What Is Essential Oil?

Series Summary

The complementary and alternative medicine treatment known as aromatherapy has become increasingly popular recently as the trend of spa treatments and particularly Western and holistic medicine has captured the attention of the American public. Using aromatic compounds made from a variety of herbs, spices, liquids and oils to affect state of mind, stress levels, various illnesses and more. Aromatherapy, though commonly found in spa centers, can also be performed quite easily at home if you have the proper materials and understand which oils, distillates, infusions and absolutes affect what part of the brain. In this free video series, learn how to make your own aromatherapy. Our expert, Malu Lujan, is a professional massage therapist that also runs her own aromatherapy company. She carefully shows you how to blend scents in order to reduce stress and promote healing. Learn how to mix and match certain scents. Also, learn who and who should not use aromatherapy. If you want to make your own aroma therapy, Malu shows you how to do this as well. In addition, learn how to make your own aromatherapy bath salts. So, if you are interested in the powerful world of scents, learn how to use aroma herapy today!

Video Transcript

"What is an essential oil and what's the difference between an essential oil and a perfume. So we have some essential oils here, these are plant derivatives. And basically you can get them in various processes. Some people will get what's called a distiller and they take the raw plant material and they put it into the distiller with some water and it squishes out the plant essentials. The other thing we have here is we have perfumes, and perfumes are actually kind of similar. Basically they are a mixture of essential oils that have alcohol or some other kinds of preservatives added to them. And perfumes can also be made synthetically, so this could actually be you know a perfume could actually be something that is entirely man made. It doesn't actually have to come from a plant. But essential oils, which are these are actually, basically something they squish out of the plant. And when you use these, you can use them for aroma therapy."