Share |

A blog dedicated to promoting the healing power of essential oils and aromatherapy

Discover essential oil profiles, aromatherapy practice, essential oil safety, aromatherapy training,essential oil uses, aromatherapy talk and many more aromatherapy notes - all from a unique UK/USA perspective....

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Aromatherapy Notes Blog Has Moved!

We have now moved!
I posted on Monday that the Aromatherapy Notes blog was moving to its own domain name.  Well, that move has now taken place.  Although there are a few tweaks and final bits to polish up, the main web site is up (including content imported from this blog) and I will be posting new aromatherapy blog posts on the new domain from now on.

I notice that some people follow this blog through both networked blogs and google connect.  You can still do that on the new Aromatherapy Notes blog but you will need to switch over :)

So come on over!  All the new aromatherapy talk is now over at Aromatherapy Notes!

See you there!

NB - BY THE END OF THE YEAR (2010) THIS BLOG WILL BE DELETED.  ALL CONTENT CURRENTLY ON THIS BLOG CAN BE FOUND ON THE NEW DOMAIN.

Monday, October 11, 2010

The Aromatherapy Notes Blog is Moving!


We are moving!
 Its been on the cards for a while, but last week I finally got round to starting to move the Aromatherapy Notes blog to its own domain name.  The new Aromatherapy Notes blog isn't quite yet complete, but I hope to get it fully functional by the end of October.  All the original content from this blog has been transferred over to the new Aromatherapy Notes blog, so the information hasn't been lost.

However, if you currently "follow" this Aromatherapy Notes blog on blogger, you'll need to make a note to "follow" my new Aromatherapy Notes blog.  I'll post another post when the new blog is fully functional to remind you, but I am not going to making any more "proper" aromatherapy posts on this blog from now on.

The reason I'm moving the Aromatherapy Notes blog onto its own domain name is simply to make the blog more professional looking - and to link it more easily into my "aromatherapy family" of web sites.  I hope that you will like the new Aromatherapy Notes blog and will continue to "follow" me over there!  See you soon! :)

Monday, October 4, 2010

Sustainability of "Threatened" Essential Oils

A couple of months ago I wrote an article about the Difference between East Indian and West Indian Sandalwood TreesSandalwood, like some other essential oils such as rosewood, attracts media attention because the extraction of the essential oil "threatens" the plant species from which it is extracted.  Some aromatherapists will not use sandalwood essential oil for this reason, and prefer to use an "alternative" oil.

Gathering qualitative information about the sustainability of "threatened" essential oils is difficult because people often have opposing opinions on the matter!  However, there are both organizations and individuals around the world who believe in helping to spread the word about such matters.

I was recently contacted by Mane Essentials, a small supplier of essential oils in the UK, about the article I mentioned above.  Although Mane Essentials have a small operation, if you take a look at their web site you will see that one of their aims is "to monitor the market for...endangered products and to keep up to date with crop reports which will ultimately affect our industry."

Mane Essentials very kindly linked to my sandalwood article on their web site and this in turn lead me to discover some information about Cropwatch.  According to their web site, Cropwatch is:

" an independent Watchdog for Natural Aromatic Products used in the aroma, traditional herbal medicine and phytochemicals industries."

In the US, a similar project, in the form of the Aromatic Plant Project, aims to:

"encourage the growing and distillation of true essential oil plants in the United States for the production of hydrosols and essential oils."

If you take the time to do your own research on these operations, and on others, you will find that there are a lot of "small" voices fighting for the sustainability of "threatened" essential oils and distilling essential oils from plants in the best and "purest" way.  After all, essential oils come from a natural source - and if we destroy that source in its entirety, there will be no more of that particular plant, or essential oil!

Unfortunately, we live in a world where we do not seem to appreciate what we have until its no longer there - so take the time to research and learn as much as you can about the essential oil you are buying.  Your children, and grandchildren, may thank you in the future :)