Recently I was spending a lovely sisters’ weekend on Mackinac Island. If you’ve never been there, it’s truly like stepping back in time. No cars are allowed on the island, so the main forms of transportation are your feet, bicycles, and horse and carriages. The rhythmic clip-clopping of horses’ hooves on the roads is a welcome relief from the noise of buses, trucks, and cars.

A Fragrant Treasure

An assortment of shops fills the downtown streets of Mackinac, and my sisters and I couldn’t wait to explore them. In a little store tucked away on a back street, I found a lovely treasure
— a bottle of Rose de Mai Beauty Oil. If you’re at all familiar with aromatherapy, you know that rose is one of the most expensive essential oils that you can purchase. One ounce of (true) essential oil of Rose Otto (Rosa damascena) can cost well over $1000.

I squeezed a drop from the tester bottle onto my hand and turned the box over to examine the contents. I discovered that this oil is actually a blend. It does not contain the essential oil, but rather contains the essential waxes of Rosa damascena and Rosa centifolia in a jojoba, borage, and grapeseed oil base. But it is altogether lovely!

Essential Flower Wax

Are you wondering what an essential flower wax is? I was too! After researching, I found out that it is a vegetable wax, somewhat like beeswax, that is left over from the process of making a flower absolute.

To make an absolute, the plant scent is first extracted with alcohol and then chilled. This process separates the rose wax from the absolute. The essential wax itself contains many beneficial properties, and it can be used in other products, such as my beauty oil. In an article called Essential Flower Waxes, aromatherapist Jeanne Rose lists the properties of rose flowers’ (Rosa centifolia and Rosa damascena) essential wax:

• moisturizing
• softening
• free-radicals scavenging
  

  My sisters and I on a Mackinac hike.

• soothing for itchy, dry, delicate, or teenage skin

Review of Rose de Mai Beauty Oil

I am enjoying my Rose de Mai Beauty oil. Note that it comes with a dropper top, but does not include a regular cap. I wish it had a cap on it to prevent any of the properties from evaporating through the rubber bulb of the dropper.

Even though it does not contain the pure essential oil, it is a beautiful product with a light rose fragrance. The oil itself sinks into your skin and absorbs nicely without leaving any residue.

If you desire to use it as a perfume, realize it’s not designed as a fragrance, so the aroma doesn’t have the staying power of a day-long fragrance. It is far lighter and unobtrusive lasting an hour or so, but delightful. So far I’m using it as a facial moisturizer, a cuticle repairer, and  a light scent. With just a few day’s use, my skin feels softer. It is one of my favorite finds from our trip to Mackinac.

If you’d like to try the Rose de Mai oil or the rose essential wax, I’ve found the products on Amazon. I’m planning on buying the wax myself to use in aromatherapy products I make, as I love the aroma and properties of rose, but buying the pure essential oil or even the absolute can be pretty pricey. I’m interested to see if the wax boosts the rose scent of my products as well as adding to the beneficial qualities of them. I’ll post about that when I try it.

How about you? Do you have any favorite aromatherapy finds? Be sure to share in the comments below. Always keep your eyes open, because you never know where or when you’ll find a treasure!

eScentually yours,

*This post does contain affiliate links. I do make a small profit if you purchase any products through my links. I only link to products I use myself, have heard are reputable, or are on my own want-to-try list. If you do choose to purchase a product through my link, thank you so much. This helps me as writing and aromatherapy/natural health are my business and passion.

It looks as if winter has finally decided to arrive in Indiana. We had one of the warmest Decembers I can remember, and my family was actually outside playing basketball on Christmas Day! That has changed, however, and the cold has arrived whether it was wanted or not, along with about three inches of snow.

It seems that cold weather seasons also bring germs and illnesses that aren’t so widespread throughout the rest of the year. For wellness purposes, I’ve found that essential oils help me throughout the winter. One of my favorite oils to use is *Eucalyptus globulus for its affinity with the respiratory system.

Main Therapeutic Benefits of Eucalyptus Globulus

Historically, the following properties are attributed to eucalyptus:

• Analgesic
• Antibacterial
• Anti-inflammatory
• Antitussive
• Decongestant
• Expectorant
• Stimulant

Eucalyptus for Body Systems

While these is not a comprehensive list, here are three main body systems that eucalyptus supports.

• Respiratory System. Eucalyptus globulus has been used for bronchitis, asthma, sinusitis, nasal congestion, throat infections, colds, and flus. It is an ingredient in the perennial favorite, Vicks Vapor Rub. I love to make my own version of this salve, and I start using it at the first sign of colds or congestion.
• Circulatory System. Eucalyptus helps to increase circulation and can be beneficial when undertaking a detox program for health and wellness.
• Musculoskeletal system. The analgesic properties of eucalyptus make it a logical choice to be included in a blend for massage oils/creams and muscle rubs.

Two Simple Ways to Use Eucalyptus

Here are two simple ways you can start using eucalyptus essential oil right now.

