Aroma Inspiration - Part II

One aspect of essential oils I touched on in Aroma Inspiration - Part I is this idea of synergy, that when blended together the different properties of each essential oil work together to create distinctly different influences on mood than each of the single oils might suggest by itself.

As a "novice aromatherapy philosopher" I'd like to share a few of my favorite essential oil combinations and why. One quick note though, in the world of aromatherapy, essential oils can be used to treat physical ailments as well as mental ails. As a philosopher about my own experience of essential oils I discuss primarily how the essential oils impact mind and spirit, i.e. well being.

Lavender & Mint

Lavender is obviously a huge favorite of mine. One of the amazing things about lavender is that chemists have discovered over 150 different chemical components in the lavender plant. That explains why there are a HUGE variety of healing applications for lavender. Lavender is known most popularly for it's ability to calm and balance mood. It is also known to refresh and stimulate. So when combined with mint that is also refreshing and stimulating it's a pretty good "refresher". Surprisingly my Lavender Mint soap is a huge favorite with the guys. I think the strengthening component of Spearmint adds just the dose of masculinity needed to strengthen lavender's softer "calming" side. (We all know the guys could use a dose of calming influence now and then.)

Add in a hint of Cedarwood and the Lavender Mint combo becomes more calming. My favorite massage oil is, of course, called "Relaxing" and it contains this combination of essential oils. I often have difficulty falling asleep at night, if unable to use the Relaxing Massage Oil to massage my neck and send me fast asleep, my husband has been know to put a little in his hand and say "Here smell this." He claims it works like a charm, I'm often on my way to sleep within minutes with slow relaxed on my way to sleep breaths.

Orange and Ginger

Once I started experimenting with essential oils, orange quickly became a huge favorite of mine. It is truly the happy essential oil. Also know to be warm, sweet, sensuous, and refreshing. It really is an energy infuser for me. You can read about how making Orange Oatmeal Soap (recently renamed Morning Sunshine) quite literally recharged a gloomy January day while enduring 30 days of no sun in this post Painting My World.

The health benefits of ginger root essential oil are many, however it is widely know to be anti-inflammatory. But did you know it also has aphrodisiac properties? So what do you get when you cross an aphrodisiac with the happy essential oil? Let's just leave it at that. I use this essential oil combination in an aptly named massage oil, Ginger Passion.

Chocolate and ?

One of my favorite ingredients to work with is cocoa butter. Often the chocolate aroma is removed from cocoa butter to add this luxurious ingredient to products without adding the aroma; but I LOVE the chocolate aroma. When added to soap the cocoa butter not only adds a hint of chocolate aroma it also adds extra creamy luxurious moisturizing bubbles to create a treat for your shower to be sure! Chocolate works great with spearmint and peppermint. I regularly carry my Mint Chocolate Chip Handcrafted Soap. But during the holidays I make a Candy Cane soap that could be called White Chocolate Peppermint and a Chocolate Peppermint Body Butter. I've met quite a few people that really don't like chocolate in their body care regime, but I love it and am truly inspired by it. After all, it's no calorie chocolate! What's not to like? Another fun chocolate combination is orange essential oil and cocoa butter found in my Orange Chip Soap and from time to time I make a Chocolate Coconut Massage Bar.

Coconut and ?

Another truly favorite ingredient is Extra Virgin Coconut Oil. You may have read about the health benefits of using this oil in baking and cooking, but it is a fabulous additive for skin care products as well. And not only does this oil add extra moisturizing properties in skin preparations it adds wonderful coconut aroma. Remember using that Hawaiian Tropic tanning oil when you were a teenager? Before we really understood the effects of sun damage we were coating our skin with this stuff and baking to create that sun kissed look. Those were the good old days ... laying around in the sun without a care in the world. Well that's what Extra Virgin Coconut Oil reminds me of ... carefree days. So when I add this ingredient to a body essential it creates for me this memory of care free days and vacation, of course coconuts remind me of Hawaii. Since the Extra Virgin Coconut Oil is not a suitable additive for soap, I usually use it in various body essentials. I make two Coconut Salt Scrubs that are the bomb, Coconut Mojito and Island Sunset. The essential oils in both of these scrubs complement the coconut creating an exotic and inspiring aroma.

Well that's it for now from this aroma philosopher. I'd love to know your favorite aroma combinations and how they impact you.