Benefits of Studying Online at Aromahead Institute

• Set your own schedule & learn at your own pace
• Study from the comfort of … anywhere!
• Develop new career opportunities
• Read materials online or print them out for later
• Watch the videos as many times as you like
• Access to the course materials are yours even after you complete the program.

This is a 3 minute video of how the online Aromatherapy Certification Program works.

What Do You Want to Be?

Aromahead Institute graduates launch successful careers from the foundation of an Aromatherapy education. For many, an Aromatherapy education is the natural way to begin a new and satisfying career. It’s possible to “be your own boss” and create a fulfilling livelihood on your own terms.

Aromatherapy is no longer a “fringe” practice. People are becoming more aware of the health benefits of essential oils and the tried and true research behind the practice of Aromatherapy.

Successful Graduates

Aromahead Institute graduates are busy! They create essential oil retail businesses, web retail stores, therapeutic product lines, and consultation services. They work in spas, teach classes, start their own schools, write for journals, magazines and online businesses, teach at massage school, work in hospice programs, massage clinics, alternative health clinics and more.  Need inspiration as you begin a new career or educational path?  Read about our graduates and their work as Aromatherapists: Graduate Directory

Making your own resin blends is easy and they make great gifts.

Simply mix the resins together in a bowl, sprinkle on your powders and/or dried herbs, add a few drops of essential oil and mix. Let this sit for a day or two and you’re ready to burn the resins.

You can burn the resins on charcoal tabs or on bamboo charcoal briquettes in a ceramic bowl. Simply light the charcoal or briquette with a lighter, make sure it is heating up and then add a few pieces of your resin blend on the top. Below are a few recipes I make often.

Breath Deep

1 oz Frankincense resin
1 oz Myrrh resin
Sprinkle of cardamom powder
Sprinkle of dried rosemary
10 drops Hemlock essential oil

Sweet Aroma

1 oz Opoponax resin
1 oz Benzoin resin
Sprinkle of vanilla powder
5 drops Balsam Poplar essential oil

Inward Journey

1 oz Copal resin
1 oz Pinon Pine resin
Sprinkle of Palo Santo Wood powder
10 drops Frankincense essential oil

Do you have a favorite resin? Please add yours in the comment section below.

An Easy Holiday Gift Idea

Looking for a gift for someone special this holiday season? Consider the Essential Living from Aromahead eBook. We’ll take care of delivery and we’ll even send a special note to your specifications. No shipping or wrapping to worry about! ♥

Order it for a limited time for $15.00 rather than $19.95

Offer good from December 9 – December 23rd, 2011.

Who Essential Living is perfect for:

• health care practitioners
• parents wanting natural options for cleaning and kids
• anyone interested in wellness and holistic medicine
• anyone interested in non-toxic options for health and home

How To Order- email: andrea@aromahead.com

• Send me the email addresses of the people you want to give the eBook to, the date you want it sent, and the note you would like to include, and I will send the eBook to them! Easy!

• I will send you a PayPal request for the $15.00, and you can pay with a credit card or PayPal.

I was just standing outside my house admiring our Ylang Ylang tree. She has grown huge in the past few years, and she produces hundreds of flowers throughout the year. I can smell the aroma of the flowers all the way down the street! The sweet floral aroma comes wafting into the bedroom window at night, filling our room with the most perfect sleep aroma. I wish I could say we planted it there purposefully, but it was more like pure luck.

I wrote a post on Ylang Ylang last year when I was once again admiring the tree and all her flowers. Read about the distiller we buy our Ylang Ylang from in South Africa.

We recently received this story via email from one of our South African distillers and would love to share it with you.

I know that essential oils and the precious plants they are extracted from are have brought so much into our lives.

Do you have any stories related to essential oils and your community that you would like to share?

It’s true, I am having a love affair with my citrus oils.  They are uplifting and support our immune system. We can use them for cleaning and diffusing into the air. The aromas are familiar and bright. They are inexpensive. Need I go on?

Those of you who study Aromatherapy know that some citrus oils are phototoxic (a chemically induced skin irritation requiring light). Did you know that some citrus oils are not phototoxic? If you’ve been avoiding all citrus oils out of concerns over phototoxicity I have good news.  You can still use a few citrus oils without worrying about potential phototoxic skin reactions. Read More

This is a picture from when I was pouring bulk orange, bergamot and pink grapefruit. Can you imagine the aroma?

This summer during the Component Blending class I made a hydrosol blend that has become my new favorite.

Recipe

2 oz Laurel leaf Hydrosol (Bay laurel – Laurus nobilis)
10 drops Balsam Fir – Abies balsamea
10 drops Pinon Pine – Pinus edulis
10 drops Hemlock - Tsuga canadensis

Talk about refreshing! The aromas of the forest blended with the slightly camphoraceous, sweet, and spicy undertones of the laurel hydrosol are extraordinary. Each time I spray it I am impressed with the richness and depth of the scent.

Historically, Bay laurel was the symbol of wisdom, both acquired and intuitive. The  botanical name Laurus nobilis is thought to derive from the Celtic word “laur” meaning green and “nobilis” meaning noble.

