Essential Oils « Heliotro.pe

Blum face pads -- worth a try!

I’ve been hunting for the perfect face wipes for AGES — I’ve never found a formulation that wasn’t chock-full of dimethicone, propylene glycol, and harsh surfactants. Not exactly what my sensitive, breakout-prone skin ordered! (I even shelled out for Josie Maran’s Bear Naked wipes and found that they sting SO BAD!)

But I just spotted this product on [...]

The Hair Powder Shakedown

Pun totally intended.

I started using Jurlique Rose Silk Dust a couple years ago on my face, and I discovered that it was a bit too drying to use often. But, of course, I was unwilling to waste such an expensive product! So I started using it on the wispy hair bits around my face that [...]

Lavender is dead to me now!

Our kitty, Trumpet, is an adorable sweet feline — but he’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer. He often uses his litterbox, forgets to cover up his own kitty-products, and then refuses to go in it if there’s exposed kitty-product the next time around. So he goes on the floor in front [...]

Borrowing from Bare Escentuals

I recently caught wind of the Rare Minerals acne-fighting mineral powder concealer by Bare Escentuals, and now I see that it’s been voted a Sephora best-of.

I’ve always wanted to avoid anything by BE, since they are notorious for including the chemical bismuth oxychloride in their formulations. (Many people are quite allergic to bismuth, and it [...]

With new territories come new… smells

Turns out, tagetes is STINKY! My package from Nature’s Gift arrived recently, and I mixed up a little vial of tagetes essential oil in a neem and avocado oil base. I started anointing dear Grant’s toes with it, and I was wowed by how smelly it is. Not like anything else I’ve [...]

Tagetes to the rescue?

I’ve always considered myself fairly savvy with essential oils, but I’m learning more and more as I go. I had the basics down, but now I’m delving into some lesser-known oils, like manuka (below) and, this time, tagetes.

Tagetes is the oil from a type of marigold, and it has powerful anti-fungal properties. I’ve [...]

The Magic Formula

I’ve been working on my homemade deodorant for several months now, and I think I finally hit the jackpot with today’s batch. I made a couple of targeted adjustments that really improved the overall product.

I cut out the neem oil entirely, because even though neem is great for antibacterial and antifungal purposes, it’s too [...]

Mission for manuka

I’ve been hearing more and more about “manuka” lately, and I finally figured out what’s going on. The Wikipedia entry claims that manuka is the same plant species as tea tree, which I’ve since learned isn’t the case. (When I know more I’ll go back and update that!)

Manuka is a very *similar* plant [...]