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Guide to using Essential Oils {Beauty Products}

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So, as I promised to you all that I shall be spending the DIY series of this entire month on my exploits using Essential Oils, I thought it would be prudent and informative to give a little theoretical background on how should an EO be used. And, we shall have practicals from next week 🙂
Skin and Hair Care
Essential Oils are very concentrated so they have to be diluted to be used in the regular routines otherwise they can cause skin sensitivity and many such problems. So, what is right proportion to dilute the EO’s when using them in your skin or hair care routines. 1-2% at max. Do not exceed this ratio at any costs.
Well, personally, I used like way too much of EO in one of my oils and when I applied the oil on my face, my face burnt for a few minutes before it settled. So, beware of this and you really don’t want to go through that.
How does EO help the skin and hair?.
EO’s gets absorbed very easily into the skin as compared to anything else because of their small molecular size. That’s why concentrated doses are pretty harmful.

The Essential Oil Desk Reference, 4th Edition tells us that “essential oils are lipid soluble and can penetrate cell membranes bringing an increase of 21% oxygen to the cells within 20 minutes of application.” [Source]

Ok, yes, they increase the oxygen supply and improve the blood circulation consequently and that is why more nutrients are delivered to the cells. It also improves the absorption capacity of the nutrients. Not only that, they are rich in anti-oxidants and can fight the free radicals. And, the EO’s can also prevent cancer. So, you see they are pretty much effective in their own way but then excess of everything is bad. 

And, now, the fun part begins – we shall make perfume next week 🙂

Vedic Line Neem & Brahmi Disinfecting Face Wash {Product Review}

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Price: Rs 110 for 120ml
Ingredients

Purified Water, Neem Oil, Brahmi, Tea Tree Oil, Camphor, SLES, Sodium Chloride, Sodium Benzoate


“In a nutshell”
Pros

  • Ingredient List is very impressive
Cons

  • Consistency is very thin so most of the face wash falls off my hands when I try to apply it on my face 🙁
Wish List (to the brand)

  • While you use Sodium Benzoate in place of parabens, why not use something else for SLES?? 
  • And, yes, packaging is not really catchy!!! Would love to see them packaged like some of the other products you have.

My Experience
As you can see in the pic, this is green in color. No color has been mentioned ont he ingredient list so I am assuming that brahmi and neem oil impart their color to the face wash. And, the smell of the face wash is herbal. And, before proceeding with the review, let me tell you that it is more suitable for an oily or combination skin and one which is prone to breakouts. And, since it is winters, my skin is not all that oily so I have no idea where it controls oil or not. And, similarly, I don’t really break out a lot so I can’t judge the face wash on those grounds either.

Anyways, the thing which actually bothered me a lot was the consistency of the product. It is very thin and it slips off easily even if you turn your hand a bit so while applying, the face wash does fall down and then, I have to take a little bit more of it. Ok, anyways, the product does foam very less even though it has SLES and I think there is not much of SLES either in the product as it is listed pretty low on the list. But, I have one more grouch with this face wash and that is that it leaves a film on my skin if not washed thoroughly and you really need lot of hot water to get rid of the film.

And, it does stretch out my skin a little but then in winters, my skin often dry without a moisturizer so I can’t really blame the product for that because I used some other product too and faced almost same thing. And, these days, my skin is going through extra-dry period. But, I really think that this would be a great product in summers for me when the oil is more on my skin. Overall, I don’t think I am the best judge for this face wash.

Availability
Online – UrbanTouch.com

So, have you ever heard of this brand? Well, I do have a few more interesting products coming in the subsequent weeks from this brand and they are really worth it 🙂
PS: Product sent by the brand for consideration.

How do Essential Oils affect our Health? {Health}

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I have been interested in Essential Oils since quite a while though I had not an idea how could I lay my hands on good quality essential oils. More about that in some other post but I wanted to discuss today about how Essential Oils affect our health.
What are Essential Oils? 
I have already discussed a bit about Essential Oils in one of my previous posts. So, when we think about EO’s, the thing which automatically comes into our minds is fragrance or the aroma and its therapeutic effects on our health.
Essential Oils have a huge amount of impact on the health of a person not only the skin and hair. So, one can use essential oils for simple problems ranging from insomnia and migraines to beating cough and cold and bronchitis and some other respiratory problems.
How Essential Oils affect our EQ?
Whatever else EO’s may be good for, the main usage of essential oils comes to help you with your emotional quotient. Some EO’s are great to relive stress, anxiety, some are great for improving confidence in person, some improve the energy levels in the body and some are great for depression treatment and many more. Why is this so?
It has more to do with the sense of “smell”. Human beings have five senses – smells, taste, see, feel and hear. But, only one of these senses links to the brain directly and that is the “Smell”. The sense of “Smell” directly goes to the emotional center of our brain and controls our emotions. The other side effects of this “Smell” are that the brains sends signal to another part of the brain which controls the heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, memory, stress levels and all those physiological needs of the body. So, consequently, when you “Smell”, not only it affects your emotions but also the physiological needs of the body. That is one of the main uses of perfumes as far as I can garner – to uplift the senses and the spirits.
So, I hope, I did clear out certain things about why Aromatherapy works? Looking forward o your opinions!!! And, yes, I am gonna bug you on the DIY Thursdays in February with some DIY’s using Essential Oils. You have been forewarned 🙂