Natural Apricot Oil For Natural Skin Care By Laura Thomas At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Using natural apricot oil as a natural skin care product is not only sensible, but protects your skin from the harmful effects of many of the synthetic chemicals used in today's cosmetic products to provide what are seen to be desirable properties. Another reason is that it is less expensive than the almond oil, the properties of which it shares very closely.

The apricot oil itself is not obtained from the fruit, but from the stone, or kernel, which is rich in linolenic and oleic acids. Both of these are unsaturated acids, and referred to as 'essential' because they are needed by your body's biochemistry, but are not manufactured by the body itself. They must therefore be contained in your diet.

However, it is not your diet that we are discussing here, but the effect of the oil on your skin. In order to understand that, it is important to also understand the chemistry of antioxidants and free radicals. Don't let the word 'chemistry' worry you, because these tiny molecules known as free radicals are easy to explain. In fact, without even mentioning chemistry, they destroy your skin cells (and the cells of most other parts of your body). In doing that they make your skin age, causing creases, blotches and so-called 'liver spots' or age spots.

Apricot oil is rich in Vitamins A and E that are strong antioxidants. That means that they prevent the free radicals from oxidizing the membranes of your cell walls and so destroying them. These vitamins kill the free radicals and help to keep your skin looking young and fresh.

In fact, were there such a thing as an 'Elixir of Youth' it would likely come in the form of an extremely powerful antioxidant that could kill off every free radical as soon as it was generated in your body, because they are the main cause of aging and premature death.

Free radicals come from pollutants such as tobacco smoke, industrial emissions and traffic fumes. They are also produced as a natural by-product of your body's metabolism - whenever you body cells generate energy, they also generate free radicals, hence one of the needs for you to eat foods containing the antioxidant Vitamins A, C and E.

Another use for apricot oil is as a carrier oil in aromatherapy, because it is easily absorbed by your skin and does you no harm - in fact it does you a great deal of good! It can also be eaten, and is widely used as a salad oil (but only use it of the bottle is labeled for food use). It is used as a skin moisturizer and as a hair conditioner, although mainly, like any other conditioner, it its oily properties that make your hair look shiny. However, unlike some other oils, it will do you good rather than harm.

Just as an afterthought: natural apricot oil appears in William Shakespeare's play 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' as a possible aphrodisiac. That is not to promote it as such, but you never know.. .

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