Aromatherapy - Vitamin A - Skincare & Anti Ageing

Aromatherapy Skincare - What is aromatherapy?

Aromatherapy Skincare - Clary Sage - Relax

Aromatherapy - Lemon Oil Skin Brightening - Skincare and Anti Ageing

Lizzy The Guru Interiew - Animation - Aromatherapy Skincare

Frankincense - Not Just For Christmas - Aromatherapy Skincare

Aromatherapy - Rosehip Oil - Vitamin C- Skin care and Anti-Ageing

Phytonutrients - Aromatherapy Skincare

Phytonutrients - 4 Reasons Why You Need Them

Phytonutrients are nutrients derived from plant material that have been shown to be necessary for sustaining human life. These plant nutrients form part of the plants immune system and their role in plants is to protect plants from disease, injuries, insects, drought, excessive heat, ultraviolet rays, and poisons or pollutants in the air or soil. 

Phyto, From the Greek word "phuton" meaning plant - Phytonutrient - plant extracts that sustains human life

As a qualified aromatherapist, I am interested in phytonutrients (plant nutrients) as part of aromatherapy skincare as one of the main benefits are their anti-oxidant properties. 

Anti-oxidants are very important as they deal with free radicals which affect our health, can cause disease and give the appearance of wrinkled skin as we get older. For more information on anti-oxidants, please click here to my Vitamin A blog.

Many clinical trials have considered phytonutrients from two angles:

• Eating certain food types can prevent certain chronic diseases 
• Using oils massaged on the skin are effective anti-oxidants

I believe it is crucial that or bodies receive many phytonutrients, and I would recommend that we: 

1. Eat as few unprocessed foods as possible (phytonutrients are only negligable after factory processing)
2. Eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables each day aiming to cover as many colours as possible. 
3. Different coloured fresh fruit and vegetables contain differing quantities of the different phytonutrient types
4. Use a face product high in anti-oxidants, if you're concerned about your skin looking tired and older (remember face creams/ moisturisers contain 50 - 60% water, whereas a facial oil contains 100% active ingredients.)

INSKIN skincare produce a truly fabulous facial oil with very high quantities of active anti-oxidant ingredients.

Inskin Precious Anti Ageing Facial Oil 30ml

                                    

Many thanks for taking the time to read this blog, and if you've found it interesting I'd be delighted if you'd ask your friends to take a look.

Many thanks, 

Lizzy Radcliffe

ITEC Certified Aromatherapist Graduate 1996

If you would like to become involved with our work here at INSKIN skincare - please click here to complete the form on the INSKIN website 

Frankincense - Not Just for Christmas

Frankincense is a word we're all familiar with due to the numerous nativity plays we've been in or watched.


I guess it's also something most people know very little about.
Frankincense is a small tree which is native to North Africa and some of the Arab countries. It's usage is best know within two areas - religion as a burning incense (it's a relaxant) and in the world of aromatherapy (it's a relaxant and fantastic in skincare).


When the bark of the tree is damaged the tree exudes a resin in drops and the essential oil is extrcted from this resin by a process called steam distallation.





Glycation is a new buzz word but very imporatnt. Using today's scientific knowledge with age old frankincence glycation can be fought.


Great, but what's glycation? Glycation is a chemical reaction which permenantly reduces your skin's ability to produce and and regenerate high quality collagen and elastin. (Collagen and elastin are fibres within the skin which give it its strength, structure and plumped up look. For more information please visit my blog on Vitamin A which explains the formation of collagen.)


So what is this chemical reaction? When naturally occuring sugar molecules enter the skin, it bonds to skin proteins such as collagen and elastin causing them to become brittle and less elastic which in turn produces the look of older skin.


The next stage is once these sugar molecules have bound themselves to the skin's collagen and elastin, they mutate creating new molecules. These molecules are called advanced glycation end-products (A.G.E.s)


So what can you do about it? Firstly, my advice would be to cut out as much sugar in your diet as possible (including alcohol)


But what has frankincense to do with all this? Something called boswellic acids are extracted from the gum of the frankincence tree and it is this acid that helps with glycation in two ways.

