Treating your skin concerns, especially your facial skin, is more than just covering them up. You also need to understand the cause of your concern and the product that best suits your skin type. One way to keep your skin calm, balanced, and hydrated is by introducing essential oils into your routine. Essential oils are concentrated mixtures distilled from a plant and are a natural alternative to other products. They can help improve skin clarity, even skin tone, and fight off blemishes.

The following guide will teach you the benefits of essential oils, how to use them for face skin care, and the best oils to add to your daily regimen.

Essential Oil Benefits for Skin Care

For men and women alike, natural alternatives for skin care products are becoming increasingly popular, and for good reasons. Essential oils can tone, restore, and improve the condition and appearance of your skin when used appropriately. They harness many botanical properties to address nearly every skin care need, including normal, dry, sensitive, oily, and acne-prone skin. Oils also help reduce the appearance of wrinkles and age spots, as well as minor injuries like scrapes and burns.

How to Use Essential Oils for Skin

When treating skin conditions and improving appearance, essential oils work best topically. Diluting oils with a carrier oil is mandatory before applying them to your skin. Dilution is the process of adding pure essential oils to carrier oil. As the name suggests, carrier oils dilute essential oils and “carry” them into your skin. Using a carrier oil also speeds up absorption and allows the oils to spread over a larger area of your body. 

At Pyurvana, we recommend a dilution ratio of three drops of essential oil for every teaspoon of carrier oil. When you use essential oils for face skin care, we suggest that you dilute them even further. Three drops in four teaspoons of carrier oil is an appropriate ratio. We carry coconut oil and jojoba oil at Pyurvana for your dilution needs. 

You can apply diluted essential oils to many different parts of your body. One popular choice is the soles of your feet because they are less sensitive and can absorb the oils quickly without irritation. Another option is adding pure oil to massage oil and rubbing the mixture on areas like your back, legs, and arms. There are also many essential oils well suited for face skin care applications.

Using Essential Oils Safely 

To get the full benefits of essential oils without irritating your skin, you must take precautions when using them topically. Essential oils need dilution before they come into contact with your skin. Without it, they can cause adverse reactions like skin irritation, sensitivity, or developing an allergic reaction. 

You can test your dilution ratio by administering a patch test. Using a cotton swab, apply a small amount of diluted oil to an area of your skin. The inside of your wrist or behind your ear works best. If you do not have any adverse reactions after 48 hours, you can use the mixture more widely. However, if you notice any irritation, wash the oil off immediately and contact your doctor.

You should also be aware that some oils are phototoxic when used topically. Phototoxicity means your skin is more prone to burns when exposed to sunlight. Citrus oils like bergamot, grapefruit, lemon, lime, and orange have phototoxic properties. However, this is not a complete list and as a general precaution, stay out of direct sunlight or cover areas where you have recently applied oils of any kind.

The Best Essential Oils for Face Skin Care

There are a variety of essential oils to use for face skin care. Many pure oils have several benefits and can address more than one skin condition. Let’s look at some of the most common skin types and ailments and which oils are most suited for those needs.

Normal Skin

For normal skin, oils with balancing properties work best to maintain harmonious moisture levels. One oil to use on normal skin is lavender essential oil because it supports hydration and helps the skin maintain its natural state. Ylang ylang oil is also known to be harmonizing, both internally and externally, and to prevent dryness.

Dry Skin

A lack of sebum, an oily, waxy substance produced by the sebaceous gland, causes dry skin. This deficiency leads to reduced hydration and increased water loss on the skin’s surface. One way to combat this occurrence is with frankincense, a deeply nourishing oil that can help rejuvenate dry skin types. Lavender oil also helps regulate your skin sebum to prevent it from feeling too dry or oily. Lemon oil has powerful hydrating benefits that help nourish skin naturally as well. 

Sensitive Skin 

Sensitive characterizes a skin type that experiences frequent irritation and inflammation. Conditions such as eczema, rosacea, and dermatitis often lead to this skin type. Those with sensitive skin should avoid highly acidic oils like lemon and lemongrass. Lavender and ylang ylang oil, the same oils that help maintain normal skin, also benefit sensitive skin.

Oily Skin

As opposed to dry skin, an excess of oil on the surface of your skin produced by the sebaceous glands causes oily skin. Clary sage essential oil is a go-to oil for controlling excess sebum. Rosemary oil is also well suited for oily skin because esters, its key ingredient, help keep excess sebum at bay. The antiseptic properties of tea tree oil assists in balancing oily skin as well. 

Acne-Prone Skin

Essential oils can be a natural remedy for milder cases of acne. Tea tree is one of the best essential oils for treating mild to moderate breakouts. It contains Terpene, which is known to fight a bacteria that causes acne. Clary sage and frankincense essential oils help control acne-prone skin as well. Along with preventing acne, lemongrass oil can reduce the appearance of acne scars. 

Mature Skin

With mature skin comes issues like fine lines, wrinkles, dullness, and reduced skin elasticity. Oils with rejuvenating and protective properties like frankincense and clary sage can help restore youthful skin. Orange oil is also effective in treating premature skin aging. Since it is Vitamin C rich, this oil stimulates collagen generation, eradicating wrinkles and fine lines.

Minor Injuries

In addition to skin conditions, essential oils can also act as a natural remedy for minor injuries to the skin like scrapes, cuts, insect bites, and burns. Oils like lavender, patchouli, and frankincense support wound healing and scar reduction, while tea tree oil can cleanse or purify the area. Lavender can also be used to soothe the skin and reduce pain.

Add Essential Oils to Your Face Skin Care Routine

At Pyurvana, all the essential oils we offer are safe for topical use. As long as you follow the safety precautions, they are great additions to your skin care regimen and can benefit many skin types and ailments. 

Browse our website to learn more about essential oil use.