Whilst many people think of Aromatherapy as just ‘massage with scented oils,’ this is not simply the case. Yes, essential oils have delicious fragrances, but they actually come from natural plant extracts which makes them extremely therapeutic too; meaning that essential oils can help with pretty much anything!

Why should we use essential oils?

These amazing oils are great natural healers, working by triggering our bodies to re-balance. Clever, hey? There are all sorts of benefits to using essential oils for beauty and healing. Most obviously, they are a healthier alternative to synthetic products that flood the health and beauty market – and, they encourage our bodies to heal in their own natural and optimal way.

Most people associate essential oils with aromatherapy massage treatments, but they are also great for using as part of our self-care routine at home! While many big brands fill their products with chemicals like butyls, petroleum, formaldehyde and other carcinogens, we prefer to offer advice on how you can use essential oils as safer, natural remedies for a whole host of health and beauty needs!

Essential oils for beauty & skincare

Aromatherapy is great for skincare and is often far more cost-effective than buying big name brands. Natural scrubs, lip balms, body wraps and body butters can all be made at a fraction of the price.

Essential oils can be a great addition to your facial and body skincare routines, to improve the appearance of hair, to decrease ‘imperfections’ such as sagging skin, cellulite and stretchmarks - or perhaps just to boost confidence so that you no longer worry about them! Here are some recommendations for how to use essential oils as part of your beauty regime.

Skincare

Add essential oils to your own facial cleansers, toners and moisturisers – or Base Formula’s creams and lotions, oils, or gels - to improve your skin. Try adding 1 drop of your choice of essential oil into 5ml of your base product:-

Dry Skin

• Try Lavender or Rose essential oils.
• Mix with Avocado oil for a lovely hydrating facial massage.
• Or mix with Avocado oil and Kaolin Clay for a healing face mask.

Dehydrated Skin

• Try Neroli, Lavender, Chamomile, Sandalwood or Rose essential oils.
• Mix up a spritz to hydrate your skin throughout the day. Blend up to 30 drops of essential oil into 100ml of hydrolat (Lavender Hydrolat is nice for dry skin, and Chamomile for sensitive).

Oily Skin

• Try Lemon, Neroli, Tea Tree or Ylang Ylang essential oils.
• Mix with Grapeseed oil for facial massage (applying oil to oily skin actually helps to balance the skin's own natural oil production).
• Mix with Witch Hazel Hydrolat and French Green Clay for a deep cleansing, pore refining face mask.

Acne Prone Skin

• Try Geranium, Lemon, Patchouli, Tea Tree, Ylang Ylang or Chamomile essential oils.
• Use Geranium or Ylang Ylang if the acne is caused by hormonal issues, Patchouli, Lemon or Tea Tree to cleanse, and Chamomile to soothe. Do not use on open skin.
• Try not to over-cleanse as this strips the skin of its natural oils – if you have over-stripped the skin, try Lemon essential oil in Grapeseed oil for a therapeutic facial massage.

Mature / Wrinkled Skin

• Try Geranium, Neroli, Rose, Carrot Seed, Frankincense or Myrrh essential oils.
• Frankincense and Carrot See are lovely regenerative oils for mature skin. Combine them with Vitamin E, Avocado and/or Rosehip Seed Oil in a dropper bottle to create your own rejuvenating facial serum.

Sensitive Skin

• Try Neroli or Chamomile essential oils (patch test first to ensure suitability).
• Make a soothing Chamomile Hydrolat Spritz with up to 15 drops of essential oil in 50ml hydrolat.
• Mix Aloe Vera & Neroli Gel with Kaolin Clay to make a soothing, healing mask.

Broken Capillaries

• Try Rose, Chamomile or Sweet Orange essential oils
• Add them to Aloe Vera & Seaweed Gel and use as a face mask.
• You can also make a cool (but not cold) compress - add the essential oils to a bowl of water, dip in a flannel or muslin cloth, wring out and place onto the affected area before applying your moisturiser.

