AROMATHERAPY

The Fragrant way to Beauty

The human face is like a book - it tells a story- each wrinkle represents a chapter in your life and each blemish tells a story of misuse.

Laughter lines tell the world that your life contains humour, while a drooping mouth says there is an underlying sadness or anger to your tale.

The vicissitudes of each life are written large across the front-page: sadness, ill health, stress and tension, crisis, disaster, they are all there for the world to see.

No face is a mask, and even if we cover our skin with camouflaging make-up, that too tells its own story - that we have something to hide.

The skin that covers our body reacts to our emotions, so that people under stress often find their skin becoming dry and taut, and in severe emotional states, dehydrated.

Hormonal changes produce spots and blemishes, as well as increased oiliness with dry patches.

Climate also affects face and body skin. Hot weather can produce lumps and bumps as well as dryness and wrinkles, while moist damp air has a beneficial effectand gives the skin a dewy texture.

Cigarette smoke can age a face by making it grey and wrinkled, and pollution has the same effect - which is why I am seeing more and more young women with prematurely ageing facial skin.

We used to be able to wash our faces in soft rainwater, but who wants to do that any more with acid rain destroying the beauty of the human face as surely as it destroys the beauty of the European forest?

Until fairly recently it was thought that the skin was a waterproof coating through which nothing could be absorbed into the layers below. Now, all matter of medications are applied directly on to the skin for absorption.

But those working with essential oils have always known that they are absorbed into the body, not only because their therapeutic values can be seen to be working but because oils applied directly on to the skin are excreted - through urine, faeces, perspiration and breath.

This has been shown scientifically many times over. and ' the sweet smell of success' is easy to observe without any scientific apparatus other than a human noise.

Moreover, particular oils have their preferred methods of exit and the route they travel is a factor in deciding which oil to use.

It is indeed because the skin is such an effective absorber that essential oils need not be taken orally - where in any case they only come into contact with the digestive system and all its rubbish.

The natural and extremely small molucules of essential oils penetrate the dermis and get to work with their purity maintained.

Technically, the skin is an organ weighing about four kilos which protects us from the outside world and regulates the body's natural cooling and heating systems.

There are few differences between male and female skins.

The epidermis is the outer layer of skin cells and the one we see, but that is the product of the lower layer of skin called the basel laye, where new plump, moist cells are produced.

These travel upwards and outwards and on their journey they encounter various hazards that lose them some of their moisture, making them leaner.

It can take three to four monthsfor cells to reach the epidermis, and if you are treating your skin the results may not show for that length of time (although some treatments will make you look younger in about an hour).

And of course the reverse is true: damage done by eating the wrong foods, not enough vitamins or a low immunity can also take up to four months to show on your skin.

When the skin cells reach the outer layer, they fall off and become household dust.

Our skin is a living and dying, regeneratin organ, forever on the move.

Skin cells are rich in substance called keratin which also makes up nails, and skin cells, like nails, can become brittle and flaky.

Skin is an excretory organ and is constantly at work to throw off toxic waste - not only under the arms, but all over.

Reference: The Fragrant Pharmacy: Valerie Ann Worwood