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Aromatherapy Recipes For Healthy Skin After Sun Exposure

By: Caroline Ashton

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We all do our best at keeping ourselves and our kids saturated with sunscreen. But even mothers with the best of intentions may sometimes miss an application for themselves or their children. Sun damage is cumulative; it creeps up on us bought through years and years of exposure to the sun's rays. UV light is well known to cause a cascade of oxidative radical formation within our skin's tissues, thus leading to long-term degradation of collagen and other proteins. Damage does not only occur while we are in the sun -- much of it actually happens in the hours after sun exposure. Free radicals form upon first interaction with the sun's rays, and "cascade" into various different forms until they've been quenched by our own natural antioxidant defenses. Fortunately, simple home-made aromatherapy formulas can effectively do the job as well, and really help everyone's skin stay younger.
Some essential oils are among the most potent natural antioxidants known, with ORAC values of over 100,000. All essential oils have some level of antioxidant activity, and each used in skin care is selected for its unique skin care properties. For example, a study just released by French scientists note that Myrrh essential oil has a profound oxygen quenching effect on free radicals produced by the interaction of UV rays and the skin's sebum. Myrrh is one of many oils found in recipes for "mature" skin.
It's simple to compound your own formula: Choose from a select group of oils commonly used in skin care, add them to one or more nourishing carrier oils, and there you have it -- your own personally-tailored recipe. The obvious first choice of essential oils is lavender. Lavender reduces inflammation and has natural constituents which stimulate healthy skin cell regeneration. Lavender in fact began the modern aromatherapy revolution with its quick healing of burns. Really, when we come in from sun over-exposure, even without a sunburn, we do have a mild burn on a cellular level -- making lavender and excellent choice for every recipe.
Blue tansy and German chamomile are somewhat more rare essential oils with profound anti-inflammatory action. Choose one or the other to include at a very dilute amount -- only 1 or 2%. Their deep blue colors indicate high levels of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory components which make them an excellent choice for after-sun skin care.
Everlasting essential oil, better known as Helichrysum Italicum, is a wonderful and profoundly healing oil called for when the most potent anti-inflammatory and regenerative effects are needed. If you're looking for one of the secret ingredients in natural skincare, Helichrysum is it. You'll find Helichrysum in blends for scar reduction, wound healing, hair growth, and maintenance of mature skin.
Two exceptionally wonderful essential oils for after-sun protection for mature skin are frankincense and sandalwood. These two specialty oils have remarkable protective actions -- both have been researched for their anticancer activities, sandalwood particularly for skin cancer. Frankincense has been researched for therapeutic benefits for mature skin, actually resulting in diminishing the appearance of fine lines and smoothing skin texture. They do their work in completely different ways, so including them both in your recipe isn't a bad idea.
And for perhaps most profound protective effects, choose sea buckthorn. This essential oil has been studied by Russian scientists as a protective agent for cosmonauts in outer space. It's deep red color indicates a high concentration of vitamin A like compounds, highly regarded for their skin healing properties. Sea buckthorn is useful in virtually any skincare application, and most certainly for an after-sun formula.
You also have the option of adding other active-ingredients like natural vitamin E and fat soluble vitamin C to your mixture. You can simply empty or two capsules into each ounce of blend that you make. When seeking vitamin E, naturally made vitamin E with high levels of "gamma-tocopherol" is best. The oil-soluble form of vitamin C is also known as ascorbyl palmitate.
All your "active-ingredients" will be based in carrier oils. These are cold-processed seed or nut oils carefully made for therapeutic applications. The most useful for after-sun formula are jojoba, avocado, apricot kernel, tamanu, and rosehip seed oils. Jojoba, avocado, apricot kernel are soothing, hydrating, and nutritive. Tamanu and rosehip seed are specialty skin care oils are particularly suited to this use. Tamanu is mentioned in the medical aromatherapy literature as called for in various wound healing and skin care recipes; Rosehip seed has been the subject of numerous studies, helping create healthy skin numerous and diverse conditions. Rosehip has been specifically indicated for reduction of appearance of fine lines from sun over exposure.
Once you've chosen which essential oils and carrier oils you'd like to use, just add ten to fifteen drops of each essential oil per ounce of carrier oil mixture. The important thing to consider is not going over thirty-five drops total of essential oils in each ounce of your final product -- the reason being that the essential oils are so potent, that they can become irritating if used at too high a concentration.
As an example recipe, you might use one-third parts each jojoba, evening primrose and rosehip seed, and to this add 7 drops each of sea buckthorn, sandalwood, lavender and German chamomile. This is a very potent and effective formula for those with the most concern for the sun's effect on their skin. For a more simple formula, perhaps for your children, you might use just lavender and sea buckthorn in a jojoba base. These oils are particularly gentle, and should be suitable for even the most sensitive, youthful skin. Use your intuition as a guide, blending with lower concentrations for the young ones. Whatever formulation you choose, it is sure to have a positive effect on the long-term skin health for you and your family.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

The author utilizes pure therapeutic grade essential oils for aromatherapy. More information is available through The Ananda Apothecary at www.anandaapothecary.com.

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