An Answer for an Allergy to Sunscreen

I never knew an allergy to sunscreen could even happen. I had never met anyone who was allergic to sunscreen and I had used it all my adult life and had never had a problem.

That all changed when I went to a conference in Denver, CO. The day before we left for the conference, I had gone boating and used sunscreen as I always had while boating. The next afternoon, we started the 8-hour drive to Denver from our home (at the time) in southern Minnesota. Half way there, my face and arms started to itch very badly and then began to swell.

We stopped at a pharmacy along the way and I picked up some allergy medicine and talked with the pharmacist there. They gave me an over-the-counter allergy medicine and said it should clear up overnight.

It did not. It got much, much worse. At the conference on Monday, my face, neck and arms had ballooned up and itched even worse. By Tuesday morning, my neck began to swell with giant welts that grew up the side of my face.

I was in trouble. I was directed to the conference doctor, who upon examining me and getting my history of sunscreen use, called in a prescription to a strong steroid. He said the welts were starting to form inside my neck and were sure to cut off my breathing by midnight. He also said I should never use sunscreen again until I determine which chemical I had the reaction to. I was scared at that point, but the steroids worked and the swelling was slightly reduced by morning and the itching was starting to clear up.

Going on from there, I had to find a solution because I was getting badly burned and I wasn't about to give up boating.

I did find a solution and it's better than any sunscreen I've ever used....and it's chemical-free! The main sun-blocking ingredient is zinc oxide and since it's a mineral, not a chemical, it does not harm my skin. I tested it and had no reaction.

I took the opportunity to add frankincense to it because frankincense is so incredibly good for skin. I love essential oils for their versatility.


My recipe:

1/2 cup avocado oil
1/4 cup cocoa butter
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup beeswax
1/4 cup non-nano zinc oxide (found on Amazon)
15 drops frankincense essential oil


Melt all ingredients except frankincense in a double boiler until smooth. Cool slightly. Add frankincense and stir. Pour into desired containers and let set. One batch lasts us all summer.

Happy oiling!
~Tricia

These Oils Have the POWER

Essential oils are powerful. Something you eat regularly can be much more powerful in its essential oil form.

A couple years ago, I started using a blend of oils to help with high blood pressure. You can read all about that here. It worked. The blend, which I used several times a day for massage and in an inhaler, lowered my blood pressure and I was thrilled.

About six months into this regimen, I began to have severe itching on one toe. It was bad. The toe would peel, scab over, then start itching all over again. I went to urgent care and the doctor didn't have a clue, but he gave me a cream to use. It didn't help. Then, it spread....and spread....and spread. Over a period of a couple months, I was covered from head to toe with  round, itchy spots which soon began to ooze and bleed. Some of them grew quite large.

At this point, I went to a dermatologist. She did a biopsy and confirmed I had nummular eczema. She gave me a steroid cream and it worked to a point. It cleared up all but some giant spots on my left leg, my middle finger on my right hand, and the bottoms of my feet. These areas became very stubborn and simply would not clear up. I battled this awful rash for a year and a half.

A few weeks ago, I felt a cold sore coming on, so I used frankincense oil, as I always do, to stop it from completely forming. It seemed to be working as no full cold sore formed. However, when I used my BP oil blend, within 5 minutes, my lips started tingling and itching on the inside. It was so bad I began to bite my lips to stop the itch. I thought it was related to my potential cold sore and it lessened in intensity throughout the day.

Later that night, I put my oil blend on the bottom of my feet and within 10 minutes, my lips were tingling again and began to swell slightly. Hmmm. That's when I realized it wasn't the cold sore. That's when I realized it was likely the cinnamon in the oil blend.

I had used all the other oils in that blend in other ways without having the tingling, but this was the only blend I used the cinnamon in. Since then, I have stopped using cinnamon essential oil and am not using ground cinnamon in my coffee for the time being. And the rash is hardly itching at all and actually starting to heal.

So, this is a warning. Essential oils are powerful so be aware of how they can affect you. I don't think I'm full-on allergic to cinnamon, but I do think cinnamon essential oil is too powerful for my sensitive skin, even when used with other oils and diluted with coconut oil.

I tried a new essential oil blend for my blood pressure and am seeing great results. How great? Take a look at the picture on the right.

This is phenomenal!

My new blend:

In a 10 ml roller bottle, I put the following blend:

10 drops frankincense
8 drops helicrysum
8 drops marjoram
10 drops ylang ylang
8 drops lavender

I topped it off with fractionated coconut oil.
I used the same blend in an inhaler tube which I can use throughout the day, if needed, to keep my blood pressure even.

