I was reading a blog by Jonathan Fields this morning and the first sentence had a link to another blogger he likes. I clicked that link, and started reading Seth’s blog. Seth had a link to a blog he liked that I was curious about. I clicked that link and read about nine people who contributed to that blog. I could not help myself, I clicked on each of the nine people…and within five minutes I had no idea here I was or how I got there, or even what I reading five minutes ago! I was lost in the World Wide Web. (Good name for a blog!)

Thankfully I recently learned how to use a feed reader to organize my blog reading. A feed reader is an electronic way to subscribe to a blog’s updates. Instead of visiting individual blogs, you receive blog updates directly to your reader or your email inbox.

If you are curious about blogs or are reading several blogs on a regular basis, subscribing to them in a reader is a saving grace!

I recommend using Google Reader to subscribe to blogs. A Google account is free and gives you access to a lot of neat features, including Google’s free email service, GMail. (You don’t have to use the GMail address, you can stick to just the Reader if you want!)

Blog subscriptions are powered by RSS, or Really Simple Syndication. You don’t need to know the details! When you’re on a blog you like, just look for buttons like “RSS” or “Subscribe in a Reader” to get started.

Let’s try subscribing with the Aromatics International blog:

1. Sign up for a Google account, or if you already have one, sign in.
2. Visit the Aromatics International Blog
3. Click on the left hand link that says Subscribe in a reader
4. Look for “Add to Google Reader” or “Subscribe with Google”, and click on that!
5. All future updates will now show up in your Google Reader, much like incoming email.

Now to add more blogs to your reader, you can simply enter the URL (address) of any blog to your reader by hand. Just click “Add a Subscription” on the top left. It will automatically add that blog to your subscription list. So easy! I also bookmarkered my reader, so even that is simple to find.

Navigating Google Reader

Google Reader has a lot of features. Play around to find out what works best for your reading preferences. I like using the Folders feature to organize the blogs I read. For instance, I created a folder called Aromatherapy and another called Business.

Google Reader even has a blog to share recent updates to the service!

Here’s a helpful hint: When you click on one of your blogs, on the top right you will see “Show: Expanded-List.” Expanded shows a small blurb of each blog post, and list just shows the name of the blog post in a list format. If the blog has many entries, the list format allows you to browse the posts quickly and decide what you want to read.

Once you begin reading blogs on a regular basis through your reader, you will only see new updates when you open it—not all the archives.

By the way, if the steps to create a reader seem confusing, try following them one by one, and you will see just how easy it really is. Have fun!

Do you have blogs you love to read? Email them to me and I will do a blog post in a few weeks on other cool blogs!

Recommended Reading

Awake at the Wheel: Great blog from a health and fitness guy who is a brilliant businessperson and great writer on social media, and I love reading his ideas. Start with his “About” link to get a good feel for him.

Copyblogger: Brian Clark’s Blog on blogging! This is an excellent blog to read if you are blogging or want to get started with a blog.

Problogger: Darren Rowse’s excellent blog on how to blog! Plus Darren’s weekly video posts are cool and he has a great accent!

Flyte: Rich Brook’s small business web marketing blog. He has a great section he calls Entrepreneurial Web Tools that covers starting your own newsletter with Constant Contact, PayPal, Project management software through Basecamp, and more.

Long Life Happy Life: Cindy Black’s brilliant musing about life and health.

Indie Business Blog: Updates, advice and more from Donna Marie, founder and CEO of the Indie Beauty Network and the Indie Business Media.

One favorite blend was:
• 1 oz beeswax
• 1 oz coconut oil
• 5 oz kpangnan butter

The silky texture and soft nutty, and the slight coconut aroma was incredible.

We studied the oils by aroma, starting with balsamic. Balsamic is a unique aroma that is sweet, soft, earthy and rich all at once. When you take long deep breaths with balsamic oils you are sure to settle in for a peaceful experience. Oils with a strong balsamic aroma tend to be lower, deeper notes that take us to a forest—to an earthy, woodsy, grounding aroma that can also have rich vanilla, spicy and/or floral undertones. Balsamic essential oils, such as Opopanax, blend well with woodsy, earthy, spicy and resinous oils.

During the Aromatic Blending class, we also explored “notes.” We blended base, middle-base, middle, top-middle and top notes to create beautiful chords and mother blends and then made all kinds of products: oil blends, inhalers, salts, butters, hydrosol sprays, lotions and so on. We had fun playing with vanilla oleoresin, diluting it in water and hydrosol, and using jojoba-infused vanilla in our blends. We made two base note blend that were beautiful.

1. Vintage Patchouli, Vetiver and Balsam Copaiba
2. Frankincense, Sandalwood and Vanilla oleoresin-infused jojoba.

Each person created their own recipe so the drops varied and they all smelled amazing!