From a chemical component perspective

I like to use Balsam fir as an anti rheumatic, to prevent and/or relieve rheumatic pain and inflammation. It generally has about 35% Beta pinene, which was found to be a potent scavenger of hydroxyl radicals. This is a possible explanation for its current use in topical products for the relief of muscular and rheumatic pain.

Pinon Pine has an amazing aroma, adding a coniferous, balsamic, woody, and fresh aroma to the blend. We also add a potential antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic effect from the alpha pinene content.

Hemlock has an unusually high percentage of bornyl acetate for a conifer. This suggests a sedative and calming effect, perfect to calm tightness in the lungs and chest.

Share your blends

Do you have any hydrosol/essential oil blends you love? Let’s share some recipes in the comment section below.

Several people have asked me to post this allergy blog again. If you want to purchase any of the oils mentioned in the blog post I recommend Aromatics International.

I am excited to announce that I have published my first eBook!!  Essential Living: Aromatherapy Recipes for Health and Home.

The 113-page Aromatherapy Recipes eBook offers everything a beginner needs to get started with simple aromatherapy for your health and home. The eBook includes over 60 easy recipes to help you create natural, safe and environmentally-friendly products for beauty, skin care, your health, travel, emotional wellness and for cleaning and caring for every room in your home.

The recipes are printer friendly, so if you prefer paper to the computer, you can create your own recipe book!

Testimonials from the last few days

• Kc Rossi- WOW! This is *Fantastic*. What an easy, handy and user friendly way to access the art and science of aromatherapy.
• Rebeca Ledersnaider- Great ways to start using essential oils!!!
• Pat Chirumbolo- Just what I need! Thanks Andrea.
• Karen Williams- Beautifully illustrated and a great read for both the beginner and those who have been involved in aromatherapy for awhile. A much needed book!

On my recent trip to Bulgaria I visited a wonderful Essential Oil Distillery called RKL, located in the village of Bial Briag. They are a small distillery with beautiful organic fields of herbs such as Lavender, Melissa, Yarrow and Saint John’s Wort.

One of the three owners of RKL graciously met us at the airport in Varna, Bulgaria and spent the next three days with us. Alex took us to his distillery in Bial Briag and another distillery he supports called Little Arcadia, owned by his friends Antonina and Ivan, in Kipilovo village. Both distilleries are located in extraordinary, old villages.

The first day we spent in Varna, a costal town along the Black sea that reminded me of all the wonderful villages I love so much in France. Outdoor cafes serving incredible local food, people out on the cobblestone streets late into the night, and street performers playing music.

The next day we drove for a few hours through huge fields of sunflowers in full bloom to his distillery. The distillery is located in an old stone building in a very charming, ancient village. We met Georgi, his distillery manager who lives in the village with his wife Milka. Georgi owns 30 horses, one (Mladenka) who was kind enough to pull us in a cart through the village to their Melissa fields! We were told that Mladenka, the horse, was so smart that he could be a president!

I have pictures of the distillery, the people and the herb fields on my flickr account (along with the rest of the Bulgaria trip).

What impressed me most about RKL was that the three owners, Alex, Alexander and Vili, all come to the business with different skills. Alexander is a landscaper designer and knows the plants well, Alex has a background in international trade, importing and exporting, and Vili is what Alex called “the idea guy”. For example, Vili came up with the idea to make their own pellets from sawdust to run the boiler for the distillery.

They are dedicated to organic growing and skillful distilling. Alex has also begun to work with other local Lavender distillers to combine their efforts to provide larger quantities of Lavender essential oils to companies around the world. Bulgarian Lavender is beautiful! I always think of Rose essential oil when I think of Bulgaria, but the Lavender is also amazing, along with the Yarrow, German Chamomile, St John’s Wort and the other local herbs.

RKL are also the co-founders of BEOG – Boutique Essential Oils Group. BEOG is a commercial union of Bulgarian producers of rare organic and top quality herbal essential oils, brought together by common ideals and goals. RKL has years of hands-on experience in cultivated herb growing and distillation of essential oils, as well as profound commercial experience in international trade. The main task of BEOG is to unite the various small farmers under a standardized and controlled production and distillation process so their special products meet the high standards of the world markets.

Currently BEOG owns and runs more than 160 hectares (1 hectare equals about 2.47 acres) of Melissa, Saint John’s Wort, Chamomile, Elecampane, Wild Oregano, Yarrow, Rue, Winter Savory, Lovage, Angelica, Lavender and Dill.

The essential oil production in Bulgaria is impressive. It was deeply inspiring and heartfelt to see such large areas of herbs being grown organically, and such skillful distillation at each of the distilleries we visited.

As with most distilleries, the Bulgarian distillers tend to sell their essential oils in larger quantities for essential oil companies that import. If you are wanting small sizes (1/2 oz-16 oz), Karen at Aromatics International sells a beautiful Bulgarian Rose absolute, and a deep blue Bulgarian Yarrow.

If these posts about distilleries interest you, my next post will be on the distilleries I visited in Crete, Greece.