Tag Archives: essential oils

Ingredient

Quality You Can See!

A short story about that Refined Rose Hip Oil on the left. 
It’s been sitting in a refrigerator for 14 years. I bought it by mistake. We tried to use it instead of our usual Virgin Rose Hip Oil. In the beginning, I just didn’t understand the difference. When the moisturizer was made I couldn’t believe the difference. It was so weak and unexciting. I noticed it first because the color was different. It seemed like we had made a moisturizer using mineral oil. Luckily, we hadn’t put it in the jars. So we tossed that batch and quickly ordered the good stuff. I still hold onto it as a reminder to always use the best ingredients.

The picture shows you why we believe our skin products are so much better. Almost all skin care companies try to save as much money as they can. Even the ones who make high priced moisturizers still cut corners. One way they cut costs, is to use highly refined oils. The deeper colors of the virgin oils, show you how many nutrients are present. They use dyes to cover this up.

What’s the difference between virgin and refined oils? 
Virgin Oils are first pressing using as little heat as possible. Refining produces a lot more oil. But refining (they use a lot of heat) strips out many, if not most of these nutrients.

So what nutrients are in these Virgin oils?
These Virgin oils are rich in nutrients such as carotenoids, tocotrienols, and tocopherols. They are loaded with antioxidants like phenols, terpenes, and glucosides; vitamins A, C, and E; beta-carotene; plant sterols; and trace elements such as copper, iron, selenium, and manganese. All important nutrients your skin can use to become healthy.

Why can’t we just apply these oils to our skin? 
Our skin is 64% water. Oils and water don’t naturally mix. Oils don’t absorb well into our skin  The way we make our true moisturizers insures these precious oils will absorb deep into your skin.

Learn More About Carley’s Ingredients at ClearandSmoothSkin.com

Informational, Ingredient

Essential Oils: Your Questions About Essential Oils Answered Here

We are going to be introducing new products in the future with an eye towards using the therapeutic benefits of essential oils to assist the health of your skin.

How many essential oils are there? There are somewhere between 400 to 600 commercially available essential oils in the world.

What is the difference between essential oils and other vegetable oils? Oils like coconut, olive and argan oils are what’s known as carrier oils. They are made by squeezing the oil from seeds. They are mother natures little miracle for our skin.

Essential Oils are made by steam distilling the fragrant portion of the plant. Often the flowers, but sometimes the bark or even the roots. They are also miracles, that aren’t being used enough or correctly.

Are Essential oils more expensive? Yes most are. Some are very expensive. Some of them takes tons of flowers to make a few liters of essential oil. Rose Otto Essential Oil(the real stuff), for example, is almost a dollar a drop. But it is so powerful, a little goes a long way.

Are all suppliers of essential oils honest and trustworthy? Sadly, no. There are no industry standards. Many are watered down. With the high prices and limited availability, we only have 5 suppliers we trust.

How powerful are essential oils? Most essential oils absolutely should NEVER be used full strength(neat). As a comparison, a tea made from a flower or leaf of the same plant as an essential oil compares to an essential oil like this: 1 drop of essential oil is comparable to 40 to 70 cups of the tea.

Are some essential oils dangerous? Yes, taken internally they can be. It’s all about the dosage. Some cause photo-toxic effects when applied to the skin before tanning. The most dangerous photo effect is with Lime Essential Oil. It’s one of the reasons we say be careful doing this on your own. Anything good can also be used the wrong way. Aspirin may take away your headache and even stop a heart attack or stroke. But swallow a whole bottle of aspirin and you might not wake up.

If not full strength, how should they be used? Well, that is the dilemma. How to get the most benefits without breaking the budget? We are working with many essential oils right now.

Can essential oils help the body? There are many who claim significant therapeutic benefits.

Why doesn’t big pharma get into these essential oils? Large pharmaceutical companies cannot patent essential oils, so they ignore them. We think this is a mistake.

Don’t all skin care products use essential oils to smell good? Most commercial products use artificial fragrances instead. Which are inexpensive and derived from petroleum by products. We believe they are not good for the skin. There have been some studies suggesting they compromise the immune system.

Why the sudden interest? We have always used essential oils for their wonderful scent. Now we are starting to see how effective certain essential oils are for the health of the skin. Our new Green Tea Acne Control, uses 7 highly prized essential oils in a therapeutic way.

If you have any questions about Carley’s line of products, email Steve at [email protected] and he’ll respond within the day!

Informational

Essential Oils, Carrier Oils or Fragrance Oils… Which Should Go on Your Skin?

Rapeseed oil field – FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Whether it’s going into your cars, on your food or on your skin – “oils” play an important role in the day to day lives of people. The origins and use of oils are so vastly diverse that it is hard to label every type of oil as such. While oil in cars is usually labeled a petroleum, the oil we’re talking is usually in the form of an essential oil or a carrier oil.

