Rosemary: useful properties, use in cosmetics and cosmetology, contraindications

Rose­mary is a south­ern ever­green with a strong pleas­ant aro­ma. For many, it is known as a spice. But rose­mary is used not only in cook­ing, it has long been added to cos­met­ics. The plant has many use­ful prop­er­ties. It can be used as a com­po­nent of home­made masks or ready-made cos­met­ics.

Useful properties for the skin

The main prop­er­ty of rose­mary is antiox­i­dant. The plant pro­tects cells from free rad­i­cal dam­age. It is includ­ed in anti-aging prod­ucts. Rose­mary extract and oil slow down aging, smooth and tight­en the skin. Doc­tor cos­me­tol­o­gist Maria Nevskaya notes that due to the pres­ence of a large amount of acids, rose­mary bright­ens age spots, tones and smoothes the skin.

Cos­met­ics con­tain­ing this plant have the fol­low­ing prop­er­ties:

1. nor­mal­izes vas­cu­lar tone and micro­cir­cu­la­tion;

2. elim­i­nates the man­i­fes­ta­tions of an aller­gic reac­tion;

3. relieves inflam­ma­tion;

4. destroys bac­te­ria and virus­es;

5. strength­ens the immune sys­tem;

6. nor­mal­izes the pro­duc­tion of sebum;

7. elim­i­nates dry­ness, peel­ing;

8. accel­er­ates the elim­i­na­tion of tox­ins;

9. improves cell nutri­tion;

10. pro­tects against UV rays;

11. bright­ens pig­men­ta­tion, evens out com­plex­ion.

Compound

Rose­mary extract is rich in ben­e­fi­cial trace ele­ments. The main prop­er­ties are asso­ci­at­ed with the pres­ence of diter­penes. A study pub­lished in the Nation­al Library of Med­i­cine deter­minedthat these sub­stances are able to pro­tect skin cells from UV rays. Rose­mary diter­penes exhib­it not only antiox­i­dant activ­i­ty, but also stim­u­late the restora­tion of dam­aged cell mem­branes.

The plant extract also con­tains:

1. rose­mary, carnosic and urso­lic acids;

2. vit­a­mins of group B, C, A, E;

3. cine­ole;

4. resins;

5. tan­nins;

6. zinc, iron, potas­si­um, man­ganese, cop­per;

7. flavonoids;

8. alde­hy­des;

9. ketones.

Essential Oil Features

Rose­mary essen­tial oil is used not only for fla­vor­ing cos­met­ics. It has many use­ful prop­er­ties:

1. tones, makes the skin fresh, radi­ant;

2. improves blood sup­ply and tis­sue nutri­tion;

3. soothes after expo­sure to the sun, frost;

4. clears acne, come­dones;

5. reduces the sever­i­ty of scars, acne marks;

6. bright­ens pig­men­ta­tion;

7. smoothes wrin­kles, tight­ens the skin;

8. relieves inflam­ma­tion, pre­vents acne.

Essen­tial oil is easy to buy at a phar­ma­cy or spe­cial­ty stores. The most pop­u­lar brands are OLEOS, Botani­ka, Elfar­ma. You can use it for aro­mather­a­py, add to masks, sham­poos, balms, creams. It must be remem­bered that it is impos­si­ble to apply ether to the skin and hair in its pure form, it must be mixed with the base: almond, olive, peach.

Application

Rose­mary extract and oil are used for face, body and hair care. Suit­able for all skin types, even sen­si­tive. It is added to anti-cel­lulite mas­sage prod­ucts, it accel­er­ates the elim­i­na­tion of tox­ins. Such prod­ucts soothe irri­tat­ed skin, tone, increase elas­tic­i­ty. Rose­mary is includ­ed in creams, serums, masks, show­er gels, sham­poos.

It is rec­om­mend­ed to apply herbal cos­met­ics in the evening, when the skin is espe­cial­ly sen­si­tive to care. In the morn­ing, you can use ton­ics, lotions. Before apply­ing, be sure to clean the face, it is advis­able to steam it a lit­tle so that the pores open.

Application methods

The pecu­liar­i­ty of rose­mary is that the active sub­stances in its com­po­si­tion eas­i­ly pen­e­trate the skin and are well absorbed. There­fore, such cos­met­ics act quick­ly. You can use not only ready-made prod­ucts, but also home­made recipes. It is not even nec­es­sary to add addi­tion­al ingre­di­ents: the extract and oil are effec­tive for the skin when used on their own. There are sev­er­al ways to use the plant.