1. Oil Chest Rub. In 1/2 ounce of carrier oil such as almond oil, olive oil, or sesame oil, add 15 drops of Eucalyptus globulus. Shake gently to mix. Rub a small amount to the chest area. Store the rest for later use.
2. Inhalation. Diffuse 5 drops of eucalyptus in a water-based diffusor. Use on and off throughout the day as needed. If you don’t have a diffusor, add a few drops of the oil to a bowl of steaming water (out of the reach of children) or put a drop or two on a tissue or washcloth and tuck it under your pillow.

Do you have a favorite way to use this powerful essential oil? Please share in the comments.

*Precautions: the information here is provided for adults, not children. Children should not use eucalyptus; Rosalina (Melaleuca ericifolia) is a better choice for children. No one should ingest Eucalyptus, as it is toxic when taken internally. According to the Gale Health and Wellness Resource Center, pregnant or breast-feeding women should not use eucalyptus. People with digestive problems, stomach or intestinal inflammations, biliary duct disorders, or liver disease should not take eucalyptus.

Resources

The East-West School for Aromatic Studies: Aromas 101

Gale Health and Wellness Resource Center

One of the joys of Christmas is giving gifts that you know people will enjoy. In my view, it’s even better if I’ve made the gift myself. Over the years I’ve sewed, knitted, and even tried my hand at making jewelry (soon discovered jewelry is best left to those with some experience!). Since I’ve become an aromatherapist, many of my gifts now revolve around aromatherapy oils and herbs. Last year I made gift bags for my family that contained lip balm, salve, and lotion bars.

If you’re ready to share the gift of aromatherapy by making some products yourself, I can help. This post will show you how easy it is to make a salt scrub for gift giving.

This makes a salt scrub a valuable gift for all of us, and even more so for someone who is not able to exercise due to poor mobility. Exercise is one of the main ways that lymph is stimulated in our bodies, but a salt scrub or skin brushing will also stimulate lymph. Besides the health benefits, salt scrubs smell wonderful and are a pampering experience for your skin.

Enjoy the recipe below and feel free to try your own combinations of essential oils and vegetable oils. *A word of caution: People with seizure disorders should avoid the use of Rosemary. I would suggest lavender instead of the Rosemary, about 15 drops.

Feel free to share a favorite salt scrub recipe you enjoy. Merry Christmas and happy gift giving!

Interested in a hands-on class to learn more about essential oils and aromatherapy? Check out my workshops in the Indianapolis area.

 

 

As an aromatherapist, I love experimenting with making body creams and body lotions from scratch. It’s fun adding herbal oils I have infused myself and experimenting with different butters, herbs, and essential oils to get that perfect blend and product.

Sometimes, however, I don’t have the time to make a luscious body lotion from the beginning to end. I need a quick product that will mix up in minutes but still have the healing properties and lovely scent I want. I’d like to share with you my go-to cream that I use when I don’t have time to make one and then show you how easy it is to customize it to your liking.

Favorite Body Cream

• Clean, dry jar (PET plastic or glass)
• ABC (Aloe Based Cream) cream or other unscented cream
• Essential Oils of your choice

Find an unscented cream that you like and keep a supply of it on hand to use for blending with essential oils. My favorite is called ABC Cream (you can click on the link to purchase a jar of it from my online store). You may already have one of your own that you like.

Take the clean, empty jar and fill it half-way with the body cream. Now, decide which essential oil(s) to use. You can choose your EO based solely on its scent, by its purpose, or a combination of both. For example, if you love the smell of lavender, then you may choose lavender because of its fragrance. If, however, you have a certain purpose in mind for your cream, then you will want to choose an EO based on its historical therapeutic properties. You may also create a blend of about three to five oils. Each of the oils enhances the effect of the other. If you are blending for fragrance, open each vial you are considering for a blend and carefully hold all of them under your nose, wafting the fragrance so you can see if it’s pleasing to you.

Here’s a chart of some of my favorite essential oils to help you choose. Of course, there are many others to explore as well.

Essential Oils

Essential Oil	Benefits
Bergamont	Antidepressant; uplifting; phototoxic, so use sunscreen
Clary Sage	Women’s Oil; antispasmodic; PMS; cramps; mood swings
Eucalyptus	Affinity with the respiratory system; expectorant; antimicrobial
Frankincense	Analgesic; anti-inflammatory; anti-microbial; stress; immune enhancer; irritated skin; mature skin
Geranium (Rose)	Balancing; mood swings; astringent; anti-inflammatory
German Chamomile	Anti-inflammatory; soothing for skin
Lavender	Sedative; soothes anxiety; mood swings; irritability; scars; stings/bites; burns (great added to ABC cream for sunburn)
Lemongrass	Antimicrobial; analgesic; antifungal; add to DIY cleaning formulas
Peppermint	Analgesic; relieves nausea; muscular aches and pains; cooling
Rosemary	Stimulating; affinity with respiratory system; enhances memory; use with caution if you have epilepsy or high blood pressure
Ylang Ylang	Aphrodisiac; calming; nourishing (can lower blood pressure, so use cautiously if you have low blood pressure.

