Gosh---I think EVERYONE loves the bright and joyous scent of lemons! The scent of lemons is refreshing and uplifting, and doesn't it just remind you of a summer day? Or sipping sweet delicious lemonade by a pool? Or a really beautiful and joyful citrus soap? Or a trip to the Mediterranean (even if, like me, you have never been there---lol Got that imagination going!)? Lemon is a completely HAPPY scent!

But Lemon Essential Oil is not only great smelling---It happens to be a super-powerful essential oil that has multiple uses. It's also a relatively inexpensive essential oil. You can purchase a quality Lemon Essential Oil for a very reasonable cost.

So---here is a rundown of all the absolutely INSANE things you should know about Lemon Essential oil--and why, if you don't already have some, you need to go get some for your home and family!

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Lemon Essential Oil smells happy and just plain wonderful. But besides the many aromatherapy benefits, it has multitudes of additional uses! It's also a relatively inexpensive essential oil. Find out why you need it in your home!

Therapeutic Properties of Lemon Essential Oil

Lemon Essential Oil contains high levels of limonene and a good amount of beta-pinene. Oils that contain these two constituents are well known for improving mood, helping with pain relief, relieving nausea, and clinical studies have even shown anti-cancer benefits.

There is also evidence that because Lemon Essential Oil affects the dopamine centers of the brain, it may even help with addictions and weight loss. Source , Source 2, Source 3

Lemon Essential Oil has these main properties: antiseptic, astringent, anti-bacterial, anti fungal, and detoxifying.

Ways to Use Lemon Essential Oil

1) As a General Cleaner

Using Lemon Essential Oil in your homemade cleaners, such as this kitchen cleaning spray, or this deodorizing room spray, not only helps your home smell lovely, but kills micro organisms too! In fact, there is evidence that Lemon Essential Oil is one of the best oils for killing bacteria strains such as e-coli and salmonella. Source Try adding a few drops of lemon essential oil to your existing cleaners or make your own!

2) Immune System Support & Detoxification

We all know about Vitamin C as an immune booster. Well, lemons contain a lot of that important nutrient! It also helps with the digestive process, which improves overall body health too. Lemon Essential oil also helps purify and detoxify the body. Just inhaling the scent of lemon essential oil will allow the molecules to enter your body and go to work!

To inhale: Rub a drop of oil on the palms of your hands and hold to your nose. Inhale deeply a few times. OR you can diffuse the oil in a good quality diffuser or nebulizer on and off throughout the day.

Another way to use Lemon Essential Oil as an immune booster is to dilute a few drops in a carrier oil (fractionated coconut oil or sweet almond oil are my two favorites) in a roller bottle. Rub onto the back of your neck or other areas near lymph glands, especially swollen ones. Adding a few drops of Frankincense Oil to this mix will powerfully impact the immune system even more.

**Although some people say it's fine to use therapeutic grade essential oil internally (1 drop in about 8 ounces of water, for example), I am NOT a proponent of this practice. Essential oils are incredibly powerful! Please seek advice from a qualified and certified aromatherapist before using any essential oil internally.

3) To Enhance and Improve Mood

The chemical constituents contained in Lemon Essential Oil have been clinically proven to enhance mood and help fight depression.

I have two favorite ways to use Lemon Essential Oil to improve my mood and energize my life when I'm tired or down:

Number 1) I dilute some in a roller ball with fractionated coconut oil and rub it on my neck. Sometimes I'll also add some drops of Wild Orange Essential Oil and a drop of Rosemary Oil too.

Number 2) Diffusing oils is a great way to start feeling happy and invigorated! Just add a few drops of Lemon Essential Oil (and you can add a couple drops of Rosemary, Wild Orange, and Douglas Fir as well, if you want) to your diffuser.

4) As a Natural Fat-Fighter & Metabolism Booster

There are some people who claim that using Lemon Essential Oil may help improve metabolism and burn fat when taken internally. Again (see above), I do NOT endorse the practice of using essential oils internally unless you have consulted with a certified professional. Just saying.

With that said, however, there is lots of research and evidence out there that shows that adding lemon (slices for me) to your water and drinking throughout the day is very helpful in helping your body burn fat. There is also the famous Master Cleanse, which espouses using Lemons for quick weight loss.

5) For Skin Health

Lemon Essential Oil has astringent properties, and may be helpful for people with acne. Just use a drop in your facial cleanser or make an exfoliating scrub.

To use as a brightening exfoliant, you can add some oatmeal, water, and a drop of oil together and scrub your face. Rinse well. Source

6) To Clean Goop and Grease from Hands and Surfaces

Lemon Essential Oil is extremely powerful to strip grease and goop from all kinds of surfaces, including your hands. Working on the car? Add some lemon essential oil to your hand cleanser and wash away. If that's not strong enough, just use it neat (without dilution) on the grease up areas. Then rinse well.

For gummy messes, permanent marker on surfaces, etc., just a drop of lemon essential oil will remove these! Just do not use directly on your wood surfaces---it may strip the shine off the wood, potentially causing damage.

If you would like to make your own wood conditioner using lemon essential oil, just add a drop or two to a bit of olive oil to shine up your wood and clean off dingy areas. Source

7) To Whiten, Clean Teeth and Help Prevent Halitosis

Having clean, shiny, white teeth is a "thang" these days, right? Well, if you make your own toothpaste, just add a few drops of Lemon Essential Oil to it. This will help brighten and whiten your teeth! Lemon Essential Oil also helps freshen your breath!

8) Helps Get Rid of Calluses

Got cracked heels?

