Everyone has different needs when it comes to skin care. Some people need less oil, while others have very dry skin and need the extra oil. No matter what skin type you have, there’s a solution to give you the best possible skin. It can be a bit of a challenge to figure out your own specific needs when it comes to choosing the right moisturizer for you.

When it comes to finding the right facial moisturizers, the first question to answer is whether you have oily, dry or normal skin. If your skin is already oily, it’s extremely important to find a moisturizer that doesn’t have oil. This can cause a major breakout. If your skin is neither oily nor dry, it’s important to find a good pH balance.

Article from: info@natural-light-surrey.com

Every holiday I tell myself that I won’t eat too much but I always manage to feel stuffed after dinner because I have to taste everything. Even if I just put a teaspoon of everything on my plate, it still turns out to be too much. Essential oils will not dissolve all the extra food you eat for dinner but they will allow you to digest that food more easily. The best way to use essential oils for digestion is in a honey tea. Mix 1 or 2 drops of essential oil into a teaspoon of honey, put it in a mug, pour hot water on it, mix it up and then sip the drink slowly. You can use any one of the following essential oils:

• lemon
• ginger
• cumin
• peppermint
• spearmint
• cardamom
• dill
• mandarin

My favorite essential oil is peppermint if I’m only going to use one oil for overindulgence. However, it might be a good idea to be ready for the holiday season and make a synergistic blend of essential oils to have ready whenever you overeat. Once you have blended the following oils together in these proportions, use 1 to 2 drops in honey tea.

• 10 drops mandarin
• 2 drops peppermint
• 2 drops ginger
• 5 drops lemon
• 3 drops coriander

Pregnancy is both a beautiful and stressful experience for women. Since the baby is so connected to the mother, when the mother is stressed out her baby may feel stressed out as well. Taking a relaxing soak with aromatherapy bath oils can put mother and child in a good frame of mind.

Not only will a relaxing soak with bath oils reduce stress, it also surrounds the mother with beautiful smells. Many pregnant women report sensitivity to smell. Doctors recommend mothers surround themselves with pleasant smells to ease the mind and prevent nausea. You can dilute 5 drops of any of these essential oils – tangerine, grapefruit, geranium, chamomile, ylang ylang, lavender in 1 teaspoon of shea, grapeseed, or almond oil to make a wonderful bath oil. If you or a loved one are going through a difficult pregnancy and have a hard time relaxing, consider giving bath oils a try.

I have a few relaxing blends that I use quite often but I also like to come up with new blends. Sometimes an oil will surprise me with how soothing it is, and I’ll wonder why I’ve never used it in my relaxing diffuser blends before. Then I have a whole new set of ideas for blends to make!

If I’m diffusing essential oils in a candle diffuser, I usually stick to about 5 drops. If I’m using an electric diffuser, I’ll use more—about 10 drops.

Once I find a diffuser blend that I love, I often make a little stock bottle of it. I keep the stock bottle right near the diffuser, so I don’t have to keep all the oils in the blend right there.

The drop count here is for one use in an electric diffuser. That way you can test out the recipes, and if you like one then you can make your own stock blend. To make a stock blend in a 5 ml bottle, just increase the recipes below four times.

Meditate and Smile (you can call this the Smiling Buddha blend!)

• 6 drops frankincense
• 2 drops orange
• 2 drops patchouli 

So your stock blend for this would be:

• 24 drops frankincense
• 8 drops orange
• 8 drops patchouli

Floral Heaven

• 5 drops lavender
• 1 drop ylang ylang
• 4 drops palmarosa 

Calm and Earthy

• 4 drops vetiver
• 3 drops patchouli
• 3 drops range

Try these aromatherapy essential oils in your diffuser and let a nice relaxing blend of essential oils ease away your stress.  Guest editor today is Andrea Butje from the Aromahead Institute. You can watch her make a stock bottle of a relaxing aromatherapy blend if you click here.

From Natural Body Guru

With a common cold I can usually keep functioning as usual but if I develop a fever, that will stop me in my tracks. A fever can take your body through changes from shivering and coldness to sweating and delirium. If you have a fever, bed rest is often the best cure. You should also try to bring the fever down.

The best way to break a fever is to keep the  body cool with sponging. Add either eucalyptus, peppermint or lavender essential oil to the water used to sponge the body. Give the sick person plenty of liquids, including fruit juices and keep the room aired out. Spray the room with a plant spray bottle containing 1 cup water and 15 drops of thyme. The caregiver should also use thyme, 4 drops in the bathwater, so that (s)he doesn’t get sick too.

No matter what type of work we do, we have little control over the work environment. Office workers are exposed to sick co-workers, stale air, fluorescent lights, and computer screen radiation. According to a study funded by the Health Promotion Research Trust, 80% of 4,000 workers questioned reported feeling unwell as a result of working in a particular office.

The symptoms  most commonly reported and the essential oils I am recommending you use in your diffusers to disperse them into the room are  listed below:

• Dry throat – grapefruit or lemon essential oil
• Dry and/or itchy eyes – tea tree essential oil (used in a humidifier)
• Headaches – lavender essential oil
• Lethargy – grapefruit, eucalyptus or lemon essential oil
• Stuffy nose – tea tree or rosemary essential oil

The above symptoms occur mostly in air-conditioned offices but air conditioners are not the only culprits. Faulty humidifiers become bacteria breeding grounds that spread diseases to unsuspecting office workers. Add to that; dust extractors that give off a discharge, carpet cleaning fluids,  poorly maintained photocopiers that give off ozone and nitrogen dioxide and you have an office or even a whole office building that is causing all the usual problems, plus itchy skin, rashes, nose bleeds, tightness in the chest and shortness of breath.

Essential oils fight bacteria and viruses. If an office manager provided room diffusers and a few antiviral essential oils for the office, the investment would pay for itself within a week during the cold and flu season. Not only do the essential oils combat illnesses, they can also create a calm productive atmosphere. Try using grapefruit and lavender essential oil in a room diffuser – the grapefruit will keep employees alert and the lavender is an antibiotic with antiviral properties which will also keep everyone calm and tranquil. The citrus scent in the grapefruit is very pleasant and few people object to the aroma.