Weather it’s Frankincense for skin care, lavender for sleep or a magical potion for mosquito’s, essential oils have become a big part of our daily lives.
The importance of essential oils date back thousands of years. Our Sumerian and Egyptian ancestors would use them as much as they used water. For bathing, first aid and eating are only a few of the many uses they had for the many oils that would have been available to them. The selection of essentials oils has grown overtime to include blends to assist with the stresses of everyday life or to lift the spirit or wrinkles.
The oils of the Bible were Frankincense and Myrrh, Sandalwood, Cinnamon & Cedarwood and have also been used for centuries for ceremony to homemaking. The practice of using essential oils in our daily lives have been resurrected in the last 20-30 years with the help of becoming more “eco-friendly” with our cleaning products & practices and now in the forefront with the use of essential oils in the beauty industry and holistic health industry.
My very first experience using essential oils was with a migraine. I have never been a huge headache sufferer BUT on one particular day, one just hit me. I took myself to the ER, took the prescribed meds and waited. It was several hours later that while on the floor in tears because the meds hadn’t worked, my roommate rolled me over & rubbed the most amazing smelling stuff on my temples in a circular motion. From that moment of total relief on, I have never looked back & have used oils whenever & where ever possible.
Essential Oils have become very prevalent in the way we clean, heal, purify & beautify. We are returning to the “old ways” in many areas of our lives and essential oils are a big part of that return. My Nanny would often have fresh & dried lavender to rub into her hands to naturally extract the oils from the plant right onto her skin which she would massage onto our scalps before naps. My Grandpa would make a batch of marmalade weekly and would take the left over peels & soak them in vinegar to extract the fragrance and oil into the vinegar for cleaning. Today a person can find a million uses for essential oils just on Pinterest alone.
The use of essential oils have also become popular in the pet industry. The use of oils for skin issues, anxiety and nutrition although popular need to be used with CAUTION!!! Unfortunately, we sometimes don’t fully research what the correct use of an oil is or it’s non-use that we could put our pets at great risk & harm. PLEASE, take the time to quickly Google what oils are good & not good for animal use. Both topically (right on the skin) or ingested.
On the same note, we as humans need to be cautious as to what we are using & how we are using it. Research is your best bet. Some oils can be too strong to apply directly to skin and need to be used with a “carrier oil” such as almond, apricot or jojoba. Also, oils can be too strong to ingest on their own & need to be diluted in water. Following the guidelines of the specific oil from the manufacturer is always the way to go.
The next big step is to choose your essential oil brand & I suggest choosing carefully. Although it can be very daunting with all of the brands to choose from, you will learn what you find important in an essential oil like their individual manufacturing processes, where they source their product from, how they select &/or grow the product, if they produce the product or just bottle it etc., etc.
Throughout my blog, we will delve into Essential Oils together. What brands, manufacturers, recipes, uses & anything else we can find. Oils are Essential & I can’t wait to get into them with you. xo
