Aromatherapy in Skin Care

I found this article about aromatherapy and skin care on The Times of India. The article was published on July 24, 2010, and highlights how aromatherapy is used in skin care. Now while many of you may already use essential oils in your homemade creams, as do I, at the end of the article you will find some nice essential oil blending combinations for different skin types or skin problems.


Aromatherapy for a soft, supple skin


Skincare in aromatherapy is about the use of essential oils in different treatments for the skin. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is the first step to having beautiful and healthy skin; aromatherapy skin care is the next. 

You will be amazed at how many different oils can help soothe aging, injured and dry skin. The appropriate aromatherapy skin care treatment can help reduce the fine lines from aging, besides curing bug bite or bee sting. 

There is more to aromatherapy than oil massages and perfumed candles. Very few know that aromatherapy skincare is another part of the holistic treatment that aromatherapy is all about. The oils used in aromatherapy skincare are absorbed into the skin and eventually into the bloodstream where they flow through the whole body, and have a lasting effect. 

Firstly, it is critical to recognise your skin and hair type. Each plant’s essential oils provide a number of different therapeutic benefits, so knowing about your skin and hair will help you match up your needs with the appropriate ingredients. 

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Jet-Lag, the annoying Travel Companion

The summer is in full swing and so is the travel season. If you ever have gone overseas, you probably know about the feeling of jet-lag. Your body has not quite yet adjusted to the new time of your destination. You feel tired during the day and are wide awake at night depending on the direction you traveled. To bring your body clock back into its normal rhythm, you can try aromatherapy with three great essential oils that help with the synchronization of your body's natural pattern.

Grapefruit Essential Oil has uplifting qualities and combats depression, stress, headaches, or tiredness. It helps your body and mind detoxify which also helps with adjusting to the new time setting. 

Bergamot Essential Oil is a natural anti-depressant. It's balancing properties make it a great travel companion. With its relaxing and calming benefits, it is great for insomnia.

Geranium Essential Oil is stimulating the lymphatic system. Stagnant energy is being transported out of the body which is great while traveling and after long flights. Its floral and rosy scent is uplifting and restores vitality to body and mind. 

Mix 10 drops of grapefruit, 8 drops of bergamot, and 5 drops of geranium into 5 ml of any carrier oil and fill into a roll-on vile. Use on your forehead, on the base of your neck, on your wrists, or on your feet. 

You can also diffuse the essential oils in a travel diffuser. 

☀ Wishing you happy travels ☀

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Treat Yourself to a Cup of Yogurt

A reader recently asked me if I know of any yogurt moisturizer. While I never used yogurt for any of my creams, I find yogurt makes a great moisturizing facial mask that is gentle enough to use 2 or 3 times per week. The zinc and lactic acid are good for breakouts, it closes pores, and exfoliates dead skin cells.
You can use plain yogurt (best is a full-fat or greek yogurt) and apply it all over your face and neck area before rinsing it off with lukewarm water. Be careful to leave the eye area out.
If you would like to make yourself a more fancy facial mask, you can mix the yogurt with
Cucumbers - moisturizing and astringent
Rosemary essential oil - anti-bacterial and soothing especially for oily skin
Honey - soothing
Oats - exfoliating
The nice part about this absolutely natural facial mask is that you can eat the left overs :)

The reason why I am not experimenting with yogurt, which contains live bacteria, in my creams is that I would have to add too many additives and preservatives for the cream not keep a few days. Athens Korres sells a moisturizing cream with yogurt. It has a ton of ingredients and sometimes one ingredient has to be used to stabilize another. Here is a breakdown of all their ingredients. I included the Hazard Score in ( ) taken from Skin Deep which is rated on a scale of 0 (low hazard) to 10 (high hazard):

