Natural Body Guru

Facial steams are relaxing,  stress-relieving and great pampering routines that can be done once a week, or for those with very sensitive or dry skin, once a month. Steaming is an excellent way to increase circulation to the skin, promote the release of toxins and impurities, deep cleanse and open pores, and experience the benefits of essential oils and herbs.

To prepare a facial steam, you’ll need a large heat-safe bowl, boiling water, a towel, and the essential oils or herbs you want to use. Combine the hot water and essential oils/herbs in the bowl, place the towel over your head, and lean over the bowl in such a way that the towel creates a tent, keeping the steam in. Keep your face a comfortable distance above the water, breathe deeply and enjoy for five to ten minutes taking breaks every minute or two as needed.

Essential oils can be calming, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, balancing, and fungicidal. Some common oils you might already have include lavender, tea tree, chamomile, clary-sage, and neroli. You can use fresh or dried herbs as well, including comfrey, rosemary, lemon balm, chamomile, fennel, mint, and more. Choose your additions based on your needs at the time, or simply work with combinations that smell right to you, whether they are invigorating, relaxing or simply delicious!

It is time for holiday shopping. Some of my friends at work are boasting that they are done with their Christmas shopping! After a day of standing at work or a long day of shopping, your feet will enjoy a soak in a basin of warm water. To pamper your feet even more, add about a dozen marbles,  1 tablespoon of salt, and 4 drops of your favorite essential oils. Peppermint essential oil will refresh your feet at any time, calendula oil is great for hard skin and corns. Lavender, fennel or chamomile will relieve tired and swollen feet. You can breath in the wonderful aroma while you slowly and sensuously rub the soles of your feet back and forth over the marbles.

After you blot your feet dry, massage the whole foot including the toes with the following oils:

• 6 drops rose
• 4 drops lemon
• 3 drops thyme
• 2 drops chamomile

Blend these essential oils together in the above proportions and use 5 drops in 1 teaspoon of jojoba oil. A few foot baths and you will never want to give them up. Your feet will thank you too.

Jasmine essential oil comes from a beautiful but very delicate flower. It is so delicate that jasmine is not produced by steam distillation as are most essential oils but instead, it is processed using chemical solvents. This method of production gives us an “absolute” rather than an essential oil. Jasmine’s aroma is rich, floral, very heady and sweet.

While jasmine is non-toxic, it can be a potential skin irritant and sensitizer. Do not use jasmine in baths or massage if you have sensitive skin. Also, if you tend to get headaches or migraines, this oil’s strong scent may trigger an attack. Lastly, do not use jasmine absolute during pregnancy, but you can use it during labor.

Jasmine boosts and restores sexual vitality and aids the expression of intimate feelings. To warm the emotions, add to 4 teaspoons sweet almond oil the following essential oils: 2 drops jasmine, 4 drops sandalwood and 4 drops sweet orange oil. To heal constant emotional stress and withdrawal, take a bath with 2 drops jasmine absolute and 4 drops sweet orange.

Besides easing the mind, jasmine can help to heal your body too. To ease pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS)  blend jasmine and mandarin essential oil in jojoba oil and apply it clockwise to the abdomen. To help the uterus to contract during labor, blend 2 drops jasmine and 2 drops clary-sage  in 4 teaspoons of a carrier oil and ask your spouse to massage it into your abdomen. To revive mature skin, add 2 drops jasmine, 4 drops frankincense and 2 drops gardenia to 30 Second Face Lift. Apply this mixture to your face every night.

Geranium is an essential oil that should be in everyone’s home because it works  intently on the emotions, is helpful with many medical conditions, and it smells incredible while it’s working. Most essential oils come directly from the plant of the same name but geranium oil is not extracted from the brightly colored flower. It comes from the species Pelargonium –  Geranium Robertianum and is popularly known for treating clean cuts but geranium has many other uses.

Geranium essential oil is very helpful for women who have hormonal imbalances. It can be used to treat PMS symptoms, endometriosis, menstrual cramps and menopause symptoms. Add 10 drops of Geranium to a diffuser or pour a couple of drops onto a cotton ball and gently inhale. To relieve menstrual cramps, try massaging the affected area with 5 drops of Geranium oil blended in a tablespoon of carrier oil. If massage is too painful, add 5 drops of geranium to a warm compress and cover the abdomen to ease the pain.

Geranium makes chilblains disappear overnight and is used in skin care to bring a radiant glow. It is also a fundamental ingredient in the treatment of endometriosis, diabetes, blood disorders, throat infections, nervous disorders, and it works well as a sedative. Geranium is reported to help in cases of uterine and breast cancer but if nothing else, it will definitely help the sufferer to relax and cope with the illness.

My mother-in-law passed away many years ago but I will never forget her cries in the night when she had leg cramps. Bless my father-in-law’s heart, he would always do whatever he could to ease her pains. If you get leg cramps in the night, you know that the pain can last for a very long ten minutes and is an awful way to have your sleep pattern interrupted.

A leg cramp is a strong contraction of a muscle that you cannot relax and usually happens in the calf muscle. I saw my father-in-law put his thumb on mom-in-law’s big toe and press it firmly while rubbing her leg and that seemed to ease her pain. Sometimes I get a cramp in my big toe and if I point the toe up I can usually make it stop before it cramps all the way so that’s another trick you can try. The best thing to do is to prevent the cramps all together. Calcium and zinc supplements are helpful as well as garlic capsules. The warmth of massage is extremely helpful too. The leg cramp massage oil to use follows:

• 10 drops rosemary
• 5 drops hyssop
• 5 drops lavender
• 10 drops marjoram

Dilute the essential oils in 2 tablespoons of a carrier oil like liquid shea oil. Each night for at least two weeks, massage the whole leg moving towards the heart. Then massage the feet and put on warm socks before going to bed. If you miss a night, start the two weeks over. This treatment will deprogram the muscle from cramping.

