Essential Oils!

Exploring oils as part of the wellness routine

If you’ve been following me for a while you know that I often have a diffuser running in my office and home AND that I make my own essential oil massage blend. Whether on my skin or in my diffuser, the scents, and the feels affect my mood and energy levels. Some are lifting while others are calming. Some soothe while others energize.

People often ask me about wellness, and in my experience, I’ve found that it’s comprehensive and nutrition is one important part. Making intentional decisions about the essential oils you apply to your skin or diffuse are also a part of the wellness puzzle.

I has a recent conversation with Makeba Lloyd, Certified Aromatherapist and clean body care founder of Butter by Keba and Scentonomy. I wanted to share some of her feedback with you here:

What are the most sought oils in your brand? When our customers come to us, they aren’t necessarily seeking any particular oil but rather a specific scent category and experience that matches their scent profile and body chemistry. The blends that they gravitate to the most are definitely the Sweeter and Deeper blends. These are oils that have staying power, uplift, soothe or comfort the mood. Our sweeter floral blends such as Lotus Nut, consist of Sweet Orange and Jasmine Essential Oils, as well as Ylang Ylang and Gardenia notes. Our deeper blends such as Precious Sudan are infused with Essential Oils like Frankincense, Vanilla, Cinnamon Leaf, and Sandalwood. These are all oils that have sweet over and undertones with deep wood and spice notes layered in between.

Do people tend to choose based on scent or properties? Definitely scent. Very few take a mental approach to selecting the blend that they feel will work best. It’s more of an emotional decision that is connected to memory and past experiences with scent. I think that is how most of us select fragrances that we wear and love. The idea of selecting fragrance based on properties (such as chemical constituents that have varying benefits), or what would be considered traditional aromatherapy, is still quite new but seems to be emerging under what Vogue Uk identified as “functional fragrance” in a recent article about its new revolutionary impact on the Luxury Fragrance Market. While the practice of aromatherapy dates as far back as ancient societies in Egypt, the concept of applying fragrance for beneficial properties is still nuanced within our modern era. What’s interesting is that perfumers have used “naturals” in their formulations for decades and consumers have bought and loved these fragrances for the way they made them feel or the attention they received from others. Seldom is the connection made between how a fragrance makes someone feel and the chemical components of the essential oils used in that fragrance… or the aromatherapeutic perspective of that fragrance, as I like to call it. However, as the industry moves towards incorporating more natural ingredients to meet customer demand I believe we will see a lot more about the “properties” and “functionality” of a fragrance becoming the guiding light for many savvy and enlightened consumers who purchase fragrance.

What are some tips about mixing oils? Do you recommend experimentation without information or should the layperson make new brands research properties first? I absolutely recommend reading up on the do’s, don’ts, and safety protocols for working with essential oils before beginning one’s experiential journey. We must remember that essential oils are volatile chemicals that just happen to be extracted from real living organisms. There are books by Valerie Ann Worwood and Robert Tisserand that anyone can purchase online to become more familiar with essential oils.

This was such a rich conversation. I hope that you find some value in introducing essential oils to your wellness routine or deepening your current knowledge about the oils that are already present in your household. There are more tips in the newsletter that include questions around topical applications and more.