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When creating aromatherapy and cosmetic products we need a scale. But which one is the right one for our Aromatherapy Businesses?

Here at Blend Precisely and Aromatherapists in Business we have been talking a lot about weighing out your Essential Oils instead of counting drops.

We believe, after studying Aromatherapy, taking various cosmetic classes, talking to many wonderful formulators including Hana & Robert Tisserand, that the best way to blend is to use SCALES and weigh your ingredients. We have talked about it in other articles quite extensively. We also have talked about weighing your essential oil blends in many of our live videos. 

The obvious reasons are:

1. Accurate blending techniques are required to produce SAFE products.
2. You are able to re-produce the EXACT blend.
3. Essential oils come in different bottles with different orificers. Their viscosities are different as well. So counting drops is INACCURATE.
4. Often, for cosmetic blending, essential...

Since our launch in June 2020, we have been looking forward to our next release, and it is finally here! 

Our Blend Precisely community's feedback was rewarding, and it was for us also a gradual learning curve. 

When this software tool idea was born, to create Blend Precisely, it was basically in its baby shoes. It was meant as a tool, for me as an Aromatherapist for my Petal & Stem Aromatherapy Business, who is not necessarily in love with spreadsheets or calculations.

I certainly could do all of the calculations yet, the time I spent calculating my profit, double-checking the safety information, making sure that I could repeat my blends (drops are so unreliable), save my recipes, print them, and so much more, I hardly had time to play around with my essential oils. 

I wanted to blend with an explorative mind again, experiment with new essential oils, distill my hydrosols, learn more about all the different carrier oils, create courses,...

Aromatherapy is a fantastic tool in the hands of a knowledgeable person, and they are mostly safe enough to avoid getting into too much trouble. 

The fact that you can buy them in many health food stores and specialty shops is a clear enough signal from the FDA or whatever regulatory body exists in your country that they are not considered to be excessively dangerous.

It is, however, essential to know where the boundaries are with
Aromatherapy legally and ethically.

LEGAL ISSUES

The legal perspective is the easiest to see. In the United States, the FDA spells it out very clearly, but it depends on what you are trying to do.

Here is what the FDA says about cosmetics: https://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/cosmetics-labeling/cosmetics-labeling-claims

Excerpt: "The law does not require cosmetic labeling to have FDA approval before cosmetic products go on the market, and the FDA does not have a list of approved or accepted claims for cosmetics. However, there are limits that...

What measurement should I use to be most accurate in my essential oil blending exercises?

Drops of essential oils are the most known measurement to make an essential oil blend, but they are far from accurate or reliable across brands. It is not an issue if you are just doing experimentation where safety and repeatability are not necessary. 

According to Robert Tisserand, in his blog about drop sizes (https://tisserandinstitute.org/learn-more/drop-size/), he cites three "empirical investigations" which give the conclusion that there are, on average, 30 drops per gram (or per ml since the density of most essential oils is close to 1 g/ml).

But that is an average, which may or may not be the case for your blend. He concludes that there are anywhere between 20 and 40 drops per gram. Some of the factors are viscosity, orificer size, purity, actual density, temperature, and other physical properties.

Let's break this down a bit and see what differences there could be by...

Why go through all the trouble creating a software tool for a niche market such as Aromatherapists and Essential Oil Educators?

Blend Precisely is an online business tool for accurately calculating the costs of Essential Oil recipes, including sales tax, shipping, and profit factor. It also quickly identifies safety issues, blend percentages, and visualizes the ever-so-important dilution ratio, which is a critical item for Aromatherapists.

Katrin, the founder of Petal & Stem Aromatherapy and a certified Aromatherapist, was happily puttering about her shop in Lisbon, Portugal, when she received another client request, which required several custom blends.

It took her 4 hours to go from analyzing the clients' needs to calculating the recipe with the tools she had learned from the Aromahead Institute, then packaging it and figuring out all the costs involved. What should she charge her client? What would be her net profit? She needed to calculate the cost of the...

