Essential Oils

Essential oils are natural perfumes distilled from plants. There are approximately 3500 different plants around the world that exude a perfume, while only about 150 have the special sac where the essence is stored. This "oil" is not an oil in the traditional sense of a grease. The natural aroma is the plants life force. 

The essential oil stored in these special sacs can be extracted, using a variety of methods, and captured. Once captured, it can be added to oil based products, such as soaps, lip balms, lotions, shampoos, and alcohol based products, like synthetic and partially natural perfumes.

Essential Oils Are The Meaning of Mother Nature

Essential Oils: Natural aromatics are Mother Nature's the gifts of magic, beauty, medicine, flavor, and life enhancements from plants. These special scents are what give herbs and spices their specific flavors and characteristics, flowers and fruit their perfumes.  

Different parts of an orange produce different essential oils

Think about when you peel an orange and the bitter juice squirts out of the peel. That's the essential oil squirting out of the pockets. These glandular cells that contain the essential oil are volatile, meaning it can easily evaporate, perfuming the air. Oranges yield many different essential oils: Bitter Orange, Sweet Orange, Orange Blossom (Neroli), Orange Flower, Manderin, Petigrain.

Pictured above is the familiar garden Mother's Day flower, daffodil. Native to the Middle East and the Mediterranean, it has been naturalized in Southern France. It is cultivated mostly for its flowers. Narscissus oil is distilled from the flower bulbs.

Popular garden plants

Lilac perfume-enjoy the moment. It's fleeting

Lilac does not have an essential oil sac, so the perfume is always in the moment. It is not possible to capture this perfume. Any lilac aroma in any personal care product, perfume, candle, etc is either a natural copy or synthetic. It is never authentic lilac.

Lilacs are a wonderfully perfume-y bush that blooms in min Spring. The bush size ranges from a sprig to a 12 foot tall 10 foot diameter bush with multiple trunks and branches. The flowers come in white, light purple, medium purple, purple, dark purple, blue, light pink, magenta, dark magenta, and white with any of these colors as a blush. Each flowering branch is comprised of many small florets that form a cone going up the branch.  One flowering branch can perfume a whole house, with it's natural fragrance wafting  through the air. Lilac perfume is very intoxicating and captivates the senses.

Peppermint is a common herb, that easily grown in a variety of climates, and soil types. 

The much loved Lavender comes in many varieties, 3 of which are grown specifically for their essential oils. Lavender is an essential part of your natural 1st aid kit.

Patchouli (usually potted in the West) gained popularity as the aroma of the 1960's. It is widely used for a variety of purposes, and in my experience, is either loved or despised. There is not much emotional tolerance in the middle ground for this perfume. 

Most associated with the cuisines of India and it's neighbors, lemongrass is a tall tough grass, with a citrus association in the West.

Rosemary, a common culinary herb, comes from many countries, each one a little bit different.

Essential oils from trees

Cinnamon, most commonly known in the West, as a pie and cookie spice.

Amber is a black, tar like resin, tapped from trees. When dried, it is dark, golden brown, with a sweet aroma.

Our apple perfume is a custom blend of essential oils and apple essences.

There are over 700 different species of eucalyptus, of which at least 500 produce some sort of essential oil. Our choice is in the perfume class.

The uses of tea tree are based on a very long oral history from the aboriginal people of Australia.

Fir is native to the US West coast. We call it the generic pine.

When you think of clove, it's usually related to cuisines or toothaches. In addition to those uses, clove bud also makes a lovely and functional perfume.

One of my favorite fruits, grapefruit are native to a few countries in the world, but the essential oil is mainly produced in California, USA.

Customize your 1st aid kit with essential oils. Read about it here

I always have a 1st aid kit on hand, even if it's just the one in the bathroom closet. It contains:

• a bar of soap-I prefer Unscented, but any of our scents will do
• a Waterless Hand Soap
• a few LiXTiK Lip Balms: Lavender, Peppermint, and Clove Spice 
• Bandaids
• cotton swabs
• cotton bandages
• tweezers
• a tourniquet - it's like a giant rubber band and I've never used it.
• tiny flashlight
• a small glass jar of plain clean water
• Lavender Essential Oil

Choose from 5 different natural essential oil scents

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1. Essential Oils and their benefits

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Good, all natural bar soap is an essential as a whole body soap wash. It's economical, luxurious, and effective. When selecting a bar of soap, look for simple ingredients with pleasing essential oil aromas and lots of sudsy lather. Sudsing all the way down to a sliver, over 3-4 months of daily use, is key in good bar soap. Try Ithaca Soap   

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