Skincare Naturals » Essential Oils

Magnificent Morning Ritual

Jan — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 06:07:24 +0000

I’ve recently been paying more attention to my skin care routine, in particular my face.

One of the items that I find to be very beneficial is a morning facial steam.

It can also be nice at night – along with a clean pair of jammies and clean bedding AND a good book – it doesn’t get much better than that!

It takes about 10 minutes if I do it in the morning and really makes me feel clearer for most of the day. You can heat the water when you make your morning tea or coffee.

It’s a nice way to relax into the day while at the same time, energizing. It’s not hard to get up a little earlier to do this if that’s what you need to do since it is so enjoyable and takes little energy, especially if you get your items ready the night before.

It is making a huge difference in how I feel throughout the day.

I don’t have one of the facial steamers that you can buy although I wouldn’t mind checking one out, I have a bowl that I use especially for this, it’s stainless steel with a rubber bottom so there is less chance of spillage or breakage – something to always watch out for – a spill can be nasty, especially if you have children or pets around.

I keep it simple – add a few drops of what ever essential oil I’m in the mood for – eucalyptus, spearmint or myrtle if I want to be refreshed, frankincense is all around wonderful and today I used some Australian Sandalwood that I have, a lovely way to start the day.

DON’T OVER DO

Especially for the stronger essential oils, it’s important to let some of the essential oils diffuse before sticking your head under the towel over the steaming water so that they don’t burn your eyes or nose/throat.

Don’t get too close and enjoy.

You can see a selection of my essential oils here.

I think it would be a great idea to put an assortment of 5ml bottles together for this, stay tuned and let me know if you have any preferences for essential oils that you would like to start the day with.

GREAT PRODUCT IDEA

If you sell soaps, this would be a wonderful and easy product addition to your site as well. If you can find some nice headbands it would be even nicer, you could even go whole hog and add a plush towel.

A smaller one for blotting the face after spells l-u-x-u-r-i-o-u-s.

I did this to make up a few face spa Christmas baskets and it worked very well. I used a large plush towel as the basket/spa bag (I used a small basket and wrapped it up with the towel – I sewed one to make a beach bag for a Florida trip and just tied the other one for a more casual look – they were both nice.

You can put this together any time of the year and vary the colour scheme to suit the theme of the essential oils or time of year. I did all white with silver accents and it came out very nicely.

If you’re in the US, you can get some nice essential oils at a reasonable price at the sites listed on the sidebar, or for an absolutely decadent experience, try Nature’s Gift essential oils (I get no kickback for that, I just LOVE Marge’s oils, her rose otto would be to die for in a face spa basket).

Essential Oil Blends for Mature and Aging Skin

Jan — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 19:36:30 +0000

My favourite essential oil blends for mature and aging skin can be made from frankincense, galbamum, fennel, geranium, myrrh, patchouli, rose, rosemary verbenone, clary sage, red myrtle, rosewood, cypress and lavender.

These are also recommended for aging or mature skin although I haven’t used them myself – elemi, cistus, sages and neroli.

ESSENTIAL OIL BLEND IDEAS…

Pretty much all of the above essential oils will blend well with lavender, the frankincense and clary sage and cypress would blend together.

Going from there, I did a little playing and found a blend that I like – I was in the mood for fresh so I left out the clary sage – it seemed comparatively muddy although it is one of my favourites - if you happen to have neroli a wee touch would probably be really nice either with or without the lavender.

You can make it without the lavender for a cleaner, uplifting scent. The Lavender Population essential oil is a more earthy scent so it doesn’t overpower the blend and is a better grade of lavender for skin care - if you like to have a stronger floral lavender component you can add more lavender and use the French Lavender.

And that is the fun of creating your own blends – you can decide what you are in the mood for and tweak it exactly to your liking.

If you haven’t seen it, I wrote an article series about how you can create you own blends – I find that there is a process if you want to really enjoy it and get it exactly right.

MAKING SCENTS – How To Create Your Own Essential Oil Blend

A Few Blends for Mature and Aging Skin

2 parts Frankincense
6 parts Cypress
3 parts Lavender Population High Altitude

If you are in the mood for clary sage, it blends wonderfully with lavender.

I would use the French and blend at

Clary Sage 2 parts
French Lavender 1 or 2 parts depending on if you want the lavender at the forfront of the blend or to mingle in the background.

Purchasing Essential Oils for Your Blend

I have some nice lavenders for skincare here that aren’t on the site yet – there is French Lavender and Organic Lavender Population – 5ml – 4.99 or 1oz – 12.99 for the French or 5ml – 5.99 or 1oz – 15.99 for the Organic Population High Altitude.

You can order from these links and from the main shopping site together – your items will show on the same order. The continue shopping button will take you to the L – O essential oil directory page. If you want to come back to this page you can use your browser back button. To return to the cart from either site you can use this link – Return to Cart

The link for the essential oil directory is here
http://www.handmadesoap.ca/pure-essential-oils.html

2 More Fantastic Oils for Mature and Aging Skin

These oils can be used as carrier oils -

Sea Buckthorn Berry C02: 1oz 9.99- a golden red colour (it will stain, especially if used in higher concentrations) high in vitamin A, C and E.

Calendula Infused Sunflower Oil: 1oz – 4.99. The Calendula has a slightly sweet scent and is extremely soothing.

Both are wonderful in any mature and aging skin care product.

If You Can’t Find an Essential Oil

NOTE: If there is an essenstial oil that you would like that is not found on the site, let me know in the comments section below. If it’s popular I will try to add it to the selection or I will point you to it if it so happens that it is on the site.

French Lavender 5ml Free

If you place an order for $45 or more of mature/aging skincare essential oils mentioned here and let me know in the message section of the cart that you read about them here, I will be happy to include a bonus 5ml of french lavender with your order.

Favourite Blend of the Day

Jan Ferrante — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:11:32 +0000

I was bottling some basil and lavender today.

It just so happened that I also was making a few room sprays for the house as well.

I couldn't resist the way they smell together so made a basil/lavender room spray for at my desk.

I LOVE it!

It's fresh and floral.

THE BLEND

I didn't measure, but I think it was about 3 basil to 1 part lavender. It doesn't take much lavender to round out the scent of the basil.

You could do this blend at almost any ratio. I prefer more basil than lavender but you could have some fun playing with it.

BTW, basil smells amazing alone. It surprisingly reminds me of licorice with a fresh, greenness about it if that makes any sense :0)

If you want to make some, go ahead and order them, any size, through the link and I'll send along a free teardrop glass mister bottle like mine (note: there is a $35.00 minimum, if you want small bottles you can order anything else on the site to go with them).

Just be sure to leave me a message in the check out area of the cart that you saw this post and would like a mister bottle with your basil and lavender.

Note: My bottle in the picture isn't radio active or filled with holy water, the picture just kept coming out that way. Told you it was good :0)