Skincare With Essential Oils

Guide To Essential Oils:

We have come to believe that oils clog the skin and cause skin eruptions. Creamy chemical-laden products do just that, but a body that is lacking the proper oils has the side effects of dry, parched, aging skin. Take all the fats and oils out of your diet and out of your skin care products and you will go from being a plump juicy grape to a dried up old raisin long before your time.

Base Oils:

• Avocado Oil: It is a wonderful, non-irritating oil that is used as a base for all blended body oils. Each ounce is packed with many active ingredients like vitamin A (20,000 IU), vitamin D (40,000) IU) and vitamin E (300IU).
• Carrot Oil: It has tonnes of vitamins and is a super skin food. It is also non-irritating, so you can use it topically.
• Evening Primrose Oil: It is a super-powered, super beauty oil packed with essential fatty acids. Use it topically and take it internally.
• Olive Oil: It contains essential fatty acids and is a good, non-irritating base oil. It is one of the best oils you can take internally.
• Wheat Germ Oil: It is packed with vitamin E and essential fatty acids, and is also a good, non-irritating base oil.
• Sun Flower Oil: It has lots of essential fatty acids and is virtually non-irritating.

The Blending Of Oils:The beauty of blending your own oils is that you get to customise them to your own special needs and liking. You’ll find that blending your own oils is also simple, and liberating. You’ll want to use a six-ounce jar for blending your oils. The vitamins you’ll use come in gel caps. You can stick them with a pin or snip them with a pair of scissors and squeeze the vitamins into the jar. Put the lid on and handshake vigorously. Below are some formulas / recipes that you can try:

The Glow Oil Recipe:

• Pour 4 ounces of a base oil (usually avocado because of its rich active ingredients) into a six-ounce container or jar.
• Add 500mg each of vitamins A, D and E.
• As a finishing touch, add 2000mg of evening primrose oil.

You can purchase all the above oils and vitamins at your local health food store. Try apricot kernel oil as an even lighter base and add some of your essential oils, lavender, rose or jasmine for a flowery scent if you like. Make sure you include the vitamins listed in the above recipe. You don’t need to use much of any oil, just a few drops on each part of your body. It is light and absorbed easily into your skin. It leaves absolutely no oily or greasy residue.

Scented Baths:15-20 drops (1/8 dram) essential oil or oil blend.

• 3/4 dram carrier oil.
• 1 1/2 – 3 ounces Epsom salt.

Be certain that it is mixed thoroughly, as the oil may have a tendency to form into clumps in the salt. Even distribution is required. Also note that this will make several baths. It only takes 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons of mixture for an entire bath.

Fragrant Herbal Bath:

• 450g Humulus lupulus
• 25g Thymus serpyllum
• 25g Salvia officinalis
• 25g Lavender

Put the ingredients into a muslin bag and tie securely. Hang the bag from the hot tap while the bath is running, so that the hot water passes through it, extracting the natural oils and fragrance of the herbs. This bath will help relax tired muscles and relieve rheumatism.

While there are different methods of preparing the aromatic baths, two of them emerge as the easiest and least complicated in the preparatory stages.

1. One is to introduce the essential oil or oil blend into a small amount of Epsom salts, and to dissolve the salts into a tub of hot or warm water. Some take the trouble to add color and fixatives to the mixture to produce something comparable to the commercially available bath salts. Unless the intention is to market the end product, this is really unnecessary. In fact, the salts can be prepared just minutes prior to the time of use. If the essential oil blend contains ingredients that may act as irritants, you may be able to still utilize their virtuous properties if you increase the amount of Epsom salt and introduce a carrier oil to dilute the oil blend. However, if you are not certain that you can eliminate the negative effects of the irritants, it may be wiser to choose another method of administering the remedy altogether.

2. Another method of creating an aromatic bath is to introduce the essential oil blend directly into the bath water. Although this is a viable way to prepare a bath quickly, it is not the choice method for optimum effectiveness. Because oil and water do not truly mix, it is easier to get an even distribution of the fragrance if a moment is taken to mix the essential oil blend with the bath salts before adding it to the water. Like heated massage oil, the warmth of the freshly drawn bath serves to open the pores of the skin. Thus, in addition to the benefits of inhalation while immersed in the scented water, the individual is actually taking in the healing properties of the essential blend through the skin.