Lesson learned. Use essential oils, but use them with care.
I know to avoid cinnamon essential oil
now.
~Tricia

An Amazing Coincidence

I'm sure it's just a coincidence.

My 20-year-old son got a bad cold. I mean, it was bad. He could barely breathe, he was sneezing all over the house, he was personally responsible for the uptick in Kleenex's rising stock, he bought more Dayquil/Nyquil than should be legally allowed. He had it bad.

History shows that when one person in our household gets a cold, it goes through everyone. This observation is based on historical facts gleaned from raising eight kids. It's a given.

But, a coincidence happened this time. I'm sure it had to be a coincidence. I'll let you be the judge.
When my son's cold started, I began to diffuse doTerra's On Guard oil blend every day, all day long. I added 2-3 drops of On Guard to my diffuser and let it run all day, refilling as necessary.

The coincidence is simply that no one else in the house got his cold. Did you get that? Not one of us got his cold. He got better and, still, no one else is sick.

I'm sure it's just a coincidence.

For more information and your opportunity to get your hands on these oils, click here.
You might just have a coincidence of your own!
Happy oiling!
~Tricia

Cold Sore vs Frankincense

Sunday morning I felt a cold sore coming on. My upper lip was sore and I felt the unmistakable tingling that has always preceded my cold sores. I had no cold sore medication in the house.....but I have plenty of essential oils. I have a whole box full of them, as a matter of fact!

I keep Frankincense in a roller bottle at all times. The roller bottle contains 10 drops of Frankincense essential oil and is topped off with fractionated coconut oil. This is what I used on my pending cold sore. Here's a timeline of what happened:

Day 1 - Sunday - I felt the cold sore coming on. I put a tiny amount of the contents of the Frankincense roller bottle on my finger and put it on my lip. The tingling stopped for the moment.

Day 2 - Monday - I had forgotten to put more Frankincense on my lip the night before and I woke up to the all-familiar tingling sensation in my lip. I used another small amount of the oil. The tingling stopped.

Day 3 - Tuesday - Again, because I felt no tingling in my lip Monday night, I did not use any more oil. I did, however, feel a slight tingling Tuesday morning. I used another small amount of oil and the tingling, again, stopped.





A cold sore never did develop. It's now Thursday. I have not used the oil in more than 24 hours and I have not had even a hint of tingling.

Cold sore - 0
Frankincense - Score!!

Happy oiling!
~Tricia

Eczema Meets the King

Eczema is awful. My heart goes out to anyone who suffers the outbreaks, itch and unsightly look of eczema. This means my heart goes out to myself because I have occasional eczema outbreaks.

Recently, I've had a pretty bad eczema outbreak....actually the worst one I've ever had. While a couple spots on my arms and hands (and one on my leg) responded well to an oil blend, the eczema on my scalp did not. After treating it with a blend of tea tree oil (melaleuca), lavender and myrrh oils, I was not seeing any progress. Don't get me wrong, tea tree, lavender and myrrh are all great oils to blend for eczema. Like I said, it worked on my arms and on one spot on my leg. But it did not work on my scalp.

In fact, it was getting worse every day. Although it started at my hairline, it began spreading down my forehead, leaving it red and painfully raw. I would press on it with the ball of my hand to relieve the itching. I was afraid it would spread to my eyes.

So, I introduced my eczema to the king. Yep, that's right, the king of oils, frankincense.


My formula was simple:

I put 10 drops of frankincense oil in a 10ml roller bottle and topped it off with fractionated coconut oil.

Overnight, the spreading had stopped and my forehead was clear. By the end of that first day using it, the frankincense had dried up the eczema at my hairline. Because it was still itching, I continued to use it for several days to ward off anything that was brewing below the surface where I could not see.




If you are struggling with eczema, introduce it to the king of oils. Click here to find out how you can get a FREE bottle of frankincense oil.....but hurry because this offer expires January 15.

Happy oiling!
~Tricia

The Gift of Sleep

I remember lying in bed with my sisters close by in our large bedroom that housed two double beds. They were breathing evenly, a sure sign, I'd learned, that they were asleep. Not me. More often than not, I was awake, listening, hoping to fall asleep, praying, counting sheep, singing songs in my head, pretending to be asleep in hopes of fooling sleep into thinking I was already there so I would be there. I would picture myself with short hair. I would picture myself tall. I would picture myself having a Coke with Paul McCartney. I would sing his songs in my head.

