Category Archives: Carrier oils

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10-in-10: Fushi Revival of Purity Body Oil

You may know that I love a good body oil. And this is so very nearly a good body oil.

It’s the first Fushi oil I’ve tried and it’s not going to be the last. I must confess that I bought it AGES ago and started using it about 3-4 weeks ago when I had a bit of a bathroom audit and realised it was going to be out of date in a couple of months. It’s a nice light oil, although not a dry oil so you will need to leave it for 5 minutes to sink in before getting dressed. It smells light, fresh and slightly sweet.

Did I feel as if my purity had been thoroughly revived? Nearly. The ingredients, while boasting of such intriguing things as Gold of Pleasure oil, also include Butylphenyl methylpropional. It’s a synthetic fragrance ingredient that has been shown to cause irritation and possible allergic reactions. Now, I have fairly sensitive skin and didn’t have any problems at all and I’m sure there are only very small amounts present. But the natural beauty purist in me wishes it wasn’t there at all, particularly when the rest of the ingredients are rather lovely and Fushi have otherwise excellent eco-credentials.

Fortunately, having had a poke around on Fushi’s website, it’s clear that there are plenty of other products in their range that don’t include the synthetic fragrances. The Arnica Sports Massage Oil looks like it contains a very similar blend of base oils, although the fragrance (which appears to be based on essential oils of eucalyptus, rosemary and black pepper) will be quite different, if equally nice. Fushi also do a great range of organic base oils including some of my absolute favourites, jojoba, camellia and calendula. So I will be going back, just for slightly different things.

You can buy Fushi’s body oils from their website, and the other stockists listed here. The Revival of Purity Body Oil is £13.22 for 150ml.

Ingredients: Prunus amygdalus dulcis oil (Sweet almond oil), Vitis vinifera seed oil (Grape seed oil), Camelina sativa oil (Gold of pleasure oil), Olea europaea oil (Olive oil), Borago officinalis seed oil (Borage oil), Limnanthes alba seed oil (Meadowfoam oil), Butyrospermum parkii butter extract (Shea extract), Rosa canina fruit oil (Rosehip oil), Tocopherol (Vitamin E), Parfum (Natural Fragrance), *Geraniol, *Hydroxyisohexyl 3-Cyclohexene Carboxaldehyde, *Butylphenyl Methylpropional, *Linalool, *D-Limonene

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Oil of the month: Sweet almond

Sweet almond oil is my favourite base oil for aromatherapy treatments. Rich in minerals and oleic acid, it’s great for nourishing and hydrating skin and gives you a nice ‘slip’ (non-technical technical term there!) when doing bodywork such as massage.

It’s also great value; useful if you’re getting through a fair amount of it each week.

But if you’re not a massage practitioner, there’s still a lot you can do with it. Because it’s a relatively light oil, it makes a good body moisturiser, particularly if you’re fresh from the shower or bath and your skin is slightly warm to aid absorption. To increase its softening, soothing properties, you could add some essential oils. Rose or geranium are good skin nourishers, German chamomile contains the anti-inflammatory agent azulene making it great for inflamed or irritable skin and frankincense has excellent skin-repairing properties.

Try the following blend:

  • 100ml sweet almond oil
  • 10 drops Rose otto (or Geranium) oil – depending on budget!
  • 20 drops German chamomile
  • 20 drops frankincense

You can also use sweet almond oil as a targeted treatment for sore, dry or cracked skin on your heels, elbows or hands. The oil works best here when slightly warm but don’t go crazy. Think of it like chocolate and don’t heat it directly. A bain-marie works best – put the oil in a glass dish with a stem, like an ice cream bowl, and place the dish in a larger bowl of hot water so that the stem is covered. This will gradually warm the glass dish and the oil inside. Then dunk your dry, cracked bits into the oil and soak for 5-10mins. Easy to do with hands, just about possible with elbows and pretty hard with heels…if it’s easier, you can massage the warm oil into your heels for 2-5mins.

If your skin is sore or inflamed, a few drops of healing oils such as German chamomile, frankincense or myrrh will help. Try 10 drops of essential oil in 20ml of sweet almond oil: 2 myrrh, 4 frankincense and 4 German chamomile. If you don’t have the less common myrrh, try using tea tree instead.

Recommended stockists for both sweet almond and essential oils are as follows:

Image courtesy of Materia Aromatica

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In which I become an evangelist…

Over the last few months, I’ve become a lot better at realising what makes me happy. And I don’t want this to sound like a glib statement either. Like many, many people I know what it feels like to stumble when asked the disarmingly simple question ‘What do you want?’. There are lots of possible responses here:

‘What do you want me to want?’

