I think people at heart always want to do what is best for ourselves and our families. We try to eat right. We know it’s best to exercise. And with many people turning to seemingly safe, non-toxic solutions for their skin, essential oils are flying off of the shelves at vitamin and nutrition stores everywhere. While a few have anti-bacterial or antioxidant properties, like lemon, tea tree, and fennel (Journal of Applied Microbiology, 2001), these essential oils generally are not tested or approved for use on the skin, unlike commercial skin care products.
In essence, essential oils are not all they are cracked up to be, unless they are used properly. Here are the reasons, plus some safety tips to help you out.
1.) Essential oils are potent penetration enhancers.
Readers often write to me with all kinds of concerns about skin care products that are “penetration enhancers.” Found in those medicated skin patches (transdermal patches), chemicals like butylene glycol and propylene glycol are designed to help thin a solution and increase the absorption of other active ingredients into the skin. They are generally recognized as safe in the concentrations they are used in skin care and cosmetics (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2012). Glycols do not accumulate in the system over time.
On the other hand, essential oils are also penetration enhancers. Pure penetration enhancers that you are putting on your skin. In fact, essential oils have been found to increase the absorption of other ingredients up to 30-fold (International Journal of Pharmaceutics, 1989; Drug Discovery Today, 2007). And when you consider that essential oils often are impure (see #2, below), you are now absorbing the impurities.
How to Lessen Your Risk: If you really want to use essential oils, make sure that they are approved for use on the skin. While commercialized penetration enhancers like propylene glycol are approved in concentrations of up to 50% by the U.S. FDA, many essential oil formulas are directed for use as aromatherapy agents, not topical ointments.
2.) Essential oils are impure and contain toxic components. (Yes, I said “toxic”.)
3.) Some essential oils can make your skin more sensitive to the sun.
4.) Some essential oils can increase free radical production.
Essential oils actually increase free radical production within the cells. (For those who are scratching their heads, free radicals are those pesky molecules without paired electrons that go through your cells and rip electrons off of the other molecules, damaging DNA and other cellular structures along the way). Though essential oils are considered by many to be antioxidants, according to research published in Food and Chemical Toxicology, some pure essential oils can act as pro-oxidants affecting inner cell membranes and organelles such as mitochondria,” with mitochondria being the energy-producing part of the cell. The research also states that the cellular damage essential oils caused was so extensive in lesser organisms (bacteria) that they may be cancer-causing agents.
How to Lessen Your Risk: Use pure essential oils with extra antioxidants from other products added for protection. (May I suggest our FutureDerm Vitamin CE Caffeic Silk Serum 16+2?)
Bottom Line
Essential oils potentially have many benefits for the skin, but too often, we don’t talk about their significant risks because they are “natural” products. We instinctively believe “natural” means “safer,” even if it is not the case. That said:
1.) Only buy essential oils that are labeled for use on the skin.
2.) Look for “pure,” “certified pure,” or verified essential oils.
3.) Use a broad-spectrum UVA/UVB sunscreen with any essential oil.
4.) Patch test on a 1″ x 1″ piece of skin first.
5.) Use an antioxidant serum over top of our essential oil, just in case.
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