Vitamins for Your Skin

When picking the right skin product it is a good idea to check the ingredients to see if it has the right skin nourishing combination. Good product should contain most if not all of following vitamins to keep skin supple and healthy:

a) Vitamin A

Vitamin A is in charge of maintenance and repair of vital skin tissue, and is the key to healthy skin. Lack of vitamin A can cause skin dryness and wrinkles.

b) Vitamin B Complex

Vitamin B complex contains the nutrient, biotin, which forms the basis of nails, skin, and hair cells. It is anti-inflammatory, it hydrates the skin cells and gives a healthy glow to skin.

c) Vitamin C

In skin, vitamin C can help collagen production. This in turn reduces wrinkles, improves skin texture, and reduces photo damage.

d) Vitamin E

The trick to getting soft touchable skin is vitamin E. It regenerates skin and can improve appearance of acne scars.

e) Vitamin K

Vitamin K is your secret weapon to fighting dark circles and bruises. This vitamin helps fade discolorations on the skin, reducing puffiness and dark circles that so many of us suffer from.

While off the shelf cosmetic product can come packed with artificially synthesized vitamin groups, you really want to go as organic as possible. Organically sourced vitamins absorb into skin better and are more potent bringing better overall skin benefits.  Whenever possible choose the facial products that source vitamins from organic ingredients.

When it comes down to your skin, healthier is better. Please check out our  great selection of organic products at Nina Bella Organic Collection.

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Aroma Mist – Healthy Home and Body Scent

You do not have to use industrial air fresheners to keep your home smelling nice. Organic aroma misters are healthy and affordable alternative. Instead of heavy chemicals, aroma misters contain only organic alcohol, water and organic essential oils balanced in a way that is not harmful to your health. Water is a perfect way to make your aroma mist light and pure. What you want to be using is distilled water that does not have heavy minerals. Organic alcohol is necessary to eliminate odor causing germs. Any clear organic alcohol will do. Organic essential oils will add a nice crisp scent that will not irritate respiratory system. Any organic essential oils such as lavender, peppermint, spearmint, rose, tangerine, sweet orange, chamomile will work. You can use them alone or create your own blend to spice things up.

Ingredients:

½ cup distilled water

½ cup clear organic alcohol

20 drops organic essential oil

Mix water and organic alcohol well. Add organic essential oil and mix well. Pour into amber or cobalt blue misting bottle and cap well. Shake well before using. To use spray on the bathroom, in the linen close, in the car, in the living room and wherever you want a nice natural scent. Avoid direct contact with sensitive and colored fabrics as alcohol may fade the colors. Avoid getting any spray in your eyes and this goes without saying – do not spray directly on skin, children or pets. Keep aroma mist in cool dark place between uses.

For more great ideas, check out new Nina Bella Collection organic aroma mists and body sprays upcoming in May 2012.

Lemon Essential Oil in Natural Bath and Beauty Care

Lemon essential oil is one of the most popular and widely used natural bath and beauty oils. Hailing from Pompei and transposed to seductive Italy by early settlers, lemon essential oil is known for its refreshing and cooling properties. Of all essential oils, it is considered one of the most valuable oils for skin and body.

Chemically, lemon essential oil contains limonene, which is responsible for the oil’s tangy-fruity aroma, and citral, which is responsible for lemon note in the aroma profile, dimonene, a powerful antioxidant very beneficial for skin and body, neral, geranial, as well as vitamins A, B and C. The higher neral and geranial concentration the higher the quality, so this is something you want to consider when picking out lemon essential oil. Lemon essential oil has watery consistency, and pale yellow to light green/yellow color, with freshly peeled lemon scent.

It is extracted by cold-pressing from fresh lemon peel. Following cold-pressing various lemon essential oil are often blended together to produce a more consistent aroma profile. This is why lemon essential oils purchased from different manufactures and regions may smell and look different. Due to many beneficial properties lemon essential oil is often in soaps, shampoos, face wash and many personal care and skin care natural bath and beauty products. Let’s see why that is.

