Aromatherapy and Perfume

Make Aromatherapy Candles

2009-07-22T16:21:00.000-07:00

Below are some instructions that you will want to follow for aromatherapy candle makings.

Materials for Aromatherapy Candle Making

Candle wax, preferably soy candle for a more natural and environment-friendly effect.
Candle dyes (optional) for a more interesting candle making result.
Candle wicking
Essential oils
Heavy pot for melting wax
A suitable mold for your candle. Either a long tube, hollow at the center, or a bowl. You can even use a cup. Make sure that your candle making molds are flexible so that it will be easier to release the hardened candle.

Aromatherapy Candle Makings: Instructions

Place your required wax amount into the heavy pan and place it on the heat. Allow the pan to heat slowly until all the wax melts. Afterwards, add your dye. In candle making, it is important that you add the ingredients a small amount at a time. Then, dip the wick several times into the melted wax. Next, add a few drops of essential oils into the mixture, stirring gently. Finally, pour the mixture into the mold and wait for it to dry.

Aromatherapy and Pregnancy

2009-02-21T06:21:00.000-08:00

Many people relate essential oils and aromatherapy with massages, soothing baths, and oil-based perfumes. Little do people know that, aside from their calming effect, essential oils are now also being used for inducing birth as well as lessening the labor pains.

As with the stages of pregnancy, labor is also divided into three parts with the first part divided into three phases – the early phase, the active phase, and the transitional phase. The early phase is characterized by the start of mild contractions. During this phase, the use of Neroli and Lavender can help you to relax and free yourself from apprehensions. The active phase, on the other hand, is characterized by longer and more frequent contractions.

A combination of Lavender oil, Neroli oil and Rose oil can effectively bring you relaxation especially when massaged on the chest and the neck. During the third phase, you will experience intense and fast contractions. In order to ready yourself for childbirth, you can massage your back with a combination of Lavender, Clary Sage and Peppermint. Clary Sage Oil can strengthen your respiratory and muscular systems. It also helps lessen tension as well as pain. A combination of Peppermint and Rosemary can also give you enough strength for that final push.

There are also other essential oils that could help you during child birth. Here are some of them:

Bergamot oil, Grapefruit oil, and Lemon oil – when diffused, can help you to relax. Also good for unsettled stomach

Ylang-Ylang oil – effective for lowering blood pressure

Rose oil – helps the muscles to relax. Not recommended for those who are in their 1st and 2nd trimester of pregnancy as it may cause miscarriage

Jasmine Oil – helps dull uterine pain and is quite effective in stimulating production of breast milk

Clove Oil – known for its antiseptic and pain-relieving properties. It is also effective in preventing nausea during labor.

Since the safety and effectiveness of Evening Primrose Oil is still undetermined, it is not advisable to take this during your pregnancy.

Keep in mind however that, since pregnancy is such a delicate situation, use of essential should be monitored and under the supervision of your doctor. As a rule, pregnant women should use half of what they normally would.

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How to Make Your Own Perfume From Fresh Flowers

2009-02-21T05:41:00.000-08:00

Applying a beautiful smelling fragrance can be a real mood lifter but the synthetic perfumes you buy at the drugstore and department store are not only expensive but also contain a variety of chemicals that are thought to be harmful to health. One way to avoid the chemicals and still enjoy fragrance is to make your own perfume from flowers. If you grow your own flowers, you already have a source for making your own natural perfume. If not, you can buy the flower petals of your choice at your local florist or even ask a neighbor if you can borrow some of their unused petals. Be sure to take them some of the perfume you make to thank them for their kindness.

Here's how to make perfume from flowers:

Ingredients

* One and one-half cups flower blossoms of your choice
* Two cups of distilled water
* Aluminum pot
* Cheesecloth
* Funnel
* Glass perfume bottle
* Make perfume from flowers: Gather your ingredients

You can use any of a variety of flower petals to make your own perfume. You can be a purist and use the blossoms from a single flower or mix blossoms from several flowers to create your own unique signature fragrance. To make your first perfume, you'll need around a cup and a half of flower blossoms. Choose blossoms that haven't been sprayed. If you buy them from a florist or gardening center, verify with them that they're free of chemicals or pesticides.

