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I know that this has come up in here before, because there’s a broken link to it in an article from 2011 (linked below), but since I can’t read that anymore, I thought I’d ask.
I know that Paula Begoun/Paula’s Choice/Beautypedia basically thinks that lavender is the devil. Of course a main selling point of their products is no fragrance, ever, but they seem to have a bigger problem with lavender than most other scents.Then there’s this article that claims to debunk that perspective, but it’s also written by someone with an agenda, as an advocate for aromatherapy and essential oils.As a researcher myself, ideally I would read all the literature personally and come to my own conclusions, but I have plenty of (totally unrelated) research do, so that’s probably not the best use of my time. I’m curious as to where The Beauty Brains (and others) stand on the benefits and risks of lavender in skin care products. It seems to be an extremely common fragrance ingredient. I wonder if because people associate the scent with relaxation, they think that the oil must be gentle? How much damage is likely to be done to skin? Does it have any actually useful purpose?(ETA: I messed up the formatting of this somehow and ended up deleting the last part. I added it back in. Hopefully it still makes sense.)I’ll check with some of my contacts in the fragrance industry and see if I can get the straight scoop on this.
I don’t think its dangerous not like lemon juice is anyways I just think certain people are sensitive to it.
Lol about Paula thinking lavender is the devil! I have often suspected that she is a bit too strong about this. I think this was actually in response to my question that I wrote in to the personal care truth blog. http://personalcaretruth.com/2011/09/lavender-oil-skin-savior-or-skin-irritant/
These links made for some very interesting reading, thanks! I’m still waiting to hear back from my perfumer contacts but in the meantime I already have the title of the article we’re going to write:
“Lavender – Lovable or Lethal?”There was one case study about a boy who developed gynaecomastia because of lavender scented products. Does this mean that less endowed women could use it to make their breasts grow? ;
hahasarahf: The first link you gave is the same article I linked above, and the second one is by the same writer. He seems to be in the business (or at least hobby) of promoting essential oils and aromatherapy, as you can see on his website (roberttisserand.com). So it seems to me that he would have as much of a pro-fragrance agenda as Paula’s Choice has an anti-fragrance agenda, potentially. I’m interested in how people who don’t have a dog in the fight would interpret these studies.
For instance, Paula’s Choice says lavender is a “pro-oxidant” and Mr. Tisserand says that it just oxidizes over a period of weeks or months, which is not the same thing. I’ve not really in a position to evaluate which of those claims is more accurate.So much stuff has lavender in it, so I’d like to know whether I really need to make an effort to avoid it or not.And I love the title!Reminds me of that recent xo Jane article. People said they don’t trust fragrance because they don’t have to say what’s in it. I think its a huge leap to think it is therefore dangerous. I’m sure perfumers aren’t allowed to poison us!
I don’t think anyone is claiming it’s bad when used just for fragrance/aromatherapy. It’s specifically when applied to the skin in a moisturizer, etc., that I’m curious about.
You don’t mean pure lavender oil do you? You are a beauty brain so I didn’t think you would actually be completely scared of scents I was just reminded of that article for some reason.
On a different note I was in Walmart and sprayed the coach poppy perfume, it smelled sooo good! I thought poppy would be weird but it wasn’t.
Yes, lavender essential oil/extract, etc., but not used straight, as an ingredient in skin care products.
This is something that’s always fascinated me too. I’ve read Paula for more than 10 years now and she does occasionally change her stance on something when she feels the evidence warrants it, so I’m more inclined to believe what she says (I might have a slight bias because her products work so well for me).
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