Essential Oils for Skincare

There are many pure essential oils that are fabulous for skincare. They can work on minimising wrinkles, blemishes, scars, stretch marks. Some essential oils can help combat skin conditions such as acne, eczema, psoriasis, dry cracked skin, dermatitis, itchiness. They can help heal wounds, unblock pores, reduce rosacea and broken veins. This article takes a look at a few of my favourites and ways in which you could use them.

My Favourite Essential Oils for Skincare

Follow the links for detailed information about each essential oil.

• Frankincense – a deeply calming essential oil, used in a lot of skincare products as it rejuvenates aging skin. It’s anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and cell regeneration properties make it great for minimising wrinkles, blemishes, and scars.
• Geranium – a calming and balancing essential oil, with natural antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that are a tonic to skin health. It helps skin stay conditioned and balanced.
• Jasmine – a relaxing and very balancing essential oil, a good skin balm for all skin types. It increases skin elasticity so is great for improving stretch marks.
• Lavender – soothing and nourishing for the skin. It’s anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, and cell regeneration properties make it great for acne, eczema, and spots. It’s also brilliant for treating burns if applied neat immediately.
• Lemon – a calming and clearing essential oil, rich in antioxidants and an excellent skin tonic. It can kill bacteria that may get trapped in pores, so is great for your complexion and skin conditions such as acne.
• Mandarin – a gentle refreshing essential oil, known for its healing and cell regeneration properties. This makes it great for healing wounds and in particular preventing and minimising stretch marks.
• Neroli – a deeply relaxing essential oil, used in a lot of skincare products as it hydrates skin and helps to combat the aging process. It’s antioxidant and cell regeneration properties make it great for minimising wrinkles, scars, and stretch marks.
• Palmarosa – an uplifting and hydrating essential oil that can have a gentle yet powerful healing effect. It is an excellent choice for skin conditions such as acne, dry cracked skin, and dry and wet eczema.
• Rose – a cheering and balancing essential oil, excellent for dry, chapped, cracked, or sensitive skin. It tones capillaries and helps with broken veins and rosacea so is a wonderful oil to use in a face cream.
• Rosewood – an uplifting and clearing oil especially useful for skincare. It is a tonic and healer making it excellent for giving the skin a boost, and also for treating skin conditions such as acne and dermatitis.
• Sandalwood – a comforting and reviving oil with anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, and antioxidant properties that make it an excellent choice for skincare. All skin types; aging skin; cracked, damaged or chapped skin; acne, eczema, dermatitis; itchiness and inflammation.
• Vetiver – a deeply relaxing and unblocking essential oil with antiseptic and antibacterial properties that make it perfect for deeply cleansing and purifying the skin. Excellent in fighting anything that clogs your pores, such as pollutants and toxins.

Face Creams

It’s important to be careful when choosing essential oils for your face. One of the best ways of applying them is diluted in a moisturising cream base, which should be light enough to be easily absorbed and non-greasy. Because the cream is in itself nourishing the addition of appropriate pure essential oils results in a very effective face cream. Appropriate is a key word here, only gentle essential oils should be used on the sensitive skin of the face, properly diluted. Also, as face cream is applied close to the nose it’s important to aim for a pleasing aroma. Obviously, aroma is a very individual preference so you may have to experiment to find the face cream most suited to you.
Pure Aromatherapy Face Creams have been formulated to fulfil all of these criteria, with a choice of three options:

• Luxurious Face Cream – a light moisturising cream with the lovely soft floral woody aromas of Rose and Sandalwood, harmonised using a dash of Lavender. Excellent for general skincare day or night, soothing inflamed or damaged skin, and for treating all manner of skin conditions. With its gorgeous uplifting aroma this is my personal favourite.
• Rejuvenating Face Cream – the gorgeous happy aromas of Frankincense and Neroli combine to delight the senses. This combination is especially well known for its antiaging properties, so the cream is particularly good for mature skin. Also great for many other skin conditions.
• Conditioning Face Cream – this face cream was formulated specifically for treating hormone-related acne, with good results. Vetiver gives it a wonderful earthy woody aroma, combining beautifully with sweet woody Sandalwood. Good for all skin types and treating many skin conditions.

Hand Creams

Hand creams usually come in a rich base containing butters as well as oils, hence a little bit goes a long way. Adding appropriate essential oils to this base, especially those with a long-lasting aroma, can produce something that’s almost akin to a perfume. The base used in Pure Aromatherapy Hand Creams is fabulous, easily absorbed and deeply moisturising with a really smooth finish.

• Luxurious Hand Cream – a rich nourishing hand cream transformed into a luxurious floral treat through the addition of Rose and Jasmine pure essential oils. Excellent for dry, chapped, cracked, or sensitive skin, as well as for eczema and soothing skin irritation.
• Rejuvenating Hand Cream – a rich moisturising hand cream, with a gorgeous, spicy, floral, warm aroma resulting from the addition of Frankincense, Neroli, and a dash of Lavender. A must for dry and/or mature skin.
• Nourishing Hand Cream – this deeply nourishing hand cream was formulated specifically for treating eczema, and therefore also dry, cracked, chapped, or sensitive skin. Sandalwood, Rosewood, and Palmarosa give it a lighter aroma than the other two, with a refreshing spicy fruity finish.

Body Lotions

Out of the different types of potions body lotions tend to be lighter. However they still contain plenty of moisturising ingredients. Generally dispensed using a lotion pump as they are less viscous. Appropriate essential oils are added to the lotion base, to give them additional skin health properties and a lovely aroma. Can be used all over the body, although it’s probably best to stick to a face cream for the face. Very convenient and easy to use at any time, but particularly after a shower or bath. Pure Aromatherapy Body Lotions come in three gorgeous aromas:

• Uplifting Body Lotion – an uplifting and calming blend of Frankincense, Lemon, and Lavender essential oils in a moisturising lotion base. An excellent skin tonic for any skin type. Particularly good for dry and/or mature skin with Frankincense as an ingredient.
• Refreshing Foot & Body Lotion – A lovely refreshing blend of Frankincense and Lemon essential oils, this time blended with Geranium in a moisturising lotion base. As this blend has balancing properties I use it at the end of my Reflexology treatments, hence the ‘foot’ label. It can of course be used as an all over body lotion too.
• Luxurious Body Lotion – A calming and soothing blend of Jasmine, Sandalwood, and Orange pure essential oils in a moisturising lotion base. Pamper in a bottle! Sandalwood & Jasmine are excellent for skincare.

Pure Aromatherapy also make soothing Aftershave Lotions, using the same moisturising base plus pure essential oils that are not only good for your skin but smell fantastic. Zesty spice!

Massage Oils

This article is mainly about creams and lotions that are great for skincare. However, I can’t not mention Pure Aromatherapy Massage Oils, the ultimate moisturisers. Whilst not really suitable for daytime they are perfect for use late evening so they can be left to work their magic overnight. Apply an hour or two before you go to bed. Anywhere that needs it including your face.

I hope you find this article useful, and enjoy using my skincare products. Or have fun blending your own!