Aromatherapy: A New Journey
Part Eight
A Phenomenally Great Essential Oil Company
by Hank Friedman
What if I told you that I had found a company that produces:
The highest quality oils I've ever encountered.
And
A huge set of oils not available anywhere else
And
All of them so pure that they can be used internally (under the guidance, of course, of a professional practitioner)
and many that have been produced using better methods than anyone else has done
Introducing:
The founder of this company, Evelyn Robert, is a licensed Acupuncturist who travels to China to find the best producers who create the purest and most therapeutically effective essential oils and CO2 extracts.
As she says on her website, she has developed: "the first line of essential oils dedicated purely to traditional Chinese herbs and substances, intended for therapeutic use within the context of acupuncture and Chinese medicine. To date, it is the only one in existence."
(Note: while I have a deep reverence for Chinese medicine, and have benefited beyond words from acupuncture, I know very little about Chinese herbology, and so all of this is a very new exploration for me.)
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I rarely find myself at a loss to choose the best oils from a specific company, but all of her oils are pristine, potent, and flawless.
The ones I will focus on (below) are simply a small sampling of the phenomenal range of oils offered:
Superlative Florals
To be honest, I did not think that certain flowers could be effectively steam distilled and still preserve their majesty and highest notes.
I was wrong.
Jin Yin Hua, aka Honeysuckle. I have collected a few honeysuckle absolutes, and while they were carefully made, they didn't come close to the glory of real honeysuckle plants (which I have growing in my garden).
And so I was shocked and deeply moved upon sniffing, for the first time, Alchemica Botanica's steam-distilled honeysuckle. As they say nowadays, OMG! It is a truly magical, inspiring, uplifting, and has the perfectly true scent of the live flower.
My search for the honeysuckle oil of my dreams is over... I have found it.
Mo Li Hua, aka Jasmine Sambac. I have more jasmine absolutes and extracts and oils on my shelves (and more types of jasmine in my garden) than I care to count. The Jasmines that I do have in my essential oil collection all have some issues: the enfleurage is too one-dimensional and almost indistinguishable from other enfleurages, the absolutes have a sharp and unpleasant indolic edge, and the hydrodistilled oils are simply so-so.
The steam-distilled Jasmine Sambac oil I just received from Alchemica Botanica surpasses them all. It's not only food-grade, so I can use it (diluted, of course) in my Jasmine truffles, but it is astoundingly pure, with an incredible scent.
Outstanding Medicinals
Dang Gui, aka dong quai, is renowned in TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) and in the herbal community in general as being a wonderful tonic, especially for the blood and female organs.
This CO2 extract from Alchemica Botanica is superb, and gives me an immediate sense of deep well-being, and a feeling of being nurtured and balanced. Both I and everyone I've introduced it to loves it's soothing, round, and earthy scent and finds it profoundly healing.
Huo Xiang, aka Patchouli, is not your ordinary "hippie" scent. After being exposed to Patchouli oil ad nauseam during the '60s, I avoided it whenever I could.
But then I read, on the company's website, that "the traditional process of fermentation prior to distillation imbues it's essential oil with the power of alchemical transformation", helping one to release held emotions and lifting gloom.
Since no other essential oil company ferments their Patchouli leaves before distillation, with a little trepidation I bought a bottle of this steam-distilled oil. And again, they were right, by fermenting the leaves first, the cloying odor that I attribute to Patchouli was changed into a more woody and complex and enriching scent.
In fact, I sent a vial of this oil to one of my best friends, who is a Patchouli aficionado and who has quite the collection of Patchouli oils, and he immediately let me know that it was one of the best by far and its unique differences were greatly appealing.
Du Huo is another unique CO2 extract with a fragrance that is incredibly appealing, nurturing and aligning.
While most of the other oils and CO2 extracts offered smell (appropriately) medicinal, Du Huo has an almost irresistible scent.
One thing that I love about the website is that it gives a lot of information about many of the oils on its products page.
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Anyone interested in an incredibly unique and growing set of top-of-the-line oils will love exploring those from Alchemica Botanica.
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End of Part Eight
(Note: Unlike many websites that "review" essential oils but are actually making a profit by selling oils via affiliations, I have no financial relationship with any aromatherapy company.)
Part One:
Aromatherapy: A New Journey
Part Two:
Finding the best essential oils
Part Three:
Early Insights
Part Four:
The different methods of extraction
Part Five:
Exquisite Scents
Part Six:
The Essential Oil Company
I didn't want to love
Part Seven:
How to evaluate essential oils
Part Nine:
Essential Oil Shootouts
Part Ten:
Using GC/MS
to determine the quality of essential oils
and also, my blog on:
The Magical oil called Oud
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Copyright © 2017 Hank Friedman --- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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