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 old scars from trauma and surgical wounds, acne and other incidents. Recipes Essential oil blends for these applications are gentle, safe for regular use, and have a wonderful aroma to boot. The blends are easy to make, and simple to customize for your particular needs.
Choosing the Essential Oils
There are a few primary oils used in skin repair; additional oils may be added to your liking (to improve aroma, or add further skin-supportive properties), but here, we'll concentrate just on the commonly used oils for skin damage. First, and possibly most important, is Helichrysum Italicum, also known as Everlasting. This oil with a lovely earthy aroma is distilled from the brightly-colored, daisy-like flowers of a strongly aromatic herb native to the Mediterranean region. Helichrysum is one of the most highly regarded oils in aromatherapy for it's broad range of healing properties for body tissues. 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: The Most Powerful Healer
Helichrysum can be used in a simple carrier oil by itself, though it is considered synergistic with Rosehip seed oil and sometimes with Lavender essential oil. This easy-to-make combination has been noted by professional aromatherapists to "heal wounds with minimal or no scarring" though the nutritive triple unsaturated fatty acids and vitamin A compounds of Rosehip seed, combined with the anti-inflammate and regenerative properties of the Helichrysum. Helichrysum can be a little bit pricey, but it's wonderful effects have been noted at very low concentrations of the total blend - a little will go a long way. Helichrysum contains natural anti-inflammatory, stress-relieving and regenerative natural constituents that make it an amazing healer all its own.
Wound Healing Properties of Lavender
As mentioned above, Lavender is often included in skin care blends - it has gentle anti-inflammatory and tissue regenerative properties, along with very soothing, anti-anxiety aroma. This stress-relieving action seems to be imparted even at the cellular level where wound healing occurs. Lavender essential oil itself began the modern aromatherapy revolution when a scientist burned his hand in a laboratory accident, and after cooling the wound in a beaker of Lavender found the wound to heal remarkably quickly. It is also thought to 'synergize' or improve the efficacy of other essential oils in combination.
Sage: Regeneration for Old Wounds and Scars
Next up is the essential oil distilled from the leaves of common Sage, or Salvia officinalis. Sage is used in low concentrations in very specific conditions - where the scars are old and require a little extra phytochemical power to heal. Sage oil can bring circulation to the area, and can assist the scarred area of the skin to regenerate, particularly in concert with other oils. Sage can be used in stretch mark formulas, but should only be employed post-partum because of the high thujone content of the oil.
Rosemary Stimulates Healing
Rosemary is an essential oil with a wonderful aroma that is used in many skin care blends. The Verbenone chemotype is called for here as, like Helichrysum and Lavender, contains regenerating ketones (the Cineol type does not). Rosemary will also stimulate cellular metabolism, improving the nutrition and waste cycling of skin cells.
Carotenoid Containing Essential Oils Speed Healing
Other essential oils can offer important nutrients that may speed the healing process. Most importantly, they offer carotenoids and carotenes -- natural vitamin-A-like compounds needed for increasing the strength of the healing tissue. Vitamin A is considered absolutely critical to normal skin development, and indispensable during wound healing. Carotenoids are also strong antioxidants, which can 'mop up' free radicals at the site of an injury. Two essential oils can be chosen from: Sea Buckthorn and Carrot Root. These are both found as Supercritical Carbon Dioxide extracts with deep colors, indicating the high levels of nutrients.
Antiseptics For Clean Healing
For wounds that are currently healing, a small amount of an antimicrobial oil can help the process. It can prevent redness and irritation that is the result of your body dealing with bacteria at the sight of the injury. One-to-Five percent Tea Tree essential oil can be added to any recipe (this is 8 to 40 drops per ounce of the total formula). The use of the Tea Tree can be discontinued once the wound has sealed completely.
The Base of Your Formulas: The Carrier Oils
The essential oils mentioned here must be diluted in a carrier oil for daily application. In aromatherapy, more is not better! There have been numerous studies showing the great efficacy of essential oils in low concentrations based in seed or nut carrier oils. The two most commonly used base oils for skin care are Rosehip seed and Hazelnut oils. Rosehip seed has many documented uses in skin care, with it's triple-unsaturated fatty acids and it's vitamin A compounds. Rosehip seed has the ability to support tissue regeneration like Retin A, but without the drying or redening side effects. Hazelnut oil is the most well tolerated of all the carrier oils, and with its mild astringent properties, can even be used in cases of very oily skin. It will tend to leave the skin feeling nourished without feeling greasy.
Choosing Your Recipe
And now for a few recipes - a few simple mixtures can cover several skin-healing conditions, both for recent wounds and older scarred tissue. For the support of recent wounds, use one ounce Tamanu and one ounce Rosehip seed oils. To this, add 25 drops each of Helichrysum and Lavender essential oils, plus up to 75 drops of your choice of either Sea Buckthorn or Carrot Root - apply twice a day once the wound can get moist (wait until there is no chance of bleeding). For the improvement of appearance of old scars, keloid scars and acne scars, try the same base oils, replacing the Lavender with Sage essential oil. Use Hazelnut instead of Rosehip seed if you are still prone to an acne outbreak. Apply regularly for 3 to 6 months for best results. For the post-partum reduction of stretch marks, again to the same base oil formula, add 25 drops Sage essential oil and 25 drops Rosemary verbenone. Use this formula again for several months for best results.
This is a summary of a particular aspect of using essential oils for natural health, wellness and beauty. These are effective, tried and true recipes used for their specific, wound healing applications. You can certainly further customize the formulas to suit your needs, or even add additional oils of your liking. With some research, you will find there are wonderful recipes using essential oils for a broad range of skin care applications -- they're very effective, and they're heavenly to use. As with all aromatherapy use, go slowly, watch for any (rare) skin reactions, and remember that less is more with essential oils - almost all have been noted to work in very low, well tolerated concentrations.
The author is a consultant for Ananda Aromatherapy, found at www.anandaapothecary.com. Find more resources are available on aromatherapy and essential oils through the website.
Thank you so much for this detailed information. Helichrysum and the qualities of Rosehipseed oils is now new to me. I am still new to this learning process. I have some new recipes to make now. Thank you again. I do wonder if the above recipe with the sage and hazelnut would help what I think is an eczema patch on my face. Now some scarring so I will give it a try. Have a great fall. Lisa West