Tag: aroma therapy

#7. Rosemary-infused body oil

The benefits of the herb rosemary, or rosmarinus officinalis 1 2 3, were already hailed in the Minoan Civilisation 4. Rosemary is a kitchen herb, but a medicinal herb as well. Medicinal herbs 5 6 7 8 are available as tinctures, tablets, pills, teas and essential oils. These are for internal use and oral use. Essential oils, however, are also used externally. The term medicinal is an indication that nobody should use these without consulting a well-trained professional therapist, or a medical doctor who also studied these herbs and/or their oils, how to use these, when, for which health problems, and what the dosage should be.

Rosemary is known for its benefits for the skin. It is present in almost all skin products, like shampoos, creams, massage oils, and body oils. Four out of seven Cretan Garden soaps are made out of rosemary-infused olive oil 9, oregano-infused oil 10 and sage-infused oil 11.

Your home-made body oil and body scrub

Body oils are expensive. You can make your own body oil. Your skin will love it, and your wallet as well. Follow the next steps and enjoy the result.

  1. 500 ml organic extra virgin olive oil
  2. 30 grams dried organic rosemary leaves
  3. Put the dried rosemary in a casserole that is big enough for the half-litre olive oil plus the 30 gram rosemary leaves. Warm the oil up to 38–60 degrees Celsius and keep the casserole at this temperature for about 48–72 hours. During this time, all the goods are extracted from the leaves into the oil. This process is called infusing. Another method: add the olive oil and herbs to a bowl, or casserole and keep it for some weeks in a warm sunlit spot in the house. Stir the oil-rosemary mix during the infusing time every day. I infuse olive oil as well, for making soap, but I offer the oil more time to infuse. At least three months. 
  4. When the oil is infused, you can filter the herbs out, by using a sieve. If you want to make rosemary pulp, you can add the oily herbs to the kitchen machine and pulverise them. 
  5. Take an empty bowl or casserole, and put a cheesecloth in the sieve. 
  6. Put the rosemary-olive-oil pulp from the kitchen machine cup into the cheesecloth, and let it leak out for a while, till all the oil has disappeared. 
  7. Make this process more efficient by pouring the filtered oil for the second time over the pulp. At the end, you can take the rest of the oil from the pulp when you take the four points of the cheesecloth together and press the oil out. Your hands will become very oily, but you can remove this with kitchenpaper.
  8. Fill an empty, well-cleaned and dried fluid soap dispenser and add about 20 drops of rosemary essential oil, or an essential oil of your own choice.
  9. The rest of the infused oil can be stored in a cold place, for instance in the refrigerator. Put a lid on it.
  10. The left-overs of the rosemary pulp in the sieve can be used as a body scrub. You can store it, for instance, in an empty, clean, glass jar in the refrigerator. Before using a body scrub to exfoliate your skin, read my blog post: Exfoliating the skin 12.

How to use the body oil

The best moment to use body oil is after a shower or bath, before drying your body with a towel. Pump some body oil from the dispenser into the palm of one of your hands and divide the oil over both hands. Apply the oil on the entire body. Massage the oil onto the warm and wet skin. In this way, you do not need so much oil, the oil is easier to spread, and because the skin is warm, the oil is easily absorbed. Then pat the skin dry. You will discover that the skin is not oily, and after drying the skin shines and looks younger and healthier. In case your skin is really dry, it will take some weeks before your skin is back to normal again. You can use body oil every day.

Instead, you could massage the entire body from head and hair to toes according to the Indian abhyanga massage before taking a shower. Read more about this massage in my blog post “The skin” 13. The used oil is also an herbal-infused body oil.

Other uses: after a day at the beach, in the sunlight, in the hot dry wind, the salty seawater, or in winter when being outside in the cold, or 24/7 in a warm dry room. You can use the rosemary body oil also as a hair mask.

Attention: the rosemary aroma is uplifting, stimulating, energising, and therefore best not to be used before sleeping. If you would like to create a body oil for a good night’s rest, use lavender instead of rosemary.

