Most of you may remember your grandmother suggesting to cover your skin with sandalwood paste, to protect it from the hot weather. Well, she wasn’t doing it out of habit, it is actually one of the most used home skincare recipes. Famous for its ethereal and woody scent, sandalwood paste is one of the most used home skincare recipes. It is used in the form of powder, oil, or paste. It’s equipped with a powerful anti-inflammatory agent that evens out your skin tone and benefits it in so many other ways. Sandalwood paste does not only cure your skin problems but also possesses a wide range of medicinal properties. Let’s take a closer look at what is actually a sandalwood paste and its benefits.
What Is Sandalwood Paste?
Cited as one of the most expensive woods in the world, sandalwood grows on the trees of Genus Santalum. It is yellow, heavy, and fine-grained. Mostly, sandalwood oil is extracted or its paste is used for various purposes. Unlike most aromatic woods, sandalwood retains its soft, restful, calming, and mesmerizing fragrance for decades. It is used for meditation practice and aromatherapy around the world. The woody aroma of sandalwood is also used in a lot of body scrubs and soaps, and it has been an essential part of Asian skincare for centuries. Because of its famed healing powers, the world is witnessing a significant rise in its plantation area and prices over the past couple of years.
Sandalwood paste is used to soothe inflammatory skin conditions like dermatitis, psoriasis, eczema, and rough irritated skin. and acne breakouts. According to Ayurveda texts, it is known to relieve pitta dosha (the heat energy in your body), which means that it possesses cooling properties. Sandalwood is an astringent and can contract the soft tissues, therefore soothing the skin and minimizing the appearance of pores. That’s why it’s also an important aftershave ingredient for men. Additionally, Traditional Chinese Medicine also praises sandalwood for its natural healing powers.
Benefits of Sandalwood Paste
Sandalwood paste is not only used as a beauty enhancer but is also an important part of a lot of medicinal treatments. To create effective remedies for many health conditions and skin problems, it is used in combination with other ingredients or by itself. Here are some of the most important benefits of sandalwood paste.
1. Flawless and Bright Skin
When applied to the skin, sandalwood paste soothes rashes, itches, and a lot of skin eruptions. It helps your skin heal, through scar tissue formation. You can also make a sandalwood face pack with turmeric and other herbal ingredients, to make your skin bright and flawless. Additionally, a sandalwood paste can help soothe your sunburn and evens out the skin tone, because of its effective exfoliating properties. Because of excessive exposure to dirt and dust, there can be a lot of bacterial growth on your face. A freshly made paste of sandalwood with milk can help clear your affected skin areas.
2. Skin Aging
It’s natural that with age, our skin shows some wrinkles, loses the glow of youth and its condition starts going down the hill. Being rich in antioxidants, sandalwood paste significantly prevents wrinkle formation, as it fights the damaging after-effects of free radicals. Sandalwood can effectively slow down your aging process. A paste made of sandalwood, and fuller’s earth with green tea will significantly revert your aging process and provide good results. You can also apply a mixture of sandalwood oil with egg yolk and honey for 20 minutes, and witness amazing results after rinsing it off. Additionally, sandalwood oil is also used to reduce stretch marks.
3. Pimple and Acne
Because of its anti-inflammatory and healing properties, sandalwood has a soothing effect on the inflammation caused by pimples and acne on your skin. You can make a quick sandalwood and turmeric paste with the oil, and use it to minimize the itchiness on your skin. Apply it to your zits, leave it like that overnight, and wash your face the next morning with plain water. This will leave your skin to be blemish-free.
4. Prevent Headache
Even though enough scientific evidence is not available for the use of sandalwood paste to treat headaches, it’s still pretty much in use and is effective. According to Ayurveda, an imbalance of pitta dosha leads to headaches. Sandalwood helps relieve headaches because of its Pitta balancing and Sita (cold) properties. By providing a calming and cool effect, it significantly reduces headaches. To relieve the headache, you need to take 3-6gm of sandalwood powder and mix it with a small quantity of camphor. Rub this paste in rosewater and apply it to your forehead.
5. Body Odor
One of the most important benefits of sandalwood is its calm, fresh, and woody aroma. Its fragrance is not only used for meditation purposes but is also widely used by masses to improve their body odor. Regular usage of sandalwood products in ‘specific’ body areas can prevent the buildup of bacteria that are responsible for the body odor. The mesmerizing fragrance of sandalwood keeps you clean and fresh all day.
6. Sun Tan Removal
Facing difficulties getting rid of the suntan from your last beach trip? Sandalwood got you! With a simple DIY, sandalwood can give you your original skin tone back. Mix a tablespoon of sandalwood powder with orange peel powder and yogurt. Apply the paste on your tanned body parts, and wash it off after the paste dries off.
7. Stimulates Sleep
The mix of an active compound called Santalol, and sandalwood helps lessen the waking time and activate the total non-rapid eye movement (NREM) phase of sleep. Through the respiratory mucosa, this compound is absorbed in the blood and is efficient in inducing good sleep. Sandalwood oil helps elevate sleep for people with insomnia, and those who have other sleeping problems.
Precautions When Using Sandalwood Paste
- You must ensure the quality of sandalwood before medicinal usage, as it might contain some adulterants.
- When consumed in high doses, sandalwood might lead to a number of gastrointestinal problems. Henceforth, you must consult a physician before using it.
- Patients with kidney problems must avoid sandalwood, as it contains neurotoxic properties and might cause further damage to the kidneys.
- Since there isn’t enough scientific evidence available about the use of sandalwood during pregnancy and before breastfeeding, therefore, women should avoid its usage in such situations.
Sandalwood Paste – A Healing Beauty
You can never go wrong with a natural product. A sandalwood paste can treat your acne marks, brighten and exfoliate the skin, remove suntan, helps fight acne-causing bacteria, and treat a lot of skin diseases. White sandalwood can be used to treat cough, common cold, bronchitis, sore mouth, and fever. It does not only make you look good but also feel good because of its healing powers and soft aroma. Additionally, sandalwood paste and oil are used for skin and beauty treatments as well as in many other industrial productions, including room fresheners, perfumes, incense sticks, deodorants, mouth fresheners, and soaps, etc.