I'm freezing but My House Smells good

This has been a kinda weird weekend.  I was supposed to meet up with EtsyLex friends for lunch but got some horrendous tummy troubles at 9 AM so I spent most of the day in bed and in the bathroom.

This morning I got up early, feeling much better (thank goodness) to take my daughter's best friend to a class at Locust Trace.  That place is very interesting-the only negative plus in the country for energy use.  They not only are self-sustaining on energy they actually SELL energy to the electric company.  Anyway, she took a class to get certified as an animal rescuer.  It's near our largest park in town so I took a look around there to see if they had any of the elusive white cedar trees and, sure enough, they did.  So when I went to pick her up this afternoon I went back out there armed with clippers and a shopping bag and loaded up.  Now I don't have to use the stuff I got from Gretchen so sparingly.

I also trimmed our overloaded double knock-out rose bush.  I do love that plant but the canes are not strong enough to support the weight of all the leaves and flowers it produces.  Needless to say, I am on my second rose distillation.  I still can't believe the mild, sweet smell from knock out roses.  I need cold cream soon so it will be made with some homemade rosewater.

This still was SO TOTALLY worth the money!  It so satisfying to be able to make my own hydrosols.  It helps me get better use out of my garden and has inspired me to explore native plants more than ever.  Not to mention the money I save!

Hydrosol Sale

I am having a sale on hydrosols in my artfire store.  All hydrosols are 20% off!

Roses and Specials

My anniversary specials are still going on.  I'm starting to feel unloved :(  I have gotten lots of orders but no one has used a coupon code yet.  That's more money for me but I do like to give deals too!  And there are several chances to win some free stuff so go check it out here.


I have just started a distillation of roses.  I gathered up all the roses I could find in my garden and crammed the still with petals.  I won't be selling this-not expecting it to be particularly fragrant.  And when my aromatherapy roses bloom this summer i will have a limited quantity of that so I will be hoarding rosewater unless my rosa rugosa bushes produce lots of roses the first year.  I need to go outside and work on my garden but it looks like rain and the forecast says scattered storms. 

Tomorrow I will be pulling up thyme and making a distillation from that.  I think that would make a pretty good household cleaner.  maybe a small spritzer bottle of the hydrosol in my purse to disinfect toilet seats at least.

Ginger Root

I ran a distillation of fresh organic ginger root this morning.  This is yummy!!!!!  The fragrance is straight up ginger and there were little beads of essential oil floating on top.  The flavor has all the zing of ginger root and is warming and leaves a mild sweetness on the lips.  This would have been wonderful to have on the cooler days to stimulate circulation and warm my blood.  I may give some of this to my Dad to rub on his sore joints-he loves the essential oil so he should love this!  So far the PH is 5.8 but I'll keep checking it so i can get a final reading after it "settles".

Hydrosols and PH

I purchased a good PH meter to test my hydrosols to make sure they are good quality.  I am slowly testing all of my finished ones and testing new ones as they are produced.  I made a distilled version of the famous Queen of Hungary Water today and when all was said and done the PH was 4.7.   Everything I have tested so far falls within the proper range so, I guess, I'm doing this right.  I have loved them on my skin so I would have been devastated if the PH was wrong.  Here are my findings so far:

Calendula-6.0
Sandalwood-5.8
Queen's Water-4.7
Witch Hazel-4.2
Cucumber-4.7
Lemon Balm-4.8

I'll keep adding to the list as I test but so far, so good.  I now feel more comfortable listing these for sale-most will go on Hyena Cart and Artfire where I can offer a variety of sizes.

I will attempt to harvest Lemon Balm tomorrow and do it, I have an organic ginger root in the fridge waiting to become fabulous water, and I have roses on the verge of blooming (no this in NOT and April Fool's Day joke!).

Frankincense

I have been making hydrosols in the background while I work on orders so today I am going to make a codistilled Frankincense and Myrrh.  Both are great for aging skin, especially frankincense but I prefer the aroma of Myrrh so I am throwing some in there.  This would be a great spritz for prayer and meditation.  I will spritz myself down with this before I pray my rosary and I would love to see how a Bible study group would do with this sprayed in the room!

Still Playing With the Still

I did a distillation of some dried roses last night and wasn't really happy with it so I made a strong infusion from 3 different dried roses.  This morning I'm distilling last night's distillate with the strong infusion and some rose hips and it is coming out beautiful.  I may also do some elderflowers today too.

