Basic Intro to Essential Oils...

Happy Saturday,

Maybe your sleeping in, maybe you're already up and at 'em as am I. Whichever is the case, it's Saturday!! I use this day to get as much done as possible so that I can do whatever I want on Sunday, be it rest, time with my kids, to read a book, to watch movies, to go play, whatever!!

It makes all the running around and all the "chores" on Saturday so worth it. I usually cook a big meal, I mean, the list goes on but Sundays are truly a day meant for fun and relaxing.

I actually got a few emails to my neecieblogresponse@gmail.com with suggestions for topics. One person wants to know more about homemade facials, hair conditioners and treatments in general. Another asked if I could write more about IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) and other colon issues and how to naturally deal with them and another one asked me if I could do a basics on essential oils.

So, I need time to research the first two. I don't want to repeat what I've already written about as far as facials, etc. and as for the IBS, I know a lot having had to deal with it my whole life but not enough. I have been someone who for the most part, deals with it and has learned to live with it. I have not done to much to try and put a halt to it. So, give me some time :)

As for essential oils; what are they, how do you use them and of what benefit are they really?

I'm going to do a little plagiarism here but will provide links to everything I "steal".

First of all, what is an essential oil?

What are Essential Oils?
Essential oils are concentrated volatile aromatic compounds produced by plants - the easily evaporated essences that give plants their wonderful scents. Each of these complex precious liquids is extracted from a particular species of plant life. Each plant species originates in certain regions of the world, with particular environmental conditions and neighboring fauna and flora. The result is a very diverse library of aromatic compounds, with some essential oils being made up of more than one hundred distinct organic chemicals.

What do they do for plants?

Essential oils are extracted from oil 'sacs' in flowers, leaves, stems, roots, seeds, wood and bark. They differ significantly from the well-known vegetable, nut and seed oils which are made up of various fatty acids (essential oils are not). Essential oils are used by the plants in somewhat the same way they are by humans - they fight infection, contain hormone-like compounds, initiate cellular regeneration, and work as chemical defense against fungal, viral, and animal foes. Despite their foliar origins however, essential oils have a similar structure to some compounds found in blood and tissues, allowing them to be compatible with our own physiology.

How Essential Oils Are Extracted

To produce essential oils of therapeutic quality - those that retain as much of the original plant essence in its original state as possible - the most gentle extraction method that will draw the oil from a particular plant is most desirable. Extraction methods range from Carbon Dioxide (CO2) extraction - being the most gentle (and most expensive), to pressing (as for extracting the oil from citrus rinds) and steam distillation, to solvent extraction. Steam distillation is most common, and as a result of only requiring heating to just above the boiling point of water, is considered gentle enough for most essential oils. (Note: All of Ananda's essential oils are of Therapeutic Quality, being 100% pure, unadulterated, and properly produced to this standard - Read more about how essential oils are made). 


http://www.anandaapothecary.com/what-are-essential-oils.html 


The benefits of essential oils as alternative or additional means of healing, cannot be disputed, especially by those of us who pursue natural courses of treatment for various ailments first.

They are used to treat actual medical conditions, they are used in aromatherapy and they can be used in homemade household cleaning agents, such as laundry detergent, disinfectant cleaners, etc.

I won't be sharing any recipes for the above today, just giving information :)

I use them for all the above.

How to use essential oils? The best ways to use e.o.'s is by application directly to affected areas (for healing or relief of sore muscles, arthritic conditions, rashes, etc.), direct application (for overall relief from emotional symptoms) to the wrists, behind the ears, along the spine and the souls of the feet, and by inhalation. You can open a bottle and inhale it directly, you can put some in a steamer, you can put some in a diffuser or add to your bath. The last way you can use e.o.'s but that I don't often do, is to ingest them. If you do this, make sure you know your e.o.'s. Many of them are not safe for comsumption. Nothing I recommend will ever include ingesting e.o.'s. I have gotten the results I want from the first methods described.

Most e.o.'s that will be applied to the skin must be diluted in a carrier oil first. Carrier oils are in most cases, fatty oils. The reason you must do this is that e.o.'s are extremely potent and in their natural state, can burn the skin. The only e.o. that I confidently recommend for direct application without a carrier oil is lavender. There are companies out there that will try to tell you that thier process of extracting e.o.'s is so good that you can use any of them directly. It's a lie folks. I've done research on this, on the companies themselves and the people who were harmed as a result. Do NOT ever use an e.o. other than lavender, on the skin without first diluting it. While some people might be fine, others may prove to have a sensitivity and reactions vary from small, annoying reactions to BIG, ouch, not good, go to the hospital reactions.

One more point, there are e.o.'s that are considered to be "hot" and even with dilution into a carrier oil, will most likely cause irritation to the skin.

