你是不是認爲精油對皮膚完全無害?大綱
Essential oils may be natural, but that doesn't mean they're always healthy or good for you. They're extremely concentrated versions of chemicals that plants make for various reasons: some to attract pollinators, some to repel or harm their natural enemies.
精油可能是天然產品，但這並不意味着精油一定是健康的、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 smell good, which you've probably already figured out: essential oils don't cure cancer and there's no solid evidence they do much of anything else for health.
人們使用精油主要是因爲味道好聞，我猜你可能已經想到了：精油不能治癒癌症，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 they can be used in a variety of ways. Meanwhile, the Atlanta Institute for Aromatherapy has been collecting examples of people who were harmed by essential oils, in an effort to convince aromatherapy 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，塗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 worse from using oils in a variety of harmless-sounding ways. One woman got blisters on her back after putting a few drops of sweet orange oil in their bath water. Another diluted some frankincense, marjoram, and lemongrass oils and applied the mixture behind the ears, where it seemed to cause welts and burning.
翻閱這些人的受傷報告，我們發現：他們的描述基本都是用各種各樣聽似無害的方式塗抹了精油，但他們的皮膚卻受到了刺激、灼傷，甚至更爲糟糕。一位女士在泡澡水中滴入幾滴甜橙油之後，她的背上出了水泡。另一位女士將乳香油、馬鬱蘭油和檸檬草油稀釋，而後將這一混合物塗抹在耳朵背後，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" oil such as coconut oil, doesn't always help, as the injury reports show. Saddest of all are the stories of people who applied oils to their skin, or their children's skin, as a treatment for a skin condition, only to find the oils made the condition worse. (There's a photo here, for those of you who 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並不總是管用的。最慘的是那些將精油直接塗抹到自己肌膚或孩子肌膚上的人，雖然他們塗抹精油的本意是治療皮膚病，但最後得到的結果卻是皮膚病的症狀更爲嚴重。（如果你們對這種事很好奇，我這兒有照片爲證。）Bottom line, some oils may be safe for skin, when appropriately diluted, but don't trust a friend or an oil salesperson to give you the right parameters for that. (Some of the injuries in the report resulted from using a product exactly as directed.)
最重要的是，有些精油在適當稀釋之後可能對皮膚無害，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，有些人就是因爲按照指示使用了產品才受的傷。）
