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Healing Your Skin With Essential Oils

By Michelle Cech

Republish: EasyPublish™
Published: 21Jun2007
Word count: 873
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Pure 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 stretch marks, old scars from wounds, bouts of acne and other incidents. Essential oil blends for these applications are gentle, safe for regular use, and have a wonderful aroma to boot! These oils and blends are described in the French medical aromatherapy liturature, an excellent source for true therapeutic use of 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 likely most important, is Helichrysum Italicum, also known as Everlasting. This oil with a lovely earthy and floral aroma is distilled from the brightly-colored, daisy-like flowers native to the Mediterranean region. Helichrysum is highly regarded in medical aromatherapy for it's range of healing properties. 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 essential oil is the cornerstone for many blends for healing the skin, and is the only one necessary for supporting currently healing skin damage - it should be used at appropriate concentrations with Rosehip Seed and Hazelnut oils, as mentioned later in this article. As noted by well-known aromatherapist Kurt Schnaubelt, "The triple unsaturated fatty acids (of Rosehip Seed oil) strengthen the cell membranes and, combined with the regenerative qualities of Everlasting oil (Helichrysum), heal wounds with minimal or no scarring".

Lavender essential oil is another very commonly used aromatic with a pleasant, soothing aroma and well-known healing effects. The specific type of lavender oil is distilled from the flowers of the Lavendula angustifolia species. It is included in many skin care blends as it also contains ketone molecules which stimulate tissue regeneration. Lavender, also like Helichrysum, is an anti-inflammatory, and is generally thought to bring synergy (enhancing the overal effect) to essential oil blends.

The essential oil distilled from common Sage is included for skin damage that is 'old' - where the healing happened some time ago and has left some unsightly scars. Thie oil can be effective on keloid scars, acne scars, etc, though application need be regular and should continue for 3 to 6 months. Sage oil is used to break up the scar tissue and to stimulate regeneration with it's powerful components. Sage oil should be used with great care and in small amounts. While it is called for in formulas for stretch marks, it should only be use after pregnancy, and not during by expectant mothers.

Rosemary is the final essential oil we'll cover here for skin healing and scar treatment. Rosemary of the Verbenone chemotype (rather than Cineol, which does not have the same properties) contains regenerative ketones like Lavender and Helichrysum, plus has the added benefit of stimulating the skin's metabolic process. This oil can bring greater circulation to skin tissues, delivering nutrients and eliminating cellular waste and toxins.

All these essential oils should be diluted in carrier oils, different than essential oils in that they are made up of fatty acids, rather than volatile aromatic compounds. Carrier oils help the skin absorb the essential oils, and provide important nutrients to help the skin heal and look its best. The most healing of these is Rosehip Seed oil, cold-pressed from seeds of plants native to mountainous regions of South America. In addition to healthy unsaturated fatty acids, the oil contains natural vitamin A compounds similar to the pharmaceutical preparation Retin-A but without the over drying or redness that often accompanies its use. Hazelnut oil is also a wonderful carrier well tolerated by all skin types; its gentle astringent qualities prevent the skin from feeling oily upon application.

Now for the recipes. For effective wound healing of recent cuts and scrapes (and for surgical incisions), in 1 ounce Hazelnut oil and 1 ounce Rosehip seed oil add 1 milliliter (25 drops) of Helichrysum essential oil and 1 milliliter of Lavender essential oil - apply twice a day for 7 to 10 days. For older scars from wounds or acne, including keloid scars, replace the Lavender in the previous recipe with Sage essential oil. Apply regularly for 3 to 6 months. For the healing of stretch marks post partum, use 1 ounce Rosehip seed and 1 ounce Hazelnut oil with 1 milliliter Sage essential oil and 2 milliliters with Rosemary Verbenone essential oil; again use for 3 to 6 months.

These effective recipes are derived from the French medical aromatherapy liturature specifically for wound healing applications. With some research, you will find wonderful recipes using essential oils for a broad range of skin care applications - they work, 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 degreed natural health professional specializing in women's health education. She is the owner of the Ananda Apothecary, an online resource for aromatherapy and therapeutic essential oils. She may be contacted through the website for more information.

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