The Use of Natural Essential Oils

 

Natural essential oils are one of the best or most effective natural weapons for different kinds of skin conditions. They contain volatile aroma compounds and are concentrated hydrophobic liquid from plants. They are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils or aetherolea. The reason why these oils are “essential” is because they carry a distinctive essence or scent of the plant where they are extracted from.

There are different processes used in extracting oils. But generally they are extracted by distillation and other times expression or solvent extraction. Distillation uses raw plant materials that are placed in a distillation apparatus over water. The steam passes through the plant material as the water is heated vaporizing the volatile compounds. Through a coil, the vapor flows where they are condensed back to liquid and then collected in the receiving vessel. The recon dense water is then called the hydrosol or plant water essence. They are used in soaps, perfumes, cosmetics. Sometimes they are also used for food and drink flavoring and sometimes additional scents to incense or household cleaning products.

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Natural essential oils cannot be prepared at home. However, you can try to make herbal oils with the use of different ingredients and it will take you two weeks to do so. Prior to the discovery of distillation, most essential oils were extracted by pressing like citrus peels oils.
A variety of natural essential oils have been used medicinally over periods of time. Medical applications of these natural essential oils range from skin treatments to remedies for cancer. But these are medical applications are subject to regulations for some countries. Although natural essential oils have been used for many years, modern medical people do not recognize it as “essential oils” rather they would call it as “methyl salicylate”. The popularity of natural essential oils plummeted down through the years but was revived in recent decades with the famous “aromatherapy”. Essential oils are used in the practice of Aromatherapy. Aromatherapy is a branch of alternative medicine that claims essential oils and aromatic compounds have curative effects. Diluted or volatized natural essential oils were used along with a carrier oil and applied to massage, or diffused in air with a nebulizer, or burned as incense. They are also useful to use at home for psychological and physical well-being of a person. Many have claimed that these essential oils have uplifting effect on the mind. Despite its meaningful but unnecessarily false, they are hard to quantify for the sake of efficacy.

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Another use of these natural essential oils are being a base in many beauty products such as soap. People nowadays look for different ways to save money and natural applications of things. One of them is soap making. Although a variety of soap is available commercially, some individuals still prefer to make their own alternative soaps. In this way also, they can show their artistic ability through making it. They can design it in the way they want it to be. It is a result of a basic chemical reaction between fats or oils and lye.

Soap making involves four basic methods:
– These methods are melting and pouring methods (melting pre-made blocks of soaps adding your own fragrance)
– cold method (making soap from scratch with oil and lye)
– hot method (a variation of cold process where the soap is cooked) and
– re-batching method (grinding bars of soaps, adding milk and water, and re-blending them).

If you are the type who makes candles and soaps and is dedicated to using natural ingredients, then natural essential oils are good choices for that. There is not much difference in the quality of fragrance oils compared to essential oils. However, fragrance oils are mixtures of various chemical components like natural and synthetic. Natural essential oils are essences of plants. They are liquid that are distilled, pressed or extracted from different plants.

Natural essential oils are very volatile, therefore, they evaporate quickly. This has been a challenge for soap makers. Usually, the scent falls to about half the strength after 24 weeks and the cold process is harsh during the first 4 weeks. That is why a good trick for most processes in different soap making is to add essential oils in the last step before pouring the formula into a mold. However, there are other ways in slowing the evaporation of natural essential oils. The melt-and-pour process requires about fifteen drops of essential oils per one pound of melted soap for average scent retention. This process is the kindest to essential oils. Before immediately pouring into molds, natural essential oils should be added just as soon as the liquid soap begins to cool. In this way, it is easier on essential oils because the soap temperature continues to drop. Cold process is much harder on natural essential oils. Cold process requires at least 1.5 teaspoons of essential oils per one pound of soap due to high probability of losing the scent. The essential oils are mixed with carrier oils as combination added on the last step before pouring into molds.

Natural essential oils’ scents are categorized in its own unique and distinct properties. They are classified as top (high), middle, or base (low) notes. Top notes generally tend to be more fleeting than the middle or base notes. On the other hand, base notes tend to have more staying power. Hence, a combination of essential oil blend of top, middle, and base notes is far more lasting than just one blend.

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Many people use natural skin care products for their skins. Sometimes they make their own skin care products from naturally occurring ingredients like natural essential oils to suit their needs. Soap is one the skin care products widely used. There are a lot of shoppers who buy popular and conventional soaps at their local or favorite store. What they do not realize are the harsh and harmful effects of these soaps to the skin. Unlike natural soaps, conventional soaps in the market have potentially harmful ingredients. Making a homemade or handmade soap is not a difficult process. With the right ingredients of natural essential oils and techniques, one can easily make soaps without delay. But, one must take into consideration the correct amount of ingredient and proper steps are being followed in soap making. Soap making usually involves different chemical interactions and processes that one should be familiar with.

Natural handmade soaps are made of natural essential oils. They have a stronger scent than other types of soaps that have chemically created fragrances. Branded soaps often include harsh chemicals that leave the skin dry and irritated taking the moisture off. Natural soaps usually contain essential oils that are natural to the skin keeping its moisture. They normally make the skin softer than any conventional soap. Although, there are times that natural soaps tend to be more expensive than the conventional soap, shoppers still prefer it. They like the fact that even with the additional cost they know their skin are safe from any harmful ingredients. On the other hand, making your own handmade soap can be cost-effective. Natural essential oil as content of soap is definitely an advantage. One can never be too careful as to what really comprises soaps nowadays. But with natural soaps, one can be certain that it include essential oils beneficial to the skin. On one side, natural soaps do not bubble as much as conventional soaps. This fact is true but irrelevant to issue of natural soaps being more effective than conventional soaps. Bubbles do not have anything to do with how well a soap works.

One other fact of using natural essential oils is its medical application benefits. Though not many people see its significance in the medical world especially medical practitioners, they are beneficial in some ways. There are instances that they can be used as applications in different skin dilemmas or the scents can be used for mild psychological disorders. Numerous applications can be done to essential oils with our present technology. Let us take for example, chamomile used as ingredient has demonstrated anti-inflammatory properties while applied topically as scientific studies proved.

Many people nowadays use skin care ingredients and recipes to make remedies for their skin whether at home or any place. In fact, many skin care facilities like Salons and Spas, focus more on using naturally driven skin care products like soaps. Essential oils have many other uses other than soap additive such as aromatherapy, massage therapy, personal care including hair care and sometimes can be used in pets.

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Essential oils should not be applied directly to the skin in their undiluted form because of their concentrated nature. They can cause severe irritation and might provoke allergies for some people. They must be infused with carrier oils first before ingestion or topical application. Correct handling equipment should also be used when handling essential oils since they can be overly aggressive towards plastics and rubbers. Glass syringes are often used in this case. Other dangers presented in the use of natural essential oils are flammability, Gynecomastia (abnormal breast growth), toxicity, and sometimes harmful in pregnancy.