1. Essen­tial oil com­press­es. For 1 st. l. base oil will need 2–3 drops of ether. The com­press helps with acne, relieves inflam­ma­tion, soothes, elim­i­nates dry­ness. Apply a com­press for 15 min­utes only on prob­lem areas.

2. Spot appli­ca­tions with essen­tial oil. It is nec­es­sary to moist­en a cot­ton swab in ether and press it to black­heads or pim­ples. The agent must not come into con­tact with the sur­round­ing skin.

3. Infu­sion of leaves. Pour 30 g of dry rose­mary with a glass of boil­ing water, leave for 2 hours. Use as a facial ton­ic twice a day.

4. The broth is pre­pared as fol­lows: pour 20 g with a glass of water, heat in a water bath for 10–15 min­utes. Use for com­press­es, as a lotion, for rins­ing hair.

5. The infu­sion or decoc­tion can be frozen. Such ice tones, tight­ens pores, refresh­es.

6. Anti-aging tinc­ture is made on the basis of red wine (for dry skin) or vod­ka (for oily skin). For 1 st. l. herbs will need 1 cup. Insist in a dark place for a month and a half.

7. Rose­mary herb or oil can be added to cream, sham­poo, balm. You need to mix a small amount imme­di­ate­ly before use.

Contraindications

It is con­traindi­cat­ed to use cos­met­ics with rose­mary in case of indi­vid­ual intol­er­ance. Before using any pre­scrip­tion for the first time, it is rec­om­mend­ed to test the reac­tion on a small area of ​​the skin of the wrist.

Con­traindi­ca­tions include preg­nan­cy and lac­ta­tion. Large amounts of rose­mary can cause mis­car­riage and ces­sa­tion of milk pro­duc­tion. It is unde­sir­able to use the plant for neu­ro­sis, epilep­sy, kid­ney and liv­er fail­ure. Cos­met­ics should not be applied to inflamed, dam­aged skin, with skin dis­eases, the pres­ence of her­pes, puru­lent acne.

Home Recipes Using Rosemary

Based on the plant, home­made face masks are pre­pared. You need to apply them for 10–15 min­utes. Wash off with cool water with­out soap. After that, lubri­cate the skin with a mois­tur­iz­er. And from a decoc­tion or infu­sion, you can make ton­ics. Store such prod­ucts in the refrig­er­a­tor for no more than 2–3 days.

We stud­ied exist­ing recipes for rose­mary prod­ucts and reviews about them. Based on this, 10 the most effec­tive and eas­i­est to pre­pare.

1. A mask with green clay will help to cope with oily shine and reduce the pro­duc­tion of sebum. The pow­der is dilut­ed to a creamy con­sis­ten­cy with a decoc­tion or infu­sion of rose­mary. If essen­tial oil is used, dilute the clay with water, 1 tbsp. l. mass add 3 drops of ether.

2. To pre­pare a reju­ve­nat­ing mask, you need to mix the yolk of a chick­en egg or from 2 quail and 2 tbsp. l. olive oil. Add 3–4 drops of rose­mary oil.

3. Anoth­er anti-aging mask with kelp. Pour 10 g of algae pow­der with cooled green tea and leave for an hour. Add 1 tsp. melt­ed coconut oil and cocoa pow­der. Then drip 8 drops of rose­mary oil.

4. Herbal lotion with a com­plex action takes a long time to pre­pare, but the effect of it will please. It has a reju­ve­nat­ing, mois­tur­iz­ing effect, makes the skin soft, improves col­or. First you need 10 g of rose­mary herb, 20 g of mint and 30 g of chamomile, pour 2 cups of boil­ing water, wrap. After 2 hours, strain the infu­sion, add 3 tbsp. l. dry white wine, 5 drops of rose­mary essen­tial oil. Infuse for 2 weeks in a dark place, shak­ing occa­sion­al­ly.

5. To mois­tur­ize and smooth wrin­kles, you can make a nour­ish­ing mask on rose­mary decoc­tion. You need to mash half the banana with a fork (you should not grind it in a blender, it will turn out very liq­uid), add 1 tbsp. l. avo­ca­do puree and 2–3 table­spoons of broth.

6. For dry skin, an exfo­li­at­ing oat­meal mask is suit­able. You need to rub half a green apple, pour a spoon­ful of crushed cere­al into the result­ing puree. Add 1 tbsp. l. kefir and 2–3 drops of rose­mary oil.

7. For oily skin, you can make a whiten­ing mask. 1 tsp white clay pour a table­spoon of toma­to juice. Add a pow­dered Ascorutin tablet and 3 drops of rose­mary essen­tial oil.