Elasticity & Scars

• Try Myrrh, Frankincense, Geranium, Lavender or Carrot Seed essential oils.
• Melt some Extra Virgin Coconut Butter and blend in your choice of oils before whipping it in a mixer to make a lovely regenerative body butter!

Puffy Eyes

• Try Fennel essential oil
• Mix with Aloe Vera & Seaweed Gel, pop in the fridge to cool, then spread onto some cucumber slices and place over the eyes.

Luscious Lips

• Plump up your lips with a Peppermint lip balm – melt 7g Beeswax, 5g Cocoa Butter and 12.5ml Jojoba oil using a double boiler method and add up to 8 drops of essential oil before pouring into small jars.

Haircare

You can even use essential oils for haircare to help with conditions such as lack-lustre hair, thinning hair, or a dry, flaky scalp!

• For glossy hair and a balanced, healthy scalp melt 15ml of Extra Virgin Coconut Butter and add 2 drops Lavender essential oil, 2 drops Chamomile and 2 drops Rosemary. Use as a hair mask - massaging into the hair and scalp.
• To stimulate hair growth add Ylang Ylang essential oil into your shampoo – or create your own by mixing up to 6 drops into Base Formula's SLS Free Shampoo.

Bodycare

Add essential oils to a base moisturiser or a carrier oil like Grapeseed (for oily skin), or Avocado or Jojoba (for dry skin). Choose up to 3 essential oils and add a maximum of 6 drops to 15ml of your chosen base. See Base Formula’s range of creams and lotions or carrier oils to suit your skin type.

You should also try adding essential oils to our SLS Free Bath & Shower Gel – Lime is great to cleanse and awaken you in the morning!

Sagging Skin or Cellulite

• Try Juniper or Fennel and Lemon or Grapefruit, Ginger, and Peppermint essential oils.
• Get into a routine of body brushing every day and use essential oils in a carrier oil, massaging into the skin in an upwards direction, towards the heart to encourage lymphatic drainage.

Stretchmarks

• Try Lavender, Neroli, Patchouli or Frankincense essential oils.
• Use 6 drops of your chosen essential oil in 15ml of Coconut oil or Jojoba and massage into the skin.

Safety note: Do not use if you are pregnant – please consult your doctor or midwife as most essential oils should be avoided during pregnancy, especially for skin application.

Weight Loss

• Grapefruit essential oil can be helpful for supporting weight loss. Whilst we’re believers in believing you are perfect exactly as you are, Grapefruit oil is a good appetite balancer so, when you’re feeling peckish, try diffusing this oil to curb cravings.

Essential Oils for Healing - Natural Remedies

Wellbeing wise, essential oils also complement synthetic medicines. Whilst not aiming to replace conventional medicine, they can help manage symptoms, balancing out any side effects – or, in some cases offer an alternative that doesn’t involve pill-popping. Helping no end of physical symptoms, essential oils are a great way to re-balance the body, mind and soul:

Emotional Healing

• Try Melissa, Neroli, Bergamot, Patchouli, Rose, Sandalwood, Jasmine, Lime, Cypress or Lavender.
• Neroli, Sandalwood, Rose and Bergamot are beautiful oils for calming emotions.
• Lime is a lovely uplifting, energising oil when you are feeling low.
• Lavender and Cypress are super oils for shock and to stop the tears.
• If you're diffusing Grapefruit essential oil to support weight loss (see above), try adding in some confidence-boosting Melissa or Patchouli to promote the feeling that you’re good enough as you are!

Relaxation

• Use Lavender, Chamomile, Rose, Jasmine, Clary Sage, Geranium or Ylang Ylang.
• Try a warm relaxing bath and add up to 10 drops of essential oil mixed into 15ml of SLS free Bath & Shower Gel or Bath Oil.

