Since the dawn of traditional medicine, Ayurveda has embraced natural beauty. It is the oldest recorded science of health and healing, and Ayurvedic healers know the secret to caring for skin is to use plant fats and essential oils as skin care, and that if an ingredient isn’t food-grade or edible, we don’t put it on the skin.
In Sanskrit, the word sneha means both “oil” and “love.” This speaks to the ancient Ayurvedic tradition of Abhyanga: nourishing and rejuvenating the body, mind, and spirit with lovingly prepared oils and plant extracts.
Here are three reasons it’s important to incorporate plant-based Ayurvedic oils into your skin care routine:
1. They’ll bring in good vibrations.
According to the wisdom of classical Ayurveda, your skin needs natural plant-based oils to thrive for many reasons, one of which is the high vibrational frequency these ingredients possess. Ayurveda teaches us that the human body is essentially electrical, and it needs natural fats and oils to operate at its optimal vibrational levels.
Everything in our universe vibrates at specific, measurable frequencies, and essential oils vibrate at a very high frequency. For example, therapeutic-grade rose essential oil vibrates at 320 MHz, and lavender at 118 MHz. In comparison, fresh produce has an average frequency of 15 MHz, and fresh herbs between 20 and 27 MHz.
As living beings, humans also possess electromagnetic frequencies. The frequency of a healthy person is typically between 62 and 78 MHz. As stated earlier, the human body wants to operate at an optimal vibration, and incorporating high-frequency ingredients — like essential oils — into our self-care routines is the easiest way to increase our own frequency. Both skin and plants are alive and full of nature’s intelligence, or prana, so it only makes sense to combine to two.
In contrast, Ayurveda teaches us that dead or tamasic food — like canned or processed items — have no life force, meaning they also have no measurable vibrational frequency. This means they add no benefit to our bodies.
Understanding how frequency works in the universe is important for preventing and healing disease. Using high-vibration plant extracts on your skin is one of the fastest and easiest ways to raise the vibrational frequency of your body, and the health of your whole being.
2. They’re perfect skin superfoods.
When we ingest chemicals or synthetic additives through food, our digestive system is able to filter out some of the toxic substances before they reach our bloodstream and cells. But when we put chemicals on our skin, there’s really no opportunity to filter them out and so they’re absorbed into our blood, organs, tissues, and cells. The excess dead waste can accumulate in the liver, contributing to health problems over time.
If we started thinking about skin care as skin food, as a way to feed your body the essential fatty acids it craves, there would be no need for conventional, toxic, chemical-filled cosmetics. Instead, we’d all be using plant-based oils packed with antioxidants, omega-3 fats, vitamins, minerals, and living enzymes.
Feeding your skin enough fatty acids is crucial for the health of your skin cells, which in turn keeps skin looking healthy, supple, and rejuvenated.
3. Your immunity will get a boost.
Since essential oils have antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal properties, they’ll protect your skin from invading organisms. Applying oil to the body also serves a vital role in the cleansing process, as oil helps draw out toxins and the aromatherapeutic properties will help calm the nervous system so the body can move from stress-fighting functions to rejuvenating functions. When the nervous system is at rest, the cells can better repair themselves.
The good news is, no matter what your skin has been exposed to in the past, it can heal itself. Skin cells regenerate every 40 days, so healing can and will occur.
Nourish yourself daily with Ayurvedic oils to provide health and healing to the body and mind. Plants are full of life and naturally possess everything your skin needs to keep thriving, glowing, and vibrating with health, so use ’em!
Kiera Nachman is an Ayurvedic practitioner based in New York City, where she has a holistic private practice specializing in plant-based skincare, aromatherapy, herbs, holistic nutrition, energy medicine, and detox.
