Skin care is an enchanting and elusive desire that has endured through centuries. Western culture ascribes natural skin care to roots in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. Cleopatra’s beauty has been variously attributed to milk baths and herbal skin formulas, as well as a favorite mud pack made with crocodile manure. The cosmetic industry has certainly evolved since the more exotic and sometimes toxic mixtures of antiquity.
Western remedies can be predated to India, China and Tibet where herbal and essential oils played a vast role for all health conditions and undoubtedly skin beauty was included. The incredible vast experience of thousands of years of trial and error has evolved into a large database of information relating to the use and benefits of essential oils.
An Arab physician, Avicenna circa 980 A.D., described more than 800 medicinal species of plants, as well as a method for the extraction of their oils by a steam distillation process. He likewise described their uses. The term “aromatherapy” was created by a French chemist, Rene Gathefosse, when he burned his hand and plunged it into a clear liquid he thought was water, but to his surprise was actually lavender oil. His hand quickly healed and he then started evaluating these aromatic oils that helped his hand to heal.
Essential oils are obtained as extracts from plants, including flowers, seeds, fruits, leaves, roots, shrubs, bushes, herbs and trees from various countries with different climates and soils, imbuing the plants with different nutrients that are beneficial. Essential oils are potent and highly concentrated. The aromatic substances are formed and stored within different cells as by-products and thus, each oil is unique unto itself.
The plants are affected by the sunlight, soil, water, air quality, humidity, heat and cold, as well as altitude. This results in the unique fragrance and healing abilities. The same type of plant can possess different qualities depending on where and when it was grown. Thus, many factors affect the end product and individual qualities of essential oils. Whether singularly or in combination, essential oils provide the ultimate concentrated benefits for humans from nature’s bounty.
What was folk medicine used for millennia has been incorporated into skin care products, some of which are of the highest magnitude for skin enhancement. These oils are non-greasy. They can be used for revitalizing skin, improving tone, smoothing skin, wrinkles and reducing age marks, in addition to soothing burns and blemishes.
Products vary in content and concentrations from minimal amounts, for their perceived aromatic fragrance in carriers of oil or creams, which frequently include synthetic and chemical additives, to more natural and concentrated pure essential oils that can be considered of therapeutic grade.
The Tibetan people have used these for thousands of years. Fortunately, these essential oils are available to utilize, individually or in multiple combinations, to create products that naturally enhance the skin without resorting to synthetics. These oils are usually added to a carrier to help deliver the essential oils which would be far to concentrated on their own. The carriers may be beneficial themselves because of their unique characteristics; they may also contain vitamins, antioxidants and minerals to nourish the skin.
The skin needs nourishment and protection to remain beautiful. Essential oils penetrate and permeate readily into and through the skin within minutes. The characteristics of the oils will help skin heal, renew and glow. Essential Oils can be used as an anti-inflammatory, reducing redness and swelling; analgesic-relieving pain of burns, bruises, bites, cracked skin, split cuticles and ulcerated skin and sores; antibacterial and anti-fungal, used for preventing infection of abraded, ulcerated and skinned areas; soothing and softening dry, scratchy, scaly skin.
Nurturing skin to retain and restore its more youthful appearance requires nourishment from the outside in, and then from the inside out. When skin cells are replenished and renewed by diligent use of only the finest essential oils, a healthier more radiant, pliable, soft skin will be visible and will glow with the freshness of youth.
Robert Carlton, M.D., F.A.C.O.G., is a board-certified specialist in obstetrics and gynecology, a member of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Dr. Carlton, enjoys a successful 50 year practice in Los Angeles, California and is highly respected in the medical community. As a gynecologist, Dr. Carlton had seen innumerable patients suffering from a variety of skin conditions. Always dissatisfied with the products available to women—compounds of female or male hormones, steroids, and petroleum based products—Dr. Carlton had always hoped to find a better, more effective and completely natural solution for his patient’s skin problems that was more affordable and safe for daily and long term use. He has used NovaMoist clinically for eight years with impressive results and plaudits from many patients and has devoted himself to the application and exploration of complimentary medicine.