Using our New Search Function for Blending

We recently added a new (and very cool!) search function to Aromatics International under the Shop By Aroma link. Here you can choose a few aromas you love and search for which oils embody those aromas. If you search for balsamic and spicy, you come up with Elemi and Myrrh. These two oils blend together beautifully!

When you smell Elemi, the balsamic, lemony, spicy, warm, radiant and woody aromas reveal themselves. Elemi can be enhanced by blending it with other oils with similar aromas. My next step might be to use the aroma search on Aromatics International for oils that have a woody and spicy aroma. Gingergrass comes up. Elemi and Gingergrass are a stunning aromatic combination.

I have spent hours playing with the new aroma search function. There are almost 100 oils on the website to play with and some new and surprising search results have lead me to make some creative and wonderful new blends. Of course, the aroma is just the beginning. You can have a look at the GC/MS report; check out the chemistry of the oil and the therapeutic properties associated.

I also like to look at the plant parts while I blend. If the chemistry and therapeutic properties interest you, we have an Advanced Graduate Program this coming winter to explore those subjects in depth.

I hope the new Aroma search on Aromatics International provides you with a many hours of discovery and supports your blending and new product creations. May your intuitive relationship with the essential oils, the aromas, the chemistry and therapeutic properties, the plant part, carriers and emotional qualities bring to you the deepest, most rewarding connection with the plants and their essential oils!

Balsamic is a unique aroma that is sweet, soft, earthy and rich all at once. When you take long, deep breaths with these oils you can settle in for a peaceful experience. Balsamic oils tend to be lower, deeper notes that take us to a forest—to an earthy, woodsy, grounding aroma that can also have rich vanilla undertones. Balsamic aromas can also have spicy and/or floral undertones. The classic balsamic aroma can be understood by smelling Opopanax essential oil. Try smelling good balsamic vinegar and then smelling Opopanax, Sandalwood and Vanilla (the Vanilla oleoresin if you have it). Can you perceive the balsamic aroma in these essential oils and oleoresin?

How would you describe balsamic? I would love to know….

When the samples arrived I was surprised at how different they smelled from each other. I liked them both and was quite sure from the aromas that the chemistry of the central Plai would be quite different from the N.E Plai. I sent the samples to Daniel to test in France. The results showed that each oil was excellent, and that they were significantly different from each other.

The N.E Plai distiller harvests the roots and then stores them in a root cellar until he has requests for the essential oil, then he distills it. The N.E Plai has a typical chemistry for Plai from Thailand. There is almost as much terpinene-4-ol in this Plai as in Tea Tree (sometimes more, depending on the Tea Tree. Our Tea Tree from Australia is quite high in terpinene-4-ol).  terpinene-4-ol has been well researched and is to known to activate white blood cells for dealing with infections, it has antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal effects, and is quite supportive for the immune system. Very appealing essential oil component to use for healing infections (also found in Sweet Marjoram).

The N.E Plai also has a significant percentage of sabinene, a component noted by many aromatherapists for its anti-inflammatory effects. It also contains a nice percentage of 2 isomers of terpinene, known for their anti-fungal and anti-oxidant properties.

What does all that mean? Its a great oil if you are sick, especially with inflamed sinuses, or dealing with a fungal infection! Also, Plai is used by Thailand Massage Therapists to ease joint and muscle pain, or sprains and strains.

The Plai from Central Thailand has an interesting story. The distiller produces the oil right after it is harvested, and the roots are not stored. The resulting chemistry is different but equally interesting! This oil has a large percentage of sabinene and a small but significant percentage of dimethoxyphenyl butadiene, known for its analgesic effects. Plai is considered a great oil to reduce pain and inflammation, and these properties are often associated with the dimethoxyphenyl butadiene (DMPBD).

The Central Thailand Plai is an excellent oil to add to blends for reducing inflammation for injury, sprains, muscle and joint issues. Plai is from the same plant family as ginger (Zingiber officinale) but does not possess the classic heat that is common to Ginger. Instead Plai has a cooling action on inflamed areas. It is very effective!

We decided to purchase both essential oils and we have been blending them together! Best of both worlds! Next time you feel some muscle pain, or have a bad cold or flu that leaves you feeling sore and achy, try some Plai essential oil blended into a soothing carrier oil or lotion. Apply to your chest, neck and back.

The best way to store essential oils is in a cold, dark space. We have a cold room dedicated to our essential oils. I don’t normally like hanging out in cold, dark rooms (being more of a fan of the tropical scene) but our essential oil cold room is hard to resist! When I walk in I am met by the smell of all the essential oils, blended into one exotic aroma.

We recently expanded our cold room, as we are ordering larger quantities of essential oils and butters now. When I turn on the light, the room is filled with colorful labels, bottles of essential oils from around the world, hydrosols, body butters, carrier oils, glass beakers and bags of resins! I never thought a cold, dark room would be my favorite place!

Fun to study online!

