Episode 69: Loving Your Skin and Niaouli Essential Oil

doTERRA: Did you know that dry skin is actually less resilient? And when your skin is dry, small gaps can open up between the cells in the outer layers, making the barrier less robust at keeping harmful things out of your skin. It is so critical to keep your skin hydrated. And today, we're going to talk about a product doTERRA has to help you do just that. 

Welcome back to Essential Oil Solutions with doTERRA, the podcast where you'll hear exciting, useful, and simple everyday uses for essential oils from experts in the field. If you like what you hear today, rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen. We always appreciate hearing from you.

Today, we're excited to sit down with Susan Crivac to talk about the doTERRA Spa Hydrating Body Mist. And we'll also take a look at a special new oil.

Susan, thank you so much for joining us today. 

Susan Crivac: Thank you for having me. 

doTERRA: I am so thrilled to be able to talk about this product. I think it's one that is so popular with people. So can you tell us about why doTERRA chose to create the doTERRA Spa Hydrating Body Mist?

Susan: Sure. So a few years ago, we released the Beautiful Touch, and it was so well received, we wanted the consumers to have it and enjoy it in another way. And so that is what happened. And we created the Hydrating Body Mist with the Beautiful blend in it. 

doTERRA: And it does smell amazing. That Beautiful blend is, I mean, in a word, beautiful. Can you tell us a little bit about the oils that are in that blend?

Susan: Yeah, the essential oils in this are Lime, Bergamot, and Frankincense, which primarily gives the Hydrating Body Mist the amazing scent that you smell. 

We have Lime that comes from the south of Brazil. Our Bergamot is sourced from southern Italy. And Frankincense is made up of four different species of a few different regions. And so that together makes this beautiful, amazing scent that you're smelling.

doTERRA: So in addition to those incredible essential oils, what are some of the other ingredients in the Hydrating Mist that help to soften and hydrate the skin?

Susan: Absolutely. So the wonderful botanical moisturizers are coconut oil, passionfruit seed oil, sunflower seed oil, and avocado oil. And the combination of these oils really helps to promote balance and smooth skin.

So those are kind of the most important things in the hydration of the skin. And it just makes a beautiful combination. 

doTERRA: And it absolutely feels so luxurious. It doesn't feel heavy or like it's going to fill up your pores or anything like that. It is wonderful. 

Susan: It is. 

doTERRA: So, Susan, how do you incorporate the Hydrating Mist into your daily routine?

Susan: OK. This product is probably one of my very, very, very favorites. And so, at convention last year, I was excited because I got to have hands-on time with the consumers and having them experience it the way that I use it on a daily basis. 

And so, what I like to do is I take the hand and body lotion and put about a nickel size into my palm. And then I put about two to three sprays into the palm of my hand and cocktail that together with my hands. I just rub my hands together. 

So you're just getting a more luxurious and rich and hydrating experience. So if you live in drier climates or you just need a little extra boost in hydration for your skin, it's a great way to combine those two wonderful products.

doTERRA: And that sounds amazing and, like you said, luxurious. I think that self-care and taking the time to care for your body is so important. 

Susan: It is! 

doTERRA: So is there anything else that you would like people to know about the Hydrating Mist?

Susan: Yeah, one of the things—and this goes more into function—is that it has a 360-degree sprayer, so it is an airless tube. So when you have this sprayer upside down—in most bottles, you wouldn't be able to spritz it out onto your body, maybe one or two and it would stop. So this airless tube makes it so that you can spray it upside down and hard to reach places, which that in itself is really handy because you can get all the places on your body for that hydrating experience.

doTERRA: Absolutely. And I think that is wonderful and definitely makes it unique. Thank you so much for talking with us today, for sharing your insights about the doTERRA Spa Hydrating Body Mist. 

Susan: You're so welcome. Thanks for having me. 

doTERRA: We're now going to switch to talk about a very special new oil: Niaouli.

The Incredible Niaouli Tree

Picture a land in drought, dust blowing through the air and the sun beating down. It's an inhospitable environment. And in your mind's eye, you might not picture much growing there. But there is a plant that you would not expect to see, and that's the niaouli tree. 

This durable tree can survive severe droughts or extreme rainy seasons. Even forest fires cannot destroy it. In its Australian habitat, soils are nutrient deficient and flooded or wet for most of the year.

In summer, the rainfall dominates and a light frost occurs in most years in the south. The spring is associated with brief to acute water stress, and fire and water table fluctuations are major factors governing plant distribution. Yet the niaouli tree thrives and continues on.

Niaouli, commonly known as the broad-leaved paper bark or paper bark tea tree, is a small-to-medium sized tree of the myrtle family Myrtaceae. Other notable members of the Myrtaceae family are eucalyptus and clove. 

The scientific name for niaouli is Melaleuca quinquenervia. Melaleuca, from the Greek words for black and white, refers to the dark trunk and white branches. And quinquenervia comes from Latin and means five-nerved, which refers to the common number of longitudinal veins present in the leaves. 

