Common Herbs and Essential Oils in Skin Care
Essential oils and herbs offer so many benefits in your skin care regime. Below are common essential oils and herbs commonly found in skin care products:
Almond and Almond Oil – A great vegetable oil for dry skin. Commonly used as a carrier oil to blend with other essentials oils. Easily absorbed into the skin and is an excellent emollient with nourishing properties. Safety Precautions: People with nut allergies should avoid almonds and almond oil.
Jojoba –.Jojoba oil makes a great scalp cleanser and hair conditioner. Additionally, because of its absorption properties it is commonly used in skin care propducts as a cleaning agent, makeup remover and moisturizer… It has a great effect on fighting wrinkles, as well as having an anti-bacterial effect on the skin. Jojoba oil can be used as base carrier oil into which other essential oils can be diluted before applying it to the skin. Safety Precautions: No reports of toxicity
Aloe Vera – Aloe is used externally for skin irritation, burns, sunburn, wounds, eczema, psoriasis, acne, and dermatitis. Aloe Vera has good astringent qualities. When used with other ingredients it soothes the skin and stimulates cell regeneration. The oil is combined in massage therapy for its healing and rejuvenating properties. Safety Precautions: When used topically, some individuals may have an allergic reaction and a skin patch test (behind the ear or on the forearm) is advised before use.
Anise – Cooled down tea made from anise can be sponged on the face to help lighten the complexion. Safety Precautions: On the whole, anise is a safe herb to use but due to its trans-anethole estrogen-like action, it may be best avoided during pregnancy or when suffering from endometriosis or any estrogen dependant cancers.
Avocado – Moisturizes, reduces appearance of age spots, heals sun damage and scars. Additionally, avocado regenerates and rejuvenates the skin. Avocado increases collagen in the skin and therefore is an anti-aging ingredient in skin care. Avocado oil has superior moisturizing qualities.
Carrot – A superb skin-nourishing essential oil, carrot seed helps balance both oily and dry complexions, heals damaged skin, and helps aged skin by reducing age spots and wrinkles. Safety Precautions: Carrot seeds and carrot seed oil should not be used excessively during pregnancy.
Chamomile – Tones all types of complexions. The anti-inflammatory effect of this essential oil applied topically improves skin regeneration, and a cold compress does wonders for puffy eyes. Chamomile is used in facial steams to reduce puffiness and cleanse the pores of the skin. Safety Precautions: Handling fresh chamomile plants may cause dermatitis in some individuals. It should not to be used when using anti-coagulant drugs. Please note that the essential oil is said to stimulate the uterus and should be used with care in pregnancy. Allergic reactions may occur for those that are allergic to daisies.
Green Tea – has an antioxidant effect that helps to keep wrinkles at bay. External use: Green tea is often included in anti-aging skin care products for the antioxidant properties contained in the herb. Green tea is a powerful antioxidant, a potent anti-inflammatory agent thereby reducing inflammation in the skin, and having a inhibitory action on collagens – an enzymatic action in the skin where the collagen is broken down, resulting in more firm and elastic skin. In hair care, it can be used with great success to improve the gloss and shine of the hair. Safety Precautions: When pregnant or nursing only limited amounts of green tea should be used, and it can also interfere with MAO inhibitors and blood thinning medication. It should not be consumed together with other medication, as it may interfere with the absorption of such medicine.
Geranium – Wonderful oil for mature and troubled skin and brings a radiant glow and promotes circulation. Safety Precautions: Geranium essential oil is well tolerated by most individuals, but since it helps in balancing the hormonal system, care must be taken during pregnancy.
Ginseng – Ginseng is used in cosmetics for its rejuvenating properties. The vast amount of properties gives Ginseng an almost unlimited use in cosmetics. Its activity makes it useful in nourishing creams, in treating wrinkled and aged skin and in all cosmetic products used to retard the onset of age. Ginseng may be used in products for weak hair and lotions for preventing hair loss as it stimulates growth and gives strength. Safety Precautions: May worsen the side effects of stimulants such as coffee, and should best be avoided when consuming alcohol. Not normally used by pregnant women and is not indicated for use by young children, people suffering from depression, high blood pressure, anxiety or any acute inflammatory disease. Excess may cause headaches, restlessness, high blood pressure, and nausea.