The Aromahead Institute’s Online Aromatherapy Certification Program has students worldwide: Hong Kong, Australia, South Africa…and even Texas! Of course there are many students from the USA as well!  The case studies are rolling in, and we are putting the finishing touches on a forum for online students to ask questions and receive answers from both author Andrea Butje and Aromahead graduates. Great blends are being made, inspired by the video library included in the online certification program. I am excited every time I read a case study and hear about the amazing blends students are making and the results we are seeing for their clients!

The Aromahead Institute of Essential Oil Studies was recently approved by the Alliance of International Aromatherapists (AIA) to offer a 400-hour program for students to become AIA approved Clinical Aromatherapists.  The official AIA title is CMAIA-Clinical member of the AIA.

The Alliance of International Aromatherapists is a leading international Aromatherapy organization making Aromatherapy a readily accessible and respected holistic healing modality.

Aromahead Institute is the first school in the continental United States to pass review and evaluation.  After dedicated work on the application, we are thrilled to offer this to our students.

The Scholar’s Program at Aromahead Institute fulfills AIA’s 400-hour requirements. Please visit our site to learn more about the exciting Aromatherapy courses that will help you reach this high level of certification.

If you are a current or former student, the hours you’ve already taken are eligible to be applied to the 400-hour AIA requirement!

Some of my favorite ways to use essential oils in the house are a drop or two on a radiator in each room (making sure the essential oil you use will elicit the appropriate response). When the heat comes up, it smells like heaven. A drop or two on the front of a fan fills your room with fragrance.  Even a drop or two on an open window’s sill will bring a wonderful smelling breeze right in every time the air stirs.  Don’t forget the air conditioning vents.  I really get a giggle out of using an all natural lemon potpourri in the living room, always smells just dusted!  Dust on my table?  You know these old farmhouses - get dusty in an hour!  Hey, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Using essential oils has become a way of  life for myself and my family. You really can elicit physical responses with the fragrances you use. I had some success helping my hubby with the nausea that came with chemotherapy with ginger and peppermint oil.  I hope you never have need of it for that reason, but I hear that it will also work for morning sickness, stomach ailments and motion sickness. I put a drop of each oil on a business card and keep it in an old pill bottle.  When the nausea strikes, you just open it and let the oils do their stuff. (each card will last 2 or 3 days). I have since discovered the pleasure of a personal aromatherapy amulet to wear around your neck. (I carry these on my website-shameless plug).  Another good way to spread the fragrance is to put a few drops of essential oil in the humidifier.  Eucalyptus is nice if your nose is stuffy, otherwise, whatever suits your fancy!  The added benefit I have found is that many essential oils are antibacterial and antifungal so you don’t get the gunk build up that happens with plain water.

I heartily encourage you to make use of essential oils in your day to day life, although I would also encourage a little research as to the oils you use.   It adds a whole new level to the ambiance in your home and can do you some good at the same time.

Patricia Morello owns Patricia Rose-A Potpourri of Fabric, Fragrance and Findings and also writes a blog about her business and life.  Follow her on Twitter @PatriciaRose.

Since we scheduled our summer classes at the last minute, we are offering all classes in June and July at 25% off the listed tuition! Once you register and pay in full for the class, we will refund you 25% of the tuition.

You can see the whole schedule on the Aromahead Institute schedule page.

For details on each of our classes, visit our Classes at the Institute page.

Here are our Summer offerings:

• Component Blending: June 4-6 (3 days with Andrea)
• Advanced Graduate Program: June 9-13 and July 8-12 (10 days total with Andrea)
• Advanced Practitioners Seminar: June 16-19 (4 days with Andrea and Cindy)
• Anatomy and Physiology: A Holistic Approach: June 24-27 (4 days with Cindy)
• Aromatic Blending: June 29-July 1 (3 days with Andrea)
• Business Owner Seminar: July 15-18 (4 days with Andrea and Cindy)

We have a very exciting announcement to make on Monday.  Stay tuned!

The first step is avoidance. You can take a lot of cautionary measures to avoid exposure to allergens.  (Like keeping your windows closed at home, using air filters, keeping your sheets and pillows clean, and staying inside during peak pollen times.)  Use the Internet to your advantage by researching the sort of tips and steps that fit into your lifestyle.

For many, relief may be obtained naturally.  A saline rinse (unmedicated) can do wonders for rinsing and relieving nasal tissues.  Once you get past the weird feeling, it’s actually very soothing.

Essential oils can be used to relieve nasal allergy symptoms.  Here are two recipes we share at Aromatics International:

Allergy Relief Inhaler

Ingredients:

• 4 drops Eucalyptus Dives Essential Oil
  
• 2 drops Laurel Leaf Essential Oil
  
• 3 drops Ravintsara Essential Oil
  
• 2 drops Siberian Fir Essential Oil
  
• 1 Blank Aromatherapy Inhaler - White