Planned Experiments with Organic Ingredients and Essential Oils

I normally obtain good results with natural skincare (I should do a review of the set of Sukin skin care which I have been using), including those that contain essential oils. This fact, together with my interest in trying out products from Yours Essentially, led me to purchase a few items recently. The well-padded and well-packed parcel from this Singapore-based webshop arrived today, a few days after I placed my order. In the package, was included 2 small sample packs from the seller and the following items I bought:

• Unprocessed organic Shea Butter
• Basil Essential Oil
• Lavender Essential Oil
• Rosemary Essential Oil
• Grapefruit Essential Oil
• Camellia Oil
• Jojoba Oil

For me to mix and to contain my own experimental blends:

• 5ml Amber Glass Bottle
• Disposable Pipette with markings (3ml)
• 50g Plastic Screwtop Jar

I read some good reviews about this webshop's products and also some good results from using oils and unprocessed shea butter at Viva Woman, so I was very excited to try these items. Besides what I read at Viva Woman, there are various benefits attributed to the items I purchased. I compiled a short version of what each item is supposed to, either taken from Yours Essentially (which contains more details) or other online sites. Based on my main concerns, the list is focussed on relaxation/calming, healing and hair/scalp care benefits.

• Unprocessed organic Shea Butter - Rich in Vitamins A, E, and F, Promotes skin renewal, increases the circulation, accelerates wound healing. Itchy skin, skin rashes, Eczema, and Dermatitis. Soothing nature, anti-inflammatory and rejuvenating effects
• Basil Essential Oil - stimulates and promotes hair growth. Relieves headaches, stress related allergies, and painful menstruation.
• Lavender Essential Oil - healing properties, calms and relaxes, prevents scarring and balances the skin, effective for headaches, migraines and insomnia.
• Rosemary Essential Oil - stimulating the hair-bulbs to renewed activity and preventing premature baldness.
• Grapefruit Essential Oil - Antidepressant, antiseptic, antitoxic, astringent, bactericidal, diuretic, restorative, stimulant (lymphatic, digestive), and tonic. Benefits people with hair-loss.
• Camellia Oil - Skin restructuring and moisturising properties. antioxidant, anti-aging Reported to diminish fine lines and pitted acne scarring, lighten freckles and reduces the appearance of pores. (Also, thanks to Yumeko's blogging about this product for use on hair, I'm keen to try this, so I bought the organic version when tsubaki oil was out of stock at Nisshio Pharmacy.)
• Jojoba Oil - has healing properties for damaged and breaking hair. Great hair oil, scalp cleanser. Reduce sebum production, protects the skin from harmful bacteria. Moisturises dry or flaky skin. Clears and minimizes pores while clearing skin of blemishes. Aids in the healing of psoriasis and eczema.

Some experiments that I intend to carry out:

• Body (Face?) Moisturiser - I intend to mix into Lavender, Basil and Camellia into the Shea Butter for calming effect and skin-healing purposes. I love shea butter formulations, as they always help alleviate my dry skin and allergies. Lavender too is a favourite HG essential oil. If this works, I won't need to spend money on commercial shea butter creams or lavender-infused creams anymore! But this shea butter is very stiff, I am not sure whether I should go about whipping it ... buy a cheap mixer just for this?
• Hair massage oil - I'm going to mix Basil, Lavender, Rosemary, Grapefruit, Camellia and Jojoba carrier oil. From my general internet reading, I found that massaging in essential oils can also help re-balance the scalp, increase hair growth/reduce hair fall, and also condition the hair shaft. There are various hair oil blend recipes that can be found online, most include Lavender and Rosemary essential oils with Jojoba as a carrier oil.
• Tension, headache, migraine and insomnia calming massage oil - I'll mix lavender, grapefruit and basil into the Jojoba carrier oil. I also have some other essential oils at home that I can mix in, including bergamot and chamomile, which are not available at Yours Essentially. If this works, I can stop buying the pre-blended stuff from various places like The Body Shop and Origins.

I'll do reviews later when I've carried out my experiments. © Copyright. All rights reserved.