Grapefruit - uplifting and just gorgeous (Grapefruit Essential Oil)

Member Name: merlina

Product:	Grapefruit Essential Oil
Date:	16/09/00 (50 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: inexpensive and versatile

Disadvantages: watch the use-by date

Ironically, I really, really hate grapefruit. The taste of it, the smell of it, everything. It's weird, then, that the essential oil has becomes one of my favourites, one that I use most of all, not least because I love the smell!

It doesn't really smell like the fruit. The oil is extracted from the skin and smells very sweet, yet very fresh. It mixes with a huge variety of other oils and is one of the least expensive - so it's a great one for the beginner to experiment with too. Also, unlike many other citrus oils, it's not phototoxic, and is generally a very safe oil to use.

Grapefruit brings a lovely light and sweet 'top note' to any perfume blends you make with oils, whether they're blends to scent the home or yourself.

My favourite use is in a variety of 'anti-depressant/cheer-you up' recipes that I've concocted, where I mix it with either vetiver and lavednder (relaxing) or rosemary and ginger (energising).

I also use it a lot in my anti-cellulite lotions and potions, where it helps to tone down the smell of things like juniper and cypress - which can both be a bit 'much' otherwise.

One of my big gripes with commercial bath foams etc is that they say 'grapefruit' or whatever on the label when their smell is straight out of a laboratory and has been no nearer to a real grapefruit than I have to Kathmandu! It's very easy to make your own by getting a plain bath/shower gel or body lotion (the Body Shop do fairly good unscented ones) and adding a few drops of this to create something that's actually beneficial as well as smelling nice - fantastic to use first thing in the morning

The only downside to grapefruit is that it does, like a lot of the 'lighter' oils, go off relatively quickly - in about six months. That's not too bad because it's so cheap, but don't use old grapefruit oil, the chemical compunds change and it can bec
ome irritating to the skin (you can always use old oil up by using as a room fragrance though)

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