BellaOnline Forums Beauty and Self Body Care Essential oils and Sensitive skin

I'm wondering what essential oils would be best to use on sensitive skin? I think I've read lavender, but it's not really my favorite scent. I was wondering what other choices I might have. I'm not really into flowery scents (and many of them set off my nasal allergies) Any ideas?

I would recommend lavender, neroli, rose, sandalwood and chamomile. A really great site for learning more about essential oils is Botanical.com - they give amazing descriptions and tons of additional information on just about every plant you can hope to think of!

Those are all very good suggestions. The key to using essential oils on sensitive skin, though, is to dilute them enough. With the very occasional exceptions of lavender and tea tree, you should never use an essential oil 'neat' (undiluted) on any type of skin. But, for sensitive skin, if a recipe calls for, say, 15 drops of EO for 2 Tbsp. of base oil, try cutting it back to 10 drops, or even less, for sensitive skin.

Good to know. The worse my skin gets the more I think about trying to make my own soap (and I think my kids would think it was fun) I had forgetten about chamomile. I'd always heard it was good to use and a few weeks ago when I made tea, I put the used bag on my very irritated hands and I couldn't believe how much better they felt. And I had actually come across Botanicals.com when researching poisons for my fiction <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Always do patch tests. I had a former roommate who was very skin sensitive. She used to do her own essential oil blends so she could control which ones and how strong. However, every now and again, even one of her own blends would make her react.

One night she had to cancel a date and we had to bathe behind her ears for a few hours while a massive skin reaction did its thing and finally went down. She hadn't tested it behind her ears and while it was ok on her wrists, it wasn't on her head.

Hello, ladies

I am a Young Living Essintial Oil (and other products) distributor. YL has AFNOR certified essential oils, many rated GRAS for using them in food. Most of what is sold on the open market as 'essential oils' is cut with all sorts of chemicals. Most of the time, they are completely synthetic, that is why they are so CHEAP! ALWAYS test the oils either full stregnth or diluted, on your wrist or somewhere easily accessable. NEVER put an undiluted oil on a child. Keep some olive oil handy and at the FIRST sign of a reaction,put the olive oil on very liberally. This will stop the reaction MUCH quicker than soap and water, all they do is make it spread worse, not remove it. If y'all would like more info. on these pure essential oils, please E-mail me at macslittlehands@yagoo.com and I will be glad to help you any way I can. Thanks, Marci

I think saying that 'most of what is sold on the open market' is a bit of anover-inflated estimate. However, you do bring up a very good point. You should *always* make sure that the oils you buy state clearly that they are 100% essential oils, or in the case of some of the more expensive ones, cut only with safe and natural carrier oils.

Hello everybody!
I was looking for some natural cosmetics, being tired of all the chemical I have put on my body. I was interested in anti-aging creams, and after searching on the web, I found what i was looking for on www.aslaskin.com. Their products are made of clay - needed for a healthy skin, but also include natural oils, wheat germs, Calendula, Rice extract, Avocado, Cacao butter, and vitamins A,E, and C. This products have been a good help for my skin, and deffinatelly naturals <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I say go for it!

Hi All,

I'm a newbie to the forum excited to join! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> This thread is incredibly interesting and helpful. I have a little collection of essential oils that I have yet to use because of sensitive skin concerns.

This thread inspired me to just patch test and then try mixed with carrier oil for bath. If I have a reaction I can at least use them in essential oil burner without troubles.

Cheers

It's good to have you here! Just keep in mind when doing your patch-tests what I said before... only Lavender or Tea Tree should ever be used neat on the skin, and for sensitive skin even those probably aren't wise. Dilution is very important!