Patchouli Oil Makes You Feel and Look Better

Patchouli oil is good to use when you’re feeling sad and down. Its aroma tells your brain to make you feel good by producing dopamine and serotonin. This property makes it a popular and widely used essential oil.

It also stimulates your produce to produce the sex-related hormones, which are estrogen and testosterone. On your skin, it stimulate the growth of new cells, which repairs age damage, reduces scars and lightens dark spots and hyperpigmentation.

It’s an astringent, so it tightens your skin so you look younger and more beautiful.

The plant grows in Asia, native to Sri Lanka. Centuries ago, European traders valued patchouli so much they traded gold for it, weight for weight. That is, they’d pay an ounce of gold for an ounce of patchouli.

Actually, traders from the Orient brought patchouli leaves with their shipments of silk, because the strong odor of the patchouli repelled the moths which liked to eat the silk. The silk cloth absorbed the patchouli aroma, and so its scent become closely associated with Asian products in the minds of Europeans.

In more recent times, patchouli became famous as the odor hippies would burn at home or in head shops to disguise the smell of marijuana.

Warning: Patchouli probably should not be used by pregnant women. Some say it is safe after the first trimester. Consult your health practitioner.

If you use large amounts of this oil it might cause overstimulation even though it normally has a calming, sedative effect. It can make your skin skin more sensitive to sunlight, as well as result in loss of appetite, so do not use if you suffer from any eating disorders. Also, do not use if you are still recovering from an illness.

Patchouli is popular with the perfume industry, just like jasmine, rose and sandalwood. People claim it’s an aphrodisiac. Maybe that just comes as a natural consequence of how it increases the pleasure hormones in your brain.

It’s one of the more grounding, earthy and centering oils in aromatherapy.

It’s a skin tonic, toning and strengthing skin. It also normalizes the skin’s production of sebum. When your skin produces too much sebum or natural oil, that can lead to acne. When it doesn’t produce enough, your skin is dry. Therefore, it’s good for dry, flaking, scaling and chapped skin, including for people with sensitive or mature skin.

It helps to prevent wrinkles as well and speed up the healing of skin wounds, because it’s a cytophylactic. That means it stimulates the generation of new body cells.

It’s anti-inflammatory, calming your angry, irritated, red, rash and enflamed skin conditions.

It has antiseptic properties as well, making it a good oil to apply to minor wounds, cuts, sores, abrasion, scrapes and any other skin damage to protect against infection. It’s also anti-fungal, so it’s good to apply on athlete’s foot, jock itch and ringworm.

It’s reportedly good for sores, psoriasis, dermititis and eczema.

Because of its powerful aroma, it’s effective as an insect repellent, driving away mosquitoes.

Patchouli (Pogostemon cablin) is a member of the labiatae family. The word comes from the Tamil language patchai.

Patchouli oil comes from steam distilling the leaves. In some places people eat the leaves. And you can make an herbal tea from the leaves.

It contains: Alpha Patchoulene, Beta Patchoulene, Alpha Guaiene, Alpha Bulnesene, Caryophyllene, Norpatchoulenol, Patchouli Alcohol, Seychellene and Pogostol.

It blends well with such other essential oils as: Clary Sage, Bergamot, Lavender, Geranium and Myrrh.

Because Patchouli is an essential oil, you should not apply it to your skin directly. Put two drops into a teaspoon of a carrier oil such as olive, coconut or moringa, and mix well.

It is a thick oil, from light yellow to dark brown in color.

You can put a few drops into water in a diffuser and spray it around the world. That will make you and everybody else feel relaxed and happy.

For a great, relaxing bath, add a few drops to the hot water before you chill out in the tub.