Aroma Therapy

A long time friend, Karen from California, taught me how to make poured candles. I have loved the results. It is such a treat to light a candle and make the house smell yummy! I love to bless people by giving them as gifts too.
She made the switch from paraffin wax to soy wax and since I’m the “queen of copy”, I decided to try that too. I love these even better! Since our family is all about Pure and Simple I started doing some more research. I wanted to switch from fragrance oils (which is synthetic and man-made) to essential oil which is natural and God-made. Some of the fragrances are so nice, but I find that they can easily become overwhelming and cause a slight headache when I burn them. So, I did some reading. In that reading I found out that both paraffin wax and fragrance oils are carcinogenic!! That’s not something I really want to burn in my home!
Soy wax is a vegetable wax made from the oil of soybeans. After harvesting, the beans are cleaned, cracked, de-hulled, and rolled into flakes. The oil is then extracted from the flakes and hydrogenated. The hydrogenation process converts some of the fatty acids in the oil from unsaturated to saturated. This process dramatically alters the melting point of the oil, making it a solid at room temperature. I do not recommend eating soy, but for candle making it is IDEAL ~ especially because they burn clean and won’t leave that nasty soot on your jar or your wall!
I have also been reading about and researching essential oils. We have an amazing God who created such a vast variety of plants that have healing properties. I feel like I am taking a college chemistry class. Each scent has a note like music- top, middle or base. Mixing the oils in an appealing ratio with a good balance is a little tricky. But, it doesn’t stop there, you can go a layer deeper and find out what the oil is useful for and create a candle for that. For example, did you know that lavender has antifungal and antiviral properties? Having a candle burning with lavender essential oil will diffuse those properties throughout your room. Citrus scents help give you a boost if you have a lack of energy. Did you know that ginger increases memory? Every plant is really so intricate. The leaves, the flowers, buds, stems, oils all have a use. Now multiply that by all the plant flora and then realize God created that in one 24 hour day. WOW!
So I am busy formulating scents for my soy candles. I will put some up for sale here on the blog soon. I can’t wait to share the joys of aromatherapy with you.