Coconut oil seems to be all the rage today in beauty trends, as this miracle oil serves so many purposes. But for some reason tea tree oil, my personal favorite, has gone somewhat unnoticed. Tea tree oil has so many uses itself that work amazingly! The list of possibilities with this great oil is endless I’m sure, but here are my top seven.
1. Mouthwash
This is great as a natural mouthwash, or if you just prefer to have a homemade mouthwash. Most recipes for this call for tea tree oil and peppermint oil (and some use baking soda, as well), but you could skip the added ingredients and just go for water and a couple drops of tea tree oil to ensure clean, healthy teeth. The peppermint oil adds that nice, minty-fresh touch. If you’re someone that doesn’t like mint, it’s not necessary. Tea tree oil has shown signs to prevent cavities while also disinfecting. If you want to take this hack a step further, you can even make your own toothpaste using tea tree oil.
2. Acne Treatment
Tea tree oil is also great for getting rid of stubborn pimples overnight. The disinfecting properties in tea tree oil reduce pimple size while also soothing your skin and not causing added redness. There are also homemade face masks that you can make incorporating tea tree oil to get all the dirt out of your skin and really purify.
3. Bug Repellent
Going to college and living away from home for the first time can be tricky when you realize basic household products are no longer so basic. You realize how much you took for granted when you don’t always have little things like salt, which you forgot to buy when moving in. The first thing I realized I had forgotten to buy when moving in freshman year was bug spray, and without a car I was stuck to face this swamp without protection from its vicious mosquitoes. An easy solution to this is to take a spray bottle, fill it almost all the way with filtered water, and then add a couple drops of tea tree oil and, voilà — homemade bug spray. I wish I would have known this easy hack at the time; it would have saved me from all those ugly bug bites.
4. Soothing Spray
This leads me to my next tea tree oil hack. If you do get bitten by bugs, use some tea tree oil in water to relieve the itch. You can also add other oils to improve this remedy, such as witch hazel and lavender, which can help the bites go away faster and also add for extra help to relieve and stop the itch.
5. Dandruff Shampoo
Having a dry scalp can be frustrating. You want the freedom to buy your favorite shampoo, but also regret when you don’t use products like Head & Shoulders. Dandruff shampoos can also be expensive. I never noticed until college that my dandruff shampoos were almost two times the amount of some less expensive ones that I liked. A great solution to both of these dilemmas is tea tree oil. Adding a couple drops to any of your favorite shampoos works like a charm to moisturize a dry scalp and stop the scratching. I just started doing this recently. I added just about three or four drops of tea tree oil to one of my favorite, inexpensive shampoos, Suave’s Moroccan Infusion Shine Shampoo, and within about a week I started to notice a difference as my scalp became noticeably less irritated than usual.
6. Bruises and Burns
Another great use for tea tree oil is for ugly bruises that show up unexpectedly on your skin. Especially for someone like me, who’s a huge klutz, I randomly find bruises on my body all the time. A quick fix is to mix of a couple drops of tea tree oil with some olive oil and then rub it on the bruise. This can also work for burns like sunburns. For burns, it’s probably better to use coconut oil rather than olive oil, though. This is a great tip, especially as Floridians prepare for the summer break that’s quickly approaching.
7. Brush Cleaner
My all-time favorite tee-tree-oil hack, and the base to my recognition of the magical powers of tea tree oil, is its use as a makeup brush cleaner. So many people go without cleaning their makeup brushes without thinking much of it, which as a germophobe, I couldn’t fathom when first getting interested in makeup and beauty. I looked up different ways to clean brushes and found a lot of ways to deep clean, but I needed something I could do every day because I didn’t really think it was necessary to deep clean every day, nor did I have time for that. I researched online and finally found an answer: A spray bottle filled with filtered water and a few drops of tea tree oil (well shaken) is the perfect disinfectant. It kills the bacteria and germs that gather from the air or from the dirt and oils on my face, while also removing the makeup from that day, making my brushes ready for their next use. This is also a great solution because it’s such a light amount of liquid being used that your brushes dry very quickly, so you don’t have to worry about them still being wet when you want to use them next.
Tea tree oil is the answer to all of your problems — well, almost all of them. Okay, so it might not help you much with your grades, but it definitely can help you with your beauty game. With such easy uses and so many different purposes, tea tree oil might just take the place of your favorite natural remedy. Feel free to buy some of this oil for just $8.99 on Target.com!
Photo Credits: medhelp.org