Once you have decided upon your essential oils, you need to figure out the dilution rate. For a healthy adult, a dilution range of 3 to 5 percent is good for body creams. For a 4 oz bottle, that would mean you would add a total of between 72-120 drops of essential oils.

Add your oils to the cream and mix well. Then add the rest of the cream and mix well again to evenly dispurse the essential oils through the cream. You could also mix this in a glass or stainless steel bowl and then add to the jar when you are finished, being careful to get all of the mixture.

And there you have it! Be sure you write down the dilution rate of the essential oils so the next time you make your body cream you’re ready. Enjoy! What blend did you come up with? Leave a comment and let me know!

 

If room sprays, bath salts, and essential oils come to mind when you hear the word aromatherapy, you’re on par with what most people probably think. Aromatherapy, however, is much more than just a pleasing aroma or beauty product. It is a true healing modality whose potential is just being realized in the Western world.

Jade Shutes, founder and director of education of The East-West School for Herbal and Aromatic Studies, defines the term in the following way on the National Association of Holistic Aromatherapy’s website:

“As a holistic practice, Aromatherapy is both a preventative approach as well as an active method to employ during acute and chronic stages of illness or ‘dis’-ease.

It is a natural, non-invasive modality designed to affect the whole person not just the symptom or disease and to assist the body’s natural ability to balance, regulate, heal and maintain itself by the correct use of essential oils.” 

Essential Oils: A Hot Topic

The popularity of essential oils has taken off in recent years due in part to two major MLM companies, doTERRA and Young Living. Both companies have put essential oils on the forefront of the home party scene, and many other quality and not-so-quality companies sell EOs online and in stores. But please keep in mind that you are wise to do your own research when using essential oils, especially concerning these two topics: using essential oils on children and the ingestion of EOs (ingestion if done, is best done under the care of an experienced, certified expert). Don’t just blindly accept what a sales rep or friend tells you. Essential oils are powerful — 75-100 times stronger than the dried herbs, so you need to exercise caution. I’ll be covering both of these topics in future posts, but for now I want to highlight a few points about EOs with children because there is so much misinformation out there that can be dangerous.

1. Always keep your essential oils safely stored and out of the reach of children.
2. Do NOT use essential oils on premature babies. They have high skin permeability, so it is not safe.
3. When a baby is 6 months old, you may choose to try a baby massage using 1 oz of an unscented carrier oil to which you add 1 drop of an essential oil, such as lavender (Lavendula angustifolia). This is a 0.1% dilution. Generally, do not apply EOs unless you have diluted them first in a carrier oil. It’s always a good idea when first introducing a new product to try it on a small area of the body before applying it everywhere to make sure your child will not have a reaction to it.
4. Do not use essential oils daily on your baby’s skin (dermally), as we don’t want the baby to become sensitized to the EO. A massage with EOs diluted in a carrier oil should be a periodic soothing treat for your little one. Of course you can do a daily massage without the EOs.
5. Don’t give your child EOs to ingest without proper consulation. Always consult with a health/medical professional trained in this discipline.

What Exactly Are Essential Oils?

EOs are highly concentrated aromatic extracts that are distilled or expressed from plant material. Essential oils can be found in either the flower, flowering tops, fruits/zests, grasses, leaves, needles and twigs, resins, roots, seeds, and woody parts of a plant. About 15 percent of plants produce essential oils and only about 5 percent are good for use in aromatherapy.
Certain EOs are located externally on the surface of the plant inside glandular trichomes. You can probably guess that some, though not all, herbs fall into this category, such as basil, lavender, Melissa, oregano, and peppermint, just to name a few. These essential oils are easily released by running your fingers along the plant. I’ve always loved herbs and their intoxicating scents.

Other EOs are located internally in cavities. A few examples are sweet orange, tangerine, lemon, eucalyptus, and frankincense. EOs that are found in ducts include dill, yarrow, and Roman and German chamomile. Finally, a few EOs are secreted in cells. Examples of these include ginger and nutmeg. Ginger is a favorite of mine with its pungent aroma.

Activity: Become familiar with the aroma that is released from the actual plant as well as the aroma of the corresponding essential oil. If you have time, take a few of your favorite EOs and then obtain the plant/fruit/root of it. For example, purchase a piece of ginger root and slice into it, smelling its aroma. Then open your bottle of ginger essential oil (Zingiber officinale) and compare the aroma. As you “train your nose,” you’ll be better able to distinguish pure essential oils from  fragrance oils used in the perfume industry.

In the next post, we’ll discuss EOs and the Bible and how essential oils are absorbed into the body. In the meantime, enjoy the recipe for Sweet Peace room spray that you can easily make at home.

Thanks for reading! Let me know if you use aromatherapy in your life by leaving a comment below.

 

 

 

 

Jane VanOsdol has a Level 1 aromatherapy certification from Natural Options Aromatherapy, which follows the guidelines for certification from the National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy (NAHA). She is currently studying for a clinical certification with the East-West School for Herbal & Aromatic Studies and is developing a line of products. She is also available for workshops or one-on-one meetings. Visit (and Like) her AromaScents Facebook page for more information.