Adina Grigore - Just the Essentials: How Essential Oils Can Heal Your Skin, Improve Your Health, and Detox Your Life

Dedicated to everyone who patiently helped with

my essential oil detective work.

H ello, and welcome to the only book about essential oils youll ever need. How do I know that? Because at this point in my natural-beauty journey, Ive pretty much read them all.

Let me explain.

Im a super-normal girl, not some massive hippie (just an ordinary one), not a dermatologist, and not an aromatherapist. What I am is someone with extremely sensitive skin. If youve read my book Skin Cleanse, then you already know this story (feel free to turn to Chapter 1 now), but for most of my life, I struggled with chronic skin issuesconstant rashes, acne, painful rednessand could never find lasting relief. Even after I did a pretty good job of cleaning up my diet and lifestyle, my skin remained a mess. I tried every new product available, thinking that maybe I just wasnt washing, toning, or moisturizing in a way that was right for my skin type. And when that didnt work I went to all the doctors and dermatologists I could and slathered myself in steroid creams and prescription shampoos and gobbled up antibiotics and acne pills. You know what happened? Nothing. Just more itchy, inflamed skin.

It was like I was lost in a black hole, and I felt so bad about myself. No matter what I tried, my skin wasnt getting any better. So one day I just... gave up. Just like that. I stopped everythingmy medications, my makeup and skincare products, my shampoo and conditioner, and my doctors appointments. I was exhausted. I just wanted a break from it all. So I spent a few days washing with only water and using absolutely no products (I swear, it wasnt as gross as it sounds). And guess what? Thats when my skin started to get better.

It took this crazy experiment born of desperation for me to realize I wasnt treating my skin with the same respect that I held for the rest of my body. And even though, as a nutritionist, Id learned to keep a watchful eye out for synthetic chemicals and preservatives on food labels, I definitely wasnt applying the same degree of scrutiny to my beauty products.

So, I got to work educating myself on how to make my own products using whole, natural ingredients. What started out as a last-ditch attempt to heal my skin in my tiny Brooklyn kitchen has now become my full-time livelihood as the founder and CEO of the all-natural skincare line S.W. Basics. Today were sold by some of the largest retailers in the country and Ive met Martha Stewart in person. NBD.

And it all started with my impromptu skin cleanse.

In my journey toward better skin, I learned that the quality of your skin is only as good as the quality of your skincareand the quality of your skincare is only as good as the quality of its ingredients. When I switched from using formulas made from ingredients I couldnt pronounce to versions made from, say, coconut oil and sea salt, it was as if I had stumbled upon a sorcerers chest of magical, healing elixirs. Who knew that simple, natural ingredients could do more than smell pretty and taste nicethat they contained potent plant-based compounds that offered real benefits for your skin? It seemed almost too good to be true.

Once I was hooked on the healing powers of plants, everyone started telling me I had to try essential oils. I have to admit, I was skeptical at first. This is not because I hadnt read a trillion things about how amazing they were. I had. Its because I just didnt believe it.

Theres a ton of marketing hype around essential oils. A quick Internet search might leave you convinced that theyll cure everything from a blister to a terrible love life. I mean it. Type any ailment into your web browser combined with the words essential oil and you will discover that all youve ever needed to do to be happy and healthy was diffuse some oil in your bedroom. How could you not have known that? How could we all not have known that?

The truth is, a lot of the claims out there about essential oils are dubious at best. Most of the information youll find about them online is completely unverifiedand possibly downright dangerous. For this reason and many others, essential oils have long suffered from an image problem. People blog about them, sell them, or your one weird aunt raves about their benefits, but most of us havent really found reliable sources of information about how to incorporate essential oils into our lives.

As I said, I used to feel the same way about them as you probably do now. Theyre super mysterious and kind of intimidating. And there are so many of them. Where are you even supposed to start?

As you probably guessed when you picked up this book, I now find them way less mysterious and confusing. When I was climbing my way up from rock bottom, I put aside my skepticism and decided to give essential oils a try. Id heard that some of them were great for acne, and Id been dealing with breakouts my whole life. In my new less is more, especially when it comes to chemicals philosophy, adding a few drops of essential oils to my homemade products seemed like a perfect solution (that is, if they actually worked). Plus, they smelled niceand certain natural ingredients (sorry, apple cider vinegar) can smell so decidedly not nice youre almost tempted to return to your fake oceanside-breeze-with-a-pia-colada-scented face wash. So I started adding essential oils to my DIY products to make them workand smellbetter.

It turns out, thats a really good way to get hooked on essential oils, and thats exactly what happened to me. I was honestly amazed by their power and efficacy. Those tiny bottles of potion improved my life (and my skin) tremendously. Today, I incorporate essential oils into my skincare and life in a ton of different ways. Ive used minty oils to make toothpaste, tea tree oil to kill horrible tooth infections, eucalyptus and citronella oils to repel moths and bugs, clove oil to speed up the course of a flu, cinnamon oil to quiet a migraine, and lemon oil to clean my counters. My beauty cabinet houses more essential oils than any other product. In fact, essential oils are my first line of defense for many things. When it comes to S.W. Basics, essential oils are the rock star ingredients that make our products even more potent, delicious-smelling, and shelf-stable.