Illustrated Guide to Aromatherapy

Finding this edition might be tough, at a reasonable price, but keep up the search!  It will be worthwhile.
Julia Lawless' "The Complete Illustrated Guide to Aromatherapy:  A Practical Approach to the Use of Essential Oils for Health and Well-Being" was published by Barnes & Noble in 1997.  Look for this specific cover art and title.  There are other editions, but this is the best, combining clinical notes with specifics on methods of use, dietary data, and recommendations for essential oils best suited for treating many common conditions.  There is a First Aid section, visual profiles of 65 oils, safety guidelines, and other useful tools. The print is small, but easy to navigate and the layout is lovely.
I found a paperback edition through Thriftbooks.com for less than $4, shipping included.  It's selling on Amazon.com for more than $100 this week!

Acne & Rosacea

My friend Angie is searching for essential oils or blends to help treat her teenage daughter's acne.  While reviewing literature for the most commonly recommended essential oils, I came across this formula from Birch Hill Happenings, an aromatherapy company in Minnesota.  Lavendar, the No. 1 recommended essential oil for many, many conditions, appears in nearly every blend for acne.  Please remember to test a dab of any essential oil or blend on the hand before applying elsewhere, and of course, remember that "This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease."

From Birch Hill Happenings:

To 4 ml of Jojoba oil (4 ml. = 0.81 US teaspoons)

Add:
Lavender 8 drops,
Rosewood 8 drops,
Tea tree 8 drops,
Chamomile 4 drops,
Geranium 4 drops,
Helichrysum 4 drops and
Lemon 4 drops.

"Blend well and apply a finger tip of this oil to the blemishes you wish to treat. Can be applied several times a day. 

"SPECIAL NOTE: Many people afflicted with Rosacea often time find that the same home remedy, home treatment using essential oils for treatment of acne works great for the natural treatments of rosacea. You may want to give this natural home remedy a try to treat your rosacea, too."

Nature's Healing Pharmacy

Amazon.com rating: 5 stars
Two ratings
New book, Kindle $9.99

The journey toward wellness can be relative, with a chronic condition like fibromyalgia or arthritis, because "well" isn't part of the mix.  No cures, but fortunately there are many ways to seek relief without the side effects of prescription medications.  One such avenue leads to Illinois, where Pam Taylor, ND, practices.  She's written a new book, "Simple Ways of Healing," that includes many, many simple blends of essential oils for dozens of common ailments and conditions.

http://pamelataylornd.com/



Amazon.com rating:  4.5 stars
Eight ratings
New paperback $13.29

Three of Taylor's more complicated blends are published in Kurt Schnaubelt's book, "The Healing Intelligence of Essential Oils."  I highly recommend the pain relief blend formula shared by Taylor with Schnaubelt's readers.  My first batch is working very well, particularly to relieve muscular and connective tissue pain that develops overnight. 

Please use the amazon.com link on this blog to shop for these excellent books; the pennies I'll earn on your purchases will be going toward my daughter's college fund!

Sample Essential Oils at Home

Amazon.com rating:
Five stars, 125 customer
reviews
$19.90 + shipping

From Amazon.com:

Eucalyptus, Lavender, Lemongrass, Peppermint, Sweet Orange & Tea Tree (10 ml each)
"All Edens Garden oils are 100% Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade Essential Oil - no fillers, additives, bases or carriers added."

From Barb:

I'm using Edens Garden essential oils and love them.  Excellent customer service, outstanding prices, check out the very high number of top ratings from Amazon customers.  You can get free shipping by ordering $75 in products directly from the company at www.edensgarden.com, too.  Add jojoba oil and other carrier oils -- you'll add just a few drops of essential oils into an ounce of jojoba or even olive oil from your pantry (EVOO, cold pressed).  Essential oils are very strong and with a few exceptions, are rarely used "neat"  (full strength).  Edens Garden also offers a "create your own" set for $19.95 -- choose six oils from a very large array.  Hint for gifts:  These sets are beautifully boxed.

