Top 5 Essential Oils for Skin Care
THESE 5 ESSENTIAL OILS CAN JUMP START YOUR SKIN CARE REGIMEN
Top 5 Essential Oils for Skin Care
Looking for a few essential oils to jump start your beauty regimen? Here are the best essential oils for skin care and why they are so effective. The skin benefits of these essential oils are well documented and have been used for millennia to treat stubborn skin conditions.
Frankincense Essential Oil Skin Benefits
Frankincense essential oil is produced by distillation from the resin of certain Boswellia trees. High quality frankincense oil is found in Somalia and has a deep, sweet incense-like smell. It has been used for thousands of years and is well-known for its skin protection and skin regeneration properties.
Frankincense essential oil has a very strong astringent action. Astringents tone and tighten the skin, making wrinkles disappear. If your skin has become dry or chapped, try applying a little frankincense oil diluted in a carrier oil like coconut or grape seed.
Do you want to fade a scar from acne, a cut, or chicken pox? Try using frankincense essential oil. Frankincense is a cicatrizant, which means that it renews and regenerates skin. If you are wondering if it will help with surgery scars, stretch marks, and age spots / liver spots, you are in luck. Frankincense can help to fade them effectively, also.
Recent research shows that frankincense not only softens and relaxes the skin, but it also softens facial lines, those nasty little things we call wrinkles.
Lavender Essential Oil Skin Benefits
Many people know lavender for its calming properties, but not many people know about using lavender in a beauty regimen. Lavender is so effective at stimulating new cellular growth that it could be referred to as an anti-aging oil.
Lavender is a fantastic oil to use on wounds. In terms of beauty, this means it makes a great skin tonic to use on acne to speed healing. Lavender essential oil can also reduce redness, swelling, and itching associated with acne (or bug bites!).
Recent studies have also shown that lavender can stimulate hair growth, so work a little into your scalp if you find you have thinning hair.
Like frankincense, lavender essential oil has been used for thousands of years and has both antibacterial and antiseptic properties. Most people can use lavender oil without dilution in a carrier oil to treat wounds and minor burns.
Geranium Essential Oil Skin Benefits
Geranium essential oil is derived from plants known as Pelargonium gravolens that is found throughout southern Africa. Geranium has a sweet, fresh, and citrus-like scent that smells much like a rose.
Geranium is an all-around winner when it comes to beauty uses of essential oils because of its versatility and the fact that it can blend well with all other oils.
Geranium essential oil works very well as a skin cleansing agent because it also can help regulate oil and sebum secreted on your face. It assists in skin hydration and helps to relieve inflammation, redness, and itching that is associated with a number of skin conditions, including acne. Geranium’s antibacterial and anti-fungal properties further assist with clearing up cases of acne.
If you have a condition such as melasma or age spots, geranium can help by promoting a more even distribution of melanin because it enhances blood circulation to tissues where it is applied.
Geranium essential oil can reduce the appearance of wrinkles because it is an astringent that gently tightens the muscles in the face, reducing sagging. Additionally, geranium has been found to reduce swelling, so it can help to get rid of facial puffiness.
Myrrh Essential Oil Skin Benefits
Myrrh essential oil is another oil that has been in use for thousands of years. Some records date its use to over 5,000 years. It was well known and used in ancient Egypt, China, and Greece.
Found in northern and eastern Africa, myrrh has been used for perfume, incense, and medicinal purposes. Myrrh oil has been used together with frankincense in traditional Chinese medicine to stimulate blood movement while frankincense was used to stimulate Qi (energy). Together, they are believed to assist in relieving circulatory and painful conditions of the joints.
The skin benefits of myrrh essential oil are numerous. First, myrrh can assist with chapped or cracked skin. Myrrh essential oil can also help in moisturizing dry skin. Most importantly, myrrh essential oil serves as an anti-oxidant. Anti-oxidants help to protect us from free radicals (molecules in our bodies that break down collagen, the tissue that makes our faces look young).
Patchouli Essential Oil Skin Benefits
Used for thousands of years in traditional Asian medicine, patchouli essential oil is perhaps best known for its ability to treat wounds and reduce scars. Although we commonly know patchouli from its use during the 1960’s in incense because of its sweet, earthy, woody smell, its benefits reach far beyond aromatic use.
Patchouli essential oil skin benefits include the reduction of visible marks on the skin such as acne scars, stretch marks, and surgery scars. Fading of scars happens because of patchouli essential oil’s ability to regenerate skin.
Essential Oil Safety
Essential oils are a fantastic natural way to enhance beauty and are generally considered very safe to use. However, some essential oils may be quite strong and require dilution. You should also be aware that certain oils are not to be used when you are pregnant.
