Aroma Therapy

Last Saturday, I found myself hanging out with Niccole again, only this time, we were safe from road rage in Flagstaff. We were at her house making sugar scrubs. Niccole is a Young Living Essential Oils Representative. She has been using and diffusing the oils from the Young Living collection for several months now, keeping her family healthy during spring fever season, colds, the flu and stress of everyday life. Using her Young Living diffuser, she adds oils everyday to ward off the germs her kindergartner might bring home. She stuffs cotton balls infused with oil in the vents of her car to purify the air, and she takes baths with stress-relieving oils at the end of the day. Whatever she's doing she's doing right because somehow, her two children, ages 6 years and 6 months, have stayed away from the sick-and-icky arena all season long. Meanwhile, my kids are on round two of fevers.

So when she invited me to her Sugar Scrub party, I thought it would behoove me to investigate what all this oil hype was all about.

Ever since I was a massage school student, I have heard about this "essential oils" stuff. I stayed away from it for the most part because it seemed rather daunting. There is literally an oil for everything. There are also blends, and potencies that vary from brand to brand. The possibilities are endless with essential oils. I am more of a simple person, and the thought of sorting through all the details and uses of oils seemed overwhelming, so I just never got into it.

But over the past few months, I have heard Niccole talk about her oils collection. She too felt overwhelmed with the essential oils scene, until she attended a sugar scrub party hosted by a mutual friend of ours. The woman hosting the party broke it all down for Niccole and made it understandable, and digestible. Shortly after attending her first sugar scrub party, Niccole signed up to buy and sell the Young Living Essential Oils.

While I sat at Niccole's dining room table last Saturday, she explained to me how she is always learning something new about the essential oils. She showed me a spiral-bound book that came with her kit. It was basically an encyclopedia of how to use the essential oils.

"There is just too much information to remember. So I am regularly referring to the book. I read and re-read it quite often, just to make sure I'm using the right oils," Niccole explained to me.

That made a lot of sense to me. Why try to remember it all? There is literally thousands of years of wisdom to keep locked in your brain if you try to just "know" everything about essential oils. Seeing the spiral book made me feel like learning about oils was more attainable. I didn't have to be the encyclopedia, I could read one that was already created.

We used small glass jars to make our sugar scrubs, adding olive oil and avocado oil as the base. Then we dropped in the oils. I made two different scrubs; one for my psoriasis, and one for my face. For the psoriasis scrub, I used a blend of avocado and olive oil. I added tea tree oil and lavender (I forget how many drop of each.) Then I scooped up 1/4 cup of sugar and added it to the jar, swirling it with my popsicle stick. I removed the stick and smelled the jar to see how the scent changed after adding the sugar. I added a few more drops of each oil, then another 1/4 cup of sugar. I stirred it all up with my stick, and I liked the scent and the consistency enough to be finished with it. It was that easy!

Moving on to my face scrub I used the same method, except the oils I used were lemon and peppermint. I couldn't wait to use it on my face! It smelled so clean and refreshing! I added 3 different 1/4 scoops to this blend to make it more on the dry side, and less on the oily side. Also, I used only the avocado oil in this jar. I wanted to see how it would work on my face since I had never used it before.

One week later, I am so happy with the two scrubs that now live in my shower. I feel so much better about what I am putting on my skin. (And, I have plans to ask Corey for a starter kit for my Mother's Day present ;) I like knowing that I have supported a friend as well as benefitted from nature's wisdom.

2 Young Living Essential Oils Sugar Scrubs- $10.00

Balance this pay cycle- $0.00

Happy Spending!