Rocky Mountain Oils

Here's another company to check out ... I'm interested in their backstory. Looks like they left the multi-level marketing world and now offer several blends that compete with Young Living's top sellers.  Nice online beginner's guide, informative and easy to use charts on blended products.
http://www.rockymountainoils.com/

Complete Book of Essential Oils and Aromatherapy

Library Journal review posted by Amazon.com:



Published 1991
Amazon.com ratings: 155
Average rating: 4.5
Price: $5.85 to $12.63

"There are plenty of good books on herbs, and some of them devote a chapter to essential oils, but there's nothing comparable to Worwood's work. Her premise is different from other herbalists--she believes that the most effective way to use herbs medicinally is by external application or inhalation. Both methods allow the essential oil to enter the bloodstream without passing through the digestive tract. Her grasp of basic physiology is somewhat confused, but there's nothing dangerous in her suggestions. (Worwood runs an aromatherapy clinic in England and conducts research on aromatherapy.) Her book prescribes oils for everything from basic first aid and treating common ailments to natural cosmetics and body care, fragrance for the home and office, and cooking with essential oils. A good addition to alternative medicine collections."

NOTE: Some reviewers note a lack of safety cautions for essential oils.

Vanilla Facial Toner

From Mountain Rose Herbs:

Ingredients
2 organic vanilla beans
8 oz. witch hazel extract

Slice vanilla beans into small pieces.  Place in glass jar.  Cover with witch hazel extract, cap, and shake well. Store in cool, dark place for two weeks, shaking daily. 
Strain the beans from the liquid, using cheesecloth, and pour liquid into a glass bottle.

Splash face in the mornings!

Natural Face Scrub

From Edens Garden:

Ingredients
1/4 c. plain yogurt
1/4 c. conrmeal
5 drops each Patchouli, Grapefruit, and Lavendar essential oils

Mix and refrigerate one hour before using.  Store unused mixture in refrigerator.

Location, Location, Location

Soil, water, weather, farming techniques, and harvesting are all variables in the plant kingdom.  It makes sense that different strains or species can exhibit different qualities.

Without getting into the sometimes heated debate over where the "best" plants are found or how they are harvested and processed into essential oils, here are some thoughts from Kurt Schnaubelt, a chemist, author, co-director of the Pacific Institute of Aromatherapy, and essential oils retailer with global sourcing:

"Often we are asked by customers, which Lavender should I buy. A legitimate question considering the significant price differences between sauvage, population, clonal and hybrid Lavenders. Generally the subtext to these questions is, whether or not the more expensive oil packs a bigger therapeutic punch. The honest answer, in a first approximation, is probably ‘no.’ A Lavender Maillette should calm down a mosquito bite just as well as a population Lavender.

Resistance is Futile

We hear a lot about bacterial resistance to prescription medications.

Learn more about how essential oils can be helpful in the battle against bacteria and viruses, by reading "Resistance," in Chapter Two: The Bioactivity of Essential Oils ("The Healing Intelligence of Essential Oils," Kurt Schnaubelt, Ph. D., Healing Arts Press 2011).

This is a challenging read, as a scientific review of literature and detailed analysis of how the chemical properties of essential oils work on the human body.  It's also fascinating.  Several chapters also dig into specifics about essential oils and their place in healing.


Schnaubelt's Ph.D. is in chemistry and he is the co-director and founder of the Pacific Institute of Aromatherapy in California.

Define "Pure"

Lots of confusion is expected for the beginning buyer, student, or dabbler in essential oils when it comes to price and quality.  What is therapeutic grade?  How pure is pure?  When is an essential oil "authentic" or adulterated?  What does "organic" mean?  Testing terms such as gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GS, MS) sound imposing, but what do they mean?

Purity is a red herring in the world of essential oils.  Basically, you don't want additives or synthetic stretchers or fillers.  Just the good stuff, and each producer or retailer has a different way of describing their particular goodness.  This is an unregulated industry, for better and worse.  Sure, you can buy just about anything that smells good or seems affordable, but will it ease arthritic pain?  Soften a flare of fibromyalgia?  Clean your kitchen without adding toxins to the environment?  Treat acne?  End a week of insomnia?  Scent your skin with lasting delicacy?  You get the idea.

There are thousands of years of wisdom awaiting the careful beginner and prudent practitioner of essential oils.  Avail thyself.  This blog includes time-saving direct links to many sources that in turn offer a wealth of selection and information about essential oils and blends.  

If you want to jump right in, visit any of the companies profiled so far in this blog and do these things:

1. Read and adhere to the disclaimers that always appear on more trustworthy websites about diagnosis or treatment of ailments. 
2. Read each description of an essential oil or blend, including what it's meant to do or when it shouldn't be used. Respect safety and caution statements. 
3. Look for country of origin or batch numbers.  That's a clue about production quality.
4. Check for availability of material data sheets or product support information. 
5. Test every product on a small patch of your hand before slathering.  Be sensible and safe.
6. Keep a log of what you use and how you feel.  Experiment.  Test.  Record.  Compare. Evaluate.  Enjoy!