De-stress

• Try Mandarin, Bergamot, Lavender, Vetivert, Cedarwood, Chamomile, Ylang Ylang or Neroli.
• Make up a pulse-point blend in a roller bottle using up to 6 drops of essential oil per 15ml of Grapeseed oil.

Detox /General Tonic

• Choose Lemon, Juniper, Fennel or Sweet Orange.
• Try these essential oils in a massage blend and spread on the body, top to toe, massaging up towards the heart to help remove toxins and give your body a boost.

Building Immunity

• Try Sweet Orange, Lemon, Eucalyptus, Tea Tree, Ravensara or Peppermint.
• To helps stimulate your immune system try diffusing up to 10 drops of your chosen essential oils in an electric diffuser or candle burner.

Coughs & Colds

• Try Eucalyptus, Benzoin, Tea Tree or Lemongrass.
• Pop a few drops of oil onto a cotton pad and take it with you to inhale throughout the day – Benzoin is a great mucolytic (helps to clear mucus)!

First Aid

• Use Lavender and Tea Tree essential oils.
• To help clean and heal minor wounds - pop a few drops of Lavender and Tea Tree into a small bowl of boiled water (allow to cool slightly first) and dip a cotton pad into it before sweeping it over the affected area.

Digestive

• Try Peppermint, Ginger, Bergamot, Mandarin, Lavender or Fennel.
• Choose up to 3 essential oils and blend up to 2 drops of each in 15ml of Grapeseed oil.
• Use Ginger to calm digestion or Fennel to speed it up!

Mind Clearing

• Use Basil, Lavender, Peppermint, Lemon or Rosemary.
• For headaches, try inhaling cephalic (brain stimulating) Basil or Lavender from a cotton pad or massage a few drops of neat Lavender into your temples.
• To enhance concentration, try diffusing Lemon and Rosemary.

Muscular Aches & Pains

• Use Sweet Marjoram, Lavender, Basil, Black Pepper, Peppermint, Cypress, Rosemary or Vetivert.
• Choose up to 3 essential oils and blend up to 2 drops of each in 15ml of Infused Arnica oil and massage into the affected area.

Hormones

• Try Geranium, Jasmine, Lavender, Clary Sage or Ylang Ylang.
• Either diffuse these essential oils in an aromatherapy diffuser or candle burner, or massage them into your body regularly to help balance hormonal challenges. Use 6 drops of essential oil per 15ml of carrier oil.

Sleep

• Use Lavender, Chamomile, Jasmine, Ylang Ylang, Sweet Orange, Neroli, Rose, Cedarwood, Bergamot, Sweet Marjoram or Sandalwood.
• Make a night time spritz using your choice of oils – mix up to 30 drops of essential oil in 100ml of water or hydrolat and spritz it over yourself before bedtime for a cozy night’s sleep! If you don't want to make your own why not try our Sweet Dream Spritz with Lavender, Chamomile, Frankincense and Cedarwood.

A final reason to use Aromatherapy is that you can have fun trying! You can get creative with your blends, and enjoy the intuitive process. Be led by your body, get to understand what it needs and have greater and more mindful awareness of the scents it likes – as these are the ones it needs. Your body knows which oils will help it, so choose the aromas your body loves.

Essential oils can be the first port of call for health and beauty. Not only can they be fun, but they are cheap, completely natural, can encourage our body, mind and soul to harmonise and can offer effective and sometimes safer alternatives to other more expensive and chemical-filled health and beauty products.

If you're just starting out with aromatherapy you might be interested in buying one of our aromatherapy kits. These kits contain the most popular essential oils and offer fantastic value for money if you're looking to build your collection of essential oils.

And don't forget that essential oils need diluting before application to the skin! Check out our wide range of carrier oils, gels and hydrolats, cosmetic bases and ingredients which are ideal for creating a whole host of aromatherapy blends.

Nicole Barton
Consultant Aromatherapist

Disclaimer & Safety Advice

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