What is aromatherapy?

These days, there are all manner of products on the market claiming to have aromatherapy benefits. The problem is that quite often cosmetics have names that make them sound like aromatherapy products, but they only contain minute amounts of essential oils or even have synthetic fragrances. These products may not even be formulated by a professional Aromatherapist, so how do you spot the genuine article? We hope the following information about essential oils and aromatherapy will be useful.

Aromatherapy is often defined as the careful, controlled use of essential oils, to enhance the well-being of the mind, body and spirit. Essential oils are highly concentrated, volatile, and fragrant substances that are extracted from flowers, berries, twigs, wood, seeds, fruits and leaves of many familiar plants. Essential oils have many different properties and research has shown that each oil contains a complex mixture of chemical components which contribute to essential oil therapeutic qualities. These could be stimulant, expectorant, anti-infectious, anti-inflammatory, relaxant, calming, soothing or uplifting. The important thing to stress is that they need to be used with respect and knowledge, so aromatherapy is far more than just pretty smells!

A professional Aromatherapist will have extensive knowledge of the therapeutic qualities and the chemical components within each essential oil. This enables them to create synergistic blends that are personalized for their client, taking into account their needs and any existing health conditions. In the hands of a knowledgable professional Aromatherapist, this means that these plant essences can be therapeutically blended to assist with stress, enhance health and support the body’s own healing processes. Clinical aromatherapy focuses on achieving synergy within the essential oil blend, and usually employs massage to use essential oils in a holistic treatment. So while this is not a medical treatment, aromatherapy has been found to work psychologically and physiologically to improve well-being.

In the coming months, we’ll be featuring a number of essential oils to explain their qualities and why we use them in our handmade natural skincare products. In the meantime, you can see more about our natural ingredients on our websites.

The Natural Soapworks and Natroma product ranges are formulated in-house by a professionally qualified Clinical Aromatherapist, and member of the International Federation of Professional Aromatherapists (IFPA).

"Oh what a lovely smell...."

Everyday we hear positive comments about the lovely smell within our little shop. It's a joke that you only have to arrive in the courtyard at the Red House Glass Cone, and then you simply follow your nose to find our shop!

It's amazing how smells can be so evocative, and it's nice to know that we can create such a postive reaction. The second comment we usually hear is how our products do not smell like the ones on the high street, and descriptions usually include words like: uplifting, relaxing, gorgeous, sophisticated and above all...natural. It's at this point, we usually have to explain about the difference between synthetic fragrances and the pure aromatherapy grade essential oils that we use.

So what are essential oils? A technical definition would be: concentrated, hydrophobic liquids (i.e they won't mix with water) containing volatile aroma compounds derived from plants. More simply they are the natural oils extracted from plant material. Usually this is via steam distillation, but they can also be expressed (such as squeezing the peel of citrus fruits) or by solvent extraction. The cost of essential oils varies according to how difficult it is to extract the essence - so this is why citrus oils are typically cheap whereas rose (which may require kilos of rose petals to produce a single ounce of rose otto essential oil) is very expensive.

Essential oils are highly concentrated essences, each with it's own distinctive aroma, which should be handled with knowledge and care. They should not be applied undiluted on to the skin. They are sold in small bottles which have a dropper attachment and this is so they can be carefully measured out, and there is less chance of them being accidentally injested. They should always be stored in a cool, dark place away from animals and children. Aromatherapists use these volatile aromatic compounds to assist a person's mood or health, and research is still ongoing to evaluate the effectiveness of aromatherapy as an alternative therapy.

So why do we use essential oils in our products? Well, we think it's better to use natural essences on the skin rather than synthetics. But great care has to be taken when developing skincare products, since even these "natural" plant oils can irritate sensitive skin if they are used in the wrong concentration. That's why we use controlled percentages in our products so customers can enjoy the soothing benefits of these lovely fragrances, safe in the knowledge that they are well within the limits that are laid down within the EU's Cosmetic's Directive which governs the sale of all cosmetic products manufactured in Europe. Despite these concerns, we believe that natural essences are more harmonious for the skin, than many of the cheaper synthetic alternatives that are available.

We hope you found this little article interesting and the next time you say "what a lovely smell", you can now appreciate that you're admiring a natural fragrance that's captured the essence of many plants species.