‘What should I want?’

‘What would people expect me to want?’

‘What will people really think of what I want?’

‘What if I what I want isn’t right?’

Finally, when you get round to it, you might just ask ‘What do I want?’. And then you could find that the various answers to all those other questions are crowding it out.

I want to live a simpler life. I want to work for and with people, rather than things. I want to take better care of myself. I want to start most days by being outside. I want to leap out of bed in the morning because I can’t wait to start the day.

It took me a while to get round to retraining and longer still to hit upon aromatherapy, skincare and massage. Sometimes the problem with the things you love are that they form a part of your life anyway. Your non-working life. So it feels a bit frivolous deciding that you want to base your career on them. It takes ages to even realise that you can.

Over the last few months, I’ve learnt so much about the way the human body works. I’ve learnt that my hands can be tools, for more than just writing or typing. I’ve learnt that there are many ways to enhance someone’s life.

I wanted to find a way to capture that on the blog. A symbol of my new way of thinking about my work and being healthy. And I decided that the best possible emblem was the raw material that I use in one way or another every single day. In my massage practice, in my diet, in my aromatherapy care, in my personal skincare. It links the outdoors with your insides. It’s the basis for some of the best homemade skincare around.

Natural plant oils.

Slowly my house is being taken over by little amber bottles. They all have slightly different properties and I use them for different things.

So every month, I’m going to feature one of those oils and tell you a little bit more about where it comes from and how it can be used, featuring a few easy-to-create home treatments.

If you’re lucky ;-) I might even throw in the science bit and talk about EFAs and Omegas.

But for now, here’s to the little amber bottles. Because they make me really happy.

Little amber bottles from Materia Aromatica, one of my recommended suppliers

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The facts about oil (or why words don’t always mean what you think they do)

I learned an interesting thing about oil on one of my recent course weekends and thought it was worth sharing. I use natural plant oils in the kitchen and as part of my skincare routine but I wasn’t aware of how they were produced, focusing instead on weeding out the mineral oils and choosing products free from paraffinum liquidum.

I’ll start with olive oil, one of the most commonly used culinary oils and a good option for homemade skincare. It comes in a bewildering array of different types but the difference in type and price isn’t just about the quality and complexity of the taste.

Most of the cheaper ‘refined’ oils use heat in the extraction method. The heat damages the nutrients and delicate lipids in the oil, such as linoleic fatty acids (which help to make up key organs in the body, such as the brain, nervous system and liver), vitamin E and polyphenols (potent antioxidants).

The irony is that ‘refined’ commonly means to make purer, more sophisticated and/or effective. However, in this instance, it means almost exactly the opposite. It’s also worth noting that chemicals are often used during heat extraction and traces may remain in the end product. It’s not harmful, just kind of empty. But purer and more effective it definitely isn’t.

Whatever type of oil you’re buying, whether it’s for consumption or for skincare, the key words to look for on the label are ‘cold pressed’/'cold extracted’, ‘unrefined’ or ‘mechanically-pressed’. Oils extracted in this way are mechanically pressed and won’t be heated over a certain temperature during processing, so the nutrients are retained. Extra virgin olive oils are produced in this way and it may state that they are processed using only ‘mechanical means’ on the label.

The downside of buying cold-pressed oils is that they will be more expensive. Cold-pressing produces a lower yield of oil and therefore the production cost per unit is higher. But you are getting considerably more for your money.

The other thing to be aware of, particularly if you splash out on a better quality oil, is storage. To minimise oxidation and prevent your oil from degrading, make sure you don’t buy more than you can use in two months, keep it cool (for example, if you’re storing it in the kitchen, don’t keep it right next to the oven hob), and buy/store it in a dark bottle where possible to protect it from strong light.

You may still wish to buy a bottle of refined oil for cooking – refined oils are cheaper, will keep for longer and if you’re just using a splash to prevent things from burning or sticking, this is your best option. But it’s worth using high quality, cold-pressed oils for drizzling over salads, pasta or other such things. It’s a great way of adding extra goodness in the form of omega-3 and 6, both of which are essential for optimum health.

It’s also worth noting that some oils, such as flaxseed, should not be cooked with as the heat will break them down and reduce the efficacy of the oil.

Have fun reading the labels when you’re next at the supermarket! And below are some recommended suppliers for skincare and massage oils:

Neal’s Yard Remedies / Oshadhi / Materia Aromatica / Melvita / Quinessence