Essential Oils

So who the hell says they’re essential? Well, they do contain essences of plants. So it gets a little bit of a tautology - The Gist

Essential Oils

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Are Essential Oils Essentially Bunk?

Well, first, let’s talk about what they are. Mm hmm. So they’re oils from plants and they’re mostly Tarpeena, Turpin, Loyd’s and aromatic compounds. I can see why they went with essential instead of annoyance. And they come from all parts of the plant. So they can come from the flower. They can come from the seeds. They can come from the bark. The stem, the leaf, the root, the fruit. Do they just rhyme? I think I think I think I just went on a plant rhyming scheme. I just I absolutely did plant rant, if you will. And they’re extracted and any number of ways from the plants. So it can be through distillation, through solvent extraction and through pressure, steam, lots of different ways that you…

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Articles of Interest

A Guide to Using Essential Oils Safely in Your Beauty Routine

There's plenty of conflicting info out there about these powerful plant extracts. Are essential oils good for your skin or just irritating? Is aromatherapy legit? How do you know if you're diluting correctly? We asked experts to clear everything up.

An expert guide to essential oils for stress, sleep and more, plus whether they actually work

Feeling stressed or looking to boost your self care routine? Enter stage right, essential oils

Are Essential Oils Safe?

Some research in the past has linked essential oils to hormone disturbances, with some suggesting a link between the oils and abnormal breast growth in young boys, called prepubertal gynecomastia. Now, a new study suggests that compounds in essential oils — specifically lavender and tea tree oil — may have properties that can disrupt hormones.

Aromatherapy: Do Essential Oils Really Work?

Essential oils are basically plant extracts. They're made by steaming or pressing various parts of a plant (flowers, bark, leaves or fruit) to capture the compounds that produce fragrance. It can take several pounds of a plant to produce a single bottle of essential oil. In addition to creating scent, essential oils perform other functions in plants, too.

Can Breathing Oils and Herbs Aid Calm and Well-Being?

There is at least preliminary scientific evidence for positive effects of many of the essential oils and herbs in the new blends. The aroma of lavender essential oils, for example, has been found to calm people before a medical procedure. However, the bulk of the research has been on ingesting the herbs and oils, not breathing them.

Do Essential Oils Work? Here’s What Science Says

Every time you turn around someone is suggesting aromatherapy. Essential oils are a $1 billion industry, but are they effective?

Effects of Essential Oils on Your Body

Lavender and Peppermint oil are some of the most popular and useful essential oils on the market, their use dating back to ancient times. These two oils are definitely on the list of must-haves for any essential oil user…

Essential Oils and Health

Essential oils (EOs) have risen in popularity over the past decade. These oils function in society as holistic integrative modalities to traditional medicinal treatments, where many Americans substitute EOs in place of other prescribed medications. EOs are found in a multitude of products including food flavoring, soaps, lotions, shampoos, hair styling products, cologne, laundry detergents, and even insect repellents. EOs are complex substances comprised of hundreds of components that can vary greatly in their composition depending upon the extraction process by the producer or the origin of the plant. Thus, making it difficult to determine which pathways in the body are affected.

Essential oils for immunity: Do they work?

Does using essential oils for immunity actually help stave off colds, flu and other illnesses? Dig into the research.

Essential Oils May Be Wreaking Havoc on Your Skin

To understand why essential oils can be risky for skin, it helps to understand what they are and are not. Extracted from flowers, bark, stems, leaves, roots and select fruits via either distillation or cold-pressing, essential oils are highly concentrated chemical components that contain a plant’s essence or smell.

Essential Oils Might Be the New Antibiotics

Faced with increasingly drug-resistant bacteria, scientists and farmers are now looking to plant extracts to keep people and animals healthy.

Essential oils: a systematic review on revolutionizing health, nutrition, and omics for optimal well-being

Essential oils from various plants have diverse therapeutic properties and are researched extensively. They have applications in medicine, aromatherapy, microbiology, agriculture, livestock, and the food industry, benefiting the population.

Essential Oils: More Harmful Than Helpful?

Essential oils should be used with caution by individuals with respiratory conditions.

How to Use Essential Oils to Ease Stress, Anxiety, and More

Though there are many ways to use essential oils, each will give different results. Choose an option based on what you’re hoping to get out of your essential oil that day. Between peppermint oils, citrus oils, and many more, you can become your own DIY aromatherapist by creating a scent profile you love.

Lavender Oil Might Help You Sleep, but Be Careful Which Essential Oils You Buy

Navigating the murky waters of essential oils can get tricky. Using potent-smelling oils as therapeutic treatments is an ancient—but currently unlicensed—practice. There are encouraging studies backing some essential oils, but by and large the scientific research isn’t robust. The specific compositions of essential oils aren’t regulated by the FDA. In short, commercially available essential oils are not proven to have the same effects as drugs, and the FDA does not monitor them as such. The FDA watches only to make sure essential oil companies don’t market their oils like medications, through labels and other advertisements.

Phthalates detected in 11 popular brands of essential oils

he toxic chemicals were found in all 22 of the lavender and peppermint essential oils selected for testing, including several organic oils.

The Best Essential Oils for Every Need, From Stress to Fatigue

The appeal of a head-clearing or aromatic essential oil is nothing new. After all, the use of essential oils dates back thousands of years and has recently been lauded by everyone from Gwyneth Paltrow and Miranda Kerr—plus, it can have serious mind-body benefits...

The Essentials Oils for Skin Guide, Backed by Experts

Because not all essential oils are created equal.

What’s the Deal With Essential Oils?

If you’ve read about essential oils recently and wondered to yourself, “Is this for real?” you’re not alone. Call it a by-product of the green-juice-drinking, crystal-collecting movement, but essential oils (we’re talking about the kind you smell rather than the topical treatments) have become the latest wellness treatment adopted by activated-charcoal drinkers evangelizing about “gut health.”

Your guide to essential oils

Spicy or sweet? Subtle or astringent? There's a fragrance out there to suit your every mood

Resources

12 Essential Oils for Anxiety and Stress, According to Experts

“The scientific research we have on this is promising, but it’s really very limited,” Dr. Tolentino cautions. “We need a lot more in-depth data on the benefits of aromatherapy for specific conditions, and I currently recommend it as part of a holistic treatment recommendation rather than a stand-alone solution.”

17 Best Essential Oils (and What They Can Do for You)

There are so many different types and brands of popular essential oils that it’s important to get informed before you buy. "Unfortunately, there are lots of products you might find online or in stores that aren't harvested correctly or may have something in them that isn't listed on the label," Harpreet Gujral, DNP, FNP-BC, told Johns Hopkins Medicine.

6 Essential Oils and What They Do (Lavender Is Good for Your Sex Life!)

Certain scents can be transporting -- vanilla extract brings you back to your mom's kitchen, coconut lotion recalls a blissful Christmas spent in Hawaii. But research shows that some aromas do more than just bring back memories. They actually affect your...

9 Popular Types of Essential Oils and Their Benefits

If you have ever enjoyed the scent of a rose or lily, you’ve experienced the aromatic qualities of essential oils. These naturally occurring, volatile aromatic compounds are found in the seeds, bark, stems, flowers, roots, and other parts of plants. They are named ‘volatile’ as they change state quickly and easily. Essential oils can be both lovely and powerfully fragrant. In addition to their uses within a plant, these oils have been used for food preparation, beauty-treatments, health-care practices and are regularly used in aromatherapy.

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