8. To even out the relief of aging skin, a starch mask is suit­able. 1 tsp starch mixed with the same amount of fresh­ly squeezed grape juice. Stir until the mass becomes homo­ge­neous, with­out lumps. Add 1 tsp. melt­ed coconut oil and 5 drops of rose­mary ether.

9. To strength­en and nar­row the blood ves­sels, a ton­ic with vit­a­min E is made. An ampoule with a phar­ma­cy oil solu­tion is need­ed. Mix it with 50 ml of lin­den decoc­tion. Add 5–7 drops of rose­mary oil. This ton­ic tight­ens pores, mat­ti­fies, improves regen­er­a­tion process­es.

10. An oil nour­ish­ing hair mask will stop hair loss, elim­i­nate brit­tle­ness, make hair man­age­able and soft. Melt 50 ml of hon­ey in a water bath. Add 1 tbsp. l. cas­tor and bur­dock oils, as well as 5–7 drops of rose­mary ether.

The best beauty products with rosemary

Rose­mary is added to creams, serums and masks for face and body care, gels and foams for wash­ing, lotions, ton­ics are made on its basis. Effec­tive hair care prod­ucts. Essen­tial oil is usu­al­ly added to ready-made cos­met­ics. But you can find prod­ucts based on plant extract.

In our opin­ion, there are 10 best beau­ty prod­ucts with rose­mary. Their effec­tive­ness has been proven by many pos­i­tive reviews.

1. 
   Kiehl’s Cucum­ber Herbal Con­di­tion­ing Cleanser. Cleans­ing face wash with cucum­ber extract, rose­mary, laven­der and lemon oils. Suit­able for sen­si­tive skin. Mois­tur­izes, relieves inflam­ma­tion.

2. 
   L’Oréal Paris Nutri­tion Lux­u­ry Extra­or­di­nary Facial Oil. Con­tains rose­mary, laven­der, shea, argan oils, jas­mine extract, roy­al jel­ly, hyaluron­ic acid. Suit­able for all skin types, even sen­si­tive ones. Pro­tects against free rad­i­cals, soothes, improves elas­tic­i­ty, improves com­plex­ion.

3. 
   Lev­rana Rose­mary — body lotion. Mois­tur­izes, soothes, relieves irri­ta­tion. Can be used for all skin types. Improves blood cir­cu­la­tion, nour­ish­es, tones. Con­tains oils of rose­mary, mint, wal­nut extract, car­rot, glyc­erin, betaine.

4. 
   Bio Nature laven­der and rose­mary revi­tal­iz­ing algi­nate mask. Suit­able for oily skin. Elim­i­nates black­heads, mat­ti­fies, mois­tur­izes, nour­ish­es.

5. 
   Spi­vak show­er gel with rose­mary extract, tea tree, pine, coconut oils. Designed for oily skin, nor­mal­izes the work of the seba­ceous glands, mat­ti­fies, effec­tive­ly cleans­es.

6. 
   Aro­mat­i­ca Vital­iz­ing Rose­mary Decoc­tion ton­ic for sen­si­tive skin. Con­tains extracts of rose­mary, ver­be­na, aloe, chamomile, rose­mary oil. Mat­ti­fies, mois­tur­izes, soothes, relieves irri­ta­tion.

7. 
   MI&KO rose­mary hydro­late. Spray for oily skin, suit­able for hair. It is used as a ton­ic, lotion, mois­tur­iz­ing make-up base. Can be added to home­made masks. Hydro­late cleans­es pores, mat­ti­fies, nor­mal­izes the seba­ceous glands.

8. 
   AVEDA Rose­mary Mint Puri­fy­ing — Sham­poo with extracts of rose­mary and mint. Restores shine to hair, elim­i­nates dry­ness, nour­ish­es.

9. 
   Lev­rana sham­poo-con­di­tion­er for all hair types. Con­tains rose­mary, mint, laven­der, coconut oils, glyc­erin, herbal extracts. Pre­vents hair loss, stim­u­lates hair growth, restores their shine.

10. 
    Wele­da Rose­mary Strength­en­ing Hair Growth Ton­ic. Suit­able for dai­ly use, does not require rins­ing. Nour­ish­es, strength­ens, pre­vents brit­tle­ness and loss.

Rose­mary is a fra­grant herb that can be grown on a win­dowsill and used for body care. Or buy a ready-made extract, essen­tial oil, cream. These prod­ucts will restore skin elas­tic­i­ty, firm­ness, healthy col­or and help get rid of many cos­met­ic prob­lems.