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The Sweet Smells of the Holidays: Cinnamon (part 1)

November 16, 2011 by 1 Comment

Nothing evokes holiday memories than that of the aromas of holidays past. This series of blogs will focus on some of the most traditional and comforting essences surrounding Thanksgiving and Christmas. We will discuss how you can specifically add these essential oil aromas to your home to produce the warmth and joy of the holidays.

Let’s start with one of the oldest and most well known aromas: Cinnamon. History has it that at one time it was considered a popular aphrodisiac, spice and antiseptic. It was originally used by the people of Ceylon in 1505. To this day it is still a popular aroma used in oriental inspired perfumes and colognes.

Aroma: Sweet, spicy, peppery, comforting, woody, herbaceous, oriental and warm.

Aromatherapy Properties: Restorative, uplifting, comforting, provokes past memories and emotions. Medicinally, cinnamon is used for digestive and intestinal discomfort, wasp stings, sore muscles and stress related conditions. It is a wonderful house-warming scent. Cinnamon is one of the most widely used and accepted aromas because of it’s prominence in culinary practices. The scent of cinnamon will conjure up past comforting memories of “cookies baking at grandma’s house and past holiday gatherings.”

How to use it:

  • Bake and cook with it and the smell will fill your home for hours.
  • Use pure essential oils of cinnamon on a sponge and place in the microwave for 1 minute. You will sanitize your sponge and also diffuse the cinnamon smell.
  • Use pure essential oils of cinnamon in a spritz bottle and spray frequently to keep the essence fresh.

 

 

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Eucalyptus Essential Oil, just in time for cold and cough season.

September 12, 2011 by 1 Comment

Eucalyptus is one of those essential oils that has been around for centuries. It has commonly been used in Vick’s Vapo-rub for years and the scent is easily recognizable as one of minty freshness which helps to clear congestion in the chest and nasal passages.

Aromatherapy Properties: Penetrating, stimulating, refreshing, clearing, purifying. Medicinally, eucalyptus is widely used in a variety of product to combat the common cold and upper respiratory congestion. Eucalyptus is also used for insect bites and headaches. It is a natural insect repellent.

Suggested Uses: Eucalyptus is extremely effective in decreasing upper respiratory congestion when used in a steamy shower. Just sprinkle a few drops of pure eucalyptus on the shower walls, (it will not stain), turn on the hot water and step into a refreshing steam bath. Also use in a bed-side vaporizer. Eucalyptus can be used neat (which means in it’s pure form,) on sore muscles.

If you have other ideas or questions about eucalyptus, please comment here.

 

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Lavender is one of the most widely accepted aromatherapy scents.

September 3, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Aromatherapy Properties: Lavender is one of the most widely known and widely accepted essential oils known for it’s multitude of benefits and uses. Lavender can be found in hundreds of beauty, hair and baby products. It is one of only two essential oils recommended as safe to use with infant to geriatric individuals because of it’s mild scent and many therapeutic properties. Used in Aromatherapy for it’s effects of relaxation, calming, balancing, cleansing, purifying, comforting and sedating. Medicinally it is used for skin care, especially on burns and insect bites. It is helpful in cases of insomnia, depression, anxiety, hypertension and migraine.

Suggested Uses: Best use of lavender is in a fan air diffuser, diffused in a closed room at night to help with all levels of stress and anxiety. It is an excellent sleep aid and will calm a child’s fear of the dark and reduce the incidence of nightmares. Use lavender neat on the skin for minor skin irritations and insect bites. Lavender may be added to bath water (10 – 15 drops) or a basin of water (5 drops) to wash your infant to help promote feelings of calm and create a loving environment.

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Aromatherapy

August 23, 2011 by Leave a Comment

As a Certified Aromatherapist, I find it amazing how many products on the market today advertise that they provide “aromatherapy.” It’s really very unfortunate that corporate advertising agencies bank on the lack of knowledge most people have on this subject. Just because it smells good, doesn’t mean it’s providing aromatherapy in the true sense of the word.

I do have a bit of expertise in this area and at the risk of sounding like an aromatherapy snob, let me take a few minutes to enlighten those of you who truly want to know if the scent is of therapeutic benefit of not.

The actual word, “Aromatherapy,” was not used until 1928 when a French chemist, Maurice Gattefosse coined the term following an accident. Gattefosse, who was working in his lab, experienced severe burns on both hands after an explosion. He immediately massaged pure lavender oil on his hands for relief. He noticed how his hands healed quickly and with very little scarring and thus began researching the therapeutic benefits of essential oils in plants. He is known as the “Father of Aromatherapy.”

But what is Aromatherapy, and why does it work? Aromatherapy, quite simply means natural healing using the essential oils of fragrant plants to achieve mental, emotional and physical well-being. Only the pure essential oils of plants can be used to achieve the therapeutic benefits of true Aromatherapy. The essential oil is the purest part of a plant, known to Aromatherapists as the “life force” of the plant. Aromatherapy can very simply be thought of as “nature’s first medicine.” Before we had pills, capsules and injections, man used nature’s medicines via Aromatherapy.

Certified Aromatherapists will tell you, if the oil is diluted or mixed with anything other than pure ingredients such as water or other natural oils then it is not therapeutic and the price should be adjusted accordingly. Many products use alcohol, preservatives and other fillers. These adjuncts dilute and sometimes erase the therapeutic benefits of pure essential oils. The essential oil of a plant is the pure essence of that plant, and it often times takes many, many pounds of a single plant to yield just a few ounces and that is why some essential oils seem so very expensive. The bottle of bath oil, selling for $2.99, may state on the label “pure roman chamomile,” but chances are there are probably just a few drops in the entire bottle and just enough to give off a roman chamomile fragrance.

If you have questions or comments about aromatherapy, please post them here. I plan to write several articles on the different essential oils and their therapeutic benefits.

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Our Sense of Smell

August 23, 2011 by 1 Comment

Smell is a very direct sense. In order for us to smell something, the item must distribute molecules into the air. These molecules are light, volatile chemicals that float through the air and into our nasal passages. Does everything have a smell? The short answer is “no,” because not all materials give off molecules. An example is a bar of steel, it has no smell because nothing evaporates from it, it is a non-volatile solid.

So how does our sense of smell work? At the top of our nasal passages, behnd the nose, is a patch of special neurons about the size of a postage stamp. These neurons are unique in that they are exposed to air and they have small hair-like projections called cilia that increase their surface area. When an odor molecule comes in contact with the cilia, it triggers the neuron, and you perceive the smell.

Humans are able to distinguish over 10,000 different odor molecules. We use our sense of smell in a variety of activities from enjoying freshed baked cookies, to deciding who we sit next to in a room. The sense of smell is directly linked to feelings such as relaxation, sensuality, happiness and self-confidence. It plays an essential role in who we are attracted to. How does this happen? When we smell, the odor stimulates the olfactory pathways to the limbic system which is also called the “pleasure center,” of the brain. This is were we store our feelings.

Odor also plays an important role in jogging one’s memory. Have you ever walked past a bakery and thought, “oh that smells like grandma’s house?”  Or smell a certain after-shave lotion and think, “that reminds me of my dad?”

Here are some interesting facts about the sense of smell…

  • All flavors come from smell. Without the sense of smell you can’t taste the difference between an apple or an onion.
  • A physical attraction between two human beings depends more on smell than on any other attribute.
  • Olfactory cells are renewed every 28 days, so every month you get a new nose.
  • Our sense of smell is more connected to emotion than any other sense.
  • Smells can alter and influence our moods and behaviors.
  • There are some websites dedicated to explaining our sense of smell such as the Sense of Smell Institute.

 

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