I recently heard some eczema sufferers discussing their experiences with essential oils for skin care and was curious to learn more about them.
Essential oils and aromatherapy
1.Essential oil
It is a mixture of various parts of plants, including roots, trunks, bark, stems, leaves and flowers, which are refined by various extraction methods (more than 90% are distillation methods) to produce a very complex composition of various volatile aromatic substances. Not all plants can produce essential oils, only plants containing balsam glands may produce essential oils, so that essential oils will have a special aromatic smell.
2.Aromatherapy (aromatherapy)
Aromatherapy is a natural treatment that uses essential oils to relieve stress and improve physical health, usually using various methods such as aromatherapy, massage, inhalation, bathing, hot compresses, etc., so that the essential oils act on the body to achieve the purpose of soothing emotions, relieving stress and improving physical health. Aromatherapy has a long history, and the fragrance emitted from the various plants in the incense pouch has the effect of enlightening the mind, repelling insects and preventing disease.
What is the difference between essential oils and vegetable oils?
Vegetable oils are mostly made from the seeds of plants, such as peanut oil, soybean oil, corn oil, sunflower seed oil, olive oil and camellia oil. The main components in vegetable oils are various fatty acids, and the lipids in our skin contain fatty acids, so vegetable oils are added to various moisturizing skin care products to produce a lubricious feeling and moisturizing effect after application.
Essential oils are mainly a variety of terpenes, aldehydes, esters, alcohols and other chemical substances, which are small in molecular weight and volatile and can be absorbed into the body through the nasal mucosa, so one of the most commonly used methods in aromatherapy is the aromatherapy method. Essential oils also have lipophilic properties and can be dissolved in oils and fats (usually with the vegetable oils mentioned above), and are more easily absorbed through the skin when applied to the skin, and are often added to massage oils for use. Because of their lipid solubility and volatile properties, essential oils are also added to some topical medications or topical preparations to increase the transdermal absorption of drugs and other ingredients. Of course, because of their aromatic scent, essential oils may be added to many perfumes, lightly scented toilet bowl cleansing products, colognes and various other cosmetics, drugs, foods and cleaning agents.
Do essential oils really work for skin care?
After checking professional databases, there are quite a few articles on essential oils, but since many plants can be used to prepare essential oils, the effects of essential oils from different plant sources may be different, and even the composition of essential oils from one plant is very complex, it is indeed difficult to study the effects and mechanisms of essential oils as an aid to the treatment of skin diseases.
The most prominent effect of essential oils mentioned in most of the research literature is the antimicrobial effect. Essential oils are added to some topical skin care or therapeutic products as antiseptics (to prevent bacterial growth), such as clove oil and eugenol, which are commonly used in dentistry as antiseptics and topical anesthetics. Studies have found that certain essential oils have the ability to prevent the spread of pathogens, particularly staphylococcus, streptococcus and candida, so the adjunctive use of certain plant oils has some antibacterial effect in cases of skin wounds or some skin inflammations with infections. It has also been found that the terpenes in essential oils have a small molecular weight and are able to penetrate the nail plate to destroy the biofilm of the fungus, thus treating nail fungus.
There are also a few studies that suggest that some of the components in essential oils have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects and can promote wound healing in the skin, but these are the results of studies conducted on cells or animals.
Some essential oils also have a repellent effect on mosquitoes, mainly because the monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes in essential oils have a better repellent effect on mosquitoes, the most commonly used are lemongrass essential oil and peppermint essential oil, many children with mosquito repellent products have added this type of plant essential oil.
As for the other effects of essential oils on skin health, or the auxiliary therapeutic effects of essential oils on dermatitis and eczema, there is a lack of evidence from scientifically reliable clinical studies. Since essential oils are not primarily lipid-based, it is unlikely that they can be used for moisturizing purposes.
Are essential oils safe for skin care?
The most common adverse reaction to essential oils or products containing essential oils when used on the skin is allergy. Essential oils can be used as a raw material to replace synthetic fragrances in cosmetics to produce a fresh scent, and many businesses use them to promote that they are “natural” and “safe and non-toxic”. In fact, the various fragrances added to cosmetics or skin care products, whether of natural plant origin or synthetic, are the most common contact allergens, which means they can easily cause contact dermatitis of the skin.
A recent article published in the Journal of the American Contact Dermatitis Society states that 79 essential oils have been identified as causing contact dermatitis, the more common of which are ylang ylang, jasmine, sandalwood, tea tree, lavender, peppermint, geranium, rose, and turpentine. In addition, many fragrance allergies have cross-reactivity, and some patients may be allergic to a variety of different plant sources of essential oils at the same time.
For eczema patients, the skin itself is more sensitive, although it cannot be ruled out that some of the ingredients in essential oils do have an anti-inflammatory effect, but a variety of ingredients in essential oils are potentially allergenic, and long-term use may gradually develop allergic contact dermatitis.
In addition, 100% of the concentration of essential oils is prohibited directly for human skin, because the high concentration of essential oils has a very strong irritation and corrosion, it is generally believed that 1%-3% of the concentration of essential oils is safe, can be used for human skin and massage. China’s national regulations on massage oil (GB/T
26516-2011
Massage essential oil), although specified in the essential oil can not be used directly for the skin, need to be used with the base oil preparation, and requires the labeling of the preparation amount (in XXX ml of base oil added XXX ml of massage essential oil), but for the different essential oils used in the safe concentration is not a specific standard.
Nowadays, many people prepare their own essential oils for skin care, or get a variety of prepared oils in salons or on the internet, whose packaging rarely indicates the specific ingredients and concentrations. In the clinic you will also see eczema patients with exquisite brown glass bottles containing expensive essential oils to consult, there is no label indicating the composition and concentration, for such products how to use without fear?
Therefore, I would like to advise those patients who want to use or are using essential oils to assist in the treatment of dermatitis and eczema, in addition to the standardized use of medication in accordance with medical advice, through the regular way to buy medical moisturizing and emollient products and adhere to long-term use is the right way to skin care.