Cardamom essential oil  has been shone to be effective against inflammation in laboratory animals. This oil is one you want to have in your essential oil kit after you gather the basic ones like lavender, peppermint , tea tree and eucalyptus. Cardamom is multi faceted in its healing abilities. It has a calming effect on the digestive system so it would be a good one to choose if you have issues with flatulence, stomach or abdominal cramps, irritable bowel syndrome or Crohn’s disease.

Cardamom is antibacterial, anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory and analgesic. Using this essential will help you ease muscle cramps and spasms. It also has a calming but at the same time, stimulating effect. Use cardamom for most types of coughs and respiratory problems as well as for certain kinds of food related infections.

This versatile essential oil can aid in cases of mental, physical or emotional exhaustion. It stimulates you if you’re tired or fatigued but it has a calming effect when your mind or nerves are stressed. This is a balancing and harmonizing essential oil that is excellent for your basic essential oil kit. It is very gentle and can be used in skin preparations for massage as well as cooking.

My 22 year old granddaughter is deathly afraid of needles and refuses to go to the dentist for that reason. Needless to say, she now has gone from a toothache to an abscessed tooth. When things get that bad, (she says the tooth has been painful since she was 19,) I think the best thing for her to do is to go to the dentist and have that tooth removed; but first she has to get the swelling and infection out of the area. Her jaw is so swollen it looks like she is holding a ping pong ball in her mouth!

If you have an abscess, your white blood cells are rushing to an area of your body where bacteria has collected. The white blood cells are your body’s defense mechanism against bacteria and infection. To treat abscesses, make a compress and use 2 drops lavender, 2 drops tea tree, and 3 drops chamomile. Apply the compress to the swollen area twice each day until it is gone. Other oils you can substitute are eucalyptus, lemon, or juniper.

For a dental abscess, put 1 drop of chamomile on a cotton ball and apply it directly to the abscess. Rub your jaw and cheek with 3 drops of lavender and 2 drops of tea tree diluted in a teaspoon of sweet almond oil. Other essential oils that are good to treat dental abscesses are lemon, geranium, bergamot and myrrh.

Using a diffuser is an excellent way to disperse essential oils into the air. Diffusers emit a fine mist of essential oil micro-particles that purify and revitalize the air in a room. There are many different kinds of these devices available but my favorite is the electric diffuser  closely followed by the kind that uses a tea light candle to diffuse the oil. The essential oils you use in your diffuser are determined by the outcome you want to achieve. Below are lists of essential oils you can use for the purpose stated. You can use one of the oils in the list or experiment with a blend of oils from the same list.

To breath more easily choose from clove, eucalyptus, juniper berries, lavender, peppermint, pine, spearmint, or tea tree. To disinfect a room choose bergamot, cinnamon, clove, eucalyptus, lavender, pine, rosemary,sate, tea tree or thyme. To energize a room use eucalyptus, lemon, lime, peppermint, pine or spearmint. For a stress-free atmosphere, use chamomile, geranium, grapefruit, lavender, lemon, mandarin, neroli, orange or petitgrain.

To make your recipe, use a clean glass jar about the size of a small baby food jar or a little smaller. It needs to be big enough to hold 4 teaspoons of finished product and also have room to mix the formula. Of course, you can mix the ingredients in another container and then transfer it to a small jar that will hold just 4 teaspoons. Add 3 teaspoons aloe vera gel to 1 teaspoon jojoba oil and stir with a small spoon. When the oil and gel combine and start to thicken, add another 1/2 teaspoon aloe vera gel and keep stirring until the mixture gets smooth and becomes an opaque, pale cream color. This will make 4 tsp of mousse or enough for about 10 applications to your face.

If you like, you can leave the mousse unscented. If you are like me, though, you will want to add some beneficial fragrance. Try one of the blends below in the amounts given and stir again. Your mousse will last about four to six weeks if kept at a cool room temperature. These blends will leave your skin feeling amazing – calm, restored and soft.

For normal skin, add to the mousse 2 drops geranium and 1 drop rosewood essential oil to the mousse. For dry skin, add 1 drop chamomile and 1 drop rose to the mousse. For oily skin add 1 drop lavender and 1 drop rosemary to the mousse. For acne add 1 drop chamomile, 1 drop lavender, 1 drop juniper and 1 drop patchouli. Whichever formula is right for your skin, you will be pleased with your mousse.

Take good care of your skin as you would with the rest of your body. Don’t skip on using skin moisturizers to keep your skin fresh, hydrated, and radiant looking. Proper exercise, a healthy diet, good sleep, and drinking enough water daily are your natural ways of maintaining your skin’s natural glow and moisture. But it doesn’t hurt to use skin moisturizing products to give your skin and body the extra pampering it deserves.

Skin moisturizers and hand and body lotions lock in moisture into your skin and prevents it from roughness and drying. It’s a staple in your beauty arsenal and one that you should use on a regular basis. Moisturizing your skin helps you feel relaxed and rejuvenated. With regular use, it can smooth calluses and help soften rough parts on body. Not only that, moisturizing products are available in various scents and that’s another perk – your skin won’t only feel well-hydrated but smell great, too. Definitely a confidence boost!

What you put on and in to your body reflects on your skin, so it goes without saying that it’s important to know the best type of moisturizing product to use. Go for brands that use natural ingredients, but if you want to be extra sure, there’s no harm in talking to a skin expert.