Aromatherapy Blog

  • Summer Skin Care: 10 Steps to Glowing Skin

    It’s almost officially summer, a time when the sun’s rays warm your skin, flowers bloom in our gardens, and music fills the air. This month, Sheri Westenberg discloses the secrets to keeping your skin nourished, protected, and radiant all summer long.
    Posted in Skin, Skincare, Summer

  • Five Amazing Essential Oils for Wound Healing

    When we are deciding which oils to use on a wound, it is important to understand what you are trying to fix. Is your skin dry or cracked? Is it swollen, warm and tender? Is there pus or any active infection? What is the stage of healing? We can choose essential oils based on their properties, like anti-inflammatory to reduce the painful swelling and throbbing you feel. We might also want an oil that is bactericidal to help kill off the bacteria causing trouble!
    Posted in Healing, Skin, Wound

  • Aromatherapy Gardener’s Almanac for 2023

    Is your green thumb getting itchy like mine? Do you have a hundred seed containers on the kitchen counter vying for your attention? There’s lots to plan. Sort those wonderful ideas into tidy to-do lists so your garden, window sill or front walkways can be full of aromatic plants all through the growing season. Refresh your memory or maybe learn something new from the following gardening guidelines.
    Posted in flowers, gardening

  • Three Mistakes I No Longer Make with Essential Oils

    Welcome the world of essential oils, where there is just as much magic as there is misinformation. One of the most common marketing slogans I’ve heard is, “There’s an oil for that!” Anxiety? Here’s lavender! Got a headache? Here’s peppermint. Can’t sleep? Well, vetiver and marjoram are the obvious choice! However, while essential oils work, there is so much more to know—especially when you want to use them safely.

    Posted in Safety

  • Enhancing your Mediation Practice with Essential Oils

    Have you ever considered adding essential oils to your meditation practice? If you haven’t, let me tell you why you’re missing out. If you have, I would love to take this opportunity to tell you why you should definitely keep up the good work! To understand why this is amazing, we must talk a bit about the brain, the olfactory system, and how essential oils work their magic during meditation.

    Posted in Alertness, Anxious feelings, Formulation, Inhalation, Meditation, Relaxation

  • Giving the Gift of Relaxation

    ’Tis the season to celebrate with our family and friends! It is a beautiful time of unity, connection, reconciliation and, well, of course, gift giving. Let me tell you about the gift of aroma massage!
    Posted in Gifts, Holidays, massage, Relaxation

  • Three Easy Essential Oil Recipes to Battle Cold and Flu Season

    How do so many people stay healthy while others endure the harsh effects of the changing weather? Here are some (not-so-secret) tools you can use to help keep your immune system supported this fall.
    Posted in aches, Bergamot, Cedarwood, Colds, Cypress, Eucalyptus, Flu, Immunity, Inhalation, Lavender, Pepper, Pine, Respiration, Rosemary, Steam

  • The Challenging Art of Aromatherapy

    By Crystal Fares, CAHP® There are several parallels between clinical medicine and the practice of aromatherapy. Clinicians are usually not involve...
    Posted in Aromatherapist, Dilution, Practice

  • Slip into a Bath to Slip into Slumber

    September is around the corner, bringing with it the end of summer. As much as we love carefree holidays and staying up late visiting, many of us look forward to having a routine. It is also time to get ready for back-to-school activities and convince kids that they need to go to bed earlier. Not always an easy task! With the hustle and bustle of this time of year, you may find it hard to calm down enough at night to fall asleep easily. One tool you can use to help start to feel sleepy is a warm, aromatic bath.
    Posted in Bath, Sleep

  • The Aromatherapist's Garden

    Have you ever planned a garden based on the aroma of the plants when combined? As aromatherapists, we know how our olfactory system can stimulate our limbic system, and how aromas can bring up past emotions and behaviours. From walking by and brushing against the plants to just sitting in your yard, these aromas can evoke positive energy and calming stress relief with a whiff of their aromatic scent.

    Posted in Gardening

  • Meet your 2022-2023 CFA board of directors!

    Meet your 2022-2023 CFA board of directors!

  • Is It Safe to Use Essential Oils in Pregnancy? Yes and No, and Here’s Why

    I could rip my hair out trying to figure out what is true and what isn’t when it comes to using essential oils when pregnant. The questions are endless, as is the misinformation. The difference is, being pregnant and in need of reliable and safe advice, the stakes are a little higher! I would like to share my experience of being pregnant, confused and wanting symptom relief but having more questions than answers.
    Posted in aches, dilution, Formulation, Inhalation, massage, nausea, pain, pregnancy, Safety, Sleep