For sure, you have heard before about essential oils, but what essential oils are really?
Essential oils are volatile concentrated liquids (easily evaporated at normal temperatures). They are mostly plant extracts generally extracted by distillation or mechanical methods. They are extracted from plant’s buds, flowers, bark, seeds, leaves, twigs, herbs, wood, fruits, resins, and roots. It’s the plant’s spirit in a way!
Their name may be confusing because they are not actually oils. Essential oils are evaporating quickly and they don’t feel like oil on the skin. Oils usually come from plants’ seeds, nuts, or kernel and they are actually fats. The scent of oils is very mild and they are thicker than essential oils. Oils are used to dilute essential oils and carrier oil is another name for oils because they ‘carry’ essential oils. In a sense oils differ from essential oils as far as fragrance, feel, and effect are concerned.
During the Middle Ages, when humans started extracting essential oils, they gave this name because by “essential” they meant ‘of the essence’ and they had a reason for that. Essential oils are the soul, the essence of the plant!The scent of each essential oil has the characteristic fragrance of the plant from which it is derived. They are very condensed with really strong aroma. Aroma of 30 roses is concentrated in a single drop of rose essential oil and one lemon peel gives about 10 drops of lemon essential oil. That makes essential oils an ideal ingredient for cosmetics, perfumes, aromatherapy, air freshener, drinks even food.
Each essential oil has its own properties. They can help in everyday life with problems such as insomnia, breathing problems, stress, tension and many more. They are natural but might cause irritations, nausea, vomiting, dizziness and many more if not used properly!
Before using essential oils, make sure they are authentic and take advice from an expert on how to use the specific one.