Aromatic Studies Blog
Do essential oils contain vitamins?
Over this past weekend a student of ours wrote the following: "my question is....a friend of mine (naturopathic doctor) has been approached a couple of times regarding citrus oils being a good source of vitamin C. This seemed like an easy question to handle when she...
Make Your Own Love Potion
Make Your Own Love Potion Let your mind slowly drift and picture yourself in an era many years ago..in the 1st century B.C. in Egypt. Cleopatra was setting sail on the Nile with her entourage, her handmaidens busily scenting her sails with jasmine to announce her...
Vegetable oils: Moisturizing and/or Emollient
There seems to be some confusion over the concept of moisturizer versus emollient. To moisturize tends to imply 'to put water into the skin' or to hydrate. An emollient, on the other hand, softens and soothes the skin. Vegetable oils are more emollient than...
Aromatherapy in Budapest, Hungary
Gergely Hollodi studied with me a number of years ago and then we met about two to three years ago in person while I was in Seattle. I was so impressed with his work throughout both our Aroma101 and Aroma201 programs and truly loved meeting him in person. He is...
The King of Spices
Black Pepper Piper nigrum Other names: Hu Jiao (TCM), Marica (Sanskrit) I have found myself quite drawn to all the warming essential oils this winter. Ginger was posted on our blog here. And here is a much loved spice: Black pepper! Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is a...
Beloved Ginger
Zingiber officinale Falling in love with Ginger! Over the past couple of weeks I have found myself quite drawn to ginger and have used it as a tea, a body scrub, a body oil, an additive into our humidifier, a divine bathing experience, and simply to inhale via direct...
Reflecting on the loss of connection with plants
Stephen Harrod Buhner believes “that the loss of connection to plants, to the land, to Earth, leaves the holes with which we are naturally born unfilled. No matter how much Ritalin or Prozac is poured into those holes, synthetic pharmaceuticals can never fill them;...
May…. An Aromatic Feast
The following is for the Blogfest created by Roxana Villa for May Flowers.http://journal.illuminatedperfume.com/2010/04/may-flowers.html I walk outside this evening after a day of heavy much needed rain. The relief the plants and the earth feel is apparent. All that...
Ravintsara vs Ravensara: What’s the difference?
What's the difference between Ravintsara and Ravensare? This is my attempt at understanding the differences, the misinformation and the controversy of these two essential oils. Ravintsara and Ravensara are both obtained from trees belonging in the Lauraceae family....
Advent: Blog-a-roma
http://journal.illuminatedperfume.com/2009/11/adventure-ahead.html “Plants mean nothing in isolation; they are a life-form rooted in and identified by their community, by their relationships to and interactions with all other life on Earth”. (Buhner) I...
What’s growing in your garden?
By garden, I mean anything from the actual garden that you planted on your land to the plants growing up through the cracks in the city (e.g., St. John’s Wort in the sidewalks of Seattle). Your garden includes the natural landscape which you can drive to, walk to, or...
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