When Tutankhamon’s tomb was opened in 1922, some 3,000 years after it had been sealed, urns were found filled with unguent that still retained traces of lavender fragrance.
Roman women bathed at home before anointing themselves with nardium, a lavender based compound. At night, they hung lavender next to their beds, probably as much to deter the bedbugs as to entice any prospective suitors. In medieval Britain, it was the monks who preserved the knowledge of herbal lore in their gardens. Back in 1301, lavender was listed among the plants grown at Merton Abbey. When King Henry VIII of England dissolved the monasteries in the sixteen century, lavender began to regain the same popularity it had in Roman times.
Queen Elizabeth I adored lavender as a perfume as well as a medicine. She drank copious cups of lavender tea to treat her
frequent migraine headaches. This encouraged the development of lavender farms and a continued growth of lavender products. Lavender eau de vie During the First World War, modern antiseptics were in such short supply that the public were asked to gather garden lavender so the oil could be used together with sphagnum moss to dress war wounds.
The great chemist René Maurice Gattefosse noticed that severe war wounds could become infected, yet when treated with lavender oil, the poisons were detoxified, making for a rapid recovery. The English lavender industry would have been long extinct if had it not been saved by Linn Chilvers, a nurseryman in Norfolk. In 1932, he decided to try growing lavender on a commercial scale. When he died, his family took over the company,continuing the tradition by nurturing 100 acres of lavender for the distillation of pure English lavender oil.
It is Grasse, in Southern France, that now reigns as the world’s largest lavender producer. Originally brought to the area by the Romans, lavender began to grow wild in the region. By the turn of the twentieth century, local shepherds collected it for sale to the perfumers of Grasse, but it was still not cultivated. Howe
ver, the perfume houses and the French government saw that lavender could provide a means of stopping people leaving the area for the cities. When the French did begin to cultivate commercially, they followed the English pattern of planting the bushes individually with ample space around each one. It was not until the mid-1950s, in anticipation of mechanical cutters, that the brushes were planted in the neat rows we now associate with lavender fields.
In North America, it was the Shakers this strict sect from England who developed well-maintained herb farms in New England. who first grew The dried stems of flowers from lavenders. Commercially they are used in sachets and pot-pourri and have, since medieval times, been placed among linen and clothes to scent them. It is also an effective insect repellent. Lavandin. is employed as a flavor ingredient in the food industry. It can be found in France, Spain, Hungary, and Argentina.
Lavender was a favorite herbal ingredient for gift items as well as medicines. Even today, lavender items made by the remaining Shaker communities are respected for their honest quality.
A lesser lavender, Spike Lavender, is native to the mountains of Southern Europe, from Spain to Yugoslavia. Spike lavender leaves are broader and rougher than those of True Lavender. The flower is more compressed and of a gray-blue color. The oil is produced in France and Spain. It is a fragrance component in soaps, cleansing agents, room sprays and deodorants. Lavender is non-toxic, non-irritating nonsensitising. 
One of the first perfumes to used Lavender was Jicky from Guerlain. Another successful fragrance with Lavender was Eau de Cologne Imperiale, still by Guerlain, a favorite to the Empress Josephine. More than 85 contemporary perfumes use Lavender in their composition. Hermes, Calvin Klein, Estee Lauder, Jean Patou, Channel Yves Saint Laurent, Oscar de la Renta, Clinique, the list continues... Almost every major Perfume House are using lavender scent as a fragrance constituent mostly for Men’s perfume and Eau de cologne.
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