Making Your Own Aromatherapy Essential Oils

Aromatherapy is becoming one of the most popular alternative methods of achieving psychological and physical well-being. It involves the use of several kinds of scents by means of essential oils – the distilled essences of aromatic plants.

Distillation of essential oils isn’t an easy process, and it requires time, money, equipment and tons of knowledge in chemistry. Of course you can come scrambling for the nearest natural health and beauty products stores to buy essential oils. But you might be surprised that they don’t come cheap. The price of essential oils greatly depends on the rarity of the plant, the amount of oil yielded by the plant, and where the plant is grown and harvested.

But did you know that you can actually make your very own essential oils right in your own home, and without all those chemistry laboratory apparatuses?

To begin, you’ll need a collection of glass jars and bottles. You need not purchase them; you can simply recycle them from marmalade or jam jars or any bottle available. However, you must make sure that they’re clean and sterilized. How do you sterilize them? It’s as easy as cleaning them first in hot soapy water, then boiling them in a large pan for 20-30 minutes. Make sure that while boiling, they’re completely soaked in water, and that their insides are filled with water as well.

The next step is gathering your plants. Now you should ask yourself: what sort of essential oil do you need? Do you need something that will relax your mind? Or do you need something that will help keep you alert? There’s plenty of time for that. But in the meantime, since this is your very first attempt at making your very own essential oils, it’s best to stick with common strong aromatic plants like rose, lavender or rosemary. These 3 are some of the most popular scents out there, and are great to keep at home because they help uplift you mood, heal minor skin injuries like cuts, abrasions and burns, and are a great additive to your cooking too!

You should get at least a cup of their petals. Now the oil that will serve as a base should be related to the purpose you have in mind. If you intend use your essential oils for massage or cosmetic purposes, you can use either baby oil or almond oil. If you intend to use your essential oils for cooking, you can use olive oil. You may also use safflower or canola oils.

Place the petals inside the sterilized glass jars or bottles. You may also place stems of the plants. Now pour the oil of your choice, again depending on the purpose you have in mind, making sure that the jars or bottles are full. It is recommended that you use 2 cups of oil base for every 1 cup of plant material.

The next step is capping the jars or bottles tightly and placing them in a warm spot in the house. This could be on the window sill where the sun shines directly, next to the heater, or in a spot close to the back of the refrigerator. Leave it there for a few days for the oil to infuse, or until the petals and the stems begin to brown.

If the aromatherapy essential oil is not strong enough for you after a few days, you can simply replace the plant materials with fresh ones, and leave to infuse for more days.

How to Utilize Aromatherapy for Home Use

We are living in a busy and sometimes crazy world. For sure, there are days when you feel like everything seems to be happening so fast. If you feel stressed out and pressured, aromatherapy can do wonders for you. You don’t need to go to professionals to be treated to this. You can subject yourself to such experience at the comfort of your own homes.

You cannot do anything wrong in this regard. If you are new with the concept, there are many resources that you can turn to in order to learn more about the matter. Here are only some suggestions as to where you can start looking for articles about the topic.

1. The Internet

The World Wide Web is known to be a vast source of information about anything and everything that you are looking for. There are sites that cater solely about the topics of essential oils and their applications. There are also sites that contain many different articles that include the one that you are looking for. The only thing that you have to do is click your PC’s mouse away until you find the best piece where you can learn a lot from.

2. Books

Visit your local bookstore and look into the section of relaxation and other forms of therapies and the likes. For sure, you will be able to find a great book written by someone who lives in your locality. This way, you can readily apply what the author talks about in the book because you have same mentality and exposed to mostly the same things and experiences.

Even with the sudden surge of the popularity of the Internet, once in a while, it will not hurt to check out the printed form to gain more knowledge about the things that you want to know more about.

3. Other people

If you know someone who is exposed to the method or maybe, they also know of other people who have done it, talk to them. You will be able to open yourself to many other things that these people can share with you. Learn from such conversations. Take a mental note about the mistakes that they have done in the matter so that you will be able to veer away from taking such route.

Home Spa

After you have gained everything that you want to know about the process, you can start creating a more homey feel into your own house. Set up the things that you will need to start such process. Here are some of the easiest things that you can do at home.

1. Enjoy your baths by adding a few drops of your favorite aromas of essential oils into the water. This can leave you feeling soft and smelling good. This will definitely ease out the stresses that your day at work brought about.

2. You can also use the oils on compresses in curing various aches and ailments. The smell will relax your mind and the oils will help to heal whatever it is that is causing your discomfort.

3. Ask your partner or even your children to give you a massage using the oils. You can take turns in the process. This is one great bonding activity while you help yourself regain energy and physical strength by soothing your muscles and relaxing your mind.

4. This can also be merely inhaled. Such method of aromatherapy is typically applied if you want to cure respiratory ailments. Usually, this is done by adding a few drops of oils like eucalyptus, tea tree and rosemary to a container full of hot water. You will inhale the steam coming from that and instantly, you will feel the kind of comfort that you want to experience.

5 Popular Aromatherapy Scents

It seems that there is an appropriate aromatherapy scent for your every need. No matter if what you need is to alter your mood, achieve a sense of well-being or relieve minor health conditions, there is a corresponding scent to do the job well. The following are 5 of the most popular scents.

