- Lavender
- Tea tree
- Frankincense*
Let me begin with the disclosure that I am no expert on this. In fact, I have nearly no other knowledge than what I am about to tell you. But if you have ever needed to remove a splinter and didn’t know about essential oils, then this post is…well…essential.
I should probably research all of their benefits and spend some time learning all of the other amazing things they do. Essential oils have been used for thousands of years, and it seems fitting to me that God had His hand in their creation so His people could be healed naturally from the beginning of time. And that is the extent of my knowledge on their uses.
One thing I know for sure, is that they have helped me on numerous occasions with removing splinters. On the evening before I was set to travel to New York City for a sightseeing weekend, I came to terms with the fact that I was feeling some pain in my toe and it was not getting any better. I sent a message to my bestie, who is my oil guru, and she told me to put some lavender and tea tree oil on it as it was probably a splinter. I was so sure she was wrong because there was no way I would have a splinter in my big toe in November. I only had lavender oil, so I listened to her advice and rubbed some on the sore spot on my toe. It is possible that I rubbed a different oil on there too, as I did not have any tea tree oil. Within seconds, I could see the tiny line of a splinter deep in the skin of my toe. This allowed me to use tweezers to get it out and my toe felt better almost instantly. I had been hobbling around in pain for 3 days and this fixed it in a matter of a few minutes.
A few weeks later, after playing in an old wooden playhouse we had in our yard, my 20 month old daughter got some splinters in her finger. My first reaction was to panic and decide that the only solution was to rush her to the doctor the next day. Those people are experts in this field, and I am not. Husband reminded me that Bestie had helped me with a splinter issue, so I squeamishly decided to give it a go. I rubbed some lavender and tea tree oil on my unassuming Little Love’s hand and pretended like this was just some new weird game we were playing. He pinned Little Love down in his arms as if he was just giving her a giant hug and I was able to lift those splinters out in a matter of seconds. Neither one of us even cried! In fact, it happened so fast that I thought surely I had messed it up and done something wrong. Upon further inspection, the splinters were out and everyone was happy. It took me about 3 more episodes of this oil-removing scene to play out for me to realize that every single time she played in this playhouse, she was getting multiple splinters in her hands. We no longer have this hazardous hunk of junk in our yard. As much as I can boast of the simplicity of removing splinters using essential oil – not getting splinters in the first place is still better.
I am very interested in learning more about the uses of essential oils. There are so many different types, and I am sure that splinter removal is just a miniscule part of the benefits they can offer this mama with two littles.
What are your favorite uses for essential oils?
*I have no idea what frankincense is used for. It reminds me of baby Jesus. I feel like my bestie just always adds it to her list of things I should have. I don’t have it yet (mostly because she has not given it to me yet). You should probably get it though, because apparently it is great.
