Lemongrass

Lemongrass is a plant that I have been fond of for quite a while. I've always loved the scent and it reminds me of spring. In my opinion it is one of the hidden gems in the essential oil lineup. It can be used to help fight infections, inflammation, and my personal favorite as a safe insect repellent.

Usually when I wake up in the morning my hands and feet are on the swollen side, not enough to be worrisome, but enough to make my morning routine just a little bit more difficult. I've been rubbing about 1 drop of oil on each of my feet when I wake up and within minutes the swelling is gone.

I've also found  that it helps fight throat infections. I am so susceptible to strep throat it's not funny, in fact my doctor back in high school labeled me the "Strep Queen." I've had what I thought was an ear infection off and on for over a year. I've been into the doctor and gotten antibiotics but it always seems to come back. As  I was using the lemongrass oil for the swelling, I noticed that the feeling that  I was getting the another infection has gone away. This oil is definitely going to be kept on hand in my house from now on.

New oils and new opportunities for better health.

I ordered some new oils that I have been wanting to try. I've been wanting to do this for a while and finally did it with this months incentive from doTerra. With an order worth 200 pv or more you get a free Deep Blue Rub and a 10ml Roll-on. I've already written about my love for Deep Blue, but lets just say getting about $90 worth of Deep Blue products for free was incentive enough for me.

I've been wanting to get some eucalyptus oil for a while. I ordered two bottles. The first thing I did was make up 3 sample vials in case I have someone who would like to try it. The next was making some vapor disks. This time I did it a bit different. I didn't dry them in the oven since I wasn't in a hurry to use them and I used a combination of three oils. I used 15 drops each of peppermint, rosemary, and eucalyptus. I think I love them even more now than I did before.

We don't have a diffuser,  yet, it'll be in next months order, so I put about 2 drops of the oil I want to use on a cotton ball and leave them in each room. Spring in the southern plains means allergies, snot and sinus drainage, so I've been using peppermint and I've added my eucalyptus to it. I can say I'm liking the results.

I've got so many new oils to play with and I'm pretty excited about it, so you'll be seeing lots of updates and new posts from me over the next few months.

Want to try doTerra? Here is your chance!

I've been posting about ways that I have used the different oils and oil blends from doTerra. I love the many ways I can use the oils and I'd love to share that with everyone.

This is the introductory oil kit from doTerra. It contains 5mL each of Lemon, Peppermint and Lavender oils. It also comes with an audio CD and introductory booklet. The kit normally retails for $26.67.

How would you like to get this kit for free and try EOs for yourself? Here's how:

Go to this link and look over the variety of ways to utilize the intro kit in your home and comment with the one you are most looking forward to using.

Or:

Share this post on Facebook, but don't forget to comment here so that I can get your entry in the drawing.

Doing both will get you  two entries in the drawing. Names will be drawn on Saturday, April 27th at 10 pm.

I'll post an new entry with the winners commenting name so I can get this kit to you.

Happy reading and Good Luck!

Deep Blue bath salt.

I'm playing Bunco this weekend with the ladies from church and I decided to bring Deep Blue bath salts as my contribution to the gift pool. I'll be taking a small one with me that night. The other small ones (there are two more not pictured) will go to my kids teachers as a way to de-stress for the final stretch of the school year.

For making this batch I used 3 c Epsom salt and 3 c ice cream salt mixed with 20 drops of Deep Blue. I happened to have some soap liquid dye on hand so I added some blue dye to distinguish it from the other bath salts I have made.

Face Care or the Green Eyed Monster.

I've been rather jealous of my little sister. She can use all of the doTerra oils and all of the spa products. She's been using the skin care line with great success. She said that she only wished that doTerra made a mud mask. Little wheels got turning in my head.

After scouring pinterest for what seemed to be hours I found a couple of recipes that all required bentonite or green clay. I live in one of the least "hippie" states so finding that around here was proving to be a challenge. My sister told me that she found some at her local Whole Foods. I hunted it down like a bloodhound on the scent.

I found a dry mask from Now Solutions called european clay powder, that you add water to and whatever EO you felt like using. I added one drop of peppermint oil and slathered it on my face. I'll spare you the pictures, it wasn't pretty, I looked like the creature from the black lagoon. The directions said to leave it on for 15 minutes, well being the highly distractable person I am 15 minute turned into 45. My skin wasn't thrilled about it, but I did notice a rather immediate tightening and clearing of my skin.

Will I do it again? YES! When I run out I might order it in bulk though and add some honey as well as the EO.

Success with the "Unfriendlies"

I've been trying to find a way to make up some sample vials of the oils that I call "not Jennifer friendly." These include the single oils of lavender and melaleuca and all the blends that contain them. My little sister sent me a couple of sample vials of lavender and I appreciate it greatly. I just wish she were closer so I could have her do all my oils that aren't friendly.

I thought I'd try taking the oils out on my back porch to do my sample vials with. I was able to pour the oils and get them capped without too much of a headache. I still got a bit of one but not the whammy I suffered before. I call any improvement a success. It's not perfect but it works for me.

This ended up being rather important for me to figure out as I was giving some friends samples of oils that I just can't use. I'm hoping to hear from both of them soon and hear how the oils worked for them.

I'll keep you posted on how it works.

It's been awhile.

My sincerest and deepest apologies for the time lag in posting. I had computer issues and then we had tummy troubles with the boys. To exacerbate the issue I haven't had much opportunity to try new oils or new ways of using them and since this blog is all about how we use essential oils and the other products from doTerra, I didn't think I had much to add.

How about we get back to talking about essential oils and how we use them?

Spring is my favorite season, plants start to get leaves again, flowers bloom and the weather gets warmer. The only thing I don't like about spring is that it doesn't like me. With all the plants in bloom and the wind that this area of the country is famous for my lungs and sinuses take a beating. On top of that we got ambitious enough to rip up the carpet we had in our living room and replace it with laminate. While this will end up being much more hypoallergenic for us and helping with our asthma the process of pulling up the carpet and removing it got all of our lungs worked up.

To deal with this we have all been rubbing enough peppermint oil on our chests to make enough candy canes to supply a small country for a year. I've put it on cotton balls and left them in both bathrooms. I also just recently switched shampoo and conditioner (I promise this relates). I'm more than slightly jealous of my sisters ability to use the shampoo and conditioner that doTerra makes so I wanted to try something made with EO's. I found some made with rosemary and mint. Serendipity put this in my shower at the same time that my lungs rebelled.

My aunt had told me, through my mom, that rosemary would also help with the sinus issues and congestion. I also put peppermint oil in my body wash, so between the two my showers have helped keep the nasty allergy side effects at bay.

I mentioned tummy issues earlier. Mister had been out of town on a business trip when Scientist threw up late at night. I am not good at dealing with cleaning up vomit. Most of the time Mister comes to the rescue and gets it cleaned up for me and I greatly appreciate it. This gave me the opportunity to try DigestZen on Scientist. I didn't dilute it thinking that I had used it on myself when my tamiflu Rx made me nauseous earlier this year with out any reactions. I rubbed a couple of drops on his abdomen and he got a red rash that looked like a sunburn where I had applied it. The oil worked great, but in the future it will be diluted before using on the kiddos. Sometimes experience is the best teacher and this time proved to be an example of that.

I'm going to be ordering rosemary and eucalyptus to try soon! If it works so well in my shampoo and conditioner I want to be able to use it when not in the shower.