Safety Concerns with Lavender EO

November 21, 2018
Jennifer Schafer
Articles, Henna Professionalism, science

Why Lavender?

Lavender is the industry standard for mildness when it comes to essential oils in a henna paste mix. We use it during pregnancy, for nursing mothers, for those undergoing cancer treatments, for people with sensitive skin, and really for clients with any other health conditions at all! People often ask why that is. Is it because cajeput is dangerous during pregnancy for example? Or does geranium interact badly with cancer medicines? No, none of that. The answer is simply that lavender essential oils has had the most high quality, peer reviewed, and repeatedly verified research. Our other oils might be just as safe, but because of all that research we KNOW that for most people lavender is the most safe. Of course specific conditions and allergies may not make lavender the best choice for every single person! This is why no matter how mild or safe your recipe, its always important to make sure your ingredients list is available to clients so they can evaluate their own personal needs in that regard.

What About Camphor?

If you know that camphor at certain levels of exposure can be harmful, you may be shocked to realize that it is a chemical constituent of lavender essential oil. Here are some facts about camphor that you may find surprising. Camphor is actually considered safe for topical applications by many respectable health sources including webMD even thought in high concentrations it can irritate the skin, and taken orally it is toxic. Obviously we never encounter a situation where henna should be used internally! And in a lavender oil, the exposure is super tiny, and further diluted in our paste. Some people are under the impression that the right amount of camphor in lavender oil is zero, but they are mistaken. There will always be a tiny fraction of camphor in lavender no matter what. The ISO limits of camphor in lavender oil to be a minimum of .5% and a max of 1.5%. Our industry standard is less than 1% especially in cases of medical fragility. For your convenience Henna Muse always includes camphor levels in descriptions of all lavender oil varieties we offer.

Doesn’t Lavender Oil Cause Boys to Grow Excess Breast Tissue?

Best I can tell, maybe three of them? I’m being facetious here, but still, don’t be alarmed. Here’s the story on that. In 2007 there was a study published showing that this was possible. This study was a small case study involving just three boys, and the thing they shared in common was regular use of products containing lavender essential oil. This is obviously not a reasonable sample size, and even so shows no correlation. Just a common variable. All three boys did quickly return to normal after stopping regular use of the lavender products. In 2018 there was another publications about chemical tests in laboratories that showed that some chemical constituents in lavender and other essential oils can in fact mimic estrogen. These tests were in vitro and do not show us the workings of the body as a whole or any information about dosing. Yes it does appear that regular and probably concentrated use of lavender essential oil may indeed effect some young boys, but the condition appears quite rare, and reversible based on the very limited research available at this time.

Irritation and Oxidation

The last health concern involving lavender essential oil has to do with possible skin irritation. This is an especially important point because we are often using lavender in cases where we know the client is particularly sensitive and we certainly don’t want actively cause irritation! Over time lavender will oxidize which alters its chemical make up. When this happens lavender in particular can cause irritation to the skin. On top of that, lavender essential oil has a particularly short shelf life compared to other essential oils. This is a pretty easy problem to avoid though if you take the following steps.

Trust that your supplier is only shipping you fresh supplies.
Only order what you can use in 6 months.
Keep the bottle closed as much as possible.
Store oils in dark glass and keep them in a dark place.
If your lavender oil goes past date, set it aside for non skin purposes such as air cleaning products or use in a diffuser. Do not continue to use it in henna paste or other uses that would be applied to skin.

If you have any other questions about lavender essential oil, please ask! If I don’t have the answer I will find for you!

For further reading:

Lavender Oil: Skin Savior or Skin Irritant? Robert Tisserand

Are Lavender and Tea Tree Oils Dangerous for Young Boys? Franklin Institute of Wellness