hand dryness + thieves foaming hand soap

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my hands always crack during the winter. they start peeling white. they hurt something awful.

well, with my re-acquaintance with Arbonne, i now understand why my hands crack. simply put: most soap products contain Sodium Lauryl Sulfates, which makes the foaminess we love, but it causes your hands to dry up and crack. we were using Method soap products, which i thought was okay...it's not.

i made it a goal to replace all of our soaps this winter with the good stuff. first up was the thieves foaming hand soap. wow...this is the good stuff. smells so nice and also disinfects. then, i added Arbonne's shea butter soap to the other sinks.

between the two, my hands have never survived the winter dryness better!

hopefully someone bought some great soap for you!

Merry Christmas!

nosebleeds + geranium

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i'd heard that geranium can help with blood, specifically that somehow it gives your platelets a boost to do their job faster.

so, when my daughter had a bloody nose, i put some geranium on the outside of her nostril.

what do you know! she was fine in no time.

sore throat + peace+calming

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i must apologize for not posting last week and the week before. things got a little hectic at home.

firstly, i decided to become an Arbonne consultant. :)

secondly, i got sick. :(

getting sick was so unexpected. i stayed really healthy for the entire year! in part, thanks to essential oils!

what started as a painful sore throat became a fever that fatigued me + left me with minor headaches for four full days. ouch + yuck!

even with applying oils frequently, i was sick for that long.

i still have no idea what it was. maybe a bad cold?

anyway, tip of the day from my mentor and friend Jaynessa Campbell:

try rubbing peace+calming on your neck for a little throat relief.

it helped me!

head bruise + lavender + panaway + melaleuca alternifolia

last night, my daughter landed on her forehead on the tile. pretty scary.

naturally, i turned to oils. the two pictures above were taken only 30 minutes apart. what a difference, right?

during that second picture, i had a hard time keeping her still because she was feeling great and happy again.
 
what did i apply? 
lavender + panaway + melaleuca alternifolia (tea tree oil)
right over the bump/bruise. i applied it twice in 30 minutes. i applied twice more before bed.

this is from this morning.

bump totally flat + bruise basically gone.

oils are amazing!

lavender + canker sores

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i recently had a canker sore on the inside of my mouth, along the upper left gum. canker sores are no fun. they hurt when you eat + there really is no relief medicine for them. (a couple years ago, my dentist even told me that the over-the-counter creams aren't very effective. he said it is best to let the mouth heal without the creams.)

with this discomfort, i applied lavender essential oil on the outside of my mouth over the canker sore area (which ended up being along my laugh line). 

two applications + no more canker sore. the lavender really helps to boost your body's natural reaction to fight anomalies.

isn't it great how versatile lavender is?

frankincense + soothing bites

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so, it is well-known that purification is the "itchy, smelly oil", meaning that it can soothe itches + bites + is also good for masking smells. we've been spraying it onto our skin (mixed with water), but right now with the surge of rain, the mosquitoes are plentiful + we have been bitten here and there.

i'm finding that my go-to for my mosquito bites is frankincense. it really calms that itchiness down.

frankincense used to be the "swiss army knife" of oils during Biblical times. makes sense, right? frankincense is indigenous to the middle east.

i also love the way it smells.

how do you use your frankincense?

lavender + menstrual cramps

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let's get personal today.

so, i was blessed not to have a menstruation cycle for a very long time (due to pregnancy + breastfeeding). but when it came back, it came back in full force...worse than anything i've ever experienced before. bloating, cramping, mood swings, sensitive skin, + a flow like no other.

i was able to ease some of hardship from these symptoms with lavender, namely the bloating + cramping, by rubbing a couple drops on my lower abdomen.

i also stayed away from sweets + chocolate. i found that they made it worse, even to the point of diarrhea (tmi, i know).

inhaling joy would help lift my mood, too. goodness knows that i definitely need that these days.

isn't it great how lavender really is the "swiss army knife" of essential oils?

oils + zyto compass

my friend Beth, who i co-teach essential oils classes with, recently purchased a zyto compass. a zyto compass scans your body for negative responses and then suggests what Young Living essential oils + supplements your body requires. watch the video above for a better explanation.

i have heard testimonies of children who got over food allergies (over a long period of time...like years) by using the scanner's suggested oils.

i have also read testimonies from aromatherapists saying that the scanner is pretty accurate.

so, i got scanned on Saturday, and this was my suggested list to help improve my health: 
46 biomarkers out of range

1. YL Essential Beauty Serum (Dry) - i guess my face needs moisture, which is true, because my eyebrows are always dry.

2. Joy - this one is totally obvious to me in hindsight. i have been struggling with my 3yo daughter's temper tantrums for over a month + it makes me super grumpy all the time.

