Get Exceptional Results With These Exceptional Aromatherapy Base Oils
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By using essential oils for skin care, you’re not only using exceptionally potent therapeutic herbal extracts, you’re also able to precisely tailor your blends to your skin’s needs. When making these blends, the essential oils are mixed into seed or nut oils called “carrier oils”. The carrier oils provide macro- and micro-nutrients to the skin, and aid absorption of the essential oils. Some truly exotic carrier oils have come on the scene recently, having profoundly therapeutic action themselves. Mix up your blend with these and you’ll really have a super skin care formula. This is a quick review of these “new” carrier oils, and how you might use them.
Our first exotic oil is pressed from the seeds of rosehips, grown in the mountains of South America. While this may be the most common of our “exotic” carrier oils, many people are still a little vague on its origins. Rosehips are actually the fruit of the rose flower, and in this case the fruit of roses that, until recently, grew wild in a tough, mountainous environment. These small, red, round fruits are are full of antioxidants (there is a pure rosehip oil available as a CO2 extract, also excellent for skin care), and the seeds have an exceptionally fatty acid profile.
In the medical aromatherapy literature, you’ll see rosehip seed oil as a primary ingredient in formulas to reduce scar appearance and to enhance wound healing. The same features of supporting cellular regeneration of the dermis make it an excellent oil for anti-aging skin care as well. There is a significant body of published research indicating regular application of rosehip seed oil can reduce scar appearance, and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. It can be used to help with acne scars as well, the only caveat being than one needs to not be prone to breakouts any longer when using the oil. It is commonly used at about 1/5th of the total base oil formula.
The most broadly therapeutic of the exotic skin care oils, and perhaps one of the most broadly therapeutic carrier oil for nearly every purpose, is Tamanu. This thick, grainy, green and pungent oil is pressed from aged tamanu nuts. These grow wild on the South Pacific island of Vanuatu, and throughout the region.
Tamanu oil is considered a “wonder oil” in that it is thought to heal virtually every conceivable condition of the skin. It is an excellent choice for wound healing, scar reduction, and caring for mature skin, as tamanu can significantly increase the “turnover” rate of skin cells — increasing the speed of this process by up to 3 times. It is thought effective for treating fungal infections, acne and eczema as well. Tamanu can be used at 100% strength, but is most commonly blended with other base oils at 10-20% of the formula.
A new oil sweeping the high end skin care markets is Argan, also called Moroccan Oil — taking its name from the origin of the nut. The oil has been used for ages in the region for both cooking and cosmetics. It’s acceptance by users of natural beauty products have been a boon to the local economy, and resulted in positive steps to preserve this wonderful natural resource.
The oil is rich in essential fats, plus the antioxidant vitamin E and a variety of other antioxidant polyphenols. Argan oil is reputed to have anti-aging properties, and be an excellent lightweight moisturizer. A director of research at Avada skin care suggested “the antioxidants and fatty acids work synergistically to stop inflammation”, and important point, as inflammation is a root cause of skin aging. Argan is a very user friendly oil, in that it has little aroma of its own, making its use as 100% of your base formula more of a possibility.
These oils are all exceptionally beneficial for skin care. They’re all excellent choices for anti-aging blends, and it appears that tamanu may be the most holistically therapeutic (supporting the healing of the widest variety skin conditions). You can make an exceptional base by combining all three alone, or using 20% of each and 40% of virgin coconut oil (a truly therapeutic oil that has lost its exotic-ness, as we find it everywhere these days). This would be a supremely healing formula, excellent for nearly every skin care condition (it is only acne that demands the removal of rosehip seed from the recipe). To this you can add your essential oils at a total concentration of up to 5%, and make true skin care magic.
The Ananda Apothecary is a fully-stocked source of therapeutic grade essential oils, including pure amyris oil and a supercritical CO2 distillation of clove oil.
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