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Making Beautiful Music For Your Nose With Essential Oil Recipes

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There are a lot of benefits to aromatherapy. Perhaps you want to help heal minor problems. Perhaps you want a sensual massage. Perhaps you need to calm down or wake up. Or perhaps you want to smell something pleasing. Whatever your reason, you will soon discover that your nose has its own likes and dislikes. What essential oil recipes work for one person might not work for you, much in the same way jazz music is both loved and hated. You have to spend some time learning what scents you like and what you dont. This way you can make your own essential oil recipes that best benefit you.
Notes Of Scent
Creating your own essential oil recipes can be a lot of fun for many people, like playing or listening to music. With your first essential oil recipes, stick with just three oils until you get the hang of it. Otherwise, they will clash. Also, considering the price of some essential oils, it will be a lot cheaper.
There are three kinds of oils that you need in your mix to make it the most effective. These types of essential oils are called notes. You need a top note, and a middle note, and a base note. You can also make some good essential oil recipes with one top note and two middles. Experiment and see what works best for you. Note what scents bring about what kind of feelings brought up in you. Its safer to blend essential oils with a carrier oil like olive or jojoba than just to use the pure essential oils if you mean to put the oil on your body. Its also a lot less expensive! When burning oils for their scent alone, it is best to use the pure essential oils.
Top Notes
Top notes are like the lead vocals of an essential oil recipe. They are usually the first thing you notice. They also dont last too long, letting the other notes take over. Many fruity and floral scents fall into this category. Common top note essential oils are lemon, bergamot, eucalyptus and orange.
Middle Notes
Middle notes are like the guitars in a band. They are more subtle than top notes and tend to last a lot longer. Spicy, floral and herbal kind of essential oils tend to fall into this category. Some are listed as middle notes OR base notes, depending on what aromatherapy book you read. Smell them and determine for yourself how long the scent lasts in your essential oil recipes. Common middle note oils are lavender, geranium, patchouli, rose and rosemary.
Base Notes
Base note scents are the percussion and rhythm of the scent band. They provide the beat that the rest of the band has to follow. The base note oils linger the longest in you essential oil recipes. Many spicy and woody scents fall into this category. Common base note oils are sandalwood, cypress, frankincense and myrrh. Some also list patchouli and even rose in this category.

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How Are Essential Oils Produced?

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Essential oils are used in perfumes, in aromatherapy, in creams and lotions and for many other purposes where pleasant aromas are needed. Several methods are used to extract essential oils from flowers and other plant material. Essential oil makes up only a very small percentage of the plant or flower so a large amount of plant material is needed to produce a small amount of oil. More than a hundred pounds may be needed to produce an ounce of oil. Some flowers are also too delicate to use the easier methods and more time consuming and expensive methods must used. Essential oils can be expensive but they are very concentrated. Most recipes only require a few drops so a small bottle will last for a long time.
Steam Distillation
Steam distillation is used for the majority of essential oil production. Pressurised steam is passed through flowers or other plant material spread on screens inside a still. The oils are absorbed by the steam which is then passed into another chamber and cooled. On condensing the oil floats on the top of the water and is skimmed off. The water remaining is not wasted as it contains small amounts of the oil and can be used for toners and facial mists. As it is not as concentrated as the essential oils floral water can be used by people who are sensitive to essential oils.
Solvent Extraction
For flowers or plants too delicate to use steam extraction solvent extraction is often used. A solvent, usually hexane, is repeatedly passed over the plant material on mesh trays. The oils, along with other soluble substances, are absorbed by the solvent which is then filtered and the resulting solution distilled under low pressure to remove the solvent. The material left, called a concrete, is a waxy solid containing the essential oils and waxes and pigments from the plants. Further processing is then carried out to extract the oils and waxes from the concrete. The concrete itself can also be used as a perfume and the waxes are used in lotions, creams and in candle making.
Enfleurage
For flowers or plants that have very low levels of essential oils, jasmine for instance, a different method must be used. Flowers are placed into odourless vegetable oil and left for a few days before being replaced by fresh material. Fresh flowers are repeatedly placed in the vegetable oil until it is saturated with the oil from the flowers. Alcohol is then used to extract the essential oil from the vegetable oil. When the alcohol is evaporated the pure essential oil is left. This process takes a long time and a large amount of plant material and the resulting oil is very expensive.
Cold Pressing
For citrus oils, where the oil is extracted from the fruit rather than the flowers cold pressing is used. This entails rolling the fruit between spiked projections which pierce the peel and then squeezing the fruit to extract the juices which contain the oil. The resulting juice is then centrifuged to separate the oil.
Carbon Dioxide Extraction
In this method carbon dioxide is used to extract the oil. A high pressure is achieved by pumping the gas into a chamber containing the plant material. As the pressure increases the gas liquifies and acts as a solvent. The essential oils are extracted into the liquified carbon dioxide which is then passed into another chamber where the pressure is released. The carbon dioxide vapourises leaving behind the essential oil.
No residues are left behind and the extract is very pure with a clean and fresh aroma. As the temperature used is much lower than that used for steam distillation, oil can be extracted from delicate flowers that are destroyed by steam distillation.
Steam Diffusion Extraction
This method is similar to steam extraction but the steam is introduced into a chamber with the plant material at atmospheric pressure rather than at high pressure. It is a gentler method and can be used for more delicate flowers and plants.