There "hot" oils that are almost 100% likely to cause skin irritation. These include any of the pine, fur tree oils, cinnamon, thyme, etc. For a full disclosure on dangerous oils, you can google essential oils to get a list of what to stay away from.

In addition, there are essential oils that cause an increased sensitivity to the sun. These are called phototoxic essential oils. Even though many of these e.o.'s are of great benefit to the skin, you won't find them in any of my products that are used as anti-aging, just because they have an opposite reaction if you're exposed to direct sunlight.

Here's a great link I found that goes over everything. http://www.floracopeia.com/articles/256-how-to-use-essential-oils-effectively

So, the last thing that I wanted to cover was for those people who want to get to know e.o.'s and using them. What's a good starting point? I recommend the following, fairly inexpensive essential oils. You can google what they can be used for and good carrier oil to e.o. ratio's to use. You can always ask me too.

• Lavender
• Tea Tree
• Peppermint
• Lemon

I hope you found this interesting and helpful. Do as much research as you can and talk to people in the know. 

Have fun and be well :)

Just Little Helpers...

Good morning...afternoon...and evening,

I really realized here that I need to put energy into what my Saturday blogs will be about. I would love to hear from you and what you would like to hear about, learn about, etc. Please either comment here, or on the link of this blog I post to my Willow's Whimsy page.

But I was thinking about little things; little helps, little suggestions.

I recently burned a candle that spilled hot wax all over my carpet. I went online and researched and here's what I found.

If it's a huge pile of wax, put a bag of ice over it and wait til frozen and much of the wax will simply break off. Once you've got as much as you can that way, cover the wax with a grocery bag or old towel and run a hot iron over it. The wax will melt, lift off the carpet and stick to the paper or towel. By george (who is george by the way?) it worked. I do have a stain but it's much better than it was;

You can do this on the wall too, which I did and it's all gone now

Another little tip of for those of you who, like I, have more cats than you really should (seriously though, can you ever have enough cats) and you want to spend less on kitty litter, that's an easy one and only requires minimum effort. Your basic kitty litter is made of clay. It works by absorbing the urine. But the thing is, if you let it sit there and you only clean out the poop, it's gonna get stinky fast. I clean out my cat boxes twice a day. I take out the poop first and then I stir up the litter really well. This helps it to air out and dry quicker and the smell is not as concentrated. I have four cats, three boxes and for each change, I use two bags of litter. I only have to change it every 3 weeks because if you do this, twice a day, the smell just doesn't build up as quickly. So start scooping and stirring!!

The other thing I wanted to mention is Lemon Essential Oil. EO's can be very expensive but most of them are quite excellent, even though some will claim to be thee premiere oil. Don't drive yourself nuts and if you ever have questions, don't hesitate to call me.

But of the basics, you should at least have lavender and lemon. Lemon is so great, it's great for cleaning, disinfecting, it's uplifting as aroma therapy. Lemon...You can add a few drops to your bath. You can add about 20 drops to a cup of distilled water and use it for cleaning counter tops. It helps cut buildup and dirt. It's just an all around great oil to have and use. You can make a lemon perfume oil with an ounce of carrier oil and 20 - 30 drops of Lemon EO. Put in a container and shake. You can use vodka if you want instead of oil...I've never worked with alcohol so can't tell you how it works in perfume but I have friends who use it as a base for perfumes and swear by it.

Hope you found this useful!! Have a great weekend all!!

Love,
Willow

Promotions

Hi People of the Willow's Whimsy.

I'm feeling so grateful right now. I've gotten so many likes to my page. I've gotten one order! These things are so great!! Thank you, all of you.

I just want to remind you of two promotions going on right now.

First, I would like to get to 200 likes by January 25. For those of you who share my posts, I'm keepin' tabs. The person who shares the most, will win an 8 oz. jar of my whipped cocoa butter body butter. You can share on your page, or a specific friend's page, as often as you like. I'll let you all know who the winner is January 26th.

From now until Sunday, January 6th, or when I get 5 new likes, whichever comes first, the first five people who share and as a result, get a friend to like my page, will get a free lip balm and so will the friend they referred to my page. They have to like it though :) Make sure your friend or you posts on my page to tell me who referred them. I have had three winners already. So, there are still two chances to win while before Sunday. Just make sure you or your friend posts as soon as they like my page, so I can make sure to get you your lip balms. Good luck!!! My facebook page is Willow's Whimsy.

I have a feeling that much of this is going to start coming together, maybe quicker than I dared dream.

Thank you, thank you so much for all the support. I really appreciate it. You guys are at the beginning of all of this. I'm finally ready to give this all I've got.

I won't be around or posting this weekend, thus the lip balm promotion. I'll be back sometime Sunday afternoon.

Have a good weekend. Do something for yourself, some small, loving gesture, for no reason other than that YOU DESERVE IT AND YOU ARE WORTH IT!!!!!!!