Geranium Essential Oil
Geranium Essential Oil

Geranium Essential Oil

With all the flowers in bloom everywhere it leaves me wanting to work more with refreshing, floral scents for a while. So fittingly, this week I want to tell you more about Pelargonium x Asperum, also known as Geranium essential oil.

The Geranium plant is a perennial shrub that can stand up to about 3 feet high. It has pointed leaves with serrated edges and flowers that are somewhere between white and pink in color and vary widely from plant to plant. The essential oil derived from this plant smells rather sweet, almost rose like with slightly minty undertones.

The name Geranium is derived from the Greek word ‘geranos‘ or ‘crane’ since the seed pods resemble the shape of a crane’s bill.

In the early days, Geranium was planted around the house, which was believed to keep evil spirits away. While the plant wasn’t introduced to any European countries until the 17th century where it was hybridized and later distributed around the world, it originated from South Africa as well as Egypt, Morocco, and Madagascar.
Since Geranium started to become hybridized in the 17th century, there are about 700 different varieties of the plant. Of those 700, only 10 are used to produce essential oils, since the rest produce far too little oil for extraction.

Precautions: There is a low risk of skin sensitization for people with skin sensitivities. There is also a possibility that it could react with some diabetes medication.

Geranium essential oil is fantastic, in that it has many different uses. Personally I love it for it’s usefulness in helping to balance out ones hormones, but there are many other uses as well. For example, this oil is a great addition to skin care products and your skin care routine because it’s great for balancing sebum production, helping to deal with acne, eczema, psoriasis, bruising, scars, broken capillaries as well as several other skin ailments. This essential oil is also fantastic in calming agitation and anxiety, while at the same time it can also help to stimulate poor circulation. It doesn’t stop there though, it’s also helpful for headaches, gastric cramping not to mention it’s a great immune stimulant. Frankly, I could go on for quite some time still! But suffice it to say, this oil is one that every essential oil lover should have!

Until next time!