Chamomile

The flowers of the chamomile plant look like tiny daisies but smell like apples instead. Grown for many years now because of its various healing properties, chamomile is best known for its calming effects, thus helping one to achieve a very restful sleep. It is also effective for relieving the symptoms of PMS, menopause and hyperactivity among kids. The oil from chamomile flowers can help ease muscle aches and tensions, headaches and joint pains. Drinking tea made from the petals helps stimulate appetite and calm upset stomach. Unlike other essential oils, chamomile is mild enough to help ease your baby’s colic, thus helping him or her achieve sleep.

Eucalyptus

With about 300 varieties, eucalyptus has long been a vital ingredient in cough medications because its scent, which helps open up and clear nasal passages. Eucalyptus oil is also used to scent mouthwashes, aftershaves, colognes and other household cleansers. The effects of eucalyptus on the mind and body include: relief from mental fatigue, improves mental alertness, lessen muscle tension and help boost the immune system. It is also a widely-used disinfectant and insect repellant. However, if used in large amounts, eucalyptus essential oil can be toxic. Also, while it is great for relieving the symptoms of sinusitis and lung congestion, it is not intended for use during an asthma attack.

Lavender

Lavender has long been associated with cleanliness ever since the Romans first used it as an additive to their bathwater. Today, it is still a favorite for scenting perfumes, soaps, air fresheners, fabric softeners, disinfectants and many others. Lavender is one of the safest and most widely-used essential oils, known to have an uplifting and relaxing effect. If used in large amounts, lavender can be stimulating. It also helps improve digestion, reduce swelling, ease muscle tension and is proven effective for treating minor skin injuries such as burns, cuts, scrapes, and rashes.

Peppermint

Peppermint is popular because of its powerful, mint and distinctive fragrance. It is a common ingredient in all sort of products like ice cream, liqueurs, mouthwashes, toothpastes, desserts, cosmetics, household cleansers and many more. Peppermint essential oil is used in liniments to increase blood flow to a body part, thus relieving muscle spasms and arthritis. It is also known to uplift the mood, relieve mental fatigue, improve alertness and enhance memory. Known to be able to kill many bacteria and viruses, peppermint is used for treating ringworm, scabies, herpes simplex and poison oak.

Rosemary

With its herbaceous, woody and camphorous odor, it is not surprising that rosemary has a wide variety of uses, from the ancient times until today. It became a staple during weddings and funerals in the ancient times. It was used as an ingredient in cosmetics as early as the 14th century. Today it is a popular ingredient in liniments, massage oils and bath products. Rosemary is excellent in improving blood circulation, relieving sore throat and lung congestion, and helpful in improving digestion.

It also helps relieve mental fatigue, uplift the mood and enhance mental alertness and memory when used as an aromatherapy scent.

What is Aromatherapy

Ever heard of aromatherapy? Well, it is nothing new and a lot of people are using it. Basically, it is the practice of using essential oils to boost your psychological and physical well-being.

There are over 90 different types of essentials oils in aromatherapy. Evidence shows that this was first used by the Chinese centuries ago to enhance their well being while the Egyptians used it for cosmetic, fragrant, medicinal and spiritual purposes.

In the centuries that followed, aromatherapy spread from the Far East to Europe. There is clear evidence that shows that during the 14th century when million were afflicted with the Black Plague, herbal preparations helped some avoid the symptoms of this disease.

During the 20th century, separating such essential oils helped create synthetic chemicals and drugs which helped promote modern medicine.

So should we switch to aromatherapy? Not always because there are limits to what it can do for you. It is also not regulated that much compared to pharmaceutical products in the United States so you should be careful when you buy these from the store.

When used properly, you will experience the benefits of aromatherapy. Studies have shown that it stimulates the immune system, strengthens your resistance and helps you fight against certain diseases. It can ease abdominal spasm and constipation, helps you deal with cough, sinusitis or tonsillitis and even helps you relax when you are suffering from muscle aches and pain.

Another thing aromatherapy can do is improve blood circulation and lymphatic drainage. It also reduces stress, alleviate tension headaches and helps you deal with various mood swings.

Despite the different types of oils available, there are only two ways by which you can use it. The first is to inhale it by mixing the essential oil with some water and heating it using a candle or by applying it directly over your skin.

Aromatherapy has other purposes as well. Some of the essential oils are used as household and laundry cleaners. Citronella, serves as a good insect repellant. Believe it not, this can also be used to treat a cut or a minor burn.

The various oils in aromatherapy can be used individually or mixed together creating various concoctions. Sometimes, it takes a bit of trial and error to create the right formula.

One last thing you have to know about aromatherapy is that not all of the essential oils are suitable for use. Some of these should only be handled by a qualified aromatherapy practitioner and these oils include bitter almond, camphor, horseradish, pennyroyal, rue, sassafras and wintergreen.

If you decide to keep them in your home, these must be kept away from children to prevent these from ever being ingested. Since you are dealing with oils, these are flammable so be sure to keep it far away from fire hazards.

You too can experience the benefits of aromatherapy. Before you buy it, consult first an aromatherapy practitioner and only get it from reputable retailers. When you examine the product, don’t get those that have a rubber glass dropper top because this will ruin the content inside the bottle.

To learn more about aromatherapy, read up on it from books and other research material online because believe it or not, some of the essential oils have similar benefits.

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