Practical Aromatherapy: Heal And Smooth Your Skin With Essential Oils

Practical Aromatherapy: Heal And Smooth Your Skin With Essential Oils
At one time or another, many of us have accidents or surgery that can result in unsightly scars. The same can happen from difficult cases of acne. Even stretch marks from pregnancy or significant weight loss can leave permanent unsmooth textures on the skin. There are few treatments available beyond silicone patches, and these won't work in all cases. If one is looking for a natural means to improve skin appearance as a wound heals, or to smooth old scars or stretch marks, scientific literature provides some formulas that may help.

There are a few primary oils used in skin repair. Other essential oils can be added that have healthful skin properties, such as Carrot Seed, Neroli, Palmarosa and more - with a little research, you can specialize your blends to suit your needs, though here we'll focus on the primary oils for damaged skin. 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 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 Italicum is the foundation oil for regenerative and anti-inflammatory skin healing formulas. It can the ONLY essential oil included, in a base of Rosehip and other seed or nut 'carrier oil' and still produce profound results, especially where skin is presently healing from a wound of some kind. 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 oil is the most popular of all essential oils with a soft, pleasing aroma and broad range of healing properties. 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 - aromatherapy perfume