Essential Oil safety: General Precautions

Essential oils safety are very concentrated. Their safe use requires they be treated with care and respect. The user should be knowledgeable about their properties and actions before any use. Most personal applications require drops rather than ounces.

• Always read and follow all label warnings and cautions.

• Keep oils tightly closed and out of the reach of children.

• Never ingest essential oils.

• Don't use undiluted oils on your skin (Dilute with vegetable oils, known as "carrier oils," such as sweet almond oil or grapeseed oil).

• Skin test oils before using. Dilute a small amount and apply to the skin on your inner arm. Do not use if redness or irritation occurs.

• Keep oils away from eyes and mucous membranes.

• Avoid use of these oils during pregnancy: bitter almond, basil, clary sage, clove bud, hyssop, sweet fennel, juniper berry, marjoram, myrrh, peppermint, rose, rosemary, sage, thyme and wintergreen.

• These oils can be especially irritating to the skin: allspice, bitter almond, basil, cinnamon leaf, cinnamon bark, clove bud, sweet fennel, fir needle, lemon, lemongrass, melissa, peppermint, tea tree and wintergreen.

• Angelica and all citrus oils make the skin more sensitive to ultraviolet light. Do not go out into the sun with these oils on your skin.

• Sweet fennel, hyssop, sage and rosemary should not be used by anyone with epilepsy.

• People with high blood pressure should avoid hyssop, rosemary, sage and thyme.

"There is a remedy for every illness to be found in nature" Hippocrates (460-377BC) Hippocrates is still recognized today as the Father of Modern Medicine. He believed that by using oils the body's own healing mechanism was stimulated. Many plants and herbs have healing properties and he encouraged their use.

Essential Oil Safety, General Precautions

Essential oil safety

More and more people today are rejecting conventional medicines and their side effects and turning to the natural healing alternative.

Essential Oils stimulate not only the body, but also the mind and spirit, therefore treating the human being as a whole. Essential Oils do not cure a condition, they help the body begin the natural healing process and allow you to achieve balance, harmony and a sense of well being.

We use essential oils to treat our children, and ourselves whether it be clearing the head during a head cold, or preparing a vaporizer to stimulate concentration before an exam. There are many ways to use "Essential Oil safety", including inhalation, massage, vaporizer (or burner), bath, compress and swab.

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