An aromatic journey with lesser known essential oils, by Helen Nagle-Smith
One of the features of Oshadhi is the wide range of oils on offer. Currently there are 487 different essential oils available on our website.
This is an expression of the variety of nature and is a joy of course, but it does create its own challenges, particularly when faced with the task of trying to provide helpful information about less well known oils, including how to use them in a clinical or therapeutic setting.
With this in mind it was wonderful to find out that, unknown to us, Helen Nagle-Smith had applied her considerable talent to this task!
She has produced a superb book Working with unusual oils, which was published a few weeks ago, and which we are now very happy to be able to offer on our website.
As Helen points out, ‘The trusted textbooks I’d originally studied with in my clinical aromatherapy diploma mentioned very few, if any, of these unfamiliar oils. … I came to the conclusion it was up to me to find out more, so I set about doing so’. Fair enough!
What is so impressive about the book is not only the attention to detail, but also the way that she examines the properties of the oil from a number of different angles.
It was a pleasure to meet Helen this time last year when I was invited to give a short talk to students at the Well School in Northamptonshire where she and Caren Benstead, the school principal, both teach.
Her outlook fits very well with the Oshadhi ethos, and chapter headings in the book include: ‘Sustainability’, ‘Essential oils for our current world’, and ‘Getting to know a new oil’.
Profiles of 18 Oils
But the large part of the book is taken by in-depth reviews of 18 less-used essential oils. Helen devotes 6-7 lively and very readable pages to each oil discussing its background, mentioning cautions and safety issues, sustainability, its personality, and uses in different areas including suggested recipes.
At the end of the book she provides an illuminating section on case studies using these oils.
All of the oils that Helen features in the book are available from Oshadhi:
Blue Spruce, Cape May, Curry Leaf, Elemi, Fragonia, Ho Wood, Iary, Katafray, Kunzea,
Lemon Myrtle, Monarda, Nagarmotha (Cypriol), Palo Santo,
Petitgrain Mandarin, Plai, Rosalina, Saro, Silver Fir