Water, Yogurt
Butylene Glycol - humectant; used to retain moisture (Hazard Score: 1)
Steareth-2 - it is a stearic acid used to form an emulsion so that the cream does not separate
Isononyl Isononanoate - skin conditioning agent, emollient (Hazard Score: 0)
Macademia Nut Oil - skin conditioning agent - occlusive which means it slows down the loss of water from the skin (Hazard Score: 0)
Mannan - film former (Hazard Score: 1)
Olive Oil Unsaponifiables - skin conditioning agent - occlusive; emulsifying and cleansing agent
Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis Oil - Sweet Almond Oil - skin conditioning agent - occlusive (Hazard Score: 0)
Steareth-21 - solubilizing agent (Hazard Score 1)
Triticum Vulgare - Wheat Germ Oil (Hazard Score: 1)
Xylitylglucoside - humectant (Hazard Score: 0)
Hydrogenated Polyisobutene - Polymer used to increase thickness (Hazard Score: 0)
Triethylhexanoin - humectant (Hazard Score: 0)
Butyrospermum Parkii - fancy name for Shea Butter (Hazard Score: 0)
Anhydroxylitol - humectant (Hazard Score: 0)
Amyl Cinnamal - it is the organic compound of Amylcinnamaldehyde and it is a fragrance ingredient. While it occurs naturally in plants, in cosmetics it usually is synthesized. The smell is something like jasmine (Hazard Score: 6)
Benzyl Alcohol - it has several functions: external analgesic, fragrance ingredient, preservative, and solvent (Hazard Score: 6)
Benzyl Salicylate - it is a fragrance ingredient that has a sweet floral aroma (Hazard Score: 6-8)
Cetearyl Alcohol - emulsion stabilizer (Hazard Score: 0-1)
Coumarin - fragrance ingredient with a sweet nutty scent (Hazard Score: 8)
Dehydroacetic Acid - preservative (Hazard Score: 1)
Hydroxycitronellal - fragrance ingredient with a sweet floral aroma (Hazard Score: 5-6)
Hydroxyisohexyl 3-Cyclohexene Carboxaldehyde - fragrance ingredient (Hazard Score: 5-6)
Isoeugenol - fragrance ingredient with a scent like carnations (Hazard Score: 6)
Linalool - functions as fragrance ingredient with a floral smell (Hazard Score: 8)
Magnesium PCA - humectant (Hazard Score: 0)
Manganese PCA - humectant (Hazard Score: 5)
Panthenol - a plant derived form of vitamin B that is hydrating and penetrates into lower skin layers (Hazard Score: 2)
Fragrance - more fragrance that are now in such small amounts that they do not have to be listed
Sodium Dehydroacetate - preservative (Hazard Score: 2)
Sodium PCA - increases the water content of the top layers of the skin by drawing moisture from the surrounding air. (Hazard Score: 2)
Tocopheryl Acetate - Vitamin E which can be cancerous (Hazard Score: 4)
Xanthan Gum - thickener which I also use in creams (Hazard Score: 0)
Xylitol - humectant (Hazard Score: 1)
Zinc PCA - humectant (Hazard Score: 2)

Wow, that is a long list of ingredients and I am sure it is a wonderful cream. However, I would never use it. Even if the fragrance ingredients are in such small amounts, applied on a daily basis, these ingredients are all absorbed by our skin. Instead, why not use 100%, Pure Grade, Grade A Essential Oils?

Sending naturally beautiful wishes to all!

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Staying Safe this Fourth of July

With 4th of July just being one day away, I am late in writing this post but nevertheless thought to include some First Aid tips with Essential Oils. I never travel anywhere without my essential oils and always have the following with me:

Lemon is a great anti-bacterial oil and is a multi-tasking oil. I love it in my drinking water, as it is not only refreshing but also functions as antacid and digestive. So after eating one too many burgers this weekend, you may want to put a few drops into your drinking water.

Lavender is my all-time favorite for cuts, burns, and especially sunburns. It already helped me prevent blisters after I got too close to the fire once, and it also helped me with a severe sunburn that I got on the beach a couple of weeks ago even though I used SPF 30. Just a few drops of Lavender EO will soothe your skin, take the sting and pain of the burn away, and make you feel better in no time.

