Following my successful lemon, peppermint and wild orange purchases – discussion of the last two to come – I branched out and bought tea tree and lime. Lime because – well lime. And who can ever find the actual fruit in supermarkets? And and who wants to do the whole grating zest thing. I mean obvi.

But tea tree was my first foray into an oil that I couldn’t eat and couldn’t make me a culinary goddess. And it all came from a Facebook post from the lovely Kathleen. She posted how she had cleaned her oven using lemon, orange and tea tree oil. Oh and baking soda and stuff. 

Wow I thought. I could do that. So tea tree was duly purchased. Of course with lime. Baby steps away from the foodie oils. Step two will be actually cleaning the oven. Steady. Don’t want to rush things

So today you get oven cleaning plus four other personal – results may vary – experiences with the stinky oil. 

Oven Cleaning – WTAF

Before 

After

Kathleen’s recipe

Wild orange, tea tree, lemon, 15 drops of each in 3/4cup of baking soda and then add a little water to create a paste and layer the paste onto the oven- wait 5-10mins and then wipe away:)

Cold mitigation 

Fast forward to two months later. Cold came full on. In that time had got Easy Air for number 2 son who was having great success with it. All which was awesome except for the fact I didn’t actually have Easy Air. Because  – total genius who never actually bought Home Essentials Kit.

But being the resilient individual I am  – checked out the ingredients of Easy Air. Includes peppermint and tea tree. Right. Drops of those on a hankie. Went to bed drank lots and inhaled vapour. Next morning felt alot better and then had a bath with tea tree and peppermint in bath. Following day – my old self. Was very impressed as normally takes me at least two weeks to recover from colds. But of course results may vary. Could be coincidence. Personal experience only.

Burn

Soon after this I was cooking dinner, taking a tray out and bumped my finger against side of oven. Typical. I am very clumsy. But because of the whole needing to get it on the table thing – I never ran it under water. I know. Now after dinner – unsurprisingly – it was very sore.

Now for reasons that are beyond me – I put tea tree oil neat on it. Fully expecting to seriously regret it. I mean oil on a burn – what could possibly go wrong?

Anyway in five minutes it stopped hurting. In one hour the redness had gone with just a single red line like a paper cut. This single red line then formed a small scab and was gone in a week. Mind blown.

Cat cut on head

For the last wee while our cat Osca had a scratch on her head that hasn’t healed. Husband was going to take her to the vet. But coming off the cold mitigation and burn experience – said let’s see if tea tree oil helps.

So super diluted it with olive oil and applied 4 times over a week. First the oil cleaned it up and now it is healing. Last week:

Husband: Well that’s saved a $100 vet bill.

Me: Cheers I’ll remember that next time I place an oil order!

Since found tea tree oil is toxic to cats. Result. Well played Andrea. But super dilute is ok apparently. So have made up a 10 ml roller with one drop of tea tree. Known as the Osca roller. Hasn’t been needed again though.

Rince water for hair

And the final experience is using tea tree oil and rosemary in the bath when I am washing my hair. Makes it all soft and fluffy. Scalp doesn’t seem as itchy as usual either.

And here is the official story. Have a read while I go back to thinking about considering cleaning something. May not have enough left for that now. Shame.

Andrea