For this month's essential oil feature, I wanted to write about lemon essential oil, which is an incredibly useful oil to have around.
First of all, it smells great with its nice, fresh scent. It’s also been shown in two different research studies to help with boosting mood and reducing anxiety.
It’s nice to use by itself in a diffuser, but also mixes well with rosemary and/or cedarwood. I also like combining it with anise (just one drop of anise since it’s so strong), clove, and patchouli. Lemon oil also combined well with bergamot as a nice, springy blend. Lemon works really well to get rid of odors in the home.
Beyond aromatherapy, lemon oil works fantastic for cleaning, especially for removing stuck on goop and adhesive. I recently had to remove a bunch of stickers from the top of a laptop, which left lots of adhesive behind. Since it was so bad I thought I would have to use Goo Gone (which I don’t love because it has such a chemical smell), but the Goo Gone didn’t really work. I decided to try lemon oil (which in retrospect I should have tried first) and it worked amazingly, cutting through the adhesive and residue almost instantly. I cleaned it again with a vinegar cleanser since if you leave lemon oil on some surfaces or plastic it can damage the finish. I also use it for cleaning around the store anytime there’s something that can’t be cleaned by our regular natural all purpose cleaners.
It’s also inexpensive, at $6.49 for a 1 oz. bottle of pure lemon oil, so I’d definitely recommend picking up a bottle if you don’t have one!
