Discover 10 stunning beauty benefits of frankincense essential oil for skin, hair and more!
Frankincense – Priceless Gift of Somalia, Oman & Ethiopia
Frankincense essential oil is a gem in the world of essential oils and aromatherapy. It’s among the top essential oils of the Ancient world, in Middle East & North Africa, and has long been revered for its medicinal properties and beautiful fragrance.
This ancient essential oil is extracted from frankincense resin through steam distillation and is also known as olibanum and boswellia. It has a fresh, woody and spicy balsamic aroma and it is popularly used in the Arab world to burn incense, perfume the house & clothes and more.
Because of its powerful anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and astringent properties, there are many beauty benefits of frankincense essential oil as you can find out below!
Benefits of Frankincense Essential Oil for Skin, Hair & More
From fighting acne to revitalizing mature skin, discover the numerous beauty benefits of frankincense essential oil for skin, hair and lots more below.
1. Treats and Heals Acne
Due to its powerful antibacterial and intense healing properties, frankincense essential oil is perfect to use for those with acne prone skin. Its antibacterial properties fights off acne causing germs while the healing properties helps acne and acne wounds to heal at a faster rate. Frankincense essential oil also contains anti-inflammatory properties that soothes acne inflammation.
►Frankincense Acne Spot Treatment: Add a drop or two of frankincense essential oil on a cotton pad and dab on your acne and pimples once a day, preferably at night.
2. Rejuvenates Skin
Rejuvenate tired, dull, lifeless and blemished skin using frankincense essential oil! This essential oil is a gem when it comes to natural skin care – it contains so many properties including being anti-inflammatory, anti aging, anti-acne, antioxidant, astringent and many more benefits for beautiful, smooth and soft skin.
►Ethereal Skin Serum: Mix 4 drops of frankincense essential oil, 4 drops of tea tree essential oil and 4 drops of geranium essential oil in 1/4 cup of argan oil. Store in a 4 oz amber glass dropper bottle and massage a small amount on your face before bed.
3. Prevents Premature Aging
Frankincense essential oil is especially beneficial for aging and mature skin because it has cytophylactic properties which stimulates cell regeneration, new cell growth as well as protects existing cells from free damage. Its powerful antioxidant properties will ward off free radicals that degenerate healthy skin cells, making them lifeless thereby causing fine lines and wrinkles to form.
►Anti-Wrinkle Night Cream: Here’s how to make your own night cream using frankincense essential oil: Place ¼ cup of shea butter and 1 tsp of argan oil in a double boiler. When all the ingredients are melted, stir in 7 drops of frankincense essential oil, 4 drops of geranium essential oil and 4 drops of lavender essential oil. Place the mixture in the refrigerator for an hour or until it has fully solidified. Once the time is up, remove from the fridge and whip it using a hand mixer or an egg beater. Store immediately in a clean jar.
4. Balances Oily Skin
Frankincense essential oil is a natural astringent and helps regulate sebum, remove excess oiliness and tone & firm skin. Combined with other ingredients, you can create your own natural toner for oily skin. Here’s the recipe:
►Oil-Control Frankincense Mist: Fill a 4 oz spray bottle with organic rose hydrosol, 3 drops of frankincense essential oil and 3 drops of sandalwood essential oil. Mix well and apply using a clean cotton ball or cotton pad. Shake well before every use.
5. Prevents & reduces scarring
Whether its acne scars or scars got from wounds or even after-marks of boils, frankincense essential oil helps prevent & heal them all. The healing and antioxidant properties of frankincense essential oil are the ones that help promote the recovery of skin after scarring.
►Acne Scar Spot Treatment: Add a drop of frankincense essential oil onto your acne scars to speed up the healing process. For sensitive skin, first dilute the essential oil with a carrier oil like rosehip oil before applying.
6. Fights Bad Breath & Promotes Good Dental Health
In Somalia, Maydi resin is prized as the king of frankincense and is popularly used as a chewing gum which provides a myriad of healing benefits for the mouth and stomach as well! If you don’t have access to maydi resin, you can also use frankincense essential oil to boost your dental heath. Frankincense helps to purify and refresh the mouth, strengthens the teeth and gums and even heals mouth ulcers.
