I pored over our sales reports for the last few months today. I realized that our essential oil line has been sadly underutilized in sales lately. I’m unsure if it’s because we started out as a fragrance oil company ten years ago and are mostly thought of as primarily a fragrance oil company. Or if it’s because our pricing/quality is judged as sub par. If it’s the latter, someone please put me out of my misery and tell me.
I’m half way through my certification for Medical Aromatherapy and loving the course! These are some things I’ve learned lately:
* Removing parts of the essential oil (for example, removing terpenes from essential oils to make them more friendly to perfuming) hurts the overall effect of the essential oil. The whole sum of the parts for essential oil is important to keeping their full therapeutic value.
* Famous researcher Paolo Rovestsi showed that inhaling essential oils of rose and lavender reduced feelings of depression and anxiety. Imagine combining that research with a brisk 30 minute run or walk outside to try and combat depression without prescription drugs!
* Only 1% of flowering plants produce an essential oil in any significant amount.
If you’d like to be introduced to Essential oils, Bramble Berry carries the neatest little starter essential oil starter kit. It has everything you need to start exploring the world of aromatherapy.
We also carry a huge line of essential oils, organic essential oils and synergy blends. I am currently burning the Calming Synergy Blend in my bedroom in the evenings and am loving the scent and effect.
Some ideas for improving your life through essential oils:
* put a 5 drops of Lavender Essential Oil on freshly laundered socks before tossing into the drier. Your entire load will come out smelling of calming lavender.
* fill a bowl with water. Put 15 drops of an uplifting essential oil like Peppermint, Bergamot, or Lemongrass into the water. Inhale deeply to wake yourself up and then soak a washcloth in the aromatic water. Wring the wash cloth out, toss it on the floor of your car and enjoy the fragrance all day as the washcloth dries out.
* Make a nighty-night linen spray by mixing 2 oz distilled water with 20 drops of Calming or Sleepy Time Synergy Blends. Shake well before use each and every time and of course, test on an inconspicuous place on your linens before dousing your entire bed. It’s impossible to predict which fabrics will bleed and fade.
There are many more uses for essential oils in soaps, lotions, face and body preparations and massage (to name a few!). Watch for more posts about using essential oils in your daily life. I am very inspired by my Aromatherapy Certification Course and look forward to sharing more essential oil tidbits over the next few months.
I did not find that BrambleBerry offers that many EO’s. I purchase my EO’s from a local shop so I can smell the scents before I make the purchase and they have a larger variety at a less expensive price.
Hi Marie!
We always try to sell the highest quality products that are available on the market (with the most affordable prices for our customers), and in terms of essential oils, sometimes that can mean a smaller selection.
But, if you’re interested in receiving a sniffy (an absorbent cotton strip, dipped in fragrance/essential, and sealed in a mini Ziploc baggie) of any of our essential or fragrances oils, please send a self-addressed, stamped envelope with the fragrance you’d like to smell written on a note inside. We ask that you Please send a SASE (self-addressed, stamped envelope) for each scent you are interested in (so as not to co-mingle the scents). For more information on our sniffy samples you can check out this link: https://www.brambleberry.com/Fragrance-Oil-Information-W33.aspx
And, if you ever have any questions about what an essential oil smells like, feel free to call customer service at 1.877.627.7883 and our team can help you out! 🙂
-Becky with Bramble Berry
I’ve heard various things regarding the use of essential oils in soap. Do your fragrance oils hold up better and last longer in cold process soap than the essential oils? I’d like to add essential oils to my soaps but also would like to use scents that won’t fade away. Any suggestions?
It’s a toss up. Some fragrances are terrible in CP soap but those are typically ones that haven’t been tested in CP, weren’t designed for CP soap. Most CP-safe fragrances are extremely strong.
