Wednesday 3 August 2016

Essential Oils and Sun Sensitivity

essential oils and sun sensitivity


Essential oils are used in a lot of natural products, not only for health benefits but also as natural fragrances, however there are a few oils you have to be careful with wearing out during summer time. I recently got a request from a friend to write about essential oils and the way they react in sunshine. The reason behind the request was that after using a natural body lotion containing essential oils she noticed white spots and burns on her legs.
You might think that using a natural beauty product is safe especially since some oils, like lavender and chamomile, are known to ease sunburn, but there are in fact some oils that do the exact opposite. 
Even though essential oils are natural some of them contain components that are highly phototoxic. Phototoxicity basically means that they are sensitive to sunlight and absorb the UV rays more intensely and therefore can cause serious burns or spots in the pigmentation.

essential oils and sun sensitivity list

As you can see, most of the essential oils extracted from citrus fruits are phototoxic and the Bergamot is the most well known. Bergamot contains bergaptene which is a chemical able to absorb ultraviolet light, however there are bergaptene-free oils which are safe to use in the sun, just make sure the product you are using is listed bergaptene-free on the bottle.

1 comment:

  1. I will share it with my other friends as the information is really very useful. 100% Pure Certified USDA Organic Essential Oils. Keep sharing your excellent work.

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