►Fresh Frankincense Mouth Wash: Make your own homemade mouth wash by adding 2 drops of frankincense essential oil, 4 drops of peppermint essential oil, 1 tsp baking soda, and ¼ tsp of sea salt in one cup of distilled water. Store this in a glass bottle and shake well before use.
7. Heals Sun Damaged Skin
Being an amazing natural pain reliever, frankincense essential oil applied topically can reduce the pain associated with sun burns. It also speeds up the recovery of your damaged skin and encourage new skin growth.
►Soothing Frankincense Bath: Take a soothing bath to relieve your sunburn with frankincense essential oil. All you need to do is fill your bathtub with lukewarm water and add 1 cup of baking soda, 1 cup of collodial oatmeal, ½ cup of raw honey and 10 drops of frankincense essential oil (or you could split it to 5 drops of frankincense essential oil and 5 drops of lavender essential oil).
8. Reduce Inflammation
Soothe and calm any redness and inflammation using frankincense essential oil! It contains strong anti-inflammatory properties that help alleviate inflammation caused by acne, scars, eczema, psoriasis or any other skin inflammatory condition.
►Calming Frankincense Face Oil: If you spot any small sign of inflammation coming up on your skin: quickly dab a mixture of 1 drop of lavender essential oil, 1 drop of frankincense essential oil and ½ tsp of jojoba oil on that area using a cotton pad.
9. Hair Loss Treatment
Hair fall, bald spots & patches and receding hair lines are all forms of hair loss in both men and women. Frankincense essential oil can be used to treat hair loss and stimulate hair growth by cleansing the scalp, increasing blood circulation to the scalp, strengthening the hair follicles and balancing hormones. The anti inflammatory and anti bacterial properties of frankincense essential oil ward off scalp infection, acne and inflammatory skin conditions that may be a factor that causes hair loss.
►Overnight Frankincense Hair Treatment: Warm up a 2 tbsp of coconut oil, add 3 drops of frankincense essential oil, 3 drops or rosemary essential oil and 2 drops of lavender essential oil. Mix well. Section your hair and pour a little of this mixture all over your whole scalp using a spoon. Wash off thoroughly the next morning!
10. Treats Ingrown Hairs
Ingrown hairs are a real down turner to smooth skin! They can be a result of shaving and end up ruining the appearance of flawless skin. Frankincense essential oil is antibacterial and can help clean up the affected area, treat inflammation and prevent any infection that form nasty boils.
►After-Shave Frankincense Lotion: Add a few (5-7) drops of frankincense essential oil and 3 drops of tea tree essential oil in ½ a cup of whipped shea butter or cocoa butter. Slather on a little after shaving to prevent those pesky ingrown hairs!
Where You Can Buy Frankincense Essential Oil
There are many fake versions of frankincense essential oil out there in the market. Don’t make a mistake of buying ‘frankincense oil’. Only purchase ‘frankincense essential oil‘ because the ‘frankincense oil’ is just frankincense essential oil mixed with other oils/ingredients so it’s not the pure and potent one I’m talking about in this post. Please make sure to buy 100% pure and high quality frankincense essential oil.
Take Care
- Please dilute frankincense essential oil with a carrier oil or base ingredient before use. The rule of thumb is to dilute 2 drops of frankincense essential oil for every tsp of carrier oil or base ingredient. For more info read: How to Dilute Essential Oils
- Most essential oils are not recommended to be used by pregnant or breast feeding women. Please consult your doctor before you attempt to use any essential oils. Keep essential oils away from the reach of children.
- When purchasing frankincense essential oil, always look for 100% pure & high quality essential oils.
- The above article is only for information purposes so please do not take it as medical advice.
Hello Im from Indonesia, I dont have frankincense essential oil but I have the pure gum frankincense directly from the tree. Do the benefit of oil and gum are the same, please advice thank you.
Thank you for pointing out that frankincense essential oils can help to prevent premature aging. My daughter is super into essential oils and doesn’t have frankincense. I will have to try and find somewhere that I can get her some new oils from. https://ancientessence.com/