Irreverent Aromatherapy

Have you heard the notion of one essential oil's potential for addressing many conditions and how several components in an oil may be found in several other essential oils? Drip and Drop hash over these concepts through a quote from Kurt Schnaubelt about the "Broad Interchangeability of Essential Oils" and delve into the chemical language of volatile oils. Then comes in the quandary of formulating a clay mask with exfoliants: dry versus fresh ingredients. Which lead to Drip & Drop discussing the intersection of Aromatherapy and Product Formulation, where both may complement each other but are not the same. The conversation winds down with "common name confusion," think "Cedarwood" and "Bergamot," which may confuse novice and experts alike. Join us! Tune-in for aromatic advice and humor. Subscribe to our Aroma-show and stay in-touch!

New Year and starting fresh? Join Drip & Drop in more AromaAntics!

1)  Let go of the rules and forget about Pinterest and "the Google"! Contemplate the necessity and FUN of playing around and getting to work with and know different botanical ingredients for your formulations. Give yourself permission to "not know," get dirty and play around to enhance learning. 

2) Get Back to Basics! Sometimes Ylang ylang, Lavender and Orange are where it's at! This is coming from two Aromatherapists who try to keep themselves in-check as they are always exploring new or different ingredients, including essential oils such as Conyza!  

Wishing you a playful and creative 2022!

We found it: The Lost Solstice Episode! No joke, we almost lost our audio files, but fret not as we're back in business!

"Tis the season for cinnamon!" We start out light and airy by sharing blending ideas that include cinnamon such as a "Chai tea" blend that literally made someone's day! Then we get into the usual serious business of tackling internal use of essential oils: enter in "Thieves". The conversation gets deeper as we weigh-in on the Practice of Aromatherapy vs. Pushing Product. Is it true that an aromatherapist will suggest not using essential oils? Tune it to find out! 

Happy Solstice to all and to all a Good Night! Happy 2022!

This episode highlights so many amazing botanicals! Join us, Drip & Drop, for an episode centering on hydrosols! From incorporating them into the bath, into cocktails and even into a gel-based formula to help soothe symptoms of singles. Come along for the ride as we obsess over Lemon Verbena and revisit our Full Moon Aster Hydrosol (with a shout-out to Lois, who was gifted a 2-ounce bottle of the magical Aster for taking up our FCO challenge!). 

Further along, take out your bottles of conifer essential oils such as Pinyon Pine and Citrus oils such as Sweet Orange to lift the mood and spirit to support overall health during the darker days as we get closer and closer to the Winter Solstice. 

Do we seem to always bring up the notion that a genuine and authentic essential oil should smell like a symphony and take you on an aromatic journey? Maybe so, but we hope that notion stays with you for a long time as you seek out essential oils from different suppliers and geographies. 

Stay in-touch with questions and comments at [email protected]! 

Happy Black Friday! 'Tis the season for Pumpkin spice and contemplating the cycle of life! Drip changes up her Fall-Spice blend with a root oil, staying true to the perennial stay-seasonal philosophy. Drip and Drop discuss "supply chain" as it relates to tracking down an oil (Attar) after a trusted supplier closes AND what to do when you cannot find an essential oil in general. Other "light" topics emerge such as Alligator Juniper struck by lightning, GCMS reports and the death/life cycle. No topic is off limits! Happy Autumn and belated Halloween!

How many times can we possibly mention fractionated coconut oil (FCO) in an episode? Tune-in to find out! The first person to send us an email noting how many times we mention FCO in this episode will receive a bottle of our special Full Moon Aster Hydrosol!

On a more serious note, this episode features the perennial topic of "less is more." Less essential oils = a big impact whether you're adding oils to a beard or face oil, smelling the oil and more. Other topics include the importance of carrier oils, finding fresh topics to share and another recurring topic of going beyond the aroma of an essential oil in aromatherapy. 

The current Internet-Information age, social-media driven environment encourages, nearly demands, the sharing of information. For free. 

What is the cost for an aromatherapy practitioner to gain knowledge and experience? What is the cost for an information seeker to gain that information (or product) from a practitioner? How much is knowledge and practice worth?

This episode is based on Drip's recent customer encounters where the customer asked for the formulation of Drip's smell training kit...for free. 

Are you ready to "tip-toe through the Thyme Tips?" Drop shares how today’s soup inspired enjoyment of a fresh thyme infusion. Drip cools down with her “Hangover Cure” mist made for the upcoming "Wine Walk". Drip emphasizes how essential oils should be appreciated and treated as fine wines are, such as appreciating quality and "terroir". Speaking of a sense of place, Drop muses on the ability of scent molecules to provide information about the present while giving access to the past.

Join Bekki & Amy during this episode to learn about the inspiration behind the nicknames of “Drip” and “Drop”!  Also, we’re changing up the episode format and looking to answer your aromatherapy questions (no health-related questions, please. We do not diagnose, treat or prescribe.) Send us an email at [email protected] with thoughts, questions or to say hello!

Drip’s topic of the week is organizing essential oils. Is there a right way? A wrong way? What matters most is making your way the right way…for you. What does that mean? Tune-in to hear more!

Drop planted Winter Savory this past weekend, which had her thinking how some plants and their oils share similar chemistry and how there are friends (and "strangers") around the globe and in our own backyards that are just as lovely... 

Stay in-touch at [email protected]!

Drip shares her journey and knowledge about a trip down the rabbit hole of finding capsules that don’t leak. Seriously, you want to tune-in as many easy-to-find capsule blanks often crack and leak (and yes, we discuss the dreaded "internal use of essential oils"). 

Drop recently finished the book “God’s Hotel” by Victoria Sweet and shares the concepts of “Viriditas” (vigor, healing) and “Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet & Dr. Merryman” all within the Galenic tradition of healing the whole person. Thanks to the book and its many references to Hildegard von Bingen, Drop has been smelling Tansy and looking to have some grow in the garden. Similarly, Drip recently planted Monarda fistulosa in her garden, though she seems to be on a never-ending search for its hard-to-come-by essential oil.