Aromatherapy Learning (4)(5)

In the next two classes, we moved on to learn the aromatic chemistry of essential oils. This included the major chemical families found in essential oils, examples of essential oils they could be found in, therapeutic actions and indications, and safety notes regarding those families.

I find that this unit helps us to better understand how essential oils work, build a deeper connection with them and allow us to appreciate them more. As with life, not all things and/or at all times are necessarily simple one-to-one direct correspondence. A(n) subject/effect can be influenced by various factors. It is helpful to be aware of the diversity and complexity of essential oils. They do not contain just one single chemical component. The chemical components within them work synergistically together, affecting many targets. Nonetheless, it is still very helpful to consider how essential oils can be used for health support from the chemistry angle (one aspect), considering their different chemical families. It will also be exciting to learn in the next few classes from other perspectives like our sense of smell, different organ systems etc. All in all, the basis is about holism, considering wellness from all aspects of health.

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Product Application

We learned how to make an Aromatic Bath Salt and Aromatic Scrub in each class respectively.

Can be used in a full body bath or foot bath. Detailed recipe can be modified if wanting to make milk bath.

One of the beauties of doing things for the first time is that sometimes unexpected things happen during experiments, and many variables can be tested the next time. An opportunity to look into it when making the next batch. It goes with practice to get better and better. The beauty with learning and growth through the process!

For the product-making learnings so far, I always based on the essential oils I had at that time before looking at other aspects to consider which oils to use for making the essential oil blend at that time. In the previous weeks, it was mostly a two-essential oil blend. This week, I was able to try some of the recipes from our recipe course book my Aromatherapy course teacher created.

For the aromatic bath salt, I adapted the essential oils blend idea from her "Pacific Breeze" diffuser recipe in her blog post [1] and modified the individual oil amounts for making this product.

For the aromatic scrub, I applied the "Uplifting Sugar Scrub" blend idea from our course recipe book and varied it slightly by substituting geranium for rose in the original recipe.

References

1. Brandenberger, H. (n.d.). 7 Benefits of Orange Essential Oil [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.scienceofessentials.com/blog/benefits-of-orange-essential-oil