The flowers of the niaouli tree are cream, yellow, green, or red colored and clustered in bottle brush spikes. The leaves of the tree are elliptical shaped, oblong, and have a glossy, light-green color. And the niaouli plants are usually aromatic.

How the Niaouli Tree Endures

As we mentioned earlier, the niaouli tree is known for its ability to withstand floods, fires as well as droughts. So while seedlings that are less than several weeks or months old may die from fire or dry soils, they are soon able to withstand extreme conditions, ranging from fire to total immersion for up to six months. Severe frosts can defoliate and kill the branches, but even then, the tree generally recovers through something called epicormic sprouting. 

Epicormic buds usually lie dormant beneath the bark of a tree. Their growth is suppressed by hormones from the active shoots higher up in the plant. However, under certain conditions, such as when damage occurs, they develop into active shoots ready to help the tree recover.

Saplings of the niaouli tree usually grow with a single main stem, although a damaged terminal bud is readily substituted by an auxiliary bud, resulting in new shoot growth along a new axis. Damage may also induce new shoot growth from the roots. This results in multi-trunked trees. So, because of these damage responses, older niaouli trees are often multi-stemmed.

Traditional Uses of the Niaouli Tree

The niaouli tree was revered and widely used by Indigenous Australians. The paper-like bark is used traditionally for many purposes, such as making coolamons, which is an Aboriginal carrying vessel used for everything from carrying water, to gathering fruits and nuts, to even being used to cradle babies. The bark has also been used in things like creating shelters, wrapping baked food, and lining ground ovens. 

Indigenous Australians extracted the nectar of the niaouli tree by washing it in a coolamons of water After the nectar had been extracted, it was then traditionally consumed as a beverage. They would also use the bruised, young, aromatic leaves to make a brew to drink. 

Now, it wasn't just in Australia that the niaouli tree was prized for its benefits. In the Middle East, they drink niaouli tea for its beneficial properties, and traditionally, French obstetricians relied upon it in their practice. Local residents of New Caledonia also used niaouli in their traditional health practices. They would even breathe into niaouli-soaked handkerchiefs. 

In fact, the niaouli tree is held in such regard in French Polynesia and New Caledonia that it is treasured as their national flower. And we know that you will treasure it as well.

We are also excited to talk to Christa Orozco, a strategic sourcing specialist for doTERRA, about the sourcing of Niaouli essential oil. Christa, thank you so much for sitting down with us today to talk about this very special oil. 

Christa Orozco: Yes, of course. I'm happy to. 

doTERRA: So this is an oil of that doTERRA hasn't offered before. So can you tell us a little bit about where we get our Niaouli essential oil? 

Christa: Right, so we're really excited to be able to offer it this month. We source our Niaouli essential oil from the Manakara and Farafangana regions in Madagascar, where it grows quickly and easily. 

doTERRA: Beyond just the plant growing quickly and easily there, are there any other reasons we choose to source our Niaouli from Madagascar? 

Christa: Well, yes. Our Niaouli from Madagascar has the preferred chemical profile, which is a big reason why we source it from there. The great thing is we already have a partner on the ground in Madagascar who we can easily source our essential oil from. 

The really neat thing about niaouli, though, is that it grows so fast, and it grows year-round. After you harvest the plant, it will regrow and be ready to be harvested again just three months later. So it's really a sustainable and reliable source for us to use it as this product of the month.

doTERRA: That's amazing. So you mentioned that we already have a partner on the ground there. What kind of impact does our sourcing of Niaouli have on the people in the communities?

Christa: Yeah, so Niaouli is a unique plant because it isn't farmed. It actually just grows abundantly naturally. So producing niaouli essential oil provides additional income for harvesters who—they're hired to harvest the plant material while they can still focus their time and resources on other streams of income. 

doTERRA: That's amazing! So it just gives this extra opportunity beyond the farms that they maybe are already cultivating.

Christa: Exactly, yes. And then it's pretty easy. I mean, the actual process of harvesting is still labor-intensive, but they don't have to be maintaining the crops throughout their whole growth period. They can just come in at the end and harvest it.

doTERRA: That is so incredible. Christa, is there anything else that you'd like to share about the sourcing story of Niaouli?

Christa: Well, just one interesting thing is that even though it grows so vastly in Madagascar, really only a small percentage of it is actually being used for essential oil production. So we feel really fortunate and excited to be able to offer it to all of our customers.

doTERRA: Well, we are definitely so excited to get it, and to smell it, and just experience this new essential oil. 

Christa: Yes, we're excited for you, too. 

doTERRA: Thank you so much for taking the time to share this story with us and for all the hard work that the sourcing team does. 

Christa: Of course! We're happy to. We hope you all enjoy it.

doTERRA: Thanks for joining us and congratulations on living a healthier lifestyle with essential oils. If you liked what you heard today, rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen. Also, if you want to try any of the products you learned about, go to doterra.com or find a Wellness Advocate near you to place an order today.