Benefits of rosemary-infused body oil

  1. Anti-ageing
  2. Improves elasticity
  3. Moisturises
  4. Protects the skin
  5. Can be used in cases of eczema and acne 
  6. The aroma of rosemary uplifts the psyche.
  7. The aroma creates a beneficial effect on the central nervous system.
  8. The aroma stimulates the 3rd chakra, balances the 5th chakra 14
  9. Photo: Karolina Grabowska from Pexels

Additional information

  1. Rosemary soap – Cretan Garden
  2. Lavender-Rosemary soap – Cretan Garden
  3. Patchouli-Rosemary soap – Cretan Garden
  4. YlangYlang-Rosemary soap – Cretan Garden
  5. Lavender soap – Cretan Garden
  6. Oregano soap – Cretan Garden
  7. Sage soap – Cretan Garden
  8. Exfoliating the skin – Cretan Garden
  9. Rosemary harvest in Morocco – Medicine Hunter
  10. How to Make Herb-Infused Oils for Culinary & Body Care Use – Mountain Rose Herbs
  11. Effect of Olive Oil on the Skin – ResearchGate
  12. Virgin olive oil as a fundamental nutritional component and skin protector – ReasearchGate
  13. Olive Oil in Botanical Cosmeceuticals – ResearchGate
  14. Enhancement of antioxidant and skin moisturizing effects of olive oil by incorporation into microemulsions – ResearchGate
  15. The foundation for the use of olive oil in skin care and botanical cosmeceuticals – ResearchGate

Footnotes

  1. Rosmarinus officinalis L. (rosemary) as therapeutic and prophylactic agent – Journal of Biomedical Science ↩︎
  2. Gallery Rosmarinus officinalis – Flickr ↩︎
  3. Rosemary essential oil – New directions Aromatics ↩︎
  4. Herbs for Health and Beauty in Minoan Crete of 2000 BC – Explore Crete ↩︎
  5. Historical review of medicinal plants’ usage – PubMed ↩︎
  6. Herbs – Multerland ↩︎
  7. Herbal medicine – Multerland ↩︎
  8. Chinese Traditional Medicine – Multerland ↩︎
  9. Lavender soap – Cretan Garden ↩︎
  10. Oregano soap – Cretan Garden ↩︎
  11. Sage soap – Cretan Garden ↩︎
  12. Exfoliating the skin – Cretan Garden ↩︎
  13. The skin / Abhyanga massage – Cretan Garden ↩︎
  14. A Beginner’s Guide to the 7 Chakras and Their Meanings – Healthline ↩︎

#3. Essential oils and their aroma

A short history

The use of aromatic plants and trees goes far back in history, to the time of the Egyptians and Babylonians, 3000 – 4000 before Christ. It is told however, that the oldest knowledge of essential oils.is to be found in China.

The Egyptians used essential oils from plants and resins to mummify the dead, because of their cleansing and anti-sceptic properties. Cleopatra used essential oils to enhance her attraction. Also, in the bible, essential oils are mentioned, like myrrh, incense, cloves, sandalwood, rose, and cedar.

Those who worked as perfumers during the Black Death plague epidemic were not contaminated by the plague: they inhaled the aerosols which were mixed with the anti-sceptic aerosols from the plants while working with them, and also the anti-sceptic properties of the plants entered the body via the skin.[Additional: The Forgotten Pollution: Dr. Schnabel’s Hepa Filter]

Essential oils

Essential Oils are the highly concentrated, volatile, aromatic essences of plants. Essential oils are derived from the leaves, flowers, wood, seeds, roots, bark and resins of trees and plants.. Essential oils are composed of diverse aromatic volatile liquids, which are distracted from the plant parts via steam distillation. To create a one-litre essential oil one needs many kilos of aromatic plants. To create one litre of for instance, rosemary oil, one needs 50 kilos of rosemary leaves, and about 5000 kilos for a rose and jasmine oil.

Essential oils and the chakras

There is hardly any information about essential oils in the combination with the term “chakras“. There seem to be essential oils, however, that could be helpful in the healing of blocked or disbalanced chakras. I have just one but excellent advice: the smell you are searching for at that moment, and absolutely your favourite, fits all chakras. If you want to read more about it then this article could be helpful.

Hydrosols

Hydrosols, also known as “flower waters,” or “herbal waters”, are the water condensates from the steam-distilling process of essential oils. Hydrosols have similar properties and scents to essential oils, but these aromatic waters are much less concentrated. Hydrosols are especially suited for children, because they can hardly create irritations. One or two soup spoons in a baby bath are helpful in cases of inflammation or eczema. Consult a certified aroma therapist for the right information before experimenting with it. The pH values of hydrosol vary from 4,4 to 7. This means that it could neutralise too alkaline skin or very acidic skin into a natural skin condition. To read more about the pH value in Scientific Research, scroll down to pH values.

Aroma therapy

The use of essential oils is rather safe when using these in an aroma lamp diffuser, or in massage oils and body-oils, if one is following up the advice about the total of drops on a certain amount of water for a bath, footbath, or aroma lamp. Also, when using essential oils in a carrier oil, like olive oil, to create a body oil or a massage oil, or to dilute it to just a small spot on the skin, one must be well-informed about the total of drops of essential oil on how much carrier oil. Internal use of essential oils is dangerous, unless one follows the advice of a well-trained and certified aroma therapist.

