Aromatherapy oils

Spring Health & Beauty Tip 10 – Sleep Well

Health & Beauty, Health and Beauty Tips

Sleep in Heavenly Peace

Spring Health & Beauty Tip 10 – Sleep Well

Everyone needs a good night sleep.  Its not just the actual missing of sleep that is tricky, its the knock on effect that loss of sleep has.  Feeling tired, not thinking straight and if you are anything like me, seriously over-emotional when tired.  So today you are actually getting a few tips all about getting a good night sleep.

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  • Make your bedroom as dark as possible and keep it cool – optimum for a good nights sleep.
  • Practice deep breathing or ideally meditate before bed.
  • Keep screens off or out of the room. The little lights can interfere & there is always that temptation to have a look at your phone during the night if you are up.
  • A couple of drops of Lavender oil on your pillow or cotton napkin on your pillow.
  • No coffee in the afternoon.
  • A warm bath before bed, ideally with a couple of drops of Lavender or Ylang Ylang for a good night sleep.

If you have any tips, please let me know in the comment box below xx

Sweet dreams x

By the way did you know you can follow this blog? Just enter your email on the link on the right of this post (under all the stiff about me) then you will get these tips delivered straight to your inbox.

You can also follow me on twitter @njbrn or Facebook InnerHaven

Spring Health & Beauty Tip 7 – Steam Clean Your Face

Beauty Treatment, Health and Beauty Tips

Give your face a spring clean

Spring Health & Beauty Tip 7 – Steam Your Face Clean

Steaming your face can be a non-invasive way of opening the pores, unclogging and deep-cleaning your face.  Brilliantly, it is very easy to do at home.

  • Boil a kettle of water and pour into a large bowel, ideally wider than your face, but leave for a few minutes.
  • Lean over the bowel, but not to close, about 18inches away and put a towel over your head and the bowel so that all the lovely steam stays in the area, working its magic on your face.
  • You can add a few drops of essential oil to help, Rosemary is particularly good for unblocking pores, Lavender is great for the skin and relaxations generally and the two go really well together.  A couple of drops of each in a large bowel will be plenty.
  • After 4 – 10 minutes (no longer), wash your face with clean water as the cold water will help your pores to close again.
  • To finish tone, to remove any dirt that has been dislodged and make sure the pores are closed and moisturise.
  • Finally, admire your gorgeous skin!

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As with all these things, don’t do it to often as it can overstimulate the skin and produce more  of the dreaded oil.  Once a week is fine.

Happy Steaming! x

What’s the Deal With – Aromatherapy?

Complementary Therapies

We hear the word Aromatherapy and Essential Oils quite a lot nowadays.  From shower gels to washing powder everything seems to have the words ‘contains essential oils’ or a list of plant extracts on it.  It can seem a little confusing when we are talking about true Aromatherapy and Essential Oils.

What Exactly Are Essential Oils?

The oil (it’s not always an oil to start with) is extracted through various methods from different parts of the plant.  This could be the leaf, bark, petal, twigs, roots, leaves, seeds, any part.  Different plants keep their life force in different places.

Some would consider essential oils the ‘heart’ or ‘life force’ of the plant.  The reason being that it is this special part of the plant which has the ability to change the chemical compound of the plant, telling it when to drops its petals and grow new leaves.  When these essential oils interact with us through our senses, they have the ability to alter our chemical make up too.  It truly is all very clever!

Lovely Lavender Fields

Lovely Lavender Fields

What Exactly is Aromatherapy?

Directly translated ‘Aroma’ means pleasant scent and ‘Therapy’ means treatment.  Aromatherapy it the name for the application of these essential oils, through a variety of means, letting the essential oils promote health and wellbeing both physically and mentally.

Essential Oils

Essential Oils

How Can I Use Aromatherapy?

You can absorb essential oils through the skin or by smell.  The most common way is Massage and most Aromatherapists will be qualified in Massage, which is fab because then you get all the benefits of the massage as well.  You can also put the oils in burners or vaporisers, a couple of drops on a hot or cold compress, or a few drops in the bath.  If you are adding oils to the bath, you can dilute then into some full-fat milk as essential oils don’t mix with water.

Pop 3 drops of essential oil onto a cotton wool pad & place on a warm radiator. The heat will cause the oil to evaporate and fragrance the room.