Prepare your blossoms

Place your chosen flower blossoms into the aluminum pan along with two cups of distilled water. Turn the heat on high and allow your water to come to a complete boil. Once the water boils, turn down the heat to keep the temperature just below the boiling point. Allow the mixture to simmer for two and a half hours.

Prepare your perfume

Once the mixture has simmered for the allotted time, turn the heat down and allow your flower water to cool. Place cheesecloth into a funnel and slowly strain the flower water through the cheesecloth several times until all of the pulp is removed. Transfer your freshly made perfume to a pretty glass perfume bottle to enjoy at a later time.

Making perfume from flowers is so easy and inexpensive that you'll never go back to the chemical laden perfumes that abound at your local department and drugstores. Keep in mind that homemade perfume without preservatives will have a shorter shelf life. Homemade, all natural perfume in a decorative bottle also makes a thoughtful gift for almost any occasion. Don't forget to keep several bottles of your homemade perfume handy for your own enjoyment.

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Aromatherapy Step by Step

2009-02-13T08:45:00.000-08:00

Sensual Massage Oil - Feminine

30 ml/2 tbsp almond oil (base oil)

2 drops Bergamot
2 drops Coriander
6 drops Jasmine
4 drops Rose
2 drops Sandalwood

Bath for Insomnia

Run a warm bath. When the tub is sufficiently filled, add up to 10 drops of essential oil to the water, circulating it throughout. As the oil is moved, the scent will rise with the steam of the water.

Now get in, take your time, and enjoy the wonderful aroma while you soak!

Essential oil to be used for insomnia are:

* 4 drops Chamomile
* 2 drops Lavender
* 2 drops Neroli
* 2 drops Marjoram

How Does Aromatherapy Benefit Health?

2009-02-12T08:35:00.000-08:00

Aromatherapy works in several ways to give you benefits. There are several different products to use as well. The goal of this treatment is to serve as a method of healing or improving the emotional state as well as the physical state, should it be necessarily. To have this type of benefit on you, aromatherapy does have to be administered in the right way, in the right dosage and the right products need to be used. Only then can you find the true benefits of the uses that it can give.

Emotional Repair

One of the most common reasons to purchase aromatherapy products is to give yourself a scent that is soothing or a smell that brings back found memories. There are many scents that are used that way. Here, the goal of the essential oil mixture is to trigger the limbic system and the emotional control center in your brain. When this happens, your brain works at improving its emotions and allows you to feel better. Aromatherapy in this form is through candles as well as other incense forms that will allow the smell of the essential oil mixture to permeate through your body.

Topical Aids

Another benefit that aromatherapy can provide is that of a topic aid for killing microbes as well as other fungi. Here, you will apply the product to your skin and allow it to take care of the germs or other substances on it. Some forms of essential oils are quite powerful and can give you a complete clean and germ free area as well.

Massage

If the use of the aromatherapy is that of as a massage oil, for example, it is placed onto the skin and the skin's thermal receptors are activated. This helps to give that warm feeling of relaxation and peace. It also helps that your muscles are being worked which additionally helps to restore a calm in your body.

Other Uses

Although you will not find these administered to the public, there are forms of essential oils that are internally ingested. Here, the uses are many including the ability to stimulate your immune system and to help improve antiseptic activity. They can even help increase urine secretion for use as a diuretic.

It is important for you to understand that all essential oils have different types of jobs that they can do. Therefore, make sure not to try to gain the benefits of internal ingestion from over the counter aromatherapy products. It just will cause additional health problems for you. Yet, as you can clearly see, aromatherapy can do quite a bit for you.

Aromatherapy Provides Therapeutic Effects

2009-02-12T08:34:00.000-08:00

Aromatherapy is more than just something that smells good. You may be one of the many people that have found it to be a great choice in a candle. You can light the candle and relax as the soft scent fills the room and somehow seems to provide relaxation for you. Yet, it is more than just that. You will also find benefits in how it can help you to get rid of germs, how it can benefit your body and just how wonderful it can be to have around. So, consider what aromatherapy can do for you in total then. You may be surprised on how many options are out there.

One of the many benefits that aromatherapy can offer is that of antiseptic qualities. Yes, it can help you to fight off the germs that happen to land on your body. It is a viricidial, a bactericidal and a fungicidal. Aromatherapy products are capable of helping to keep your skin clean and to help in treating wounds as well. Lavender oil, one common type of aromatherapy essential oil is well known for its healing abilities. While it should not be used in a serious case, you may find products that offer the benefits of essential oil as an antiseptic.

