Elemi Essential Oil : Uplifting for Skin and Spirits

When an essential oil like elemi is highly esteemed for its embalming powers, you’d be crazy to wait until after you’re gone to enjoy its benefits!  If it preserves you well from here to eternity, doesn’t it make sense to start now?

Elemi essential oil (Canarium luzonicum) was used by the ancient Egyptians for embalming. It’s related to the highly esteemed oily treasures of frankincense and myrrh.  These three oils share the same botanical family: Burseraceae.  All are steam distilled from the gum/resin of their trees.

And all three have been used over the ages for their nurturing benefits in skin care and minimising the visible appearance of wrinkles.

Plump up and enhance your daily regime with a drop of any of these oils in the palm of your hand with a dob of your usual moisturiser.  Gently blend together, pat onto your face, neck and décolletage with light movements and you’ve instantly magnified the potency of your skin care routine.

Frankincense and myrrh come from Somalia/Yemen and Somalia respectively, but elemi comes from the tropical climate of the Philippines.  When the long leaves of the pili tree sprout, it oozes a gum resin that is sustainably tapped so that the longevity of the tree is protected.

The pili tree thrives on tough love, enjoying weathering whatever is dealt to it.  Extremes of heat, deluges of rain: bring it on!  And elemi essential oil has been long used as a general tonic, so it’s pretty apt that it deals with its own adverse growing conditions and can pass some of that onto us.

With a fresh, light scent and possessing many of the same beneficial properties as its relative frankincense, elemi is an ideal substitute, both aromatically and topically.  Available at a lower price point than frankincense, it’s well worth trying elemi or adding it to your collection as an alternate to help spread your dollar further.

Frankincense is widely known for helping with meditation, and likewise is elemi.  Both are beautiful for balancing chakras and helping you see the silver linings.

If you’re feeling scattered, elemi will ground you and bring a sense of inner peace.  Add it to your diffuser while doing yoga and observe how supportive it can be.

And for a sports massage oil before and after your yoga or any fitness routines, elemi doesn’t sound like the obvious choice, but you can add it to carrier oil for your Warm Up and Warm Down personal assistant in a bottle.   Young Living includes elemi in these fitness support products: Ortho Sport Massage Oil, Cool Azul™ essential oil blend and Cool Azul Sports Gel™.

Beautiful in the winter months in your diffuser or humidifier if your chest is feeling a bit vulnerable, elemi will also uplift your spirits while you’re enjoying some respiratory relaxation.  For more oils that are extremely beneficial in this area, check out our series on eucalyptus and ways to use essential oils in the cold season.

Suggested uses for elemi are topical and aromatic.  When applying directly to your skin, you’ll find elemi is extremely gentle to most skins so provided you’re using a genuinely pure essential oil, it’s unlikely you need to dilute it.  That said, you might enjoy adding it to pure carrier oil for all-over skin nurturing.

Diffuse for up to 30 minutes a day in your ultrasonic or air diffuser.  Please check out our posts here on the Whys and Hows of diffusing if you aren’t yet using your oils this way.  If you’re still burning oils, please stop post haste and read those articles to understand why it’s so important.

Since we’ve talked so much about the benefits of elemi for skin care, here’s a quick and easy recipe for a moisturiser you can take for a spin.

DIY UPLIFTING FACIAL MOISTURISER

• Sterilise a small glass jar
• Blend 100g of shea butter with a couple of tablespoons of jojoba, sweet almond, apricot or avocado oil.  These are light and easily absorbed so well suited to most skin types
• Add 5 drops elemi essential oil, 5 drops frankincense (or 10 drops elemi or frankincense), 3 drops lavandula angustifolia (genuine lavender) plus optional 3 drops myrrh and lightly whip again
• Put into the glass jar.  Store in a cool, dark place and use in a sensible time frame

As with all such things, test on a small patch of skin for a few days running first to be sure there’s no unexpected reaction.  In the unlikely event (we’re all different so anything is possible), discontinue use and if needed, apply plain carrier oil to the area to further dilute the essential oils.

My preferred source of essential oils and diffusers is Young Living.  Not all oils are created equal.  Quality varies immensely, so please ensure you are choosing a brand with complete transparency from seed to seal, such as Young Living.  Discover why we love them so much in this short video.

Essential oils are potent, so as always, please follow directions on the bottle and the usual guidelines for safe use of authentic essential oils.

Enjoy the good oil daily.

The information on this site does not constitute advice. Please consult with your health practitioner. When using any of the products mentioned throughout this site, please be sure to read the labels and follow their suggestions for safe use. We make commissions from sales via many of the products we recommend but we only suggest products we genuinely enjoy and want you to benefit from.