Below I will give you a few different Migraine and Tension Headache recipes.

Please note that it is super important to find the source of your Migraines and headaches. We can cover up the symptoms, but it is truly worth your while to dig a little bit deeper.

I have suffered since the age of 12 of severe migraines; blurred vision, needles pinching my eyes, dizziness, nausea, and complete exhaustion. It sometimes could last days. For me, it was a combination of stress and hormones.

Just a few possibilities you might want to look at:

• Hydration
• Stress Management
• Sleep Patterns
• Exercise Program
• Diet (food intolerances)
• Migraine Triggers (such as perfumes, chemicals in your home, etc.)
• Mood and Anxiety disorder
• Obstructive Sleep Apnea
• Teeth Grinding
• Jaw Clenching

Understanding your body, environment, and daily habits might enable you to make changes. Maybe even have a Migraine diary for a while. Write down what you eat, how much you drink, how long you sleep, did you have a stressful...

 It is never too late to discover the Art of Aromatherapy!

Essential oils used in aromatherapy have impressive effects on improving physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being.

For more than 5,000 years, aromatherapy has been a trusted practice among cultures around the world and known for the antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and analgesic effects of essential oils.

You will now find hundreds of different essential oils on the market. Every single one of them has a different purpose. Can you imagine what that means? Endless possibilities of natural and preventive care are possible. So exciting!

Some favorite essential oils that you can recognize include LEMON, LAVENDER, and PEPPERMINT, used virtually in everything from toothpaste, chewing gum to laundry detergent.

So what is Aromatherapy?

Aromatherapy is a type of alternative medicine practice that uses aromatic essential oils that derive from a wide variety of plants and its chemical components. When...

So much to learn about these precious essential oils

10 Safety Tips on Essential Oils

So you have decided to use essential oils? Best decision ever! Here are a few tips on how to start you out on the right foot. Let me give you some info from what I learned during my Aromatherapy studies.

It is important to remember that essential oils for therapeutic use are highly concentrated plant extracts and should be used with caution. Essential oils are 50 to 70 times more potent than herbs. So a drop makes a significant impact, are you prepared?

As you learn how to use the essential oils through personal experience, you will be more comfortable using them and determine what works best for you. Here are some essential oil safety tips to help you along the way.

Tip 1:

Make sure to use only 100% organic, pure, and tested essential oils. This step is crucial because you want to make sure that no pesticides, additives or other chemicals are present in your essential oil.

If you are using...

Various methods for obtaining the essential oils or absolutes are needed depending on the nature of the plant material and the different solubility behaviors of the individual plants. To achieve the best quality, the production must be as gentle as possible. In particular, oxygen, light, and heat factors can adversely affect the quality of the essential oil when oxidation occurs. 

Steam distillation of Essential Oils

By far, the most popular method for centuries is steam distillation, which causes complete extraction. Steam gets generated in a boiler, and the plant releases the oils with the help of steam.

The steam can transport all substances that are light enough, up. The water vapor with the essential oils accumulates in the cooling coils and will now condense.

Since essential oils do not mix with water and are lighter than water (except for cinnamon), the oils float on top of the water. This amount of oil is also very recognizable in the bottleneck of a liter...

1000kg of plant material (fresh flowers) is necessary for 1kg of essential oil.

Why is jasmine essential oil so expensive? 1000kg of fresh, hand-picked flowers (7.5 million flowers) are required to produce 1kg of the essential oil. This distinctive scent (it has aphrodisiac properties) is in high demand in the perfume industry, and it reflects in the price. 

The jasmine flowers are harvested by hand at night or early in the morning before the sun rises so that the most significant amount of essential oil can be captured from the flower.

Jasmine has a long-lasting aroma and is so powerful that one drop in a 30ml carrier oil is enough for a massage.

It is a bit difficult to describe Jasmine's scent, but you can generally say it is beguiling. 

The jasmine oil enhances our imagination, lets us express and admit our feelings, it is easier to open up to other people, thus increasing the willingness to surrender, even during physical love.

Jasmine has a special...