Lavender essential oil can be found as a single-ingredient item but is also used extensively in cosmetics and household products. Its distinctive fragrance is used to enhance moisturisers, shampoos, conditioners, bubble baths, bath salts, soaps as well as aromatherapy candles and air fresheners.

Lavender essential oil is most commonly made from the lavandula angustifolia variety. The fleshy leaves, stems and flowers are harvested and often dried in a dark place. The collected plant material is then steam distilled to extract the essential oil.

There are over 48 different varieties of lavender grown commercially.

EU regulations specify that certain fragrance oils commonly found in natural essential oils must be labelled separately on ingredient lists on cosmetic product labels. The EU governing bodies specify this because they are recognised as potential allergens which can irritate sensitive skin. Limonene and linalool are two of these and both are found in lavender essential oil.

Lavender essential oil contains the following compounds: a-pinene, limonene, 1,8-cineole, cis-ocimene, trans-ocimene, 3-octanone, camphor, linalool, linalyl acetate, caryophyllene, terpinen-4-ol and lavendulyl acetate.

When extracting essential oil via steam distillation, the collected steam and oil layers are both useful. The condensed steam is called hydrosol and has a gentle lavender fragrance but is less potent than the concentrated essential oil.

Dried lavender sprigs are also used by some chefs and adventurous home cooks.