Webster’s dictionary defines cosmetic oil as: “a substance (as a cosmetic preparation) of oily consistency.”

An incredibly vague definition. Nothing is explained at all about why we use these oils or what kind we use. It is best to explain these oils by type:

Essential oils add the active qualities of a product. Whether it’s skin healing, soothing, softening, anti-inflammatory or a thousand different combinations of the above – every essential oil has numerous qualities. The only limit to a product with essential oils is what type go in what product. An essential oil known to soften rough skin will better go in a moisturizer than a discoloration cream.

We use essential oils in just about every product we use. It is the active ingredient to fulfill the benefits that we aim the product to achieve. Not only are there numerous kinds of essential oils but there are numerous grades. We use the highest quality forms with the least dilution. Some companies believe just a drop of expensive oil is enough but we believe that’s deceptive advertising.

Derived from the fatty portion of a plant, carrier oils are the vehicle that takes these oils through your skin. While some believe that oil containing products are what cause their breakouts there are others that believe that an oil can just sit on the skin. Both are wrong. Essential oils by itself may cause skin irritations or just sit there. Carrier oils will dilute these oils and allow the important stuff to break through the skin barriers.

Combine these with an efficient method of making moisturizer, notably without ingredients that block absorption, and you get the complete benefits of these oils.

Fragrance oils are the mystery oils in the cosmetic industry. Manufacturers do not need to disclose what is contained in fragrances. This is problematic for those with allergies to fragrances or what is contained in the base form. It’s hard to identify every ingredient in a product when fragrances are used. Aiming for paraben-free products? What about sulfate-free? With fragrances we probably will never know for sure!

Fragrances add little to a product other than aroma. This smell is short lasting and usually better for attracting people to the product rather than what it actually does. Combine the risks of using fragrances with such superficial qualities and this makes it a hard sell for us. We don’t use fragrances in any of our products.

Informational

Oil-Free Moisturizers: Why You Should Avoid Them

Think about a time when your skin was at it’s worse. It probably had an oily, greasy feeling that you couldn’t shake. It’s no wonder that you think the last thing your skin could use is a moisturizer containing oil. But that is exactly what I’m recommending you do.

Many people believe that if moisturizers containing oils touch your skin that the oil sits there and clogs pores. Exactly the opposite. As long as the moisturizers are dimethicone-free your moisturizer will act as a carrier by absorbing those oils. Many of these oils have magical effects on our skin:

  • Jojoba oil – Similar to natural skin oils. Known to soften and moisturize dry/mature skin. Also known to treat skin ailments like psoriasis, dermatitis, oily scalps and acne.
  • Kukui nut oil – Often used as a skin treatment after major sun exposure. Known to treat acne, eczema, chapped skin and even hemorrhoids.
  • Tamanu oil – Known to treat dry and delicate skin as well as healing leg ulcers and bruises.
There are literally HUNDREDS of oils with different effects on the skin. The notion that you should use none of these is absurd.
Would you rather your ingredients come from fields or a lab? – FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Essential oils are ESSENTIAL
You are robbing yourself if you don’t expose your skin to these amazing oils. While your worrying that oil from cosmetics causes acne, you’re missing out on the oils known to treat acne!

I call oil-free moisturizers concoctions – because that’s what they are. A chemical soup of ingredients often there to replace the presence of what a true moisturizer contains – oils. Here’s a list of the things you typically find in an oil-free moisturizer:

  • Parabens – Used to extend the shelf life of cosmetics. Parabens are actually a family of several chemicals and are known to disrupt the endocrine system.
  • EDTA – Dissolves limescale. Also thrown in cosmetics so products don’t bubble up during manufacturing.
  • Phenoxyethanol – Used as an insect repellant and anesthetic in aquaculture (fish). Also used in cosmetics as a preservative and is known to depress the central nervous system.
  • Fragrances – Typically an allergen.
FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Plants, Seeds and Us

People that eat nuts are said to live two to three years longer than normal. Why? Nuts and seeds carry bountiful nutrients our bodies use.

Similar to a mother delivering nutrients to a baby by nursing, plants use oils as a way to deliver nutrients to offspring before they sink down roots. Every plant has it’s own formula within their seeds. The skin loves these oils because they are rich in nutrients. So as long as the oils can be carried through the skin (again, this where dimethicone fails) then they provide magical benefits.

A real moisturizer should have oils in it for optimal skin health

Some are allergic to certain nuts and oils. This has provoked widespread fear in the industry to provide any oils – let alone the good ones. If you look at Mayo Clinic’s list of the top ten skin allergens, oils aren’t even there! Mostly artificial fragrances, preservatives and metals found in your average store-bought cosmetics. Allergic reactions to oils happen but they are rare.

A recent customer almost said verbatim what we’ve been saying here:

“This product has been AMAZING for me. Ironically the oils in the product have rejuvenated and softened my skin. The secret is using the right oils your skin needed.“