carrier oil for body | suzannerbanks

Beautiful skin is easy with natural products – pic via nuimage.ca

I know its sounds corny but people always comment on how good my skin looks. When asked how I do it, I usually say there’s no quick answer but essential oils help. I’ve been using essential oils in my own handmade products on my skin for almost 20 years and would never use anything else. Apart from the natural simplicity of oils, it’s the scent of most skincare products detest. Even if I couldn’t access essential oils, I’d still use plain cold pressed oils on my face and body, and for sensitive skins this could be the best thing to use. I like to mix it up a bit and not use essential oils everyday.

Here’s an outline of my easy, natural aromatherapy regime:

Daily

Morning

1. Shower

* No soap or other foaming agents on my face just water, with a face cloth if I want a deeper cleanse

* No soap or other foaming agents on most of my body – maybe some natural soap on the underarms and nether regions

2. Moisturise

Moisturising with oil on your face can have fantastic benefits

* Face – spritz first with a rose or neroli hydrosol or floral water to really boost hydration (see my article “Hydrosols vs Floral Waters – What’s the Diff?”) then use rosehip oil with rose essential oil

or plain rosehip oil

or a cream I have made myself containing essential oils

If you are buying a small bottle of rosehip oil you could add the drops of rose oil into the bottle or just add the rose on a daily basis. For quantities to add to your bottle please check the 3% article below or the article above about the basics.

For example, for small squirt of rosehip oil onto your fingers, add a drop or two or rose oil 3% (see my article “Essential Oils 3% in Jojoba – What are they, and Why?”) and spread liberally all over your face. The only downside is that it’s a bit fiddly. Practice makes perfect though.

nourish your skin with oil blends

* Body – a nourishing body oil containing essential oils all over my body (see my article “Ratios for Blending Essential Oils – A Reminder of the Basics”)

or a rich cream I’ve made myself containing essential oils

or just a plain cold pressed oil like almond, grapeseed, sunflower, olive, coconut

Remove makeup with the best makeup remover in the world – oil!

Evening

* Remove makeup (if applicable) with a damp cotton pad, with oil on it. This is the best makeup remover n the world! You can use sunflower, almond, olive etc and any cold pressed oil really

* Wipe with a warm, damp face cloth and only moisturise if you feel you need it. Often there is enough oil remaining on your skin to leave it feeling hydrated and soft

or shower and repeat the morning’s step

A clay face mask is the best and most natural clarifyng mask. pic vis chiclooking.com

A clay face mask is the best and most natural clarifying mask. pic via chiclooking.com

Occasionally

And occasionally I’ll give myself a body scrub, face scrub and face mask to remove old skin and tone and refine the top layer.

Face Scrub

Try some almond meal mixed with a little water. Stand over the basin so falling almonds can be caught and gently scrub. It’s wonderful how your skin feels with the oils of the almond infused into your skin. Then either apply a face mask or add a little extra moisture if needed.

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Face Mask

Mix a little clay (any colour – for more info see my article “The Wonderful World of Clay”) with water or a hydrosol. You can add a few drops of essential oil if you like just stay with lavender, geranium, chamomile, neroli and the softer oils. Apply. Rest for 10 minutes and rinse off with warm water. Moisturise.

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A salt scrub is easy to make! pic via cambridgenaturals.com

Body Scrub

The easiest body scrub is a salt scrub. Use fine sea salt, add some water and a little oil and mix to a slurry. Scrub all over your body standing in the shower or bath. If you are in a bath, then take the opportunity to soak for another 15 minutes.

Add 5 – 10 drops of essential oil to your liking to create an aromatherapy treatment at the same time. Or get creative and add things from your cupboard or fridge like fresh lemon rind and juice, cinnamon or fresh herbs. For more info see my article “It’s Easy to Make Your Own Body Scrub”.

Moisturise with an oil blend or cream.

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Body Mask

Same for face mask but you’ll need about a cup and a half of clay. Add water slowly and mix well. Add 20 drops of essential oil if you like, and then wrap yourself in towels and a blanket as the clay will make you COLD! Rest. Shower off and moisturise with an oil blend.

The incredible sunflower –

Sunflower – Helianthus annuus

I love this flower and I love this oil!

Just to clarify, sunflower oil is NOT an essential oil, but a cold pressed oil we call a “carrier oil’ in aromatherapy – as it carries the essential oils in an oil blend for the body or face.

Lets start by looking at the flower.

* It’s a beautiful yellow colour – the colour of the sun.

* It’s shape could almost be considered like to sun too.

* It contains within the flower head, a fundamental pattern of nature called the GOLDEN RATIO or PHI RATIO.

A sunflower is a representation of the golden ratio

The Golden Ratio is a bit exciting as it exists all throughout nature and the cosmos. I can’t help but be drawn into the flower and into the secrets of life. Among many names the golden ratio is also called the divine ratio, and it has been used by artists, scientist and architects as an expression of perfection – as a mirror of our universe.

The golden ratio is approximately equal to 1.618. Basically the head of the sunflower contains many smaller flower heads. As each cell or floret is created, the next floret is made after turning on an angle. The entire pattern is then formed and it mesmerising!

The golden ratio

Brilliant isnt it?

So the sunflower is a little piece of the cosmos! And it they seem to have such great personality. Have you ever driven through France and seen fields of sunflowers? They have so much gorgeous energy.

They also follow the sun to absorb as much energy as possible. ‘Heliotropism’ is the sunflowers ability to track the sun’s movements… slowly moving the face of it’s flower toward the sun to receive the full impact of the sun’s rays. The leaves of the sunflower also track the sun turning slowly through the day to keep their broad surface to face the rays.

Fields in France – lavender and sunflowers

And now the oil.

High in omega-6 and omega-9, vitamins A, D, E, it also contains a high amount of vitamin E too. So basically it’s good to eat and it’s great as an emollient and skin moistuirser.

I use sunflower oil in all my treatments as it has a light to medium consistency with little scent. You can buy refined or filtered sunflower oil which is quite pale and has little or no scent. Pure sunflower oil is much richer and deeper in colour – an orangey/yellow – and has a mild scent. Therapeutically, unrefined sunflower oil will contain more vitamins and active ingredients but you may prefer a less scented version.