The Aromatherapy Pendant Has Arrived! June 28, 2009

Today, it finally happened. My aromatherapy glass pendant has arrived by International Mail, from Canada! I know I promised pictures, so here they are:

I bought one with a red silk cord, and I am wearing it right now! I love it! It did take a few tries to get the Essential Oil to slowly drain into the body, but I have it figured out now! I put Ylang-Ylang in it, and am enjoying it completely!

It looks like an wasp trap, doesn’t it?! And once you fill it, it doesn’t drip or spill..even upside-down! It’s pretty cool!

On to other topics…

As we have two indoor-only cats in our household, I have been experimenting on healthy Litter deodorants that work great and don’t harm our cats. It’s pretty easy to make, and anyone can do it!

Cat Litterbox Deodorant Ingredients:

• Baking Soda
• Peppermint (Mentha piperata) EO*
• Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) EO
• Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus) EO

Directions:

Take the baking soda, and add one cup at a time (3 cups total) to your flour sifter and sift.

flour sifter

Peppermint

rosemary

When you’ve finished sifting all three cups, add the EOs that you prefer..I have tried a citrus blend, but I think the peppermint one covers the odor best, without blending with it (which is disgusting)!

Mix well, then put in a glass container with a tight, non-plastic lid. I have been using Mason Jars, and they work well.

Let sit for atleast a week, then it’s ready to use, and you will have happy cats, and a happy household!

Sources:

Wikipedia

Pixie Glassworks

Creating An Anti-Stress Bath Salt For Healthy Living! June 27, 2009

Sustainable Esscentials

We are all trying to live healthier lives, while being aware of using products that not only are safe for ourselves, but safe for the environment.

We want the following:

• A product that does whatever it’s supposed to
• Works without making us sick, giving us cancer, or scarring us for life
• It might even be good for us
• And it doesn’t need a bunch of extra packaging that gets taken to the dump

And although it would have been difficult in the past to find products that follow the above, healthy skin care products are made more and more often.

A easy product to use and have some pretty instant stress reduction is a jar of Bath Salts! Besides relieving us of stress and anxiety, they are inexpensive, never go bad (if kept dry), and they even make our skin feel great & we small better, besides!

I have just made a stress-relieving Bath Salt batch, and besides the initial mixing (and some math!), all I need to do is to let it sit for a week or two and it will be ready! The basic ingredients are:

• Sea Salt
• Essential Oils

and that’s it! Other natural ingredients can be added, but less is more in my opinion.. For this particular batch, I used:

• Rose Geranium (South African) EO (Pelargonium capitatum x radens)
• Pink Grapefruit EO (Citrus racemosa )
• Lavender Barreme EO (Lavandula angustifolia )
• 5% – Rosehips Extract (powdered) (Rosa canina)
• German Chamomile (Morocco) (Matricaria chamomilla L. )

No artificial colorants, preservatives…nothing unnatural.

Rose Geranium (Pelargonium capitatum x radens)

grapefruit, Pink (Citrus racemosa )

Lavender, Barreme (Lavandula angustifolia)

As for the waiting..I have mixed the above ingredients in a glass mason jar, I’m shaking it to mix it, and in the next two weeks it should all be melding together, blending evenly so at the end of the time period it should be Fabulous! I will update you all, then!

sources:

wikipedia

New Directions Aromatics

Using Salt Scrubs For Getting The Glow Of Good Health!! June 26, 2009

Sustainable Esscentials

Although some of us regularly use a salt scrub on our bodies to improve the look and feel of our skin (but NEVER on your face!), some of us don’t.  This info is to help everyone feel good about using this easy method to improve your skins’ health and appearance.. Even you guys!

A salt scrub is a mixture that usually contains:

• Salt
• Oil
• Essential Oils
• or Fragrance (artificial)

that is mixed to the consistancy of a paste.  The directions are usually to wet the skin, spread the mixture all over your skin, then rub it briskly (depending on your skin’s feelings!), and rinse off.  You can do this prior to getting in a bath, for a relaxing pampering and stress-reducer, or you can do this in the shower (still pampering and stress-free)!