Purification is a must have in my First Aid Kit because it is great for insects and mosquitos. Not only does it keep those buzzing nuisances at bay and away but if for some reason you got bit and lost your blood to one of those tiny suckers, then Purification soothes the itching by neutralizing your pH-level again. You can also pee on yourself which neutralizes the pH-level as well but who wants to do that at a party? Also, if you went hiking or camping and you got a splinter, clean the area with a drop of purification so that the skin does not get infected.

Peppermint is another great essential oil and a multi-tasker. It helps with digestive problems after having eaten too much and it helps overcome tiredness of the mind and the body. Whether you spent the entire day scorching out in the sun or you played baseball or volleyball or whatever with your friends, peppermint inhaled as well as diluted with fractioned coconut oil or jojoba oil and massaged into tired muscles will do wonders.

Thieves is another oil I do not leave my house without. It is the best disinfectant and anti-bacterial oil I came across. Whenever I go to somebody else's swimming pool or an outdoor shower, I rub a few drops of thieves into the soles of my feet to prevent bacterial or fungal infections. Too many times when I was a kid I had warts on my feet because I was using public pools all the time.

And if by the end of the day you are so tired but wired up from the events and you cannot fall asleep, inhale Lavender and Peace & Calming. Rub them into the soles of your feet and you will drift into a pleasant slumber in no time.

★ ☆ ★ Have a happy and safe Fourth of July ★ ☆ ★

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Bug Season

It has been too long that I posted and I apologize! It's been a very rough couple of weeks but I do not want to miss the opportunity to tell you about an Essential Oil that I find to be essential in my life during the warm summer months and especially during mosquito and critter season. The Essential Oil is Young Living blend called Purification with its main essential oil being citronella. It also includes lemongrass, rosemary, lavandin, and myrtle.

So last week I went to a lake and where there is water, there are bugs. I heard the mosquitos buzzing around my ears but as soon as I put a few drops of Purification on my face and all exposed skin areas, as well as brushed my hands over my hair, no more buzzzzzzzz :)

Here is how you can use the Purification blend:
1) Put it neat or mix it with coconut, almond, or apricot oil and rub it onto your skin as insect repellant
2) Put a few drops into a spray bottle filled with water and spray your clothes to repel ticks or at home at your windows and screens.
3) Put a few drops on a cotton ball and place them next to your pillow at night when you sleep.
4) Put a few drops on a cotton ball and put them into air vents.
5) Put one drop on a sting or bite as it will remove the toxins and stop the itching.
6) Put a few drops on a jelly fish sting.
7) Rub your feet with a few drops of the oil for cleansing bacteria.

The citronella is mainly used as insect repellant but it also has fungicidal properties, meaning it is an excellent oil for fungal infections. It is also a tonic and stimulant and good for blood circulation, the nervous system, and hormone regulation.
Besides lemongrass being a great insect repellant as well, it has calming properties not only on the mind and the nervous system but also for insect bites, therefore, reducing the itching and calming the skin.
Rosemary is very often used in skin care and therefore an excellent essential oil in this blend. It has soothing properties and reliefs dryness of the skin. It is also used to relief pain such as a bee sting or insect bite but also that of arthritis.
Lavandin is the essence of a hybrid plant between Lavendula Angustifolia and Lavendula Latifolia. The benefits are a bit more intense as Lavender Essential Oil and therefore are calming and soothing for body and mind. A great oil for minor cuts, bruises, bites, stings, and burns. A few drops will take the pain of any sting, bite, or burn away.
Myrtle use dates back to ancient Greece where it was used by Aphrodite, the goddess of Love and Beauty. It is antiseptic and therefore good for insect bites. It is astringent meaning it contracts the blood vessels and it is an expectorant so it reduces infection, phlegm, clears congestions, and is good for the bronchi and lungs. It also has calming benefits on the nervous system.

Wishing you a great buzzzzzz-free summer!

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