cuts + melrose

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my friend Jaynessa taught a Essential Oils 202 class for me + a few friends. she mentioned that melrose was a less-stingy option for cuts + scrapes.

so, i decided to check it out + it's true! it is just as effective as lavender, but without the sting!

 

do you use melrose?

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?