Photo by Anna Tarazevich from Pexels

Quality criteria

There are many different brands on the market with several different essential oils, and all smell different from another brand with the same oil name, and do not all smell so nice. It can be related to your own nose, of course, and preferences, but it can happen that it is not only you who dislikes a certain smell: it can also depend on the brand, the country, the climate, the height of the area, the hours of sunshine, the soil, the pH of the soil, even the entire community of plants and trees, animals, the so-called biotope where the plants grow where the essential oil is extracted from, are creating the chemotype, the ct, and the scent. It is impossible to smell an essential oil when one orders it from the web. It is therefore wise, if possible, to buy an essential oil in a good health shop.

Steam distillation is a delicate process. It needs professional experience and constant control. The essential oil must be a hundred percent natural and may not be denaturised by half-synthetic molecules and not be mixed with essential oils with the same scent, but less expensive and of a lesser or even inferior quality.

More information

Books

Article

  • What Are Essential Oils, and Do They Work? – Healthline

Scientific Research

  • An Overview of the Biological Effects of Some Mediterranean Essential Oils on Human Health – PubMed
  • Essential oils and Health – PubMed
  • Essential Oils, Part I: Introduction – PubMed
  • Oregano essential oil as an antimicrobial additive to detergent for hand washing and food contact surface cleaning – ResearchGate
  • Antiviral efficacy and mechanisms of action of oregano essential oil and its primary component carvacrol against murine norovirus – PubMed
  • Antibacterial activity of oregano (Origanum vulgare Linn.) against gram positive bacteria – PubMed
  • Essential Oils of Oregano: Biological Activity beyond Their Antimicrobial Properties – PubMed
  • Carvacrol, a Plant Metabolite Targeting Viral Protease (Mpro) and ACE2 in Host Cells Can Be a Possible Candidate for COVID-19 – Frontiers in Plant Science [[oregano’s principle component is carvacrol, admin]]
  • Oregano Oil and Its Principal Component, Carvacrol, Inhibit HIV-1 Fusion into Target Cells – PubMed
  • Why aromatherapy is showing up in hospital surgical units – Mayo Clinic

#1. The Skin

The skin is an extremely sensitive organ that is kept healthy due to a constantly regenerating, ingenious circulatory system of water, lymph, blood and fat. Due to the complexity of the skin, to understand how the skin is built up and how this organ works, it is useful to watch one or more educational videos about it. I have compiled these in a video list.

Photo by cottonbro 

How to maintain healthy skin?

Since the skin is nourished in the skin itself via the body’s systems and not on the surface, it is important to eat healthy food and drink enough water (1-2 litres per day) in addition to other liquids such as coffee, tea, soup, juice, etc. Coffee and black tea dehydrate the body. Breathing fresh air, while being physically active, contributes to optimal digestion and thus also to healthy skin. Daylight is also part of natural skin care. Daylight creates a natural vitamin D that is absorbed and transported by the skin into the body. Maintaining the skin from the outside is part of daily hygiene to keep bad odours, bacteria, viruses and fungi away, to avoid diseases. Skin-friendly body oils moisturise the skin, and, together with exfoliation and massage, they are a way to keep it vital, elastic and shiny.

1. Soap

It is astonishing that soap manufacturers of, for example, the very popular Aleppo soap Savon de Marseille and Castile soap do not provide information about the pH value. The pH value of all natural soaps is 9. Cretan Garden soaps are natural soaps, comparable to Aleppo soaps, and also have a pH value of 9. This pH level is related to the formula of handmade natural soaps according to ancient traditions. There are manufacturers of the so-called neutral soaps, or so-called ecologically degradable soaps, who also do not provide any information about them. There are natural soap manufacturers who add natural acidic substances from, for example, aloe vera to lower the pH level. For me, it has been a conscious choice to follow the old traditional methods and formulas. Although the Cretan-Garden olive soap is alkaline, the skin only needs 15 minutes to return to its own pH. The benefits of olive oil, herbs and essential oils in the soap are still present in the thin film that remains on the skin, nourishing, protecting and keeping the skin elastic.

*Advice. If the soap is used for scalp and hair washing: use rosemary soap, and argan oil after washing, on towel-dried hair if you have dry and/or curly hair. Grey hair can also be very dry. Argan oil is also used in the so-called Moroccan oil, but argan oil is pure oil and does not contain perfume or other chemicals. To make argan oil more yours, you can mix a drop of essential oil with argan oil in the palm of your hand before spreading it over your hair, and rub it into the hair and scalp for about a minute.