• the formation of new collagen through special cells called fibroblasts.
• the reduction of glycation occuring through the collagen's protein.

Two valuable studies have been carried out. 

The first is a study considering a cream containing boswellic acids and its stimulatory effects on fibroblasts. 

The second is a submitted patent using bowellia carteri (frankincense) as an anti-glycation agent - 3-0-acetyl-11-Ketoboswellic acid for relaxing the skin.

INSKIN Skincare produce a wonderfully beneficial facial oil containing frankincense. 

Many thanks for taking the time to read this blog, and if you've found it interesting I'd be delighted if you'd ask your friends to take a look.

Many thanks, hugs and kisses

Lizzy Radcliffe

ITEC Certified Aromatherapist Graduate 1996

If you would like to become involved with our work here at INSKIN skincare - please complete the form on the INSKIN website 

Aromatherapy - What is aromatherapy?

Aromatherapy is a form of medicine that uses liquid plant material. This liquid plant material is known as an aromatherapy essential oil (EO's). 

Ylang-Ylang

There are a lot of highbrow words in the world of aromatherapy, and I hope to demystify five of the more widely used ones. 


So here goes in alphabetical order:


1) Adulteration - this is the lowering of the standard or character of a product by the addition of one or more inferior ingredients. There are many products on the market claiming to be 100% pure aromatherapy essential oils, yet have had cheaper similar smelling oils added or are bulked out with synthetic oils. Within my own skincare company INSKIN, a lot of our time is spent sourcing oils. We need to know when the crops were harvested, where the crops harvested from, when they were produced into oils and how old they are. We work only with a reputable and highly regarded supplier. Base or carrier oils - aromatherapy essential oils must not be used without being diluted. Unfortunately, many skin care products contain only minute quantities of essential oils and again have been bulked out with base/ carrier oils.


2) Dermal absorption - this is how chemicals go 'through' your skin into the cells below. There are many chemicals that make up an aromatherapy essential oil, and each of these are 'light' enough to pass through the skin. Dermal absorption in a nutshell is considering the density of the chemical put on the skin to see if it is able to pass below the skin's surface into the cells below - I'll do a separate blog on dermal absorption as it's quite a big area - quite mathematical but amazing studies are being carried out within the medicines industry on this.


3) Extraction - quite simply this is how a product gets from being a growing plant to inside a small brown bottle as a liquid.


4) Phytochemicals - These are nutrients that occur naturally in plants.  Phytochemicals are the molecules responsible for colour and odour (think of the deep purple of blueberries and the smell of garlic. There are numerous phytochemicals that are beneficial in fighting or indeed preventing chronic disease. Watch this space - I'll do a separate blog on phytochemicals as it's a really interesting subject area. If you'd like a little more information now, please visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytochemical


5) Steam distillation - There are a number of ways to extract 'oil' from the plant to create essential oils, with the most common being steam distillation. In VERY simple terms, the plant material is put in a container with a tube in; it's heated on the outside; the liquid nutrients travel up the tube as steam then is collected in another container where it condenses leaving the essential oil. Imagine boiling a kettle of water near a window, the steam rises, hits the cold window where it condenses then causes water to run down the window.

Steam Distillation

There are many more aromatherapy terms, but hopefully I've covered the ones that appear time and time again. I'd love to hear from you if you'd like a blog covering in any other aromatherapy area.

Many thanks for taking the time to read this blog, and if you've found it interesting I'd be delighted if you'd ask your friends to take a look.

Many thanks, hugs and kisses

Lizzy Radcliffe

ITEC Certified Aromatherapist Graduate 1996


If you would like to become involved with our work here at INSKIN skincare - please complete the form on the INSKIN website http://www.inskin.org/testers.htm