For starters it is a very powerful antiseptic, antibiotic and astringent. In one shot, it cleanses, detoxifies and purifies body and skin. Being a strong astringent it is ideal for oily, blemished skin. Used regularly it will clear and rejuvenate even the most dull and tired skin. Second it is natural bleaching agent, and great for naturally lightening freckles and adding sun-kissed highlights to your hair. It will also eliminate dandruff, nourish and strengthens hair so may want to try adding some lemon essential oil to your regular hair routine. Third, lemon essential oil has high concentration of vitamins and will rejuvenate and de-wrinkle ageing skin. Fourth, and this is a little know but true fact, lemon essential oil is a great skin resurfacer and can be used to help smooth skin and reduce appearance of cellulite. Similarly, lemon essential oil is great for treating and minimizing tough and calloused skin and it just may be your feet’s new best friend.

Lemon essential oil is easy to work with. It bends easy and works great with many other essential oils including lavender essential oil, rose oil, neroli essential oil, sandalwood oil, geranium essential oil, ylang ylang essential oil and tea tree essential oil. Cheerful and uplifting this it is particularly designed to distress and improve mood, so it allows you to create products with dual skin care and aromatherapy benefits.

To explore how lemon essential oil can benefit your skin care, visit Nina Bella Collection and a great selection of you lemon essential oil based products.

Dry Skin Formula

Dry skin comes with its own unique set of challenges. Flakiness, dry patches, wrinkles and irritation are just tip of the iceberg, and dermatitis, itchy rashes and eczema are real issues. The fact is dry skin care requires advanced moisturizing care. There are plenty of choices out there. There are also plenty of chemicals you will be exposed to when using industrial moisturizing creams. In the long run that may bring more damage then good. This is why more and more people turn to natural dry skin care.

Once again, by a rule of thumb, turn to natural plant and essential oils. Plant oils are a perfect mix of antioxidants that protect skin, vitamins and minerals that nourish skin and natural moisturizers that keep skin well hydrated. And you do not have to worry about chemicals or harmful additives. Plus creating your own dry skin formula can be fun and will not break the bank.

When coming up with your own dry skin formula, do your research. You want to select oils based on benefits suited to your particular dry skin issue, that being patchiness, flakiness or – yes – eczema. This way you can customize your formula by aroma, consistency and particular concern you might have. Sweet orange oil, a powerful moisturizing agent is the best place to start. Add a mix of two or more plant oils and some essential oils and voila – you are there. It is that easy.

Here is an easy starter dry skin formula to try:

¼ cup olive oil

¼ cup grape seed oil

¼ cup jojoba oil

1 tablespoon sweet orange essential oil

Mix olive, grape seed and jojoba oil together. Add sweet orange essential oil and mi well. Apply a small quantity of ready formula over dry skin and massage in until absorbed. Repeat three to four times a week or best results. Store formula in dry place, away from sun.

Compliments of Nina Bella Collection – your Canadian organic bath and beauty care manufacturer.

Sweet Orange Beautiful

Originating from mythological “golden apples”, sweet organic essential oil has been used from middle ages for its healing properties. Divinely energizing, it is known for its uplifting, stimulating, sensual, deodorizing, toning, cardiovascular, circulatory and refreshing properties. Fun, youthful and summery, sweet orange essential oil is one of the most effective natural ways to energize, motivate and purify body and soul.

Produced by cells inside the rind of an orange fruit, sweet orange oil is traditionally extracted by cold pressing orange peels. Its main chemical components are a-pinene, sabinene, myrcene, d-limonene, linalool, citronellal, neral and geranial. In appearance, it is thin and water like to touch, with color ranging from pale yellow to deep orange.

Because of great natural scent sweet orange oils is an ideal additive to natural massage oils, creams and lotions. Top note oil, it nurtures and uplifts at the same time. This is why orange essential oil is often used in aromatherapy products designed to relieve tension and anxiety.

Great antioxidant, detoxifying and analgesic agent, sweet orange essential oil is a favorite additive to massage oils and natural bath and beauty products. Known to relieve cold and flu symptoms, eliminate toxins, boost the lymphatic and immune system and ease tension, sweet orange essential oil is often found in natural bath salts, shower gels, bubble baths, shampoos and conditioners. Known collagen booster and moisturizer, sweet orange essential oils makes for a  great skin tonic, does wonders for older mature skin, smoothes wrinkles, helps with dermatitis and soothes dry irritated skin. You will find that most great natural an organic creams, lotions, body butters and scrubs, have sweet orange essential oil.

Although most essential oils blend well with one another, orange oil blends particularly well with black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, frankincense, sandalwood and vetiver. Same with basil, bergamot, clary sage, clove, coriander, eucalyptus, geranium, ginger, grapefruit, jasmine, juniper, lavender, lemon, litsea cubeba, marjoram, myrrh, neroli, nutmeg, patchouli, petitgrain, rose, vetiver and ylang ylang.