Citrus Salt Scrub

This works by the exfolliating* properties of the salt, combined with some elbow grease, to take off the dead layer(s) of skin that clog our pores and make our skin look dull, discolored, and dry.  By removing this layer, we (and everyone else) get to see our smooth, glowing skin that looks as healthy and silky as possible!

But do this after you are clean..if you use soap after your scrub, you will dissolve the oils that are in the mixture and you won’t get the full benefits of a great scrub!

There is another benefit that I haven’t mentioned: the smoothest and best method for shaving your legs, short of waxing!  The directions:

1. wet skin, apply scrub
2. let the aromas and oils relax you
3. RINSE THE SALT OFF! (This is important!)
4. Then proceed to shave legs, etc.

That’s it!  You will have to rinse your razor often, but when you are done, you’ll have the BEST shave, ever!

Back to the ingredients:

The Oil that is usually used is a Carrier Oil* , not to be confused with Mineral Oil*.  Don’t use any product that contains Mineral Oil, as it is liquid petroleum!  Mineral Oil creates an unhealthy barrier that sits on top of your skin, preventing moisture and air from being absorbed, causing the skin to dry-out.

Some great Carrier Oils for Salt Scrubs are:

• Almond Oil
• JoJoba Oil
• Camellia Oil
• Hazelnut Oil
• Walnut Oil
• Sunflower Oil
• Ricebran Oil
• Sea Buckthorn
• Safflower

This is not an exclusive list, and many products have a mixture of oils.  If the oils in the ingredients are natural, GREAT!

The Esscential Oils that are able to be in a salt scrub are many…and it has been said that if the product smells good to you, than it probably has a better chance of the essential oils working for you.  I have NO proof of this, except that I have heard it through others as being true more often than not…I do feel that if a product smells BAD to you, you shouldn’t use it…these are products that are supposed to be pleasant!

The last basic ingredient (or first!) is the Salt.  In its use in scrubs, its basic use is as a natural exfolliator.  It will remove dead skin from your body, without any injury.  Salt can be too rough..it depends on the user, but usually a medium-ground salt (crystal granual size) are comfortable for most people’s skin..it feels rougher, the larger that salt granuals.  Sea salt is used as it has many natural minerals from the sea, and can help draw impurites out of the skin.

A very big reason, especially with Natural Skincare Blends, for the use of salt is also that it is a natural preservative!  We have so many synthetic preservatives swirling around us and in us, that the ability to buy a product WITHOUT synthetic preservatives can only be better for us!

sources:

Wikipedia

“Aromatherapy Falls Short, Study Finds” A Review of A Review! June 25, 2009

Sustainable Esscentials

OK, I admit it…when I saw this article online atHealthScout.com, I was irritated, and I wanted to read it to see if it could possibly be true – if the study was done well, and the conclusion irrefutable.

Well, you’ll have to decide for yourself, but I do have a few thoughts on the subject, as well.

“I buy perfume, because I like the smell. If you enjoy the smell, that’s one thing, but don’t buy perfume because you expect to change your physiology or to really influence your health,” said study lead author Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, director of the Division of Health Psychology at Ohio State University.

OK, here are the facts of the study:

• The researchers reported that “that two of the most commonly used scents in aromatherapy do nothing to heal wounds, relieve pain or enhance immune status, although one did briefly improve mood.”
• The two smells used in this study were Lemon and Lavender.
• The control* used was Distilled Water*.
• The study used 56 participants, who had been screened prior, and were found to have “an adequate sense of smell”.
• The study was held during three, half-day sessions.
• “During three half-day sessions, half the group was handed an envelope that explained the scent they were about to smell and what to expect. The other participants were simply told they’d be smelling a variety of fruit and floral odors.”
• Then the researchers taped cotton balls under the participants’ noses, which were “laced” with either Lemon Oil, Lavender Oil, or Distilled Water.
• The Participants were monitored for blood pressure, heart rate, and their blood was analyzed for changes.
• Then, the researchers applied and then removed tape on the participants’ skin, repeatedly, in the same spot to test the ability to heal.
• The last test was to put the participants’ reaction to pain by placing their feet in 32-degree water.
• The final step was that the participants filled-out three “standard psychological tests to assess mood and stress during each session.

