An ancient Greek tonic that has created a buzz across the ages, Melissa Essential Oil is steam distilled from the fairy-flowers of Melissa officinalis, a delight of honeybees. In fact, the name Melissa means honeybee in Greek! It is a fairly common garden herb yet the genuine essential oil is rare, as the distillation yield is precious. Each summer we get our yearly reserve of this exquisite, sweet-smelling essence.
Botanical Name: Melissa officinalis
Botanical Family: Lamiaceae
Extraction Method: Steam distilled
Part of Plant Distilled: Flowers
Country of Origin: Bulgaria
Cultivation Method:Organic
Composition: 100% Melissa officinalis
Consistency: Thin to medium viscosity
Scent Description: Mild, sweet, and lemony fresh, like an unassuming orchard stroll on a sultry summer afternoon.
Blends well with: Neroli, Rose Otto, Geranium, Ylang, Lemon Verbena, Jasmine, Bergamot, Douglas Fir, Frankincense, Lemon, Palo Santo, Greenland Moss, Blood Orange, Juniper, Cypress, and Rosemary.
Uses: Dilute to use as a skin tonic. Freshens breath in oral care. Calming and soothing in diffusers and baths. Relaxes the appearance of redness and puffiness in skin care.
Lemon Balm, Melissa, Heart’s Delight, or Bee Oil, by any other name, is a most gladdening, pleasant-scented, treasure of an essence. Melissa has been used for millennia as an herbal staple, for comforting teas, tranquility tinctures and essential oil serums for skin, hair and body.
Emotionally and spiritually, Melissa Essential Oil offers a potent dose of positivity and stability.
“True oil of Melissa is for all practical purposes the most expensive essential oil on the market. Its yield is low and its distillation often difficult.”
~ Kurt Schnaubelt, Advanced Aromatherapy
“It was introduced into Northern Europe by the Romans, who used it as a relaxant and added it to their bath water… In France Melissa was the ingredient of the famous “Carmelite Water” an early type of eau de cologne distilled in Paris by monks.”
~ Julia Lawless, Aromatherapy and the Mind
“Not easily distilled, the expensive, low-yielding oil is often adulterated with the far less costly lemon, lemongrass, citronella, litsea, lemon catnip or even lemon eucalyptus.”
~ Keville and Green, Aromatherapy: A Complete Guide to the Art
“Melissa causeth the mind and heart to become merry, and reviveth the heart, faintings and sleep, and driveth away all, troublesome cares and thoughts out of the mind.”
~ Nicolas Culpeper, 1653, Culpeper’s Complete Herbal and English Physician
