i was always drawn to makeup and skincare…. starting with a mud-mask (not the fancy kind of mud, but actual dirt from the flower-bed…) i gave my best friend and myself in 4th grade, to my high school job at ULTA, and my first blog, madeausynot.com that started as a makeup in 2013.

over the past years my focus has shifted form collecting eye shadows and doing my makeup for over an hour, to barely wearing any makeup and really nourishing my skin and using products and eating food that are as straight form mother-nature as possible. and now that i am 31… and seeing cute little crows-feet at the corners of my eyes, i am really working on refining my skin-care regiment. and it must be working be cause my skin has never looked better (the pic above is not retouched, at aaaaall, which is why you can still see the mark on my nose form my glasses) and i am getting a lot of compliments on it, even though i stopped wearing foundation!…. so here i go, sharing my new skin-care regiment:

i discovered essential oils and am now totally obsessed! there is a lot of info out there and i did endless research on different methods and also which brand offers the purest oils, so you don’t have to! i found rocky mountain oils, who sell 100% pure and authentic essential oils,  products for your home, health, and beauty. while they offer a certified USDA organic line, all of their oils are sourced with organic practices and have to pass all of their testing in order to be sold. each and every batch of oil that they offer customers goes through extensive third-party testing to be sure that each batch is 100% pure and potent. and they do other cool stuff too!*, which is why i am so happy do be an affiliate for them. 

essential oil skin-care 101:

if you are starting out and don’t want to go around mixing different essential oils, go with the skin care blend, made of cucumber, lavender, frankincense, carrot seed, neroli, roman chamomile, and rose essential oils. it works great to help tone mature skin and may help promote a youthful glow while reducing the appearance of minor imperfections. it is not a moisturizer, so if you tend to have oily skin and have a moisturizer that works for you, you can add that after. if you tend to have dry skin you can use skin tone as your daily moisturizer. this blend combines fennel, orange, geranium, lemongrass, patchouli, petitgrain bigarade, spruce, pine, cypress, myrrh, vetiver, lavender, and nutmeg in a base of fractionated coconut oil. it will help soften and rejuvenate the appearance of skin, while helping the nourish dry, dehydrated skin.

because essential oils are highly concentrated, it is important to always, always us a carrier oil, to dilute them and help “carry” the oils into the skin for better absorption, spread further and protect the skin from irritation. see this chart for dilution guidelines.

my personal skin-care oils:

i like mixing them every day and adjusting to what my skin needs. at the moment i use 5 drops of carrot seed oil, with 3 drops of frankincense and jojoba for the carrier oil… that’s my personal anti-aging basics. if i have a blemish, or my skin feels “dirty” (like after a plane flight), i add lavender, or tea tree (which both kill bacteria that is responsible for acne) and if i need a little extra glow, i’ll add bergmot and that’s it! 

the most wonderful thing is that these oils will also help your overall mood! lavender for example is calming and will help you sleep, while bergmot and frankincense have a grounding and balancing effect…. but more on that on another post.

but what’s the magic of essential oils?

in case you aren’t familiar with essential oils, i would love to explain to you where they come from…

the essential oils are found in plants, useful plants that have been used for centuries for all kinds of aliments. their uses were most popular during the early times of our history, as native americans had it all figured out and educated us on how they used the plants around them. like i always say: mother-nature knows best! but still….here is a disclaimer stating that essentials oils are not medicine and i’m not sharing anything with you as medical advice. my advice here is for the purpose of sharing why these oils are important and how you can use them to improve your overall health, wellness, and skin!

essential oils can help you coop with stress, headaches, neck pain, relaxation and even ear aches. but, because i have been getting a lot of compliments on my skin and after being guessed to be 19 / 20 twice (hihi), i thought i would share how i use them on my skin, for now.

as you can see, i could go on and on, but you really just have to try for yourself.

i did also make some other adjustments to my lifestyle that benefit my skin, but the essential oils are a big part, so i wanted to focus on that today.  if you want to know more, have specific issues, or are not quite sure where to start, feel free to contact me and i would love to give you personal recommendations. or to stay up to date with my offerings… sign up for my newsletter! (it’s not the out-of-control kind that spams up your inbox every day)

*but that’s not all! they understand that it is important to protect the earth that provides us with the natural, pure essential oils, as well as the natural products that we love. which means that their shipping packaging is 100% recycled and recyclable and printed with algae ink. (did you know that  conventional printing inks are full of potentially harmful ingredients like heavy metals, petroleum products, and toxic solvents, which are not biodegradable. aglae ink uses algae as pigments for eco-friendly ink products, and it is 100% biodegradable.) and they give back to the community and donated to over 30 charitable causes and organizations. one of the organizations they have donated to is operation underground railroad. this organization has been around for 4 years and is dedicated to rescuing children from human trafficking. They have rescued 1,588 victims and have assisted in the arrests of more than 745 traffickers, which is amazing!