How Essential Oils are Produced

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Aromatherapy is an improvement of mental and physical health with the help of the essential oils derived from aromatic plants. The contents of Essential Oils are known as hormones, antibiotics, thermions (unseen scents) and recycling cells (essential to the existence of a live plant) Due to these properties the immunity of plants to various diseases is heightened. Bacteria and viruses are eliminated and neutralized. By deriving valuable essential oils from plants, we can use the same curative properties to improve the conditions of our bodies. There are two ways in which essential oils work; psychologically – by way of the body’s sense of smell on the central nervous system by vaporizers or smelling of the oils; and physically – through the skin by mixing the oils for massage, foot baths or steam inhalation. Aromatherapy is the unique way of connecting our health with the riches of the world surrounding us. The pleasure in itself is therapy, but aromatherapy goes further, by transforming therapy into pleasure. Use caution when using essential oils. Concentrated essential oils are too strong to be applied directly on the skin. Carrier oils are used when thinning essential oils for massage. Try not to use essential oils on sensitive areas such as the eyes. Essential oils can be useful for certain disease applications but may not be suitable for others. Please do research to familiarize yourself with essential oils before use. Essential oils should be stored in a cool dark place in an airtight container.

Comments on Essential Oils

Essential oils are categorized by their lightness and are divided into oils of the top, average and base. Essential oils of the top evaporate rapidly due to their lightness and care should be taken when storing them. Base oils evaporate the least rapidly. Oils mixes that are the most stable and balanced are those that consist of oils from all three categories top, average and base. In this article we will explain how to make your own essential oils for massage or other applications.

Natural vs Synthetic Aromatherapy Oils

Natural essential oils contain a high content of vegetative extracts produced by extraction or evaporation from berries, seeds, roots, flowers, bark or citrus peels. The cost of essential oils directly depends on amount of the raw material necessary for the manufacturing of oil. It’s different for each plant. For example, rose oil manufacturers may make one drop of oil from thirty rose petals, this explains the high price. Synthetic aromas or flavored oils are created by artificial ways in laboratories. In technical language, flavored oils are actually not oils and are more likely artificial chemical compounds. The exotic names of these products are deceiving as they are not even made from those flowers or fruit. For example, there is no such thing as the true peach or strawberry oil. Despite the pleasant smell, flavored oils do not possess any curative properties and do not contain undiluted active ingredients of natural plants. They cannot be used for medicinal reasons and some can be dangerous when applied to the skin. As a precaution it is suggested that you not use these substances for aromatherapy applications as there is no information on their safety.

Ways of Making Aromatherapy Oils

Steam Distillation is the most widespread way of deriving essential oils. One method of direct distillation is where the steam distillatory is loaded with raw vegetative material. Steam is then forced into the distillatory and elements of the raw vegetative material mix with the steam. The steam and vegetative matter mix condenses into a liquid on top of which floats the essential oils. The essential oil are then separated from the water. Citric oils are usually made by the Cold Pressing method. This is very soft pressing in which oils are squeezed out of the crushed peel. Carrier oils are produced in the same way by pressing seeds. Using special solvents to extract the aromatic oils from vegetative matter is called Solvent extraction. The resulting absolute oils are extremely pure. It is a fine procedure in which the aromatic substance is extracted from a vegetative material by means of non-polar solvents. Solvents are separated leaving a wax-like deposit which is mixed with spirits and is very cautiously heated up. It is followed with a process of a filtration as a result of which the wax is removed. The pure oils remain once the alcohol is removed. Absolute oils have special certificates of quality.

Essential Oils vs Absolute Oils

Essential oils contain highly concentrated and scented vegetable extracts. Steam distillation is the normal method by which essential oils are derived from vegetative matter. Oils from a peel of citrus are derived using a pressing method. Absolute oils which are normally more concentrated than essential oils are obtained by the solvent extraction method.

Infused Aromatherapy Essential Oils

Plant flowers are submerged in olive or Soy oils for a reasonable period of time This allows the oils to receive the essence of the flower and use it for the manufacture of infused oils. For producing carrot oil the extract of the root crop is soaked in Soy oil for the most effective utilization of its aromatic properties.

Base Oils

Carrier or base oils are vegetable based and are very high in quality and nutrition. When combined with essential oils they allow the pure oils to be used for massage and body and skin care. Usually they are derived by cold pressing from nuts, seeds, grains and barks.

Pure Aromatherapy Essential Oils-3% Mix

In their pure form some essential oils are too concentrated to use so manufacturers dilute them so that they can be used. Generally, essential oil manufacturers make the essential oils useable by combining them with carrier oils in a 3% mix.

Massage Oil Blends

Essential oils used for massage come ready to use as they are blended with carrier oils. Carrier oils are obtained by the processing of nuts, apricots, grains or seeds of fruits. The carrier oils are combined with oils from new wheat to increase the stability and shelf life of the essential oils.

Herbal Creams

Well researched formulas of creams consist of essential oils and natural extracts from select vegetation. High grade lanolin is used as a basis for many formulas

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