Essential Aromatica

How to smell an essential oil. Are you like, "Yeah, right. I know how to smell. Thanks, but no thanks."? That's not what this is about. It's rather about tapping into powerful messages available from one drop of an essential oil and what that one drop (or two drops) can do--if attention is paid its due. This episode takes you through what to "do" with essential oils: fo...

Psychophysics and scent. What’s that all about? You’re reading this text, taking in visual information while simultaneously breathing in hundreds of scent molecules. How much of your attention is on those various aromatic molecules? How would you describe those scent molecules? Could those scents be considered art? Meet NYC-based academic and gallerist Andreas Keller who lives, breathes and contem...

When you hear the word “goo,” do you think of skincare, sustainability, and psychoneuroimmunology? If you don’t you may think differently after spending time with Jodi Scott, co-founder of Green Goo and Good Goo ! In this episode, Jodi shares insights into herbalism and a need in the OTC market for plant-based first aid care for our family medicine cabinets. She shares how important the foundation...

Join Renèe Hughes and me in a lively conversation that spans her journey into wellness, what drove her to start the Aromaspecialists, psycho-aromatherapy, her “mood makeover method” and an overall roadmap for starting business ventures. “Begin with the end in mind and highlight your unique gift.” Starting a wellness-based business promises to entail excitement and challenges. How do you get your u...

Frankincense. It's more than a word, it's about a plant, several plant species called "Boswellia" that create a healing resin humankind has had a special relationship and worked with beyond biblical times. Meet Robin Kessler, CCA, MIFPA, a certified clinical aromatherapist specializing in hospice care and the therapeutic application of Frankincense resin and its many extracts. Sh...

This episode's title could also be "how to smell an oil", but that doesn't read as good in my opinion. This episode topic has been on my mind for years, but recent correspondence with an aromatherapist and physiotherapist based in Switzerland ( thank you, Katrin!) prompted me to take thought to spoken word and make a Venn diagram (I love diagrams, charts and tables!). In a nutshe...

This Spotlight on Aromatherapy episode features my friend and co-host of the former Irreverent Aromatherapy podcast: Bekki Fishelson Kuber, founder of Blue Marble Botanicals . Get ready for a lot of laughter, irreverence and getting into hot- topics such as "this is good for that" and aromatherapy shower discs (bombs). Look forward delving into the following topics during our conversatio...

Greetings, friends of Luna Aroma! A place and space where aromatherapy meet the moon! This 12th & final Luna Aroma session still finds us in the throes of Little Spirit time, thrust into Cold moon time for many of us in the Northern Hemisphere. This is often a time of personal darkness, confronted with being with oneself during colder, darker weeks and months of the year. Distractions are poss...

This eleventh episode of the Luna Aroma series finds us in Little Spirit moontime. A time still near the “thin veil” and for giving thanks and focusing on spiritual growth. I feel that Eastern Red Cedar and its essential oil support us this time of year, with its personality of quiet, protection, pausing, seeming immortality and the wisdom of being ok with not knowing. Episode Highlights: 7:04 Hig...

Welcome to Luna Aroma, where Aromatherapy meets the Moon. This 10th episode of Luna Aroma invites you to settle in and descend to the realm of liminal spaces, darkness and crossroads. Places and spaces where Persephone and Hecate among other archetypes may guide us. This is an invitation to revel in the marked transition from late summer's end to the bittersweet falling leaves of full-blown Au...

Welcome to the 9th Luna Aroma Session! There is so much to share and love about this time of year, including Goldenrod and Asters. Things start to slow down this time of year, simmer and humm. The days are still warm and the sun still intense, but there's a different quality, one that Goldenrod exemplifies. Join me during this episode to be an observer and invite Goldenrod's conviviality,...

Welcome to the 8th Luna Aroma Session! This time of year, mid-summer, has a lot going on; a bittersweetness as days grow shorter. There's still an abundance of growth, but things are slowing down, simmering. They aren't as urgent as they were only a few weeks ago. We're entering a time of maturity, protection and holding. These are themes that fit with Carrot Seed essential oil and the...

Smudging with Sage, burning Frankincense in a censer, lighting incense to visualize and symbolize your thoughts rising to the heavens through smoke. These are only some of the botanicals and ways aromatics help us connect with the divine. What is the divine, the sacred? There may be debate about that, but I think we can all agree it is something that is bigger than us that also includes us. Incorp...

