Wednesday 3 August 2011

Beautiful Skin Naturally - Smoothing Your Skin with Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy:
Pure essential oils have a long history of use in natural skin care. These wonderful phytochemicals provide a great breadth of natural, medicinal components well-known for healing damaged skin, as well as reducing the appearance of stretch marks, old scars from wounds, bouts of acne and other incidents. Essential oil blends for these applications are gentle, safe for regular use, and have a wonderful aroma to boot! These oils and blends are described in the French medical aroma therapy liturature, an excellent source for true therapeutic use ofessential oils.
There are a few primary oils used in skin repair. Other essential oils can be added that have healthul skin properties, such as Carrot Seed, Neroli, Palmarosa and more - with a little research, you can specialize your blends to suit your needs, though here we'll focus on the primary oils for damaged skin. First, and likely most important, is Helichrysum Italicum, also known as Everlasting. This oil with a lovely earthy and floral aroma is distilled from the brightly-colored, daisy-like flowers native to the Mediterranean region. Helichrysum is highly regarded in medical aroma therapy for it's range of healing properties. It is strongly anti-inflammatory, and has a high concentration of regenerative diketones found only in this oil. It is a bit more expensive due to it's low yield in processing, but produces it's wonderful effects in very small doses.
Helichrysum essential oilss the cornerstone for many blends for healing the skin, and is the only one necessary for supporting currently healing skin damage - it should be used at appropriate concentrations with Rosehip Seed and Hazelnut oils, as mentioned later in this article. As noted by well-known aromatherapist Kurt Schnaubelt, "The triple unsaturated fatty acids (of Rosehip Seed oil) strengthen the cell membranes and, combined with the regenerative qualities of Everlasting oil (Helichrysum), heal wounds with minimal or no scarring".
Lavender oil is the most popular of all essential oils with a soft, pleasing aroma and broad range of healing properties. The specific type of lavender oil is distilled from the flowers of the Lavendula angustifolia species. It is included in many skin care blends as it also contains ketone molecules which stimulate tissue regeneration. Lavender, also like Helichrysum, is an anti-inflammatory, and is generally thought to bring synergy (enhancing the overal effect) to essential oil blends.
The essential oilsdistilled from common Sage is included for skin damage that is 'old' - where the healing happened some time ago and has left some unsightly scars. Thie oil can be effective on keloid scars,acne scars, etc, though application need be regular and should continue for 3 to 6 months. Sage oil is used to break up the scar tissue and to stimulate regeneration with it's powerful components. Sage oil should be used with great care and in small amounts. Sage is included for post-partum stretch mark treatment; it should not be used during pregnancy
Rosemary is the final essential oilswe'll cover here for skin healing and scar treatment. Rosemary Verbenone is also a popular skin-care essential oils known to enhance the skin's natural metabolism. Rosemary will improve the nutrient flow into skin cells, and speed the elimintation of metabolic wastes as well.
To complete these formulas, the essential oilss are mixed with 'carrier' or 'base' oils. Carrier oils help the skin absorb the essential oils and provide important nutrients to help the skin heal and look its best. The most important is Rosehip seed, pressed from the seeds (suprise!) of Rosehips grown in the mountains of Chile. In addition to healthy unsaturated fatty acids, the oil contains natural vitaminA compounds similar to the pharmaceutical preparation Retin-A but without the over drying or redness that often accompanies its use. Hazelnut oil is also a wonderful carrier well tolerated by all skin types; its gentle astringent qualities prevent the skin from feeling oily upon application.

Source: http://www.infodaily.org/Topics/Aromatherapy/Beautiful-Skin-Naturally-Smoothing-Your-Skin-with-Aromatherapy.asp

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