Adventures in Lemongrass

So one of the companies I order essential oils from sends you a free bottle of lemongrass EO whenever you spend over a certain amount. As a result, I currently have four bottles of lemongrass oil and not much to do with them. It's not an oil I use very much in perfume-making, so far. But it has a ton of beneficial properties including:

1. Reducing pain and inflammation
2. Insect repellent
3. Sedative properties
4. Curing cellulite

There are lots of other things it does, but these four interest me particularly because:

1. I suffer from severe RSI in my right arm and the best advice my doctor can give me is "don't use that arm and do use anti-inflammatories." Which...is not terribly helpful. I had some success over the summer using essential oil massages to manage the pain (I used a mix of ginger, cardamom and wintergreen), and now the cold weather is setting in and bringing all the seasonal aches and pains I get with it, I think this is a good time to try lemongrass massages.

2. We live in a very nice village. Unfortunately it's just down the road from a recycling plant, which means there are lots of flies. Lots of flies. We've tried fly sprays and those sticky window things you get, but the flies just spit in our faces and keep on living. Earlier this week we tried lemongrass oil in a burner. I am pleased to report the house is now fly-free, although that could be partly down to Fergus's efforts.

The mighty fly-killer at rest.

3. I am the world's lightest sleeper. I wake myself up turning over in bed. At the moment I'm going through a patch of insomnia, so the sedative/relaxing properties of lemongrass are rather appealing right now.

4. Curing cellulite - well, why not?

So! I'm going to experiment with all these things and report back. I'm already plotting how I can mix lemongrass oil and coffee grind as a body scrub...Stay tuned!