What is Aromatherapy and what are Essential Oils?

Aromatherapy is an alternative medicine that uses essential oils as well as aromatic plant compounds to improve a person's psychological and physical wellbeing.

Essential oils are the pure essence of a plant. They are in essence plant based compounds that have gone through a distillation process. The very best that the plant has to offer is extracted in such a way that it brings benefits to the person using it in a safe manner. Essential oils are also called volatile oils, and these volatile oils evaporate in the air. Distillation separates the water soluble and fat soluble compounds. Essential come from the root word "quintessential" which actually means from the essence of something and they represent the life force or an essence of a plant. Drawing the oils out harnesses the healing powers of the plant.

Essential oil molecules are some of the smallest molecules in the world and can penetrate the blood brain barrier in humans when some chemotherapies can’t. They are also transdermal which means they can penetrate your skin and move into your bloodstream. Be careful of confusing essential oils with products that have synthetic ingredients and have no benefits. Synthetic ingredients are frowned upon in aromatherapy. How to spot them? They can be listed as a ‘fragrance or perfume oil’ on the label of the product.