你是不是認為精油對皮膚完全無害?

Essential oils may be natural, but that doesn't meanthey're always healthy or good for you. They'reextremely concentrated versions of chemicals thatplants make for various reasons: some to attractpollinators, some to repel or harm their naturalenemies.

精油可能是天然產品，但這并不意味著精油一定是健康的、有益的。植物因各種原因(吸引傳粉昆蟲、擊敗或傷害它們的天敵)產生化學物，而精油就是這些化學物的濃縮產物。

These oils' utility to humans is mainly that they smellgood, which you've probably already figured out: essential oils don't cure cancer and there's no solid evidence they do much of anything elsefor health.

人們使用精油主要是因為味道好聞，我猜你可能已經想到了：精油不能治愈癌癥，而且尚未有證據明確表明它對健康有益。

But people who love (or sell) essential oils will often say there's an oil for everything, and theycan be used in a variety of ways. Meanwhile, the Atlanta Institute for Aromatherapy has beencollecting examples of people who were harmed by essential oils, in an effort to convincearomatherapy professionals that these things are not harmless.

但喜歡或銷售精油的人總會說精油是萬能的，涂抹的方式也多種多樣。同時，亞特蘭大芳香療法研究所一直在收集那些被精油所傷的人的例子，以讓芳香療法專業(yè)人員信服：這些精油是無害的。

Reading through their injury report, people have said they got skin irritation, burns, and worsefrom using oils in a variety of harmless-sounding ways. One woman got blisters on her backafter putting a few drops of sweet orange oil in their bath water. Another diluted somefrankincense, marjoram, and lemongrass oils and applied the mixture behind the ears, where itseemed to cause welts and burning.

翻閱這些人的受傷報告，我們發(fā)現：他們的描述基本都是用各種各樣聽似無害的方式涂抹了精油，但他們的皮膚卻受到了刺激、灼傷，甚至更為糟糕。一位女士在泡澡水中滴入幾滴甜橙油之后，她的背上出了水泡。另一位女士將乳香油、馬郁蘭油和檸檬草油稀釋，而后將這一混合物涂抹在耳朵背后，結果卻引起灼傷和疤痕。

 

 

Some oils, especially citrus ones, can cause burns and blisters by sensitizing skin to the sun. Others can irritate skin directly. The advice to dilute oils, either in water or in a "carrier" oilsuch as coconut oil, doesn't always help, as the injury reports show. Saddest of all are thestories of people who applied oils to their skin, or their children's skin, as a treatment for a skincondition, only to find the oils made the condition worse. (There's a photo here, for those of youwho are curious about that sort of thing.)

有些精油，尤其是柑橘類精油，會使皮膚在陽光下變得敏感，從而引起灼傷和水泡。其他人的皮膚則直接受到了刺激。受傷報告表明：在水中或椰子油等"載體"油中稀釋精油的建議并不總是管用的。最慘的是那些將精油直接涂抹到自己肌膚或孩子肌膚上的人，雖然他們涂抹精油的本意是治療皮膚病，但最后得到的結果卻是皮膚病的癥狀更為嚴重。(如果你們對這種事很好奇，我這兒有照片為證。)

Bottom line, some oils may be safe for skin, when appropriately diluted, but don't trust afriend or an oil salesperson to give you the right parameters for that. (Some of the injuries inthe report resulted from using a product exactly as directed.)

最重要的是，有些精油在適當稀釋之后可能對皮膚無害，但如果你的朋友或銷售給了你一份正確使用指南，千萬別信。(報告中，有些人就是因為按照指示使用了產品才受的傷。)