*Advice for using soap on the skin on the face: Do not use soap too often. Use lukewarm water and dry the facial skin.

2. A skin friendly body oil

Cretan-Garden: Recipes for a skin conditioner

Note: the recommended amount of drops of essential oil per 200 ml of olive oil for a body oil is a safe total. On the Aroma Therapy Foundation website it is written that the total depends on the power of each individual essential oil: they are all different in weight, which means that a drop of lavender is lighter than a drop of oregano, for example. They recommend 20 – 40 drops per 100 ml of olive oil. I recommend a maximum of 20 drops per 200 ml of olive oil, for use on the body and face. Your skin may react to it anyway. Advice: test your homemade body oil on a small spot on your arm, and wait to see how your skin reacts before using it on your entire body. 

Do not use body oil as a sun oil. You can use it as an after-sun treatment. Protect your skin from the sun with a cream with a high protection factor. However, the best protection is to avoid direct sunlight, by wearing a sun hat or sitting in the shade.

3. Exfoliation of the skin

Exfoliation is the process of removing dead skin cells from the outer layer of your skin. If done well, in a way that suits your skin type, it creates a bright, healthy complexion because the circulation in the skin has improved. The correct way to exfoliate allows for better absorption of body oils and creams. See also the Cretan-Garden blog post: Exfoliating the Skin.

*Tip: the skin on your face should not be exfoliated in the same way as the skin on your body. Because the skin on your face is constantly exposed, dealing with temperature variations, air pollution, an overdose of aggressive sunlight, dry indoor air in the winter, air conditioning in the summer and winter, the skin on your face needs gentle care. No form of exfoliation is gentle, unless you use a washcloth carefully.

4. Therapeutical massage

Since Wikipedia offers a very excellent article on massage, types of massage, massage in history and massage therapies, I will just add a few notes.

Massage stimulates muscles, blood circulation, organs, metabolism in the cells, balances the body systems, removes blockages of chakras, creates a bridge between your mind and body, and also activates the skin, because the skin is the medium between the hands of the therapist and the body under the skin. To get used to a therapeutic massage, one can start with a foot massage. Videos: playlist 1, playlist 2

A professional and therapeutic Thai massage is a possible next step: you wear comfortable clothes. Videos: playlist.

The professional and therapeutic Abhyanga (“oil massage”) is a form of Ayurvedic therapy that involves massaging the whole body from head to toe with Dosha-specific warm herbal oil. Self-massage is also possible. Abhyanga massage improves skin health. Healthline published an article about it. Video: Abhyanga self-massage. Video: Abhyanga massage India

5. Fresh air

The skin is our natural boundary between our inner physical body, our inner world, our Self and the outside world. Human development, linked to so-called civilisation, led to changes in habits, and in clothing. Our ancestors did not wear clothes, they used the skin and fur of the animals they killed for food, to protect against the cold. They did not live in closed houses, but in caves, huts or tents. Fresh air was a constant factor. The air was not polluted at that time. The skin could bathe day and night in clean air. Fresh air and oxygen are necessary to keep the skin in good condition. Opening windows, at least an hour or two per day, is a must to keep air hygiene optimal. 

Going for a daily walk, also in winter, in an environmentally friendly area, creates healthy blood circulation. The blood is enriched by breathing in pure oxygen. The blood system also transports oxygen to the skin.

6. Daylight

We are the descendants of humans who lived in the open air, with an abundance of daylight. We must realise that our skin did not change as much during evolution as our habits in clothing and life. We live almost constantly in a closed house, office, workplace, car or any form of public transport, with artificial light. Natural light, daylight, is essential for our well-being, and for maintaining healthy skin. Note: daylight is created by the sun, but being in the full heat of a scorching sun is not healthy. The shade also provides natural daylight.

7. Water and healthy food

What you eat and drink can significantly affect your skin’s health. Drink at least a litre of water per day, in addition to any other liquids like coffee, tea, juice, or soup. Healthline has excellent information on good foods for healthy skin.

Photo by Arnie Watkins

Related information

More:

  • Cretan Garden: Scientific research on olive oil, the use of olive oil on the skin, essential oils, cold-processed olive soap and herbs.
  • Medical News Today: Benefits of olive oil for skin and face.
  • Mayo Clinic – a non-profit American academic medical center focused on integrated healthcare, education, and research – Does drinking water give hydrated skin?
  • Healthfully: The effects of sunlight[daylight, admin] and fresh air on the body
  • Healthfully: Vitamin D & Extreme Sweating

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