Aromatherapy is the art and science of using natural aromatic essences from plants to restore our balance, make us feel beautiful, and encourage our innate healing process. Aromas are powerful and evocative; they delight our senses, enhance our moods and transport us.

The term "aromatherapie" was coined in 1928 by French chemist Rene-Maurice Gattefosse, who founded Europe's first perfumery magazine, "La Parfumerie Moderne." However, the use of precious essential oils is documented in many ancient cultures. From early India and China to Cleopatra’s Egypt, Ancient Greece and Persia, aromatherapy was used to seduce, honor, empower and heal.

When we inhale essential oils, the aromatic molecules immediately travel to the limbic system - the part of our brain that controls mood, emotion, memory and learning. Once there, the molecules send specific signals to stimulate, sedate or perform other tasks to bring the body and mind into balance. These oils are an essential part of nature’s pharmacy. Smelling them is a delightful way of restoring, recalibrating, remembering.

Our sense of smell is 10,000 times more sensitive than that of taste. Yet in our modern world, where we receive pleasure from food, music, and a majority of information from computer and TV screens, our sense of smell is undervalued. Our ancestors, however, were well aware of smell’s impact and knew intuitively that our olfactory sense was a powerful vehicle for information and healing.

You are what you eat, and you are what you absorb. It is a medically recognized fact that we absorb what we put on our skin. This fact is often overlooked during modern-day cosmetic and perfume manufacturing. Many products on the market today contain ingredients you can’t pronounce and wouldn’t want in your bloodstream. The worst of these offenders is a group of chemicals called phthalates.

Phthalates are nearly ubiquitous in modern society, found in a range of everyday products from toys to rain coats, perfumes to shampoos. According to the American Chemistry Council, phthalates have become integral to scented products because they help fragrances last longer. Popular perfumes have been known to contain over 800 chemicals, many of which are pthalates. At Anjali Aromatics we choose only the finest natural ingredients and adhere to chemical-free standards.

An essential oil is born when highly concentrated aromatic compounds are distilled or extracted from plant materials, such as flowers, grasses, roots, seeds, fruit peels and woods. There is a precious quality to them as it takes an enormous amount of plant matter to yield a small amount of essential oil. Over 60,000 roses are distilled to produce one ounce of oil!

Essential oils are condensed liquid healing intelligence from the plant world. Plants survive by intuitively adapting to changing environmental stressors and climates. These adaptive strategies produce broad-spectrum immune compounds. It is believed by many that essential oils embody complex, evolving immunological information that we can utilize to strengthen our own immunity. In addition, essential oils have been shown to influence hormonal chemistry and activity, heart rate and breathing. Essential oils also stimulate appetite and our sexual arousal and help us in relieving stress and reducing anxiety. Essential oils are not only aromatic and beautiful; they are nature’s wisdom distilled.