flowers drain on paper towels.

 The next step was to pull all the blooms off the stems and collect that into a couple of piles. I then had two bottles of organic sesame oil at the ready. I first heated the oil but did not let it boil, as you don't want it to burn at all and smell toasty. If you heat the oil and let it cool, it seems to absorb better into the skin when its used as a massage oil. Let it cool a bit and pour back into the bottles, leaving room for the blooms.

 I then stuffed the blooms into the two bottles and let them sit in a dark pantry for two weeks. It was pretty intense and interesting looking stuff. The smell of lavender is soothing and calming and when added to a massage oil becomes an aromatherapeutic process. In small amounts it can be rubbed onto the temples to alleviate a head ache and I have used it to good effect for reducing skin irritations.

If you want a small sample, I have 5 ml bottles available in my store, Elemental Arts or you can order some by calling my business John Strauss Furniture Design, Ltd in Canton, OH or emailing me John at Straussfurniture dot com. They are 5 bucks plus shipping. I look forward to hearing from you.