If the purity conundrum intrigues you, read on.  There's plenty of debate over authenticity and testing that really doesn't settle who has the "best" product for the price.  It helps to have a general idea of how the industry processes plant materials for their essential oils, and how different companies try to distinguish themselves from one another. 

First, read "Essential Oil 101" by Edens Garden, a small California producer of essential oils and blends.  You'll get a pretty clear picture of how plant parts can be processed into potent essential oils.

Second, digest these observations about "therapeutic grade" oils from Essential Oil Exchange, a very new membership cooperative launched in 2012 in New York.  Here's the introduction:

"For the most effective aromatherapy purposes, essential oils should be therapeutic grade… but what does that really mean? Since there is no organization that oversees therapeutic quality like there are for organic standards, the Essential Oil Exchange (EOX) has its own position and standards for the oils we offer. It is our premise that essential oils should be therapeutic-grade in order to have true aromatherapy benefits."

Next, consider this viewpoint from Original Swiss Aromatics, an essential oils firm doing business in California since 1983. 

Original Swiss Aromatics
"We maintain that knowing the producer is the best safeguard against adulteration. While we also analyze our essential oils by GC/MS, we do know that analysis alone has not kept adulterated oils out of aromatherapy. To the contrary, analysis hype is often used to sell cleverly adulterated oils. However, a specific essential oil from a specific producer and a given batch, can be matched against the fingerprint of the original. It's authenticity can be established without a doubt." http://originalswissaromatics.com/eofaq.asp

It all boils down to shopping with your eyes open and trying different products that seem to meet reasonable standards.  I'm currently using products from Edens Garden, DoTerra, and Mountain Rose Herbs.  I like them all.  DoTerra makes some products I can't get elsewhere, and likewise for Mountain Rose.  Edens Garden makes their own essential oils and sells direct, for prices considerably lower than DoTerra.  Is there a discernible difference?  I'll keep you posted!

Kitchen Sink Scrub

From Edens Garden:

Ingredients
1/2 c. baking soda
1/8 c. vinegar
5 drops each Bergamot and Lime essential oils

Mix and scrub kitchen sink.  Wash down with warm water.

Edens Garden

My first blends with essential oils from Edens Garden are getting the job done.

Using a recipe from Pam Taylor N.D. (naturopathic doctor), published in Kurt Schnaubelt's book, "The Healing Intelligence of Essential Oils," I blended several carrier oils and essential oils. I filled two 30-ml bottles and three roller-ball applicators (approximately another 30 ml, total), and applied a bit of leftover blend directly to my overstressed neck, back and shoulders.  The relief was palpable and fast.

Edens Garden is based in southern California.  I like the detailed information provided on each oil and blend, as well as the company values statements and incredibly fast shipping.

http://www.edensgarden.com/index.php?route=common/home

Essential Oil Exchange

Check out this membership approach to accessing essential oils, from a very new cooperative venture.  There is an interesting article that addresses therapeutic grade oils in clear layperson terms.

http://www.essentialoilexchange.com

White Lotus Aromatics

Literate.  Enlightening.  Irresistible.

http://www.whitelotusaromatics.com/

Dig deeply into this treasure trove,  shared by Christopher and Suzanna McMahon of Washington state. Follow your nose and see if you end up in India, where the art of Aromatherapy goes back thousands of years.  McMahon's passion is easy to appreciate through his prose and the company's distinctively described essential oils and other aromatics.

Original Swiss Aromatics

Informative, top-notch science, highly respected experts and products.
http://originalswissaromatics.com/

This company was created by Kurt Schnaubelt, Ph.D. (a director of the Pacific Institute of Aromatherapy) and other experts in the field to answer a need for reliably pure, superior essential oils.  Browsing the website is fun, fascinating, and remarkably educational.

Schnaubelt posts infrequently, but with worthwhile depth, in this blog.  If you can find a subscribe link in his blog, please post here!  
http://www.kurtschnaubelt.com/

Schnaubelt's book, "The Healing Intelligence of Essential Oils," is great reading and an invaluable resource.  If you please, purchase it using the product link found in this blog.  Thanks!

Mountain Rose Herbs

An admirable company, with excellent bits and pieces to inform the beginning student as well as many products and recipes for folks who are ready to discover essential oils.

http://mountainroseherbs.com

In the Beginning

Welcome.
Health and happiness to you!
Join me in a worldwide search for the best in essential oils and their many applications.