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‘Scent-ual’ ways to enhance your outdoor enjoyment this summer

Jennifer — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 02:15:46 +0000

(ARA) – Every season has its signature scents and summer is no exception. What summer scent stimulates your senses? Is it freshly mown grass? Or perhaps the faint smell of coconut that makes you think of sunscreen and summer afternoons at the beach? Or even the fragrant hint of lavender or rose from the flower garden?

You can celebrate the scents of summer – and even recapture the emotions those aromas evoke long after summer fades – by using essential oils in practical ways for an outdoor aromatherapy experience. Tom Havran, aromatherapy expert and product developer at Aura Cacia, offers the following tips to maximize your “scent-ual” summer.

* Before-Sun Shea Body Butter
Natural shea butter provides slight sun protection for the skin. Although it is no substitute for a proven over-the-counter product with a high SPF, shea butter can be used as a fine, natural base prior to outdoor activity and application of a commercial sun block.

To make your own before-sun shea body butter, melt together 3 ounces of shea butter and 1 ounce of grapeseed or jojoba oil until just liquefied. Remove the mixture from heat and let it partially cool until it takes on a hazy color. Then mix in 18 drops of lavender essential oil and pour the mixture into a small jar. Smooth your homemade body butter on your skin prior to applying commercial sunscreen.

* Cool Fan Tip
Before the age of electric fans and air conditioning, a hand-held fan was a practical way to move hot, stagnant air away from the face and neck, thereby providing evaporative cooling. A hand-held fan is still easy and practical. Waving a fan is so much more fun and effective than waving one’s hand (especially to shoo away summertime bugs).

Enhance your fan’s effectiveness by applying a few drops of cooling peppermint oil and insect-repellent citronella oil. This is a particularly convenient way to use these oils if you don’t want to apply them directly to the skin.

* Lavender After-Sun Mist
Invariably, exposure to the sun has a cumulative, detrimental effect on the skin. Lavender essential oil is often included in therapeutic skin care products because of its highly regarded soothing, healing and toning effects.

To make your own soothing and cooling lavender skin mist, mix 4 ounces of purified water or chilled peppermint tea, 1 tablespoon of aloe juice or extract, 21 drops of lavender essential oil and six drops of peppermint essential oil in a spray-mister bottle. Shake and lightly mist skin after exposure to sun. Always shake well before use. Avoid eyes and sensitive areas. Chill bottle and contents before application for added relief.

* Aromatherapy Simmering Pot for the Grill
After dinner is served on the patio the bugs seem to move in — just when you are trying to enjoy the food. Utilize the residual heat of the grill by simmering a pan of water to which you’ve added a blend of insect-repelling essential oils such as citronella, palmarossa, lemongrass, geranium and lavender. Enhance the brew with some aromatic botanicals such as peppermint leaves, lemon and sprigs of herbs such as rosemary and thyme.

* Evening Candle Applications
As your outdoor day moves into evening, candles are often used to provide light and ambience to the setting. Rather than the ubiquitous citronella-fragranced commercial candles or the smoking tiki torch, seek out decorative aromatherapy candle lamps to which you can add your own custom blend of essential oils. These usually come with a well to add water and a few drops of essential oils.

For more ideas on using essential oils for summertime activities, visit www.auracacia.com/summer.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

Holiday Scents Boost Holiday Spirits

Jennifer — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:28:37 +0000

Tip: Add a festive scent to the fireplace by putting one or two drops of essential oils on the log.

What pops into your head when you think about holidays? Sugarplums? Or do you see yourself trying to balance work and family with gifts, baking and parties?

You’re not alone. But there is a way to both enhance the holidays and comfort yourself during a hectic holiday season — aromatherapy.

Aromatherapy uses pure essential oils to relax, balance and rejuvenate. And some scents can do the double duty of creating a festive holiday atmosphere at the same time.

Surround Yourself With Seasonal Scents
Start with some scents to fill your rooms. Certain essential oils are ideal — clove, cinnamon, pine, fir needle, Texas cedarwood, cypress and juniper berry all lend cheer. Leading aromatherapy brand Aura Cacia even offers a special holiday blend, Orange Pomander, just for the season.

There are numerous options for diffusing the scents into the atmosphere of a room, such as simmering a blend of holiday cheer right on your stove top. Try filling a saucepan full of water and adding 10 drops cassia bark, 5 drops clove, 20 drops sweet orange, and 5 drops of vanilla.

Add a festive scent to the fireplace by putting one or two drops of essential oils on the log. Apply a drop and let it sit for a few minutes before putting the log into the fire. Some oils to try: frankincense, cypress, pine, fir, juniper berry and Texas cedarwood. Diffusing refreshing oils like peppermint and citrus may be just the thing to re-energize your family and guests after a big holiday meal.

