Just the Essentials: How Essential Oils Can Heal Your Skin, Improve Your Health, and Detox Your Life

The author of Skin
Cleanse returns with a comprehensive guide to the ultimate ingredient
for living an all-natural, plant-based lifestyle: essential oils.

In Just the
Essentials, Adina Grigore, owner and founder of the wildly popular all-natural skincare line SW
Basics, presents a 21st-century guide to these ancient oils. A former essential oils skeptic, Grigore offers a fresh, fun, and authoritative overview of what they are and how they
can be easily incorporated into anyone’s life. 

From plant-based medicine to
all-natural skincare to safer and cleaner household products to aromatherapy,
this handy and entertaining guide provides detailed advice for a wide array of
oils, safety guidelines, and a range of do-it-yourself recipes to get started.
Inside you'll discover such fun facts as:

• Tea tree oil is a powerful
  antibacterial that is proven to be as effective for treating acne as
  benzoyl peroxide; it also kills oral bacteria and is a life-saver for
  tooth infections.


• Cinnamon oil is a
  circulation-booster that helps to ease everyday aches and pains as well as
  headaches (even migraines).


• Peppermint oil is brimming with
  antimicrobial properties; peppermint oil can be used for everything from
  alleviating digestive problems to cleaning your kitchen counters.

With lists of the best
oils for beginners; instructions for diffusing and safe handling; and DIY
recipes from dish soap to toothpaste to facial masks, Just the
Essentials makes it easy and enjoyable to reap the many benefits of
these pure plant extracts.

Harness the power of plants

For millennia, essential oils have played a key role in health and beauty rituals. From references in the Bible to Hippocrates’s study of more than three hundred plant oils to Cleopatra’s pioneering use of fragrance, essential oils were prized throughout human history both for their potent healing powers and for their intoxicating scents.

But in modern times essential oils largely fell out of favor, relegated to those dusty, amber-colored glass vials shelved in the back of health food stores. That is until today, as a new generation of health-conscious consumers are returning to these pure, plant-based extracts for skincare solutions, toxin-free home cleaning, and homeopathic remedies.

In Just the Essentials, Adina Grigore, the author of Skin Cleanse and the founder of the skincare line S.W. Basics, offers a contemporary guide to these ancient oils. Adina explains that essential oils contain the most powerful plant compounds found in nature—in fact, essential oils are so powerful that they’re the active ingredients in many common drugs. (Ever wonder what makes aspirin such an effective pain reliever? It’s not a fancy chemical; it’s the meadowsweet plant.)

But it can be frustratingly difficult to find reliable information about essential oils—a simple Internet search will yield volumes of misinformation and exaggerated marketing claims. In Just the Essentials, Adina cuts through the hype and offers a fresh, balanced, and authoritative overview of essential oils and how to use them.

From plant-based skincare to safer household products to aromatherapy, this comprehensive and entertaining guide offers a range of do-it-yourself recipes for common home and personal-care products, including dish soap, all-purpose cleaner, scented candles, perfume, deodorant, and toothpaste. With lists of the best oils for beginners, instructions for safe handling, and a wealth of creative ideas to get you started, Just the Essentials makes it easy and enjoyable to reap the many benefits of essential oils.

Praise for Skin Cleanse:

“Skin Cleanse is in alignment with what I teach: that healthy skin comes from the inside out. Adina Grigore has busted the myths about cosmetics and has given us the tools to achieve glowing skin from our own kitchen.” - Alejandro Junger, M.D., author of the New York Times bestsellers Clean and Clean Gut

“Skin Cleanse is the most comprehensive holistic guide to healthy skin I have ever come across. Her simple yet powerful recipes and guidance show readers how to ‘feed’ their skin and get great results.” - Joshua Rosenthal, founder and director of The Institute for Integrative Nutrition

“In Just the Essentials, Adina Grigore sheds light on the confusing subject of essential oils—their components and therapeutic properties, how to know what you’re really buying, and the best ways to use them to support your skin and health. With this info-packed book in hand, you’ll not only benefit from Adina’s friendly, accessible voice and her extensive professional wisdom, you’ll be inspired to use these powerful natural healers to enhance your own routine.” - Jolene Hart, certified health coach and author of Eat Pretty