The article ended with the following information:

“While lemon oil showed a clear mood enhancement, lavender oil did not, the researchers said. Neither smell had any positive impact on any of the biochemical markers for stress, pain control or wound healing.”

OK.  Now I want to share what my thoughts to this article:

1. Since we do not have access to the actual study write-up, we have to use the info written in this article by Health Scout Reporter, Amanda Gardner.
2. We are told nothing about the use of the Double-Blind Procedure*, so we have no idea how the researchers reacted to each participant and their cotton-ball additives.
3. We are told that the Independent Variables* in the study are “the two odors that have been most researched: lemon, which is purported to be stimulating and a mood enhancer, and lavender, which is supposed to be relaxing and is used as a sleep aid.  Odors?! It isn’t even stated that they used EOs, or if they used the smell from a hanging tree from their car mirrors.  If they DID use EOs, what were they?  I see no listing of their Latin classification, so we have no idea of the source or quality or realness of the “odors” they used.
4. They do state that the Control is Distilled Water.
5. And they state that the Dependent Variables* are “to heal wounds, relieve pain or enhance immune status”.  But they should have been more specific, in that they are to heal, relieve pain, or enhance immune fuction using the sense of smell alone.  They are not trying every Aromatherapy treatment modality, but only a very small portion.
6. The study did not use any standard treatment for the testing of the Inhalation method – I have never heard of an unknown amount of an unknown “oil” being taped under the lip for four hours per day, for a three day period.  And I am having to guess at the “four” hours, since the study mentioned only that the daily time period was “three half-day sessions”.  I’m guessing that the “half-day” is a half business day, though I could be wrong.
7. The mysterious envelopes: they were passed out to the study participants, “half the group was handed an envelope that explained the scent they were about to smell and what to expect. The other participants were simply told they’d be smelling a variety of fruit and floral odors”.  No where do they explain if this is to have a Double-Blind Procedure, or to simply keep that info from the participants.  Did they get a different envelope every day in those three day, or were they all the same?  If they were different every day, then it’s possible that each “odor” was given only for four hours.  I know of NO drug-study that would give the participants a choice of two different medications, but give each one only once.  It’s pretty hard to tell ANYTHING from that short of a study, not to mention the complete, 12 total hours they allotted to the “odors” to do anything!
8. As far as for telling the participant which odor they would have, or to tell them something generic, it would seem to me that that fact is an additional Independant-Variable: whether they have any positive response is the first, then whether they knew what they would be smelling is the second IV.  I didn’t see any facts that discussed whether there was any correlation between knowing what you are about to smell, or not knowing, and having a positive response.
9. The study seemed to take four groups of measurable information to determine whether the  Dependant-Variables* were changed.  The problem in my mind is that the first method, Inhalation* was monitored by the blood pressure, heart rate, and blood tests, the ability to heal wounds is usually using the Aromatherapy modality of external application, as is the ability to relieve pain.  But people unfamiliar with Aromatherapy might misunderstand their methods, and agree with the article-writer, who seems uninformed, herself.  And the fact that the psychological tests, that also seemed to prove that Aromatherapy has no effect, is using the self-reporting method of asking people how they feel, and the fact that they felt very little is indictative of the lack of time involved, and not necessarily the lack of positive results.

Well, sorry for the rant…I have been thinking of this article for several days, now, and I finally couldn’t stand it any longer!

Glossary:

Distilled Water: is water that has virtually all of its impurities removed through distillation. Distillation involves boiling the water and then condensing the steam into a clean container, leaving most if not all solid contaminants behind.

Double-Blind Procedure: an experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff are ignorant (blind) about whether the participants have received the treatment (for this study, the treatment is the “odors”) or a placebo (the distilled water).

Independant Variable: the experimental factor that is being manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied.

Dependant Variable: the behavior or mental process that is being measured.

Control: the contrasting condition that has no change.

Sources:

HealthScout.com

Wikipedia

Meyers, David G. (2005).Exploring Psychology, sixth ed.