Organic Cedarwood Essential Oil

Fragrance: Woody and balsamic, with rich dry overtones

Botanical Name: Cedrus atlantica

Emotional Effect: Clarifying, empowering and grounding

Method of Extraction: Steam Distillation of Wood

This cedarwood oil is referred to as Atlas cedarwood because the trees from which the oil is extracted grow in the Atlas mountains. These trees can grow up to 35 metres tall and can easily live for 500 years, some are reputed to have lived for 1000 years. The Atlas mountains are 1,600 miles long and run through Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia; this oil is extracted from trees grown in Morocco.

Like the tree and the mountains from which it is extracted, cedarwood Atlas essential oil has a powerful and timeless quality. This makes it useful for grounding and empowering the person absorbing it and, its appealing smell makes it a popular constituent of many colognes and perfumes.  As well as these properties, it also has other medicinal qualities mentioned below. 

This paper looks at a wide range of essential oils and related literature to list their reported impacts on skin conditions. It lists traditional uses and the conditions it lists that cedarwood essential oil can treat are: acne, antiseptic, bromodosis, cellulite, cracked skin, dandruff, dermatitis, eczema, eruptions, fungal infections, general care, genital infections, greasy and oily conditions, inflammation, insect bites and stings, psoriasis, scabs, and ulcers. 

This paper, however, looks at its ability to as an antioxidant and antibacterial qualities on a cellular level and shows its antioxidant and antibacterial properties.

To determine whether cedarwood will help you with any of these conditions, I would recommend adding a few drops to a diffuser if your issue is respiratory, or massaging or  diluting it in a carrier oil such as jojoba oil and dabbing it onto your body in areas of need. We are all so different, and, with a little bit of our own experimenting, we can find out which oils work for us.