A Few Things to be Aware of;

Aromatherapy is generally a safe treatment but there are things that you should be aware of and certain conditions that you should not have Aromatherapy treatments…

  • Essential oils should never be applied directly to the skin & should be diluted into a carrier oil such as Sweet Almond Oil or Grape seed oil.
  • Essential oils are highly flammable.
  • Always keep away from animals and children.
  • They can be highly toxic if ingested.  They should never be taken orally.
  • If you have highly sensitive skin or allergies you should carry out a patch test first.
  • If you are pregnant I would always recommend seeking advice from a qualified Aromatherapist.
  • Aromatherapy is best avoided if you have epilepsy, high or low blood pressure, diabetes, spastic conditions, dysfunction of the nervous system, recent operation, varicose veins, fever, infectious disease, cancer, thrombosis or embolism.

If you are unsure you can always contact an Aromatherapist and ask for advice.

Easy Quick Healthy Tip 23

Complementary Therapies, Health and Beauty Tips

So pretty, oh so pretty….

Easy Quick Healthy Tip 23 – Warming, Nourishing Hair Treatment

Don’t forget about the gorgeous hair that frames your face.  A fantastic hot oil treatment that will treat your hair & scalp.  Massage the whole scalp to relieve any tension, relax the muscles & help with headaches.

  • Warm 4 tablespoons of olive oil (more for longer hair) by gently heating it on the hob.
  • Once warm take off the hob.
  • Add 4 drops of Rosemary or 4 drops of Lavender essential oils to the warm olive oil.
  • Coat the entire scalp & end of your hair in the mixture.
  • Cover your head with a shower cap or with a cling film then a towel & let the mixture do its thing for at least 15 minutes – but the longer the better…
  • Wash out.  You may need to shampoo twice to get all the oil out.

olive-oil-hair

Easy Quick Healthy Tip 16

Health and Beauty Tips

Lovely Lavender

Easy Quick Healthy Tip 16 – Lavender Oil

This is known to Aromatherapists as the all-healing oil, it is the most wiudely used essential oil.  It is good for everything and goes well into any blend so Aromatherapists love it and you should love it too!

Lavender is paricularly renowned for it’s calming and soothing effects.  Lavender can help with sleep, stress, insomnia, aid relaxation.  It can also help heal wounds and burns including sun burn.

Some of the wonderful ways you can use Lovely Lavender…

  • Put a few drops in a vaporiser or oil burner and inhale the lovely smell.
  • A couple of drops in a warm bath and a long soak will soothe away stress physically and mentally.
  • If you have trouble sleeping, pop a couple of drops on your pillow or a tissue that you keep on your pillow (favorable if you have expensive linen as oils can stain).
  • Headaches and migraines can be treated with a cold compress – flannel soaked in cold water – with a couple of drops of Lavender on it.
  • Obviously you can never beat a massage!
Lovely Lavender

Lovely Lavender

You should always be careful when using essential oils as they can have side-effects and be contra-indicated to certain conditions such as pregnancy, epilepsy and long-term health conditions such as cancer.  It is always best to consult an Aromatherapist if you have any questions.

Easy Quick Healthy Tip 9, 10 and 11

Complementary Therapies, Health and Beauty Tips, Journey Back to Health

I have missed a couple of days (life getting in the way) so you are getting 3 for the price of 1 today.

Easy Quick Healthy Tip 9, 10 and 11 – Holistic Therapies

Holistic therapies are not only my speciality, they are also amazing. Right now I am talking specifically about Massage, Reflxology and Aromatherapy.

9. Massage
Yes massage is good for the health – isn’t that the best news?!  You actually have a reason to go for a massage! Massage stimulates the circulatory and lymphatic systems, meaning it helps blood deliver all the good stuff to your cells and takes all the crap away, keeping you nourished on a cell level. It helps to relax you and we all know the damamge that stress can do to your body. Unknotting muscles can help with your posture and with headaches. Basically go and get a massage, your body needs one!

10. Reflexology
Like massage it assists the circulatory and lymphatic systems and stress. Reflexology treats the body from the inside out. For a more comprehensive article on how Reflexology can help, view my Time for a Reflex Detox article here.

11. Aromatherapy
There are essential oils for everything. The best thing to do is contact an Aromatherapist (such as myself) and find out which ones are best for you specicifically. But its January so we are thinking detox!  Grapefuit oil is a winner for stimlating the systems and getting everything moving.  You should never put Aromatherapy oils directly onto the skin put you could add a drop or two to your body lotion in the morning and massage it into the skin.  That lovely summer citrus smell alone will get you motivated… especially in this weather!

Enjoy x