3. Eucalyptus Radiata (singles) - i have been congested lately because of all of the humidity.

4. Citrus Fresh - i think this is also for uplifting my emotions. but it also supports the immune system.

5. Thieves - i use this all the time for preventing sicknesses. i wonder if my congestion is more than what it is?



anyway, if you are curious to get yourself or your children scanned for a kind of health assessment, email me: oilandbubble (at) gmail (dot) com; or private message via Facebook: Karen Chow Hsu.

joy + whininess

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so, i'm not going to lie. it has been a really hard month for my 3yo daughter + me. constant battles every day over listening + obeying, her whininess, + getting her to be kind to her 1yo brother.

finally, on Tuesday, i couldn't take it anymore. i was tired of putting her in time out. i was tired of giving her choices that she ignored.

i thought, there has to be an oil for this. turns out joy really helped. i put about 4-5 drops into the diffuser + she was a happy girl for 3 whole hours.

have you ever been in a bad mood? have your children?

have you tried joy?

lemon + crayon

a while ago, my 2-yo daughter colored on the wall with crayon. i'd read and heard from personal testimonials that lemon essential oil is the household charm. so, i took out a washcloth, wet it, + dripped 3-4 drops of lemon essential oil.

here are the results:

while it didn't take all of the blue off, it did take quite a bit off. and now that it is dry (+ aged about a year), the blue has faded and is unnoticable.

amazing, right? i was impressed.

purification + mosquito diverter

 

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my daughter's school playground has mosquitoes. so, we mix a solution of purification + water + a dash of salt (to help the oil + water combine easier).

then, before school, we spray her legs + arms. it helps those mosquitoes not bite her skin too much!

lavender + pimples

i had an awful, under-the-skin pimple on my chin the other day.  it was the size of a dime. it hurt to touch. it hurt when i contorted my mouth a certain way.

i applied lavender to it. after two applications (once in the morning + once at night), it shrunk. after another two applications, it was gone.

who knew lavender could ease my skin discomfort?

panaway + car accidents

i got into a car accident last Saturday. i rear-ended someone, not going very fast. but the woman in the car told me that she had a bad shoulder. i had my everyday oils in the car with me, so...

when we pulled into the dirt parking lot, i offered her panaway + she generously applied it all over her neck + shoulders (to my instruction). i really hope she is doing okay (+ i kind of hope that she'll contact me again for more).

(consequently, the woman decided to call the police + right before the police officer stopped by my window, i applied peace & calming on my wrists + valor on the back of my neck. i think both of these oils helped me relax and not collapse into tears.)
 

purification + lavender + mosquito bites

last Friday, my daughter got bit by a mosquito right on the eyelid. i used purification (to ease her itch) + lavender (to help her skin recover) every hour until her eyelid looked normal. the oils seemed to keep her from scratching at it + making it bigger. 

it took the whole day, but by the evening, she was able to open her eye all the way. i kept doing this for a couple days + now the bite is a little red dot. no swelling!

welcome + post-a-thon followers

welcome new and old followers!

the July Facebook post-a-thon challenge is over!  whew!  it was difficult to complete; i'm not used to posting so much consecutively.  i even had to make a cheat sheet + outline at the beginning of the month, otherwise i'm sure i would have failed:

(personal photo)

ha.

i will do my best to post every other Friday: tips, praises + concerns, and general oily topics.  i hope you'll find this a good resource as we all continue on our journey toward natural health!

geranium + cradle cap

when my baby was only a couple months old, he had awful cradle cap.  i looked up the symptom in my handy dandy Quick Reference Guide (that my Young Living team gifts to each and every member) + it said to blend geranium with lemon and dilute with a carrier oil.

i stored the mixture in an old baby food jar (essential oils can eat through plastic) + applied it on his hair during bathtime every other day.  it really helped those scabs flake off!

facebook + july post-a-thon

July marks the beginning of the post-a-thon/post-a-day Facebook challenge that my Young Living Essential Oils leaders, Al and Carrie Solorzano, initiated.  i'm excited to post information that i've learned about the oils over the past year.  i'm definitely more confident in using them + i hope you can learn something new as well.

follow me on Facebook: karen chow hsu