And the tree — it’s the original source of holiday aromatherapy! Adding essential oils to the water in your tree stand is a quick way to diffuse holiday scents. Or spray an oil and water blend directly onto both natural and artificial trees for a fresh-cut aroma. Try 20 drops of pine, fir or juniper essential oil in a spritzer with 1 ounce of water.

Give Yourself a Break
You may find yourself on your feet for long periods during the holidays — shopping, cleaning or attending gatherings. To ease your fatigue, add a few drops of essential oil to your bath or try this foot soak:

Revitalizing Foot Soak
2 Tbsp. sea salt
1 Tbsp. Epsom salts
1 Tbsp. sodium bicarbonate or baking soda
1 Tbsp. French white clay powder
12 drops lavender oil
2 drops peppermint oil
1 drop spearmint oil

When you get the chance to sleep or do some serous relaxing, treat yourself to jasmine or vanilla essential oils or a pre-blended nocturnal formula like Aura Cacia’s Pillow Potion.

Share the Gift of Aromatherapy
You can also enhance the holidays by treating your gift recipients to the power of aromatherapy. It’s a thoughtful and creative way to make your gifts truly personal. Offer a festive container filled with coarse sea salt and your favorite essential oil blend. It can be used in the bath, or displayed to scent the air. Try 20 drops of rose, 20 drops of lavender and 10 drops of neroli to about 2 cups of salt. A small pinch of baking soda makes the blend very softening to the skin. To make a bath salt fizz, add a bit of vitamin C powder.

Spritzers are fun gifts. Buy a glass or aluminum spray bottle, blend your favorite oils and add water. To create one with the holiday scent of an orange pomander, use these essential oils: 40 drops orange, 40 drops vanilla, 15 drops clove.

If you want to introduce friends to aromatherapy, give them an Aura Cacia Aromatherapy Deck — it’s filled with enough aromatherapy information and recipes to keep them busy until next Christmas.

For more ideas and recipes, check out www.auracacia.com.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

Want to Relax? Try Pure Lavender Essential Oil

Jennifer — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 18:47:17 +0000

It seems that lavender, or the scent of it, is everywhere – candles, hand lotions, shampoo, bath gel, air freshener, even laundry detergent. It’s the most widely used and best-selling essential oil. Why is lavender so popular?

According to Tim Blakley, aromatherapy author and educator, pure lavender essential oils offer benefits for the body, mind and spirit. “Lavender provides a calming and soothing effect that can help relax the user. It’s also emotionally uplifting and stimulating if one is feeling overwhelmed, irritable or distracted,” he explains.

To benefit from lavender, make sure you’re using pure essential oil and not a synthetic fragrance. Check the product label and look for the words “Lavendula angustifolia.” There are other types of lavender essential oil, but they come from inferior hybrids that don’t produce the optimum benefits of pure Lavendula angustifolia.

Blakley says it’s important to know the difference between synthetic fragrances and pure essential oils. “Synthetic, petroleum-based lavender fragrances do not provide the same effect as essential oils. They simply imitate the scent,” he says. “Fragrances are extracted from petrochemicals, while essential oils are distilled from plants, which are sustainable and renewable. Because the imitation scents are more apt to trigger adverse reactions such as irritation, headaches and toxicity, they aren’t appropriate for use in aromatherapy. Unlike the synthetics, pure essential oils are both therapeutic and smell great. I recommend Aura Cacia essential oils because they are 100 percent pure.”

It’s easy to purchase pure lavender essential oil and use it for yourself and around the house. Most natural products and health food stores carry essential oils, such as Aura Cacia, which also offers a full line of lavender aromatherapy products, including massage, bath, body care and more. Here are a few simple ways to take advantage of the aromatherapy benefits of lavender.

For yourself:

* Touch a drop of lavender oil behind your ears to alleviate motion sickness.
* Rub a few drops of lavender oil on your pillow case to help you sleep.
* A drop of lavender oil on a bug bite helps take away the swelling and itch.
* Apply diluted lavender oil to chapped or damaged skin to protect and soothe it. Massage the oil around scar tissue to reduce the appearance of scars.
* Diluted lavender oil applied under the arms acts as an effective natural deodorant.
* To relax and soak away tension, add six to eight drops of lavender oil to bath water.
* If you’ve spent too many hours in the sun, help cool sunburn by mixing several drops of lavender oil into cool water then spritzing onto skin.
* To help relax, light a candle and allow to burn for a few minutes, then add several drops of lavender oil to the melted wax.
* When you’re feeling irritable or mentally distracted, place a couple of drops of lavender oil on a tissue and inhale the scent to regain mental balance.

