I hope everyone is having a wonderful week! I thought my first post back would be something that I have been really into lately, and that is: ESSENTIAL OILS! As some of you may know, I try my best to be healthy and go the natural route when it comes to my skincare. Last term was incredible stressful and because of that, my skin broke out horribly (It is still currently breaking out, so I will do a blog post on what actually works to get rid of my acne when I finally do get rid of it!). I also have extremely dry, very sensitive skin. Generally when my skin is behaving, I will only use my Clarisonic with Mario Badescu enzyme cleansing gel, and then moisturize with Cetaphil Moisturizing Cream. If you go to www.goodguide.com you can see that both the Cetaphil and the Enzyme cleansing gel did not get very good health ratings (both got a 4/10 for a health rating). This, along with my current skin predicament, made me decide to start looking for new and healthier products to put on my face.
I have been using frankincense oil for almost a year to treat eczema on my arms, as well as some scars on my stomach from a surgery I had when I was 17. The frankincense has completely healed the eczema, and my scars are almost completely unnoticeable now. I had read that frankincense also has multiple healing and antibacterial properties, so I decided to try putting it on my face. I am not going to lie, the second or third day after putting it on my face, I broke out horribly, but then two days later my face was about a thousand times better. What the frankincense does, is it pulls all of the toxins out of your skin, so don't freak out if you do experience breakouts initially because they should clear up within a couple of days. Frankincense also almost completely cleared up the acne scaring left on my chin and jaw line from having bad acne in high school. I use frankincense with the carrier oil Grapeseed oil. The grape seed oil is incredibly inexpensive (I get the 4$ kind from whole foods), and the combination of the two leaves my face feeling incredibly soft and supple, and unlike Coconut Oil, it doesn't dry out my skin. I think the grape seed oil it is actually helping my breakouts as well. I also use the grape seed oil to cleanse my skin and take my makeup off, as the oil breaks up the makeup. I then follow with Mario Badescu Seaweed Cleansing lotion (don't let the name fool you, its a toner- not a cleanser) on a cotton pad, and then gently rub that over my entire face until there is no longer any makeup residue coming up on the cotton pad.
Another fantastic oil that I have been using on my face for years is Argan Oil. This has never broken me out, and it sinks into my skin quickly, and it is incredibly moisturizing.
These are the oils that are currently working for me, and everything listed in the second half of the post (frankincense, seaweed classing lotion, grape seed oil, and argan oil) all have a goodguide rating of 10/10 for health.
* I just want to point out that I am not a dermatologist or a doctor, and these are the things that are working for me, however they may not work for you.
I would also HIGHLY recommend that you do a patch test on your wrist or the crease of your elbow for all of these products to make sure that you do not have any allergic reactions to them. The other thing to be really careful of, is that you need to make sure that all of your oils are 100% pure, and they are all therapeutic grade. The only frankincense oils I recommend are by the brands Young Living or Doterra.
Please comment below if any of these products have worked for you (or if they haven't worked for you!) as well as any questions or other recommendations!
xo,
Kaitlyn
