After you’ve eaten or juiced an orange, the peels sit in a pile on the counter. What can you do with them? Most people would throw them away or compost them.
Orange peels are naturally biodegradable, so they aren’t doing any harm sitting in a landfill. They’ll decompose naturally or compost in the soil, where they can add nutrients to your garden.
If you love the way orange peels smell, tossing them out is a waste. If you’re up to a simple DIY project, you can repurpose them into personal care products or home fragrance products.
1. Naturally Repel Insects and Pets
Orange peels and orange oils won’t harm plants or pets. If you want to keep your cat away from your potted plants and deter insects from setting up shop, an orange peel-infused natural repellant will harmlessly serve both purposes.
Fill a reusable spray bottle with finely diced orange peels and water. The water will take on the aroma of the orange peels. It will smell great to you, but terrible to bugs and pets who have their sights set on your greenery. Best of all, this natural insecticide isn’t harmful to curious children. You don’t have to worry about little ones coming into contact with chemical pesticides.
2. Make Your Home Smell Inviting
Certain aromas make a home smell more inviting. If you’ve ever walked through a door and smelled a batch of cookies baking up in the oven, you probably want to stick around. Orange peels make a home smell cozy and clean.
You can boil orange peels with mulling spices like cinnamon and cloves to send a fresh autumnal aroma through the air. Boiling orange peels with lemon and grapefruit peels create a fresh, vibrant, and energizing aroma that makes your house smell clean and pristine.
If you don’t want to boil your peels, you can place them in a sachet bag and position them near air conditioning vents, open windows, or fans to help the aroma circulate throughout the air as the peels naturally dry.
When the peels are fully dried, they can be combined with other dried flowers or spices and added to potpourri dishes or sachets for subtle home fragrance. They also have decorative appeal in glass jars with vented lids that will allow the aroma to escape.
Just make sure all the contents are fully dry before filling the jar. Residual moisture can cause the contents to mold.
3. Use Them When Cooking
Chefs and bakers would be appalled at the notion of tossing away citrus peels. The zest of the fruit is the most concentrated source of its flavor. Use a zester to grate the peels. Just a teaspoon of zest can enliven the taste of poultry dishes or salad dressings.
Bakers use orange zest to infuse sugars. If orange vanilla cupcakes or brown sugar orange-glazed cinnamon rolls sound delicious, save your peels and whip up some dessert.
The flavor of zest is a lot stronger than the flavor of fruit. In many cases, one or two teaspoons of zest will contain as much orange flavor as an entire orange. Be very mindful of the amount of zest you use to avoid overpowering your dish with citrus flavor. It’s a lot easier to add more zest than it is to subdue the flavor once you’ve already added a little more than you would have liked.
4. Make Your Own Personal Care Products
If you like to make your own DIY lip butters, hair masques, lotions, or salves, save your orange peels as a natural fragrance. Dried and grated orange peels naturally add fragrance and flavor to personal care products.
If you use coconut oil as a skin or hair moisturizer, warm your coconut oil until it reaches a liquid state. Drop in some orange peels and keep the coconut oil warm for a few hours. Don’t let it boil or bubble. Strain away the peels and transfer your coconut oil to a container to cool.
The combination of coconut and orange will impart a beachy tropical scent to the personal care products you formulate with coconut oil.
You can dehydrate your orange peels and grind them up to use them as a mild exfoliant for body scrubs and lip scrubs. They combine well with sugar or coarse sea salt to buff away dry, cracked skin on lips, heels, and elbows.
5. Use Orange Peels as CBD
Peels is doing something that no one has ever done before. We use a proprietary process called cyclic terpene assembly to transform the aromatic compounds in orange peels into bioidentical CBD. We’re able to make CBD from oranges rather than hemp or other cannabis plants. This means our CBD is naturally free of THC, making it a better option for people who prefer to avoid psychoactive compounds or cannabis derivatives.
CBD works to support homeostasis within the body. Your brain and body are full of cannabinoid receptors that are influenced by the presence of CBD. Research shows that CBD boasts a wealth of potential wellness benefits. It may help to promote better sleep, focus, clarity, and calmness. Athletes use CBD to support workout recovery and ease tension throughout their bodies.
Use Your Peels for Wellness
Most people recognize the edible portion of an orange as a part of their wellness ritual. Oranges are packed with vitamin C and play an essential role in a healthy, balanced diet. Most people never consider what the peels can provide as a part of their wellness ritual.
Peels give orange peels a new life in the form of CBD oil. Squeeze the most out of every day with CBD’s soothing, calming, and supportive benefits to your mind and body.
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