For your home:

* Add a few drops of lavender oil to your laundry rinse cycle for great-smelling clothes or linens.
* To freshen bed linens between washings, add a few drops to a spray bottle filled with water and lightly mist pillows and sheets before climbing in.
* Add 10 drops of lavender oil to a box of baking soda, mix well and let sit for one to two days. Sprinkle on rugs and carpets, wait one hour and then vacuum. The carpets will be clean and the whole house will smell fantastic.
* Eliminate smelly shoes by adding a few drops of lavender oil to the inner soles.
* Moths and flies don’t like lavender oil. Sprinkle it on the outside of your window frames to create a virtual insect barrier.
* Lavender has antiseptic and antimicrobial properties that make it a great household cleaner. To clean tubs, sinks and toilets, sprinkle baking soda and four to six drops of lavender oil onto a sponge and scrub, rinsing the area well.

An excellent educational video with practical uses is available at www.auracacia.com. You can also purchase 100 percent pure lavender essential oil while you’re visiting the Web site.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

Spring Cleaning — Keep it Pure and Simple

Jennifer — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 15:34:22 +0000

The best part of spring cleaning is opening the doors and windows to welcome fresh air and sunshine. Why not add to that spring freshness with natural cleaners?

Taken from the flowers, bark, leaves, and other parts of plants, essential oils are as natural as fresh air and sunshine. Many have their own properties as disinfectants, grease cutters and deterrents to pests — and they impart fresh and pleasing aromas that linger long after your chores are finished.

Natural cleaning products are increasingly available in stores, but you can also easily and economically make your own mixtures with just a few basic ingredients. Chances are some of these ingredients, such as baking soda, white vinegar and borax, are already in your cupboards. One hundred percent pure essential oils can be found at natural products stores or online at www.auracacia.com.

Homemade natural cleaning products are versatile; many can be used for a variety of tasks. Because essential oils are in a highly concentrated form, often only a few drops are needed for a solution that can take you through several cleaning cycles. Not only do you save money — your homemade cleansers will work just as well as commercially produced cleaners without harming the environment.

“Choices abound,” says Tom Havran, aromatherapy product developer. “From pine or lemon oil, whose essences suggest more traditional cleaning aromas, to tea tree and grapefruit, which people might not think of as cleaning ingredients.”

Not sure which oil to start with? Here are some of Havran’s suggestions:

* Pine is inexpensive and clean smelling. It is effective as both a disinfectant and deodorizer.

* Lavender has a pleasing scent, is anti-bacterial and deters insects such as moths.

* Tea tree oil has a sharp, spicy scent and is a good disinfectant and deodorizer.

* Lemon is fresh and clean smelling. It’s also acidic, providing antibacterial and antiseptic cleaning properties.

* Grapefruit has a clean and uplifting aroma that eliminates odors — even strong pet odors.

Making your own cleaning products with essential oils can be as simple as mixing 15 to 20 drops of any essential oil into a cup of baking soda, letting the mixture stand overnight so the oil can be absorbed, and then sprinkling the powder on carpet before you vacuum.

You can also make a quick and easy disinfecting toilet bowl cleanser by combining one cup of water, one-quarter cup of liquid castile soap and 20 drops of white thyme, lavender or lemon essential oil in a 22-oz. spray bottle.

Spring is a time of renewal that offers a perfect opportunity to replace chemical cleansers with pure and natural essential oils. Your whole family, including your pets, will benefit.

For more spring-cleaning formulas you can make yourself with essential oils visit www.auracacia.com/springcleaning. While you’re there, be sure to get more information about Aura Cacia’s live web chats with host Tim Blakley, and download previous chats to learn more about using essential oils that benefit you and your family, naturally.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

The Facts About Vanilla Essential Oil

Jennifer — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 03:35:32 +0000

Besides just smelling good, vanilla essential oil is a very interesting product. Vanilla oil is used to flavor different kinds products. It is also used to make perfumes and skin scrubs. Vanilla essential oil’s scent is a known sensual aphrodisiac, which may be why it is an ingredient in Oriental type perfumes.

Many people find the vanilla scent very comforting and relaxing. It can be used to fend off a multitude of maladies from an anxiety attack to a headache. Vanilla essential oil should not be eaten, though. It’s not toxic, but it could be desensitizing to your tongue and throat.

Here is a simple face scrub recipe that can be made with vanilla essential oil called “Peppermint Vanilla Sugar Scrub”. Mix together two cups of packed brown sugar, one half-cup of sweet almond oil and one half-cup of fine salt in a big bowl. Then add ten drops of vanilla essential oil and nine drops of peppermint essential oil. Mix well and store in an airtight container. This scrub will stay good for several weeks in a refrigerator.

