Skin Aromatherapy: Great-Grandma Knew Best

The lines between and among beauty products, prescription-strength dermatology products and skin aromatherapy blur and fade a little more each day.  The leading makers of premium cosmetics  Benefit and Escentuals, now advertise their cosmetics as “skin care with beauty benefits,” and they aggressively promote their all-natural make-ups and powders packed with a whole garden-full of skin aromatherapy ingredients—everything from carrot and rosemary to geranium essence.

Recognizing the powerful healing properties of skin aromatherapy oils, essences, and extracts, even the most hidebound traditional dermatologists frequently prescribe all-natural remedies for their patients before they resort to more invasive, dangerous formulae—especially acid peels and antibiotics.  Modern biochemistry and ancient naturopathy converge: Physicians and naturopaths join in recommending sea salts and herbs for skin cleansing, anti-oxidant rich plant extracts for nourishing and rejuvenating, and powerful essential oils for protecting delicate complexions against the ravages of everyday life. 

Everyday Aromatherapy For Skin

Second only to your digestive system in total surface area and importance in your immune system,  your skin protects you against assaults from a daunting array of environmental toxins, pathogens, and contaminants.   Your skin also wages brave and bold defense against the elements—especially sun and wind, both of which dry, damage, and prematurely age skin.  Your skin deserves all the tender, loving care you can lavish upon it, because it screens out more than 1000 carcinogens, poisons, bacteria, and viruses every day.  The more you cleanse and nourish it with pure, powerful botanicals, the more your complexion will safeguard your health and keep you looking young, radiant, and healthy.

Your great-grandmother’s favorite homemade skin cleanser still out-performs all the high-priced, wax-filled, alcohol-saturated, FD&C red and yellow colored goop cluttered across the cosmetics counter.  More living proof grandma knew best: The simplest mix of readily available ingredients for skin aromatherapy combines fresh ground almonds, almond oil, cider vinegar, and natural spring water.  For the price of one decadent Chanel product you can mix-up a lifetime’s supply of this infinitely more effective all-natural skin elixir. 

Almonds and cider vinegar are the power-packed secret Victorian ingredients.  Apples have almost as many anti-oxidants as our beloved acai berries, and they have all kinds of vitamins and minerals; vinegar distilled from apples retains all the fruit’s nutrients, and it becomes a natural astringent—hasta la vista skin toner.  Better still, almonds come out of the orchard fully equipped with proteins, vitamin E, magnesium, phosphorus, and zinc.  When you grind your own fresh almonds, the fiber in them becomes a natural exfoliant, clearing your skin of dirt and grime, so the nutrients easily penetrate pores.  The ground almonds also fortify your skin with folic acid and calcium—as essential to skin as to bones and vital organs.

Naturally, if you feel somewhat less than thrilled with the idea of smelling like a cookie after a good cleansing, you easily may enhance and enrich your skin cleanser’s aromatherapeutic oomph: Add 5 to 7 drops of rosewood, lavender, or geranium.  Rosewood blends especially well with the almond-cider mélange, because its woodsy scent naturally complements the fruit and nut fragrances; it also complements the skin-healing properties in your skin aromatherapy magical mix, because its natural antiseptics kill bacteria that cause break-outs, and its immune-boosters fortify your skin against all those environmental hazards it faces each day.  To enhance the “woodsy” fragrance and pump-up the protectants, add cedarwood.