Everyone has things they feel passionate about don’t they? One of Natalie’s main ones is safety. Here’s mine. Women’s rights to equality, children’s education, nature, in particular the welfare of the pollinators, and finally the protection of endangered plants, especially the frankincense trees.
Would you please excuse me, while I fetch my soap box?
Frankincense is one of our most wondrous treasures. This is especially so, if you have trouble breathing. Frankincense slows the breath, so is such an important aid to people with asthma or who have panic attacks.
It has been used since the dawn of time as a way to access divinity. It’s not a coincidence that it is included in the Nativity tale. It is a plant for priests and kings to better hear higher powers.
In the case of skin care, it restores elasticity. (I believe this is also why it is good for people with COPD, where the pulmonary tissues have lost their structure).
So, in skin care, it is the perfect help if your skin is becoming saggy and wrinkly. It is wonderful for crevices and fine lines.
It is also tremendous for rehydrating dessicated skin.
So it’s an oil for mature and elderly skins. It’s also wonderful in the bath or in massage oils for the dry skin that comes with eczema.
But if you have normal to dry skin, rose, geranium, patchouli or vetiver would be better.
If you have greasy skin, use lavender, clary sage, or again, vetiver instead.
If it is sensitive, German chamomile, yarrow or again rose would be lovely. If you have very pale skin that is hot and reactive, use chamomile and Jasmine. If you can find it, violet leaf absolute is also like a magical touch for these skins.
Snakes love incense trees and in days gone by, it was very hard to get close to them at all so the graves where they grew were set apart as sacred. Historically, guardians that took care of the frankincense trees asking the gods for blessings as they took the resin. Wisdom keepers, who knew when the best time was to tap the tree.
The magnetic pull of the moon affects how fluids move through plants. It pulls fluids up from the crescent to the full moon and releases its grip as it wanes. This is what pulls the tides and affects resins in trees in the same way.
Traditionally, trees were never tapped after the full moon, because the resin was not so easily available, so the trees rested for two weeks a month. Now, the trees are tapped relentlessly, to keep up with the global demand that the internet has brought.
They are on the edge of exhaustion. If we continue to take the resins at the same speed we have been, there will be no resin left by the year 2050.
I find that abhorrent. That a plant which has been traded for at least 7000 year, will go extinct in our lifetime.
Please, by all means, use frankincense oil, but use it wisely. I’d like to think my grandchildren will have an opportunity to use this medicine if they need it. Treat it preciously, and leave the oil for the elders. Frankincense only really needs to be used in cosmetically for post menopausal skin. There are perfectly good, in many cases better, alternatives for any other skin type. That said, for mature skin, it is simply the best.
Put a drop in your moisturizer and your night cream. That will be ample.
That’s all I have to say on the subject. Would someone please help this crotchety old hag off my soapbox? Thank you for listening.
PS: No, I still don’t feel my skin needs it yet. I’m still using Jasmine.
