How To Rejuvenate Your Skin With Calendula
Calendula has been used since ancient times to sooth troubled skin. It’s yellow, orange and gold petals are colored by potent antioxidants called carotinoids that protect cells from free-radical and sun damage. Studies have identified nineteen different carotinoids in calendula petals. Fortunately, there are simple, highly-effective ways you can put these compounds to work to rejuvenate your skin.
They are ideal for infusion into carrier oils. I use them, for instance, in sesame oil. I fill a vessel with petals, then pour in as much organic sesame oil as will fit, and let them sit for weeks, while the healing compounds from the flowers seep into the oil. When it’s done, the infused oil makes for a healing moisturizer that I wouldn’t be without.
I prefer this kind of slow, gentle extraction method. I believe it preserves more of the healing potency of the plant. But I’ve used balms and creams containing calendula that were factory-produced and they still worked well on my skin. They would be one of the first things I would use on chapped, inflamed, or itching skin. However, since I have been using infused calendula regularly, both in a toner and my moisturizer, I’ve had no further trouble with skin inflammation.
Calendula is an ingredient to look for in your skin cream, especially if you suffer from dry skin. Dry skin is particularly vulnerable to aging. Fine lines can develop quickly when the moisture barrier (a fine layer of oil within the skin) has been compromised. And wrinkles are often not far behind. If the appearance issues are not enough, there are other annoying symptoms that can come with dryness - itching and inflammation, for instance – but fortunately, these, too, can be helped a lot by creams containing calendula.
Modern chemists like to isolate the “active” ingredients in botanicals that are known to have healing benefits. They then add them to other synthetic ingredients to make a product they can sell at a given price point and with a convenient shelf life. Sometimes, this approach works well, but we are just beginning to learn about the complicated chemistry of plants, and I’ve always thought there is a high likelihood that when we isolate just one compound from a plant, we might be missing a whole lot in what gets left behind. Plus, the way the “actives” interact with each other in the complex chemistry of a plant is going to be different from how they react when isolated in the sterile environment of a synthetic product.
So I favor products that contain calendula in as natural and whole a form as possible. It is also why, as much as I can, I use products made from organic ingredients.