Honey – Refines pores; tightens skin; moisturizes; retards wrinkles; anti-blemish
Jasmine – On the skin, it is used with great effect to treat dry, stressed and sensitive skins and also helps to increase elasticity. Safety Precautions: Although well tolerated, this heavy scented essential oil should be used sparingly, and specially so during pregnancy.
Lanolin – Moisturizer; softener; emollient
Lavender – Lavender skin care products are ideal for oily and combination skin. It has antiseptic and stimulant properties. Lavender is useful in treating skin conditions such as abscesses, acne, allergies, athlete’s foot, boils, bruises, burns, dandruff, dermatitis, earache, eczema, inflammations, insect bites and stings, insect repellant, lice, psoriasis, ringworm, scabies, sores, spots, all skin types, sunburn and wounds. Safety Precautions: Although the essential oil is well tolerated by all skin types, it must be, like all essential oils, used with care – remember essential oils are powerful and very concentrated.
Mud – (including clay, fuller’s earth) reduced large pores; absorb excess grease in oily skin; improves circulation. Safety Precautions: No Toxicity Reported
Nuts – (almonds, cashews, pecans): Scrub to refine pores, combat wrinkles, blackheads and dryness
Oats – Excellent emollient properties. Oats have a softening effect on sensitive skin. It helps to reduce the irritation caused on the skin by harsh climatic conditions or on skin with this kind of problem. It plays an important role in the treatment of older skin as well as problem skin. Safety Precautions: No Toxicity Reported
Patchouli – It can be used for inflamed and itching skin. The oil promotes cell rejuvenation, tightening of loose skin and heals wounds and sores, while sorting out rough, cracked skin. Safety Precautions: The essential oil of patchouli is well tolerated, but its heavy fragrance indicates use in low dosage.
Rose – Astringent and luxurious, rose oils and rose waters are welcome additions to almost any skin care formulation has an astringent effect on oily skin, reducing puffiness, edema and has a slight tightening effect. The oil most effective for moisturizing and hydrating the skin while having a general stimulant and antiseptic action which is good for all skin types, but especially so for dry, mature and irritated skin. It is used to repair broken capillaries, inflammation, as well as skin redness and is useful in eczema Safety Precautions: None noted.
Rosemary – Antioxidant properties, and secondly has a remarkable stimulating effect on the skin. Traditionally used for hair and scalp stimulation, as well as anti-aging products. Safety Precautions: Rosemary essential oil has a highly stimulating action and may not be suitable for people with epilepsy or high blood pressure. The essential oil should also not be used during pregnancy.
Seaweed – very good cellulite reducing capabilities All seaweeds are rich in compounds that are of specific use in the cosmetic industry
Yogurt – Cleanser; bleach; for normal and oily skin
As with any new skin care or hair product, a patch test is recommended.
Skin Types 101
March 4, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
There are four dominant factors that determine your Skin Type. These factors are: oily vs. dry, sensitive vs. resistant, pigmented vs. non-pigmented, and wrinkled vs. tight. The key factors interact to determine the skin’s appearance, problems, needs, and vulnerabilities, and therefore dictate the kinds of products, ingredients, and treatments useful to address them. To get started, let me introduce you to some basics about the skin.
THE BIOLOGY OF THE SKIN
The top layer of the skin, called the epidermis, is made up of four distinct layers. When you look at someone’s skin, you see the very top layer, made up of cells that reflect light. When that top layer is smooth, it reflects light evenly so that the skin looks more uniform and radiant than it does when the surface is rougher.