That said, some essential oils can be awesome too! Here’s 10 that are fantastic in CP soap:
http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/lori-novas-top-ten-essential-oils-2/
1: Lavender(use .7 ounces per pound of oil/fat)
2: 5-Fold Sweet Orange (use .5 ounces per pound of oil/fat)
3: Petitgrain (use .5 ounce per pound of oil/fat)
4: Lemon (use .9 ounces per pound of oil/fat)
5: Litsea Cubeba (use .5 ounces per pound of oil/fat)
6: Spearmint (use .5 ounce per pound of oil/fat)
7: Lime (use .9 ounces per pound of oil/fat)
8: Peppermint (use .5 ounce per pound of oil/fat)
9: Rosemary (use .5 ounce per pound of oil/fat)
10: Anise (use .5 ounce per pound of oil/fat)
Oh I just found out about your blog…SWEET! I do love your products and thank you so much for the sample…greatly appreciated.
And a Big thank you to Tina for helping me out.
Kim
I bought some Fir Needle EO from you late last year, do you know what the shelf life is for this oil?
Technically, you want to use all essential oils within 1 year of getting them. However, they never go “bad” in the sense that they don’t go moldy. They simply start to change in character and smell differently. Storing in a room temperature or cold temperature and dark amber bottles and away from light will also help to keep your oils fresh smelling.
I am just wondering if you would recommend using the pearberry F.O. i just purchased for an “in the pot” swirl or if that would accelerate trace too much. if not, what fragrance or essential oils would you recommend for “in the pot” swirling. Thank you for your great instructions!!
Pearberry acts up a little bit in cold process. If you want something bright and fruity, I would use Energy. It will give you a lot of time to work. And it smells sooooo good!
https://www.brambleberry.com/Energy-Fragrance-Oil-P3861.aspx
-Courtney from Bramble Berry
I was wondering if you can use the same fragrance and essential oils that I use for the soap in a skin fragrance….in a mini spray bottle? If so is there a recipe or use the oils alone.
That’s a great question and you’ll always want to ask the vendor that you’re purchasing from but generally, you should never apply straight fragrance or essential oils to skin. You always want to dilute – usually by more than 75%. Straight fragrances or essential oils can easily irritate skin so always dilute with a skin safe vegetable oil (Olive Oil, Fractionated Coconut Oil and Jojoba oil are all great) by a minimum of 75% all the way up to 95%.
Hi Jode –
Thanks for reading the blog!
I am doing the “Clinical Aromatherapy” course by Jane Buckle. It’s under her “Aromatherapy for Health Professionals” line. I purchased it through Nature’s Gift, http://www.naturesgift.com for the affordable price of $550. If you are a health care professional, you can get a discount by faxing your license to Nature’s Gift. Here is the page with that info: http://www.naturesgift.com/healthpro.htm
Anne-Marie
Anne-Marie, From where are you taking your Medical Aromatherapy Course?
I just found your blog – Love it!!!
Jode
Those are excellent comments. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts.
Free samples of essential oils is something we’ve typically not done so we’ll consider adding essential oils to the sampling line up.
=) Anne-Marie
To me the relationship with an EO vendor is different from that with an FO vendor. There are only a set number of EOs, basically. Once I find an EO I like, I tend not to shop around, because I want my products to smell the same from year to year (for the same product that is), and the best bet for that is to use the same vendor. So unless I’m unhappy I tend to stick with the vendors I’ve been using for several years already.
Not sure if everyone else is like that or not, but if so then your problem might be getting people to try your EOs in the first place. Maybe send a few little EO samples with orders?
The other possibility is to try to have the best of something and then you will get recommended from one soaper to another. At our recent meeting we did a lot of talking about this… Several people agreed that XYZ’s company had the best Lav 40/42 for example, so when it went on sale just after the meeting, lots of people jumped on it. Another company’s Litsea is so far above and beyond that it would take a crowbar to make me buy from anyone else.
Hope that makes sense. Your excellent reputation for customer service is already working for you — you just need a push in that area maybe.
There are always new FOs and other things to try so that is different.