The Benefits of Using Essential Oils in Personal Care Products

Many people do not realize that the expensive and natural-looking bar soaps, shampoos, conditioners, face creams and other personal care products they buy are actually filled with synthetic chemicals and unnatural ingredients. If the soaps, shampoos and conditioners you buy are made with fragrances, chances are you are putting all kinds of synthetic chemicals into your body.

It is easy to understand why consumers are confused when they purchase personal care items. The packages of retail soaps often tout fragrances like lavender, rose, sandalwood and other natural-sounding ingredients, but the fragrance oils they use are far from natural. In fact, fragrance oils are synthetic chemicals. The fragrances found in most retail soap comes from the lab, not from the field. That means the lavender bar soap you buy at the store has never seen a flower, and the expensive grapefruit-scented face cream from the local department store has never been near a grapefruit tree.

Essential Oils – A Natural Alternative for Personal Care Products

Essential oils are a better choice when it comes to personal care and hygiene products. They are superior to traditional fragrances in a number of important ways. Perhaps the most striking contrast between those fragrances and essential oils is their derivation. The fragrances found in most retail personal care products are created by scientists in a laboratory. Those scientists combine synthetic chemicals to create a scent that mimics real flowers and other fragrances.

Essential oils are completely different – and completely natural. Essential oils are extracted from plants that contain aromatic properties and are chosen for their pleasing scents and their high quality. When you buy a bar of soap that contains lavender essential oil, you are buying something that has been extracted from an actual lavender plant and not manufactured in a laboratory.

The fact that essential oils are derived from the plants for which they are named means that they have a more natural and pleasant aroma. While a lavender-scented soap made with fragrance oil may smell vaguely of a lavender flower, a bar of soap containing lavender essential oil actually comes from the lavender plant. That is a huge difference, and one that consumers need to be aware of.

Essential oils can also be valuable for their aromatherapy properties. Unlike artificial fragrances, which do not occur in nature, essential oils contain all the natural elements of the plants from which they are derived. Aromatherapy experts use those essential oils to treat a number of conditions, from muscle aches and emotional imbalance to arthritis and skin problems.

When you choose bar soap, shampoo, conditioner, face cream and other personal care items, it is important to take a good look at the ingredients and remember that quality does matter! If the ingredients include artificial fragrances, you may not be getting everything you are paying for. Personal care items made with essential oils offer so much more – from all-natural scents to the benefits of aromatherapy.