This episode features Thunder moontime, when the hot and humid days of summer are often visited by thunder, lightning and rain. This is a time, like most times, to contemplate change. But this time is different. Lighting and thunder are sudden and drastic. They are poignant symbols of change and transmutation. Think of something in your life that weighs on you, that you are looking to change, to s...

Welcome to Strawberry Moontime! As we near the Summer Solstice it is time to prepare for and embrace the warmest times of the year by turning to cooling and hydrating botanicals such as cooling fruits! This episode is packed with juicy ponderings: from spirit and transformation, the poem "Meditation on a Grapefruit" by Craig Arnold and "What is it we want when we can't stop want...

This Spotlight on Aromatherapy episode features Amy Galper ; a published author and expert in clean beauty, formulation, aromatherapy and essential oils. She is the founder of the former New York Institute of Aromatherapy, the first in-person aromatherapy school in New York (where I earned my certifications)! This episode tackles some big topics that Amy is immersed in every day, from the dynamica...

Flowers are blooming, frogs are croaking, and it is time to engage your sense of PLAY! This episode celebrates Flower moontime and all that comes with it, including when "all plants display their spirit sides for all the world to see." More on that in the episode! How can we be serious when there are baby animals frolicking about, insects buzzing around and plants to interact with? This...

Welcome to Amy Anthony's Spotlight on Aromatherapy series featuring Cathy Skipper whose insights on embracing your unconscious to become your true self are thought provoking, exciting and empowering. Find yourself a quiet space for Cathy to guide you through the realms of alchemy, working with the unconscious and recognizing and reclaiming the feminine. When does a woman step into her true pow...

Happy Mid-Spring! A time of new beginnings, new growth and cleansing the mind and body of what is no longer needed. You may notice how this episode is slightly longer than other Luna Aroma musings. Why? I bookended the guided aromatic encounter with poems! The first is "Grass" by Joyce Sidman, the second is "Last Rites" by Rosa Alcalá. This is a moontime to talk with GRASS! Gra...

Welcome to another Spotlight on Aromatherapy featuring Hana Tisserand ! Hana is the Chief of Operations and Communications at the renowned Tisserand Institute where she is also an educator, course moderator and key content creator. Hailing from Prague, Hana and brings a strong background in French and English translation and interpretation as a professional interpreter working with politicians, au...

Happy spring equinox~Spring is “champing at the bit”! Water, associated with intuition, is rising and running, sap is flowing in the Maple trees. Birds are coming home, and the soil slowly awakens. There may even be some eagerness in the air that goes along with “Spring Awakening”. What better way to honor Spring’s burgeoning energy than muse about sensuality and living through the senses? Get out...

What does Jasmine sound like? What about Frankincense or Vetiver? Get your essential oils, and brew up some Vetiver tea, Jasmine tea and prepare some Frankincense water and sit for a spell to discover the sounds of these aromatics with Yuliana Kireyeva , an accomplished choir conductor, classical vocalist and certified aromatherapist. Yuliana translates scents to music notes, what she calls Olfact...

Greetings on New Moon time! Welcome back to Luna Aroma , an invitation to explore moontime through observations, guided aromatic encounters and poetry.  This is still a quiet time of year in the Nothern hemisphere, when the days are getting longer but cold and barrenness still blanket the Earth.  We're in the realm of Hunger moontime as the sun ever so slowly awakens the soil and stirs h...

A rose, is a rose, is a rose, is a…rose. Mused the legendary Gertrude Stein . How does one go about knowing a rose or any other aromatic plant for that matter? Through the poetry of Gabriel Mojay ! Join us during this poetry-inspired hour to immerse yourself in Rose’s history and therapeutics through verse.  This hour starts off with Gabriel’s insights on the pharmaco-energetics of diffusion...

Healing for Unemotional wrecks. Who can help us understand what an unemotional wreck is and how to transform such a state into fulfillment?  Introducing: Melissa Holman ! The founder of Lemon Balm Coaching and Master Transformational Coach who helps people rediscover emotions that have been stuffed away for so long that emotions and pain are foreign to them. That's right, rediscover . Sometim...