When my mother and aunt were diagnosed with breast cancer and ovarian cancer, respectively, and as I watched my children grow, I became increasingly concerned with the contaminates implicated in the health issues my family was facing and to which my children were being put at risk.

Essential oils, short for quintessential oils, are highly-concentrated, aromatic liquids that are distilled with either water or steam from the leaves, roots, stems, flowers, or bark of a plant. The quintessential oil derived its name from the fifth Aristotelian element, æther; Aristotle believed that it was made up of heavenly bodies. As this element became extremely popular with medieval alchemists, they renamed it quintessence. They…

As different aging processes take over, the need for ingredients and procedures that target loss of volume increases with age. Gradual alteration of the extracellular matrix leads to loss of elasticity, just as changes in adipose tissue distribution lead to structural aging due to lipoatrophy (loss of adipose tissue). This loss of matter and structure, along with reduced skin elasticity, results in sagging tissue and…