AROMATHERAPY IS THE USE of pure essential oils derived from plants to heal the mind, body and spirit. On a more practical level, it can be a natural air freshener, mood enhancer and a versatile, alternative first-aid kit for you and your home.
When collecting oils for home therapy, an excellent all-rounder to start with is lavender, which can be used as a calming room fragrance, to eliminate cooking smells, repel flies, purify air, protect against germs and bacteria, and heal wounds. Other multi-purpose oils include tea-tree oil - for balancing room fragrance, as a disinfectant and to heal wounds, burns, insect bites and infections - and eucalyptus, which purifies the air, acts as an antiseptic and relieves muscle aches and cold symptoms. To find out about the individual properties of key oils visit
www.aworldofaromatherapy.com, or visit reputable stockists such as the Energywell (19 Wong Nai Chung Road, Happy Valley, tel: 2833 9008;
www.theenergywell.com), which houses a health library with aromatherapy books for novices, and also holds aromatherapy classes.
The most popular and convenient way of applying aromatherapy in the home is by vaporisation, using an oil burner. Ikea stocks a wide and inexpensive selection (tel: 3125 0888;
www.ikea.com.hk). A good burner will have a distance of at least 10cm between the water dish and the base where the tealight sits, says Giselle Cheung, aromatherapist at the Energywell, which stocks a home-care kit for $280. If you have children or pets, and are worried about naked flames, electric models are a pricey but safer alternative. The Energywell stocks Tisserand's Aromatherapy Vaporiser ($420), Aroma-Stream ($580) and Vaporising Ioniser ($610), while Jurlique (518 Lockhart Road, Causeway Bay, tel: 2838 5656 and other locations;
www.jurlique.com.au) makes the Aromastone ($730) and Aroma Stream ($750).
There are many ways in which to incorporate aromatherapy into the home. Make your own room sprays by adding four to five drops of essential oil to every 100ml of water in a mister (use rosemary, eucalyptus or lavender to deodorise, tea-tree or lemon to disinfect). Create scented candles by adding a few drops of your favourite oil to the melting wax of a candle or tealight, and make pot pourri by adding a few drops of oil to pine cones, dried flower petals, pebbles or shells. Alternatively, L'Occitane (The Landmark, Central, tel: 2523 4111) sells scented linen water ($70 to $90), which can be added to steam irons to freshen laundry.
Oils can also be incorporated into your first-aid cabinet. To ease cold and flu symptoms, use two to five drops of lemon and eucalyptus oil in 500ml of hot water and inhale for five to 10 minutes with a towel draped over your head. Halve the dosage for children, and do not attempt this if you're an asthma sufferer.
A massage, meanwhile, provides fast absorption into the blood. Blend 20ml of base oil (sweet almond or grape seed) with eight to 10 drops of rosemary and marjoram for muscle relief, or with mandarin or neroli oil as a clockwise tummy rub for indigestion.
Expect the price of oils to differ according to cultivation and extraction: citrus oils are at the lower end; flowers and woods (such as lavender and sandalwood) are mid-range; and flowers that yield less oil such as rose and neroli are at the top of the range. (It takes 3,000 rose flowers to produce one drop of rose oil, so just 2ml of rose oil can cost about $1,000.) Essential oils by well-known brands Tisserand (
www.tisserand.com) and Aqua Oleum (
www.aqua-oleum.co.uk) cost $60 to $200 at the New Age Shop (7 Old Bailey Street, Central, tel: 2810 8694;
www.newageshop.com.hk), and Jurlique stocks a wide range from $100 to $300.