It was no use. Night after long, dark night I would lie awake for hours, completely unable to sleep. When I look back on my childhood, I first remember the inability to sleep.

It wasn't until I got pregnant for the first time that I really slept. I was amazed at how easy sleep was during pregnancy. I slept at night without a problem and I even napped during the day. Seven of my nine pregnancies gave me fabulous sleep. But, a girl can't stay pregnant forever, so I would go back to my insomniac ways as soon as the baby was born. My final pregnancy brought severe insomnia for its last two months and I was sorely disappointed that sleep was not my friend any more.

And sleep remained illusive after that.

Between my husband's snoring (solved with essential oils - click here to find out how) and my insomnia, sleep was a near impossibility for me. It's like I simply forgot how to go to sleep. I started to dread going to bed. I started taking a half-dose of a nighttime cold reliever to help take the edge off the insomnia. It did help, but it still took me over two hours to fall asleep at night even with that.

Something had to give.

Enter essential oils. When my favorite friend introduced me to these oils, I figured it wouldn't hurt to give them a shot, so I did. I read that lavender essential oil was great for sleep, so I used lavender my first night with oils.

Whoa! I hit the pillow, said goodnight to my husband, and don't remember a thing until the next morning. I woke up in shock that I had gone right to sleep and had slept all night. This blew me away so much that the next night, I did the same thing and used lavender for a couple weeks and went from using it on the bottom of my feet, to adding it to my temples, wrists, back of neck and to my diffuser.

Then, insomnia returned like an ugly ogre and I thought the oil had failed me. I thought it was good while it lasted, but that there is no long-term cure for long-term insomnia.

Then I read that too much lavender can actually make some people (me) hyper.

So, I cut back on the lavender, using it on my wrists and back of neck only, and started diffusing vetiver instead of lavender.

This is the balance that works for me. My lavender roller bottle consists of 10 drops of lavender in a 10ml bottle, topped off with fractionated coconut oil. My vetiver use is simple: 2 drops of vetiver in my diffuser along with the other blends I use at night (2 drops breathe blend, 2 drops onguard blend and 2 drops frankincense).

I no longer dread going to bed because I now have the expectation of sleep. Every once in a while, I'll be unable to sleep for a little while, but since my husband no longer snores, I simply lie there and use the time to pray till I fall asleep, which is never as long as it used to be, even with a lot on my mind.

My insomnia is not an issue in my life any more. Sleep really is a wonderful thing. I have a deep appreciation for sleep since I went so many years without it.

Click here to get your hands on some of these fabulous oils.
Happy Oiling!
~Tricia

Can Essential Oils Lower Blood Pressure? Look at the Numbers

UPDATE! I am officially off ALL high blood pressure medicine!
I continue to use the oils to keep my blood pressure low.
I've updated the language in this post to reflect my current success.

I'm not making any medical claims. I'm just telling you my experience. 

I'm sure this is all just a coincidence, but I want to show you my blood pressure 

before and after essential oils. 

I could talk all day, but just look at the numbers:

These are actual readings from my home blood pressure monitor, taken at approximately the same time of day about 10 days apart. 

One day, about 10 years ago, I went to the doctor and my blood pressure was high. My doctor at the time, and subsequent doctors since, had no explanation as to why it shot up and stayed up.

So that I didn't have a stroke or something, they put me on drugs.

Last year, the drugs stopped working so well, 

so my doctor started talking about putting me on more drugs and did increase my dose. 

My dose was increased by 1/3.

The reading above, on the left, is my BP last month on the increased meds.

Clearly, I was in trouble. The drugs were not working.

Then my favorite friend introduced me to essential oils and 

I began to use a specialized blend (see recipe below) for my blood pressure.

The reading on the right, above, is with reduced meds....the reading on the left is with increased meds. I reduced them back down to what I was taking last year and 

am hoping to get off them altogether.

I am now off them altogether!

I no longer take medicine for high blood pressure!

I'm not claiming that essential oils reduced my blood pressure.

I'm only saying that when I use essential oils, my blood pressure drastically lowers.

When I don't use essential oils, my blood pressure is too high.

Reach your own conclusion.

I'll be staying on the oils.

My BP blend:

In a 10ml roller bottle:

8 drops cinnamon

8 drops frankincense

10 drops marjoram

10 drops ylang ylang

Top off with fractionated coconut oil.

I roll it on my wrists, bottoms of my feet and on my chest twice a day.

And I smile because I no longer have high blood pressure.

Click here for more info about essential oils, or to get some of your own.

Happy Oiling!

~Tricia