BellaOnline Forums Beauty and Self Fragrance Perfume? What about essential oils?

My mother is an esthetician, cosmetology instructor, herbalist and massage therapist so she is always bringing home a bunch of "junk" for us (my brothers and I) to try out. Most of the traditional scents are irritating to me, both to smell and to my sensitive skin. My family history has a strong allergy prevalence so must of us are afflicted with Eczema. Even certain fragrant soaps and deodorants can set me off. The one thing that she brought home that I will swear by is Young Living Essential Oils products. The oils come in all sorts of scents and FLAVORS. That is probably my favorite aspect, that most are edible. I absolutely adore Lemongrass and Peppermint oils and often will mix them with some regular olive or grape seed oil and use it in lieu of lotion. It smells soooooooo good! On top of that, because they are 100% therapeutic-grade oils, there is no such thing as an allergic reaction. The only irritation possible might be due to the heat content or concentrated potency of the oil itself but diluting it with neutral oils like olive or grape seed removes that danger. I also suffer from migraine headaches and put a bit of the Peppermint oil on my temples. Migraine GONE!!!! So I smell good and feel good by using these oils. Absolutely wonderful. I have hung up my perfuming days. My mother is a distributer for Young Living so you can check out the oils atBellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!

Yes! You are right, this is a natural and wonderful alternative to the more mainstream scents. There are so many to choose from, and you can double up functionality with scent so that you end up with a perfume that helps control your PMS.

I have long used aromatherapy, but never considered this.

essential oils are nice, but they have usually ended up being sort of musty on me... and do u know if they make it in a spray bottle? i like those much more.

I've never heard of essential oils getting musty, but they do have a limited shelf life and should always be stored in caramel colored glass bottles.

You can make sprays with essential oils - for household cleaning, air freshening and yes perfumey type sprays as well as for wellbeing. You should know that whenever you want to create a recipe with essential oils you only want to make a very small amount that will be used up quickly. Since the oils are very volatile, they will lose their potency and aroma quickly. I have bunches of recipes for essential oils, email me if you'd like me to send them to you - no strings attached.

If you are shopping for essential oils, make sure they are pure - nothing else addes, that they have an expiration date, they are in caramel colored glass, and that they are of the highest grade. Unfortunately there are many discount stores and even dollar stores that sell "essential oils" that really aren't the best. It's important to also know what method was used to extract the essences from the plants. Some companies actually use a chemical extraction method! Quality oils should be either distilled or pressed, depending on the plant they come from.

There are only TWO essential oils that are recommended for neat application to the skin...lavendar and tea tree. All others can cause a skin reaction and should only be used in a bath or with a carrier oil or cream.

Also, every person who uses essential oils should know that there are some that should not be used on small children or when pregnant.

here is a link to a good article on aromatherapy safety:
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