Essential Oils: How This Natural Skincare Ingredient Does More Than Benefit Your Skin

Essential oils are an important ally in formulating natural skin care products. Many of them have the ability to make profound changes to our skin, and being volatile oils they also give products wonderful scents. However, essential oils work much harder than skin deep; many of them supporting our overall physical and emotional wellbeing in remarkable ways.

Here are a few of my favourites:

Frankincense:

Possibly the most valuable and versatile oil. Its skin benefits are well researched and boundless. Skin regeneration and repair, skin barrier strengthening, reducing redness and irritation and improving surface texture and radiance are the main benefits we see. Boswellic acids, the main active component of resin extracts, have had many positive results with fighting skin cancer and precancerous cells in both research and real-life tests.

Frankincense’s whole-body benefits are as numerous as it’s topical ones. Highly anti-inflammatory, we see great benefits for joint pain and arthritis, post exercise muscle recovery and other chronic inflammation. Frankincense calms the nervous system reducing anxiety, mental fatigue and overwhelm. It has been used for hundreds of years in meditation and breathwork rituals for its ability to support deep breathing, thus promoting emotional steadiness, mental clarity and overall calm. If I was only allowed one essential oil to use, I would choose frankincense.

Citrus oils:

These oils are another big favourite of mine. I love the immediate results they tend to give. For our skin they brighten and even skin tone, reduce pigmentation (especially lemon) and provide antioxidant support to protect the skin. Citrus oils in particular need to be used with care, at the right dilutions and we use distilled citrus oils (instead of the more common cold-pressed method) to eliminate the risk of phototoxicity (burning when exposed to UV or the sun).

I’m yet to meet someone who doesn’t melt when inhaling a high-quality citrus oil; lemon, lime, orange, mandarin, they all have the ability to lift our mood, lower our stress and brighten even the darkest winter’s day. Citrus oils are an important ally of mine this time of year. Traditionally citrus oils aid in digestive and lymphatic support for our whole body, boost our immune systems and help fight bacterial and viral infections.

Geranium:

Another wonderful versatile essential oil, geranium is a master balancer; whenever I see imbalance in the skin or body I reach for this beautiful oil. Geranium regulates sebum in oily skin, supports moisture balance in dry skin and harmonizes oil regulation in combination skin. It supports healthy cell renewal which improves almost all skin conditions from acne, to uneven texture to dull or inflamed skin. It is especially useful in minimizing scars and reducing the redness associated with damaged skin.

Geranium’s balancing talents extend to our whole-body, in particular female hormonal imbalances and associated issues such as PMS, menstrual discomfort and perimenopausal imbalance. I also love geranium for circulation and fluid balance, traditionally used for fluid retention, swelling and heavy limbs.

Essential oils are powerful plant extracts, and must always be diluted appropriately and respected for the properties they have. However, used appropriately they are a wonderful gift from mother nature for whole-body benefits and healing.