If you live in a dry environment like I do, and are barefoot often (like I am), then you probably deal with thickened skin on areas of your feet like the heels and balls of your feet. You may even experience painful cracks! Just rub a drop or two of Lemon Essential Oil (Tea Tree works well too) on these areas. I don't dilute the oils when rubbing on my feet and have never had a problem. However, if you have sensitive skin, try diluting first, then increasing the strength of the essential oil ratio.

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9) Hair & Nail Care

Rub a drop or two of Lemon Essential Oil onto your nails and cuticles to help strengthen them and get rid of dead cuticles.

For your hair, adding a drop or two of lemon essential oil to your conditioner or a handmade vinegar rinse will shine it right up and help keep it healthy!

10) Bug Repellent

I love to use Lemon Essential Oil in my homemade Bug Repellent spray! Insects just don't like the stuff!

Where Does Lemon Essential Oil Come From?

Guess what? Lemon Essential Oil does NOT come from the inner delicious sections of the lemon fruit. Instead, it comes from the peels! It takes about 45 lemons to fill a 15 mL essential oil bottle with quality cold-pressed oil. Source

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What Essential Oils Blend Well with Lemon Essential Oil?

Any of the citrus oils blend well with Lemon Essential oil. In addition to any of the citrus oils (Grapefruit, Bergamot, Orange, etc.) there are other oils that complement Lemon Essential Oil to create lovely fragrances to enjoy. These include Rosemary, Lavender, and Douglas Fir. Spicy scents such as Clove or Cinnamon oils blend nicely with Lemon too!

Where Can I Get Lemon Essential Oil?

Favorite places in a nutshell:

There are many good companies out there that make a high quality essential oil.

Starwest Botanicals carries quality essential oils. In fact, it's their brand I use in my soap-making and potpourri. Other brands I like are Rocky Mountain Oils, and Plant Therapy.

If you love Amazon, you can find Plant Therapy there, too.

But more specifically: Lemon essential oil is very common. You can easily find it in quality health food stores, including Whole Foods or Sprouts. You can also find it on Amazon. Unfortunately, you may even see it in convenience stores these days. You can NOT trust them all!

I was shopping with a friend one day, and she was insisting on getting the cheaper brand of oil (we were at Whole Foods). I implored her to read the darn labels already!!!!

She did, and we discovered that the cheaper bottle was adulterated with alcohol and not pure oil. She ended up buying the pricier (and much smaller) bottle of pure essential oil.

But even then---For using medicinally and/or therapeutically (aromatherapy), where the molecules are entering your body, I believe in purchasing only from the most reputable companies.

Safety Factors of Lemon Essential Oil

Everything has a downside, no matter how great it is! Lemon Essential Oil may cause photosensitivity. That means that it can make your skin a lot more sensitive and easily burned by the sun. If you are going out in to the sun, please don't use it on exposed areas.

Also, if you are pregnant or nursing, you should ALWAYS consult with your doctor before using any essential oil, including lemon.

Here's my disclaimer, I'll just take care of this now:

Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor, nor am I an aromatherapist. The statements made in this article, elsewhere on my blog, or in products are simply for informational purposes and are based on my personal opinions and experiences through use and study over many years. Please always consult a medical doctor for health concerns. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA.

There. (Sorry---we have to disclaim this---and it's actually a good thing. You can't believe everything you hear out there in the world.) Always research, research, research, right?

Final Thoughts on Lemon Essential Oil

I LOVE Lemon Essential Oil. Although it's one of the basic essential oils, and is not one of the "fancy" oils (like Ylang Ylang...lol I love that name), it is SO useful in a huge variety of ways. I truly believe that everyone should have a good amount of lemon essential oil in their homes. Especially, given the fact that it is fairly inexpensive in comparison to other essential oils, there is really no excuse not to have it on hand and give it a try! You'll love it too! I promise! :-)

One Last Thing: Diffusers

When I first started using essential oils, I was so confused by diffusers. Some are super expensive, and some are not. Then there are the ways they work. There are those that require water, and those that do not. After using quite a few over the years, here's what I've found out. There are three basic types:

The evaporative diffuser, in which the essential oil just evaporates into the air. These are minimally effective. Diffusers such as the ones that plug into your car or are ceramic of some type that you drop a few drops on are evaporative diffusers.

The next type is the ultrasonic vaporizer. These utilize water and basically spray a fine mist of essential oils mixed with water into the air. These are more effective than the evaporative type, but they are not the best either. And here is another really good diffuser from Amazon that I have and like.

Nebulizers, like this one from Amazon, are the best type of diffuser you can get. These do not require water, so the output is pure essential oil in very tiny mist form. These have the most therapeutic benefit.

That's all I have on Lemon Essential Oils! If you're not currently using essential oils, I hope you'll give them a try! Yes, there is a lot to know and learn--but I promise it's a journey that smells delicious and that you'll find extraordinary health benefits from!

What do you think of essential oils? Do you know of some ways to use lemon essential oil that I didn't share? I'd love to hear from you! :-) Please join Healing Harvest Homestead on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest) too!

Hugs, Health, & Self-Reliance!

Heidi

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Sources:

https://doterra.com/US/en/blog/spotlight-lemon-oil

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2221169115001033

https://draxe.com/lemon-essential-oil-uses-benefits/

http://www.celestinevision.com/2015/07/health/health-benefits-of-lemon-essential-oil/

https://www.massagemag.com/the-differences-between-nebulizers-vaporizers-and-diffusers-10632/

10 INSANE Things to Know About Using Lemon Essential Oil (And Why it Should Be in Everyone's Home!)