Sunburn

Essential Oils For Sun Burn

When you get a sunburn, it can be difficult to sit on furniture, lie down or even wear clothing, depending upon where it is located. You can tell that you have sunburn because the skin will be red and raw, and very painful to touch, and will begin to peel a few days after the sunburn. The Centers for Disease Control says that 3 out of 4 American children get sunburned every summer and a significant number of adults do as well. Health experts have recommended that people protect themselves from the sun and not to stay out too long, but sunburns still happen, and when they do, there are essential oils that work great for sunburn.

What Causes Sunburn?

The basic cause behind sunburn may be obvious, but there is more going on there than meets the eye. For example, it is the sun’s UVA and UVB rays that cause skin damage such as in the case of sunburn. Sunburns aren’t just an inconvenience either. Getting too much radiation from the sun can cause premature aging and possibly even skin cancer. Skin type, time of day and length of exposure are all things that affect the sunburn, so you need to take all of those factors into consideration when you are thinking about spending some time outside getting a tan.

How Can Sunburn be prevented?

Obviously, one of the most common-sense ways to avoid sunburn is not to stay out in the sun too long.  But this isn’t always possible and people usually get sunburned because they stayed out in the sun longer than they intended. In other words, it is accidental. However, there are other ways of preventing sunburn, such as wearing protective clothing, using sunblock or staying in the shade. If you are tanning, you may have to rely on suntan lotion alone or go to a tanning salon.

Essential Oils that Treat Sunburn

There are essential oils out there that are good at treating sunburn because of the specific properties that the essential oil has. For example, if an essential oil contains any sort of numbing medication such as peppermint or eucalyptus, it can be helpful in preventing the pain of sunburn, and essential oils with antibacterial properties can help with infections.

Most of the essential oils that are best for sunburn are actually very specific in how they are used can contain several ingredients. The following essential oils are application techniques using a base essential oil and combining other substances well for complete healing. Here are some of the best essential oil treatments that you can use to treat sunburn along with some instructions on specifically how you can use them.

Lavender – Topical Application

The first essential oil treatment that we are going to discuss uses lavender as the base. This treatment is going to sooth the burn and it is applied directly to the sunburn. Combine 4 parts lavender oil with one part aloe vera juice and a little bit of water to dilute it. You can use cool compresses with lavender or you can do a lavender and oatmeal bath to soak your sunburned skin. The great thing is, the smell is incredible and your sunburn will begin to feel better right away.

Chamomile Bath

Another soothing bath that you can use to treat sunburn is one with chamomile. Chamomile essential oil is a very effective sunburn remedy and sooths damaged skin. In fact, you can use chamomile with lavender if you prefer. Mix in some water or milk and then create a bath out of the mixture and soak in it until the sunburn feels better. Any drops that rise to the top of the bath can be rubbed into the skin where the sunburn is.

Neroli Lotion Application

Neroli is an essential oil that you can use to create a lotion that will help to heal a sunburn and sooth the affected skin. Mix the neroli with calendula lotion and you can add chamomile or lavender to this mixture as well if you prefer. Loosely rub the lotion onto the affected skin and you will feel cooling relief from the pain of sunburn.

Coconut Oil Healing Remedy

You want to start this remedy with coconut oil. Coconut oil is a wonderfully soothing sentence all by itself it works really well for sunburn but you can also adding other ingredients to make it even more effective. For example if you combine apple cider vinegar with coconut oil and then add in lavender, chamomile or even peppermint, you can create a very effective healing solution. You might think that apple cider vinegar is the wrong thing to put on sunburn, and that it will hurt, but the truth is it will actually feel good on your sunburned skin. In addition, you can then add the coconut oil and lavender combination for even better healing.

Frankincense Essential Oil

Next up on the list for treating sunburn is frankincense essential oil. Make sure that your essential oils are pure when you buy them and especially if you’re using them for this particular remedy. If you don’t have pure essential oils and could make your sunburn worse. Frankincense should be distilled with water or as part of a carrier oil. Frankincense oil works with both young skin and aging skin and will help with the soreness, redness and peeling the comes with sunburn.

Olive Oil

Using vegetable oil like extra-virgin olive oil or even sesame oil is a great remedy for sunburn. You can create a lotion out of it if you prefer, and add some aloe vera for even better results. It will probably take a couple of applications to treat your sunburn. You should add the olive oil (or other vegetable oils) to your ingredients choice and then mix and apply. The olive oil is intended to moisturize the skin and the essential oils and aloe combination will prevent swelling and sooth the pain of the sunburn.

Sunflower Oil

You can add the following after getting sunburned – high oleic sunflower oil along with a couple of dozen drops of lavender and a tiny amount of peppermint essential oils. Make sure that you mix the concoction completely and then apply three times a day to the sunburn until it has disappeared. It will help the sunburn to heal faster and help with the pain and burning.

Helichrysum

If you have serious sunburn that could result in scarring, then the blend that features lavender, neroli and helichrysum can help to minimize the appearance of that scar and can be combined with rose hip seed oil which is not only a carrier oil but it also helps to heal scars as well. Always talk to your physician when you have sunburn serious enough that it will result in scarring and let him or her know that you are treating it with essential oils. If you have blistering or more serious burns do not use essential oils until you talk to your doctor. If you have the approval of your doctor, you can combine essential oil treatment with whatever they recommend for the sunburn.

Eucalyptus

Just as with peppermint and spearmint, eucalyptus essential oil can be very useful when it comes to sunburn because it has a cooling effect. You can use this essential oil in much the same way that you have used some of the others, combining it with the carrier oil and mixing it with other essential oils that have a healing effect on sunburns. The strengths of essential oils like eucalyptus and peppermint is that they offer relief from the pain of a sunburn and can be combined with other oils that promote healing, clean the area and in general, make the body look and feel better.

Sea Buckthorne Berry

Sea buckthorne berry is been used for centuries to promote healing. This is one of the best essential oils for topical applications that you can find, treating acne, eczema and dry skin as well as being really great treatment for sunburn. In fact, if you use sea Buckthorne Berry essential oil before you go out in the sun, it works as a sunscreen and helps protect you from harmful UV rays. You can also use it after you get sunburned to help you heal faster. You may want to use it in combination with one of the aforementioned cooling essential oils which will reduce pain while the sunburn is healing.