Nature's Gift Aromatherapy

Making your own personal essential oil blends is one of the most satisfying aspects of aromatherapy. Blends can be created for the sheer aromatic pleasure of the blend and are suitable for personal or room fragrancing. AromaWeb's 8-part essential oil blending guide will help give you a foundation for creating your own aromatherapy blends! 👉 https://www.aromaweb.com/articles/blending-essential-oils-introduction.php?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=100226

Diluting essential oils is a bit more complicated than what you've likely been shown.

Dilution charts are useful. Dilution references are useful. But at the end of the day, they take you to the endpoint of what has been a deeper investigation to make the recommendations they do than many realize.

They looked at research about dermatological and systemic risks.

They pulled GC/MS analyses to look at what we find.

They ran calculations.

And they set reasonable recommendations based on the specifics of those.

When you flip open a reference like Essential Oils Safety (2e) by Tisserand and Young, you can find a safety summary that recommends an oil like lemongrass to be used at 0.7%. But that 0.7% is based on the kinds of specific information I noted above.

And it can be adjusted if that information presents a different picture than the one the authors used.

In fact, a reference like EOS2 isn't shy about this; it's explained. But that explanation and the processes tied to how they determined that 0.7% aren't often the topic of public communication regarding essential oil dilution.

When you get a new bottle of essential oil that requires topical precautions? You should be checking the GC/MS for it and making sure that the constituent of concern falls into the parameters of the reference you're using to determine a dermal limit.

If it falls above that level, you need to recalculate the dermal limit.

You need to make sure you know how to appropriately (and yes, that means math) incorporate that oil into any blends you make with it.

The good news is that most of the recommendations we readily use base their recommended limits on pretty high assumptions of what a problem constituent may be. You're very likely to fall within the safe range with what you buy. And unless you happen to have a batch with less of that constituent and want to be able to use more than is found in the general recommendation, you'll be perfectly fine if you do not recalculate things.

But you always need to verify your batch of essential oil to make sure you're in the safe range. And aromatherapists especially should make sure they know how to run any necessary calculations.

Put simply, always verify. Recalculate if it's needed.
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Thank you to everyone who has supported this platform. 💙

Labor Day Sale starts Saturday! 3-day Sale!

What's in a Long Weekend? Nature's Gift is having its annual Long Weekend Sale... also know as a Labor Day Sale, a 3- Day weekend! It's the subtle cue for Summer to find the door and let itself out. No offense, Summer, but I'm ready for rustling leaves and cool breezes. Thank

Alright, screw drama. Let's talk about skills in aromatherapy. Particularly, I want to talk about the master blend.

A master blend starts on paper.

Blending is a baseline skill for aromatherapists, and you will find multiple different approaches to how to develop a blend. But I think one thing all aromatherapists agree on no matter the blending method they prefer is that a blend must be safe. This can at times get tricky where essential oils with dermal restrictions are concerned.

When making aromatherapy products with single oils, it's easy to calculate those dermal limits. But once you use it in a master blend or mix several essential oils that have dermal concerns for the same reason (such as using multiple citral-containing oils), it gets more complex.

You still have to make sure that, if your master blend is intended for use on the skin, each oil in it still falls at a skin-safe level, and some dermal concerns must be approached additively. When that happens, these essential oils' dermal limits must be adjusted. So, how do we approach blending to make sure we do all that?

Remember the three C's of blending:

1) Constrain
2) Calculate
3) Create

I talk about this in full in my latest Substack piece "Revisiting Blending Methodology: A Purpose-First Approach to Master Blend Formulation" and will drop a link in the comments for those who are interested in the complete explanation and a lesson in blending math. If you've not been taught math for blending before and would like to know how to confirm your blends are safe and precise, this is a resource you may find useful.

But what do these three C's mean?

By constraining, we mean that the blend's intended parameters for use are set before we start. If it's going to be used topically, you need to determine the highest dermal limit you want it to be safe to use at and plan your blend around that.

You then calculate how much of each essential oil can safely make up that master blend based on that determined limit.

Finally, you create the blend. But you create it in respect to the boundaries you just established for each essential oil. If you stay at or below those calculated figures, your master blend can be safely used in topical products up to the dermal limit you originally established for it.

It gets a little more complicated when combining furanocoumarin essential oils, two or more oils with eugenol restrictions, and so on. But that's just one additional step in the calculation process.

And you can still blend by scent if you do this. It doesn't stop you from doing that. You can still go drop-by-drop as long as you track those drops and convert them to percentages later to run through the method. You now just know how much of each essential oil is safe and what threshold to not cross.

If you want to walk through this process more specifically, check out the Substack. It includes the full purpose-first method, the math, and three examples. This includes a Thieves®-type blend since those are popular but often contain essential oils with very low dermal limits that can be confusing to formulate with.

But plan your blends ahead of time and math them out. It will save you time and trouble later, and you'll be able to assure your clients (or family if you blend primarily for home use) that you know exactly what is going on their skin.

Dolly 💗 Pardon us for being a bit speechless.

Global icon and humanitarian, Dolly Parton, known to the world as a beloved singer, songwriter, philanthropist, actress, playwright, and author died peacefully today in Nashville, Tennessee. She was 80 years old.

Dolly is preceded in death by her beloved husband of 59 years Carl Thomas Dean (1942 – 2025), her mother Avie Lee Caroline Owens (1923 – 2003), and father, Robert Lee Parton, Sr. (1921 – 2000).

A rhinestone life that shone bright enough for the world to see, Dolly will forever stand as an inspiration not only through her timeless music and prolific songwriting, but also her wit, warmth, and kindness that made us all feel like family. Dolly Parton’s legacy is one of love, compassion, and resilience. With a seven-decade career, she inspired multiple generations of artists and fans with her music and an unwavering commitment to making the world a better place. Her songs will continue to resonate with people of all ages, and her philanthropic work will have a lasting impact.

At Dolly’s request, a small, private service will be held for immediate family. Dolly’s fans and friends from around the world are encouraged to pay tribute to Dolly on social media by tagging or by leaving a message at www.dollyparton.com

In lieu of flowers the family asks for donations to be made to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library at www.imaginationlibrary.com