At the lowest portion of the epidermis are “mother cells,” called basal cells, which produce all the other skin cells. They divide into “daughter cells,” which rise up to the higher levels of the epidermis. As they travel, they age and eventually die, so that the top layer consists of dead cells which naturally exfoliate off in a process called the “cell cycle,” which can take anywhere from twenty-six to forty-two days. Between the third and eighth decades of life, the cell cycle slows from 30 to 50 percent of its pace in youth. That means that older skin renews itself much more slowly, forming a rough surface of cells, rather than a smooth surface. The uppermost cells contain a natural moisturizing factor (NMF), which holds moisture. The body responds to a dry environment by producing more NMF, but it takes several days for production to rev up, so your skin may become quite dehydrated before help comes. That’s why it’s important to moisturize your skin in any dry environment. Substances released by the cells in the middle of the epidermis form a protective film made of lipids (fats) that surrounds skin cells and helps keep the skin hydrated. Your fingers and toes contain fewer lipids and are therefore not as “watertight” as your legs, which is why your fingers and toes look shriveled after immersion in water but your legs do not. Your skin cracks in cold weather because the chilled lipids become stiffer and less able to adjust to movement. The goal of the best moisturizers is to increase the amount of these important lipids, helping your skin to hold moisture.
5 Steps for Healthy Skin
February 17, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
Are you serious about your skin care? Serious skin care requires a total health approach, or you’ll never achieve the skin care results you want.
After all, our health is the most important thing to us. What are we without our health? And our overall state of health is related to the state of our skin as well as our overall wellbeing. With good health we achieve great skin, but without it it’s extremely difficult to achieve great skin.
So if, to achieve serious skin care results, we need to get serious about our skin, and health, first, what should we do? How do we go about this?
Simple. Notice I said simple, not easy. There’s 5 simple things we can do to achieve the skin we want, and the look we want. And if we do these 5 things then we’ll also achieve great overall health and feel great as well as achieving serious skin health.
Here’s what you need to do:
1. Exercise. There’s no doubt that exercise has an impact on just about every aspect of our life, and health, including our skin. Exercise, for example, increases our ability to circulate the blood around our body, and as the skin, like other organs, requires a good blood supply, improved circulation will improve your skin health. Serious skin care must involve a minimum amount of exercise.
2. Improve your diet. Cut down on the Pizzas and burgers, increase your intake of high quality fresh fruit and vegetables. Increase your intake of good vitamins and minerals and antioxidants and your skin will thank you for it.
3. Use high quality organic health supplements to supplement those vitamins and minerals that we should be getting in our diet, but aren’t. Because even the best diet will have it’s deficiencies, for a number of reasons, and we need to use high quality organic supplements to correct this.
4. Avoid well known brand name skin care products. Serious skin care cannot be found in a brand name moisturizer. Brand name products contain ingredients that are at best suspect and at worst actively damaging to our health and skin. And the bottom line is that mainstream skin care products don’t work anyway, so even ignoring the health risks, you’re wasting your money using the skincare products on the shelves of your local store.
5. Use a quality organic skin care range that offers tested ingredients proven not only to be safe to your overall health but also to work. And the best ones are backed up with money back guarantees so you can try the products risk free until you’re convinced that they are working for you. Try getting a money back guarantee like that from your mainstream skincare product manufacturers.
Serious skin care requires a serious, thought out approach to overall health, not just skin health, because the two go together. If you’re serious about your skin care you need to make an effort. Anything less and it just won’t work. But if you do it will shine through in far more than just your skin health. It will show in your whole life.
Because your skin is just another organ in your body. It’s a visible organ, not an invisible one. Because people see your skin they see when your skin us unhealthy, because it looks unhealthy. But if you get healthy generally then your skin gets healthy, and looks it.
So make sure you get serious and practice some serious skin care practices. Eat well, stay moving and stay healthy and everyone will know, from how your skin looks.
Where do you get these great skin care products? Not from the mainstream anti aging and skin care companies, in fact the best ones come from a company you’ve probably never heard of.
