Sometimes the nicest gift we can ever give is a personalised message, a card or a few written kind words about what we truly feel for that special someone. One of my favourite rituals is to not only write this but to add a specialised aromatherapy blend to be massaged onto the body or used as a beautiful spritzer that they can carry with them at all times.
This becomes a powerful gift, an aromatic anchor and something very special from you. With nice thought-out words and an exquisite personalised blend you can connect on a deeper level to your innermost feelings and emotions on how you feel about that person. Smell is closely linked to our emotions. We only have to inhale a certain aroma and we can be transported back to a time or place when we inhaled the same smell and depending on how we felt at that time we can completely recreate those same feelings years or even decades later. That is how powerful it is.
So when it comes to making a special blend for someone here are some yummy tips and ideas to make your own personalised aromatic gifts.
Massage Blend:
There is nothing like a good massage to relieve aches and pains and help to let go of physical and emotional tension. One of the most powerful treatments for stress, massage is also the best way to administer essential oils onto and into the body. When preparing a blend as a gift for someone, remember to always mix your essential oils with a good quality cold-pressed vegetable (carrier) oil. Cold pressing ensures that the nutrients within the vegetable or nut oil are retained. Some light favourite carrier oils are Sweet Almond, Macadamia or Coconut; these are beautiful for body massage, and Jojoba, a fluid wax, is one of the finest oils easily absorbed by the skin. It is particularly lovely for face and hair treatments. To make up a blend for a massage treatment all you have to remember is to create a 2:1 ratio. Whatever number of mls of carrier oil you are using, halve it to get the total number of drops of essential oils to be added. For example, if you were to make up a blend for a friend in a 50ml bottle, you would halve it to know that you would need 25 drops total of your chosen essential oils to make a therapeutic prescriptive blend. Or if you were to make up your body boost blend in the morning you would need about 6ml of your massage base oil and 3 drops of your chosen oils. Check out the Reference guide below to know the numbers of drops required for children, pregnant women and the elderly.
A spritzer is a fantastic way to deodorise a room, hydrate and refresh your skin (especially on a long journey or on a plane), relieve stress and mental fatigue, and help fend off flying insects. A small amount of the essential oils diluted with water are dispersed into the air and onto the surface of the skin. Fill a 50ml glass bottle with purified or distilled water and add 3 drops in total of your chosen essential oils. Place a spray pump cap on the bottle and shake vigorously to disperse the molecules. Pump 3–6 times to expel the aromatic water onto the face, body or into the environment. These blends will last for only a month, so keep the spritzers fresh — the best way to do that is to use them. Spritzers are an instant pick-me-up, cleanser and air freshener and can be used everywhere around the home: in the toilet, the kitchen, beside the beds, in handbags and in the car.
Here are some ideas for blends taken from Like Chocolate For Women that might spur your own creations!