Lavender recipes abound here at Waxing Kara. Lavender is our favorite herb and main fragrance in our Peace of Mind Collection! At our Chesterhaven Beach Farm, we grow around 500 lavender plants. These lavender plants produce a large crop of flowers every summer that we harvest, dry, and process for later use throughout the year. These plants are grown organically, without the use of chemicals or pesticides; this means it is safe to use lavender in our products. We use lavender in our Calming Mask and Lavender Honey Lollipops.
There are lots of ways to use lavender
Lavender is a beautiful and useful herb to grow at your home. As long as you have a bright and sunny area with good soil drainage for this crop, rocky or sandy soil is ideal, as the plants don’t need a lot of fertilizer and water. The plants can also be grown well in terra cotta pots, as they allow the plants to be moved into the sun when needed, and for water to drain away quickly. To learn more about growing Lavender, read about Growing Lavender.
Used in many of our products, we find it beautiful that lavender is so versatile around the house. Lavender attracts bees and butterflies, and it’s just about the only plant material on the farm that the deer will not bother.
Each June, the lavender crop at Chesterhaven Beach Farm is in full bloom. We harvest and dry each plant for our products throughout the year. While there are many uses for lavender flowers, our primary purpose for growing it is to provide food to the bees. It stimulates the bees.
Do you know that there are dozens of uses of the lavender plant? Use it to:
1. Make Bug Repellent
Lavender is an effective bug repellent. Crush fresh flowers and rub the bud “oil” on your legs and arms to help repel flies and mosquitoes while outside this summer. It certainly smells better than traditional bug repellent!
If however you do get attacked by a mosquito, lavender is a good remedy for bug bites and itching because it is anti-inflammatory.
2. Make Natural Moth Repellant
Fresh or dried bunches lavender around your home and in closets to repel moths, mosquitoes, and flies. They are repelled by the scent. The bonus is living in a home with natural fragrance from plants, rather than man made fragrance.
3. Treat Aches and Pains
If you feel achy from too much gardening, hiking, or canoeing, massage lavender essential oil into your joints and muscles to aid pain relief. For headaches, smelling lavender and peppermint oils or rubbing lavender oil into the temples often helps.
4. Provide Relief from burns and cuts
Lavender essential oil, mixed with a carrier oil, can be used on cuts and burns as an antiseptic. Lavender helps to soothe sunburns, too. Add a few drops of lavender essential oil to a spray bottle of filtered cold water. Apply to red skin to cool and relieve the pain.
You can also brew dried lavender as a tea, allow to chill thoroughly and apply to the skin. Store in a dark glass container in your refrigerator, the cold provides added relief.
Real lavender essential oil is plant-derived. There are products on the market that contain lavender fragrance that is manmade. The pure lavender essential oil in our Peace of Mind Body Butter calms sunburnt skin and the other plant-oils help restore moisture.
5. For Culinary uses
Dried lavender, along with other dried plants make for soothing teas for relaxation. Sip on lavender and chamomile tea, don’t forget the honey. Use lavender for seasoning by sprinkling in a salad to enhance the flavor.
Treat yourself to a delicious dessert. Stir crumbled fresh, edible organic lavender buds and a pinch of cinnamon into vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt. Drizzle some Spring Honey on top. Enjoy!
Recipes Using Lavender from Waxing Kara
Over the years, we’ve gathered and created a bountiful amount of lavender recipes that are designed for both the outside of your body and the inside! Lavender is the perfect herb to use in your DIY beauty creations, such as body oils and face masks. The oils in the plant are very soothing and are known to reduce tension and anxiety when inhaled. We’ve put together quite the collection of lavender recipes to heal your body from the outside in.
6. Making Lavender Tonic
Lavender Tonic can be used to soothe skin irritations and sunburns. The tonic has gentle astringent, antiseptic, calming and healing qualities that do wonders for your skin. This can also be used as a room spray. Enjoy for about 6 months as long as you keep it refrigerated.
Lavender Tonic Recipe
Body oils often feature lavender, as the action of a massage. This combined with the aroma of the plant oils is both soothing and healing. We’ve created a Body Oil and a Beard Oil, both featuring our favorite purple flower, for you to test out.
7. Using Lavender in our Beard Oil Recipe
This DIY Beard Oil Recipe will take as much or as little time as you have to invest. Keep it simple or take some time to create something new and different!
Beard Oil Recipe
8. Milk and Honey Face Mask
Lavender is also a wonderful ingredient to use in face masks. This Milk and Honey Face Mask is soothing and healing for dry or irritated skin. The lavender helps to combat signs of aging and redness. Our Honey Avocado Mask is rich and nourishing and helps to moisturize, fight aging, and combat acne. This mask can be customized to your skin’s needs. The final add-in can be your choice of oats, almonds, or coffee.
Milk and Honey Face Mask
9. How to Make Cucumber Eye Treatment
Even your eyes can benefit from using lavender! We concocted a Honey Cucumber Eye Treatment that features lavender tea which helps to refresh puffy and tired eyes.
How to Make Cucumber Eye Treatment
Lavender Culinary Uses
10. Lavender and Chamomile Tea
While many people speak of lavender’s therapeutic benefits when used externally, many do not know how good it is to use in the kitchen. Desserts and teas take especially well to the strong floral scents that the plant produces. Here are three of our favorite lavender recipes for you to try when you’re feeling adventurous! This Lavender and Chamomile Tea with Lime is caffeine-free and is delicious hot or iced.
Lavender and Chamomile Tea
11. Lavender-Infused Honey
Lavender Infused Honey is something special that you can make with your favorite variety of our Eastern Shore Honey.
Lavender-Infused Honey
12. Lavender Marshmallows with honey
If you want to give a gourmet floral fragrance to your next cup of hot chocolate or fireside s’mores, you can make these delicate Lavender Honey Marshmallows.
Lavender Marshmallows with honey
13. How to make Lavender Body Oil
Learning how to make lavender body oil is simple. You can whip up a batch large enough for a dozen holiday gifts, and fill all the dropper bottles in less than an hour.
Lavender Body Oil Recipe
14. Use lavender in Black and Blue Jam
This is a wonderful Black and Blue Jam that is slightly herbal and sweet as honey. We make this in season and the house smells delightful.
Black and Blue Jam
If you decide to try any of these fantastic recipes, be sure to take a photo and share them with us using #waxingkararecipes on Instagram. We love seeing your photos!