Use your scrub while in a warm shower or tub on clean skin. Take a handful of scrub and rub it on the skin you want to exfoliate in a circular motion. This scrub is especially good for softer skin like arms and legs. You may need to use a coarser salt for areas like the feet to scrub off the thicker dead skin.

What Makes Vanilla Essential Oil “Essential”?

Essential oil is a liquid that contains strong aroma molecules from plants. Vanilla essential oil has the essence of vanilla and that is why it is called “essential” oil. To make vanilla essential oil the green fruit of the vanilla plant are picked and then cured, fermented, and dried, which turn the fruit into a brown vanilla bean. The vanilla oil is extracted from Vanilla folia by a process called enfleurage, which uses fats to capture the essence expelled by the vanilla bean. The beans are hung over the fat on grates or mixed directly into the fat in what is called solvent extraction. The vanilla scented fat is separated from the essence by soaking it in ethyl alcohol to draw the fragrance into the alcohol. The alcohol is then distilled and what is left over is the essential oil. The oil is then bottled for use.
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Suggested Uses For Aromatherapy Essential Oil

Jennifer — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 02:41:55 +0000

Aromatherapy quality essential oils can be a bit pricey, but a little goes a long way. If they are 100% essential oil, then you only need a few drops per use. You can sometimes get a price discount if the essential oil has already been blended with a carrier oil like apricot kernel, jojoba or even olive oil. Then you can use the oil straight from the bottle. Most 100% straight essential oils will be WAY too strong to put directly onto the skin.

The Bath

The easiest and most luxurious way of suing your essential oils is in the bath or added to a footbath. Run the bath first, and then put the essential oils in the water after it is full. Swirl the water around for a mix, then slip in and soak. Use no more than 6 or 7 drops of essential oil in your bath or footbath; otherwise it might be too strong for your skin. Stay in the tub or footbath for at least ten minutes to get the goodness of the oils sink into your body.

Massage Oils

Another fun way to use your aromatherapy oils is with massage, whether just for one body part or all over. You want the ratio of straight essential oil to carrier oil to be 1 to 10. So, if you have 10 ml of carrier oil, use no more than 1ml of aromatherapy oil. It is best to keep a separate bowl to do the mixing of massage oils. Of course, you can also buy already mixed massage oils. Make sure your hands are warm or at least body temperature before you put them on the one getting massaged.

Compresses

Never underestimate the power of a hot or a cold compress. Cold compresses are good for sprains, strains, headaches bruises. Hot compresses are good for rheumatism, abscesses, toothache and earaches. Select a clean cloth or towel. Fill a shallow bowl with the desired temperature of water. Put in three or four drops of the selected aromatherapy oil. Then put the cloth in, let it soak, wring out the excess water and place on the area that hurts. Wrap it with a flexible bandage or plastic wrap to keep it in place. Replace when needed.

With all of these uses, you need to also use common sense with your uncommon scents. Don’t substitute these uses for a doctor’s advice. buy an aromatherapy book or check out a website to discover the medicinal properties of each essential oil.

Peppermint Oil Is An Ideal Essential Oil For Vertigo

Jennifer — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 02:51:07 +0000

If you are unfortunate enough to be suffering from vertigo, you can be forgiven for being most irritated with this very annoying condition though your annoyance should not make you forget to get it treated because it can cause further and serious complications. Anyone that suffers from vertigo will know that it makes them dizzy whenever they move up or even down and the feeling is similar to falling off a high roof though in reality all you may be doing is to stand in a corner of your room.

Not Scientifically Proven As Yet

A good method of treating this condition is to try out essential oil for vertigo which though it is effective has not yet been scientifically proven though it is still effective. This is because the scents that you get from essential oils help to promote a sense of well being and the consciousness returns to a positive frame of mind and a useful essential oil in this regard is peppermint oil.

Even though peppermint oil is a good essential oil for vertigo, it must still only be used with proper knowledge as well as understanding regarding the when and also where it must be used. This essential oil for vertigo is generally minty in appearance and will remind you of peppermint candles though it has a higher level of concentration and it also has more fragrance than that of spearmint.

You should not use this essential oil for vertigo in case of cardiac fibrillation, fever and also with epilepsy, and it is also essential to know whether to use it orally and in any case it should only be taken unless you are following the instructions of an aromatherapist that is well qualified. In addition, you should also take care that you do not use this essential oil for vertigo in undiluted form, absolutes or in considerable concentrations, and when applying it on children, you need to exercise extreme caution and ensure that you only give them a very gentle oil rub and that too in low doses.

Peppermint oil is an essential oil for vertigo that helps to stimulate your lymphatic system and it can both cool as well as warm a person depending on the level of its concentration. So, if you use it with low concentration it will greatly cool you down while the opposite happens when you use it in high concentration.