Benefits Of Essential Oil For Skin During Winters
Winter is a season where humidity is less in nature so in our skin as our skin has natural tendency to take moisture form environment. Dry the climate, drier the skin which cause in rough, dry and itchy skin, cracking. Forget about the dry skin people even normal and oil skin gets dried due to increase in vaat factor due to seasonal influence.
To maintain skin moisture level and to protect it from dryness, there are various remedies recommended in Ayurveda texts. Also, basic change in routine, eating habits, exercise, sleep can also be helpful to serve our purpose. As we know “what we eat that we look” connection between gut and skin. So increasing intake of healthy fat, vitamins like E, A and C may help with dry skin. Fruits like Gooseberry, Banana, Papaya etc are rich in vitamins and antioxidants. High content of natural oil in nuts and seeds help to improve dry skin as well as fiber in body. Ayurveda has mentioned many therapies like panchkarma nasyam, vaman, abhyangam etc which can be useful for benefits in dry skin.
Essential oils are helpful for dry skin which is used broadly nowadays. Essential oils have been used in folk medicine throughout history. Interest has revived in recent decades as aromatherapy, a branch of alternative medicine.
What is essential oil: It is a concentrated volatile plant extract, through different extraction method like distillation, expression, solvent extraction. It can be extracted from leaves {basil, lemon grass, bay leaf}, bark {cinnamon, cassia, clove} or resins {ginger root, cumin, sandal wood} of plants. The word essential means the essence of that particular plant. Essential oil can be used in many ways like inhalation, topical application, used as pesticide, used in food.
How to use: Oil should be diluted in carrier oil like coconut oil, almond or sesame oil. Some oils can be irritating and recommend always using proper dilution and doing a skin patch test.
For skin we can use lavender, carrot seed, rose, rosehip, tea tree, etc essential oil.
Lavender oil: Lavender is natural sedative and used in insomnia, anxiety, stress like conditions. Lavender has vaat controlling property. Being antiseptic it helps in acne, cuts. When it is mixed with coconut oil improves wrinkles on skin thus acting as anti aging.
Tea tree oil: It is anti inflammatory, antifungal property. Antibacterial so used in acne, dandruff like conditions. The tea tree oil effectively balances all the Tridoshas i.e. Vata, Pitta and Kapha Dosha and promotes the skin health. It seeps deep into the scalp and prevents dry scalp and itching.
Eucalyptus oil: It inhibits the activity of acne-causing bacteria due to its antibacterial property. Eucalyptus oil can be mix { 2-3 drops} in bath water to prevent skin infection .
Orange oil: It has got anti microbial properties. So can be used in acne and inflammatory conditions.
Sandalwood oil: This oil is very gently active, heals the soft tissue of skin, antiseptic. It tightened the wrinkled area. And even out skin tone.
Lemon oil: It has got astringent and antimicrobial properties. It can be used as face cleanser.
Essential oils are particularly powerful and can cause skin irritations. It can cause burning in your eyes. It’s important to avoid this area if possible. It can increase your skin’s sensitivity to the sun. This can cause redness, rash, or in some cases blistering, followed by pigmentation changes. So use of essential oil should be done carefully.