Little chameleon of essential oil world, this magical oils blends well with most natural an organic plant butters, waxes and carrier oils adding unique aroma depth. However you choose to use sweet orange essential oil in your products stick to a golden rule – keep it in concentration of 1% or less and you everyone will get along just fine.

For more on sweet orange essential products, visit Nina Bella Collection website.

Beauty with Lavender Essential Oil

Lavender is a perennial aromatic evergreen shrub with violet-blue spike-like flowers. It is often found and therefore believed to have been adapted to dry climate. It is commonly found in western half of Mediterranean. Historically there is evidence that its existence is recorded as far back as Roman times and that Roman and Benedictine monks might have introduced it to the rest of the Europe. Its name is derived from Latin Lavare, which means “to wash”, due to its aroma and natural cleansing properties. Lavender essential oils scent is floral, fresh, sweet, herbaceous and sometimes slightly fruity.

There are several varieties of Lavender which can cause confusion over the names of the various species. The favorite and most widely used is Lavandula officinalis, also called Lavandula angustifolia, or Lavandula vera. Lavender essential oil potency varies with terrain altitude and dryness. Higher altitudes produce sharper and fresher oil while lower produce sweeter and softer oils. The finest quality lavender oils are grown in dry conditions at altitude between 700 and 1400 meters.

Lavender essential oil is obtained by distillation from the flower spikes of certain species of lavender. Two forms are distinguished, lavender flower oil, colorless oil, insoluble in water, and lavender spike oil, a distillate from the herb Lavandula latifolia, each with its distinct benefits and applications. Each is a variable mix of linalool (51%), linalyl acetate (35%), α-pinene, limonene, 1,8-cineole, cis- and trans-ocimene, 3-octanone, camphor, caryophyllene, terpinen-4-ol and lavendulyl acetate, which give lavender its natural benefits and heady scent.

The benefits of lavender essential oil include its ability to relieve nervous tension, pain, disinfect scalp and skin, enhance blood circulation and treat respiratory problems, which is why it is used in the production of perfumes and in aromatherapy. As strong antiseptic and antifungal agent lavender essential oil is also used to treat various skin disorders such as acne, wrinkles, psoriasis, and other inflammations. It heals wounds, cuts, burns, and sunburns, reduces scar tissue formation and is very effective in treating eczema. All this is the reason why lavender essential oil has followed its natural evolution to favorite bath and beauty product additive.

As with many other essential oils, moderation is the key and pregnant and breastfeeding women should avoid using lavender essential oil. It may also cause allergic reactions to people having sensitive skin.

And did you know that lavender essential also repels mosquitoes? It does! Next time you feel like taking a nice leisurely walk, dab on some lavender scented product, relax and enjoy your walk and forget heavy expensive chemical based insect repellents.

To hear more about beneficial properties of natural essential oils, read Nina Bella Collection weekly updates and try our very own lavender products, today.

Cure Cold Sores with Lavender

Cold sores are annoying small, painful, fluid-filled reminders of how our body can react to colds, stress and weather. Popping around the mouth, lips and nose cold sores are painful, persistent and usually last for days, leaving most of us scrambling after concealers, powders and heavy creams that can make the problem worse. It is common nuisance – about 60% of the population suffers from cold sores at some point in their lives. And because cold sores are caused by a virus, they are contagious, hard to get rid of and often reoccur. This is why a golden rule of not picking cold sores with our hands applies and why they spread around the face when we do.

Today I will share with you a fairly simple and effective way to treat and prevent cold sores naturally. All you really need to do is spend 5 minutes making a simple tonic with lavender essential oil. Known for its antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties lavender has been used a natural cure for cold sores and skin inflammations for centuries. To make your own lavender cold sore tonic do the following:

 Ingredients:

8 drops of lavender essential oil

8 drops of peppermint essential oil

1 teaspoon of glycerin

½ cup warm water

½ cup of witch hazel

Add lavender and peppermint essential oils to 1 teaspoon of glycerin and mix well. Add to ½ cup of warm water and mix well. Add ½ cup of witch hazel and mix well. To use dab a generous amount of tonic on affected areas with cotton compress and let dry. Apply two times a day until cold sore clears. Store the tonic in cold place for up to 3 months. Shake tonic well before each use.