There are other areas of the body that can be found to be benefited by essential oils like those that are in aromatherapy. It is an anesthetic in some cases such as in menthol and camphor. It can help improve the central nervous system too. It can encourage your metabolism, help improve the endocrine system and can provide for help as an immune enhancer, allowing you to fight off the next cold that hits you.

The most common and probably the most profound effect that aromatherapy products can do for you is help with psychological effects. Just by turning on the essential oil incense, you have the ability to be drawn in, relaxed and experiencing a bit of calmness where you were just anything but. Lavender is an option to consider. Others include eucalyptus, rose, bergamot, and jasmine. With so many qualities about it, there is no doubt that adding aromatherapy into your life will help to provide you with a bit of relaxation.

What is Aromatherapy?

2009-02-12T08:33:00.000-08:00

You may have heard quite a bit about aromatherapy in the past. You are sure to have seen the many benefits that it has offered, but have not really thought about it either.

Aromatherapy is a method of using the right essential oils to create a scent that is said to better your thoughts, improve your mood or even to help cure you of an ailment that you are feeling.

If you have not had the opportunity to use aromatherapy in the past, you should give it a try. If nothing else, you will love the smells and the way that they enlighten the environment you are living in. In fact, that in itself is enough to provide that aromatherapy is a great tool to use.

Learning what aromatherapy is and how it works is something that you will want to know though. It is considered a complementary as well as an alternative form of medicine.

In that, it is not said to be the cure all for every ailment under the sun and you should never stop using your current treatments for serious conditions. Yet, many people have found this treatment to help make their lives just a touch better all around.

Aromatherapy uses essential oils to make these things happen. Essential oils are concentrated liquid that comes from a plant. They are compounds that are very strong, in their purest of forms. They are taken from a plant through distillation, through expression or through solvent extraction.

Essential Oils used throughout your home as it is in your perfumes in your incense as well as in the foods that you eat. This product from a plant is said to provide you with a trigger for your health too. For example, the smell of a specific fragrance may help you to trigger relaxation.

Yet, there is much more to aromatherapy than just this. For example, the term was created in 1920 by a man named Rene Maurice Gattefosse. He was researching how essential oils can help in the healing process. He began this study in part because of an accident in which he caught his arm on fire and accidentally poured lavender oil onto it. The wounds healed quickly, more so than normal and they did not leave a scar. Since then, the exploration of how essential oils work in healing us, both emotionally and physically has been a conquest for many.

An Introduction To Aromatherapy

2009-02-12T07:33:00.000-08:00

The art and science of using volatile oils for the psychological and physical well-being is called aromatherapy. These volatile oils are derived from plants. Essential oils are used the most in aromatherapy on account of their innumerable benefits they have on the mind-body system of human beings. There are many types of essential oils that are used in aromatherapy to fetch different therapeutic results.

Aromatherapy is said to trigger certain biochemical responses in the brain that in turn activate certain dormant function of the body and mind to impart a sense of well-being. Since aromatherapy is widely practiced, there is an array of products in the market that are sold as aromatherapy products, but actually are not. Sometimes even certain types of perfumes are passed on as aromatherapy oils.

The fakes do not get the desired results that one would expect from a real aromatherapy product. The fakes normally use fragrance oils in place of true aromatherapy oils. So while buying an aromatherapy product it should be ensured that the brand belongs to a reputed company and the ingredients are clearly listed on the container.

Aromatherapy has been in use for thousands of years now, even if it came to be known as aromatherapy somewhere after 20th century. Aromatherapy is said to be of Chinese origin. Egyptians have used aromatherapy by drawing distilled oils from cinnamon, nutmeg, cedar wood, clove, and myrrh. From Egyptians it is said to have passed on to Greek. Aromatherapy has also been used by Persians and Indians thousands of years ago.

Backed by a rich history, it is only in 19th century that the perfumery industry woke up to the benefits of using aromatherapy for financial gains. This was also the time when aromatherapy began to be tested in scientific laboratories for understanding the important mechanisms of aromatherapy products on mind and body. As a result of its impact on mind, aromatherapy is also considered as a forte of people indulging in spiritual practices.