I know Spring appears to be early-we are going to be in the 70's all week.  Yet I'm still impatient and can't wait to have fresh plants to work with.  Just in my garden I will have tons of Lemon Balm, Spearmint, Peppermint, Basil, Rosemary, catnip, calendula and hopefully Helichrysum.  Lest we forget the various Roses I'll have to play with.  My husband will probably move out if I have the house reeking of flowers all summer. I want a Rosa Rugosa Rose bush from Horizon Herbs, for the flowers and the hips-I love the EO so it should make some awesome rosewater.  I am also going to buy seeds and/or plants of German Chamomile, Roman Chamomile, Ceremonial White Sage and Tulsi Basil.  i have some Lavender but not enough to do much hydrosol so I may have to stick with dried herb there-but that one came out fantastic and produced more essential oil than I ever dreamed!

I am going to start listing some of these this week so if you are interested in hydrosols and aromatherapy you should consider making a purchase. 

My Head Hurts

I have so many ideas I wish i could quit my job to develop them!  My head is absolutely spinning with ideas for distillations when I get my still.  Right now I am thinking about an anti-inflammatory blend of German chamomile, calendula petals and rose petals.  I may actually do this and see if my friend Kelly would be a guinea pig for me.  She has rosacea so I'm sure she'll love it.  I also have a little redness and thread veins so I will use it.  I am also thinking about what a wonderful pillow spray I could make from my bath herbs blend-or a fabulous skin spray.

I also found some fabulous rosewater and orange flower water at an international market last weekend.  They are made with extracts but smell wonderful.  So this morning I made an eau de cologne blend with my favorite blend of bergamot, petitgrain, orange, lemon, orange blossom absolute and added some cassie absolute and oakmoss absolute to anchor the scent and add some light green notes.  Can't wait for this to meld together.  I pulled a little out and mixed 50/50 with the orange flower water in a little perfume bottle so I can check it often.  If only the weather in Kentucky could support bitter orange trees-I would SO get one in the yard!

Happy Holiday

I am up early, as usual, but getting some work done.  I am working on some perfume materials again.  I have some Tonka Beans soaking in pure grain alcohol-I started this yesterday and the alcohol is already quite aromatic.  I also am working on some amber oil.  I had some benzoin stashed away that was the most fluid I've ever purchased.  I decided to work it into some fractionated coconut oil with the help of a crock pot hot water bath.  it actually mixed very well without the heat but I figure some mild heating will really help the benzoin and oil to blend.  Actually, it's a good thing because it turns out the labdanum needed some additional heating and of course I have already added the vanilla.  I am getting 2 ounces of amber oil out of it-a 50/50 mix of absolutes and FC oil.  This is going to be an awesome base for my oil based perfumes.  I may attempt to infuse the remainder of the Tonka Beans in oil when there is enough sunshine and mild weather to put it outside.

I have also discovered a VERY reasonably priced copper still thanks to Gretchen over at ADKaromatherapy.  Money's a little tight right now but by the time Spring is here to stay I will have one.  In the meantime I will daydream about all the local and garden plants that I can distill.  We have red elder trees everywhere around here.  They have the most toxic berries but also the most aromatic flowers.  From my garden-Lemon Balm, Roses, Peppermint, Rosemary, Lavender, Basil, Calendula, Chamomile and hopefully Helichrysum.  If I can talk the hubby into it I would love to buy a Rosa Rugosa bush from Horizon Herbs, too.  I LOVE that essential oil and having the hydrosol on hand would be a dream.  For now, I have an aromatic climbing rose and my Jackson&Perkins Aromatherapy rose that would make some dreamy rosewater.  The AT rose bush makes HUGE flowers so I could get a good distillation with 3 flowers.

Just checked the amber oil again and it has clarified and turned an amber brown instead or soupy tan.  Some stuff settled out and I stirred and stirred and ended up pulling out a sticky chunk of sediment about 1/4 teaspoon sized.  I will strain the rest through cheesecloth but this is looking ans smelling good.  I'd say I've gotten all the funky stuff out from the solvents that were used to make the absolutes.  This was worth the trouble.  I love benzoin but it's just so difficult to work with and so is labdanum absolute.  I usually dissolve them in alcohol but it difficult to incorporate into oil based perfumes and leaves sediment in alcohol, so I couldn't use much.

I'm excited!

December Sales Incentive

Rather than having a normal sale I have decided to do a lottery of sorts for the month of December.  On the 31st I will draw names from everyone who has placed an order between Nov 30th through Dec 30th.  The lucky winner will have the cost of their order refunded back to them via paypal.

Also, I am nearing 500 sales so I will have an extra special gift for my 500th customer!

And here's a special coupon code for my blog readers.  GBHBLOG for 20% off your orders until December 23rd.  This coupon will be good in all of my stores.

Flower Waters

I am trying very hard to get some work done today since I will have absolutely no time again until next Sunday.  I have orders to work on-one of which is a surprise package.  I love doing these because I can get really creative and throw in some products not offered in my store and get feedback.  If I listed everything I think of I would be bankrupt from listing fees!

I haven't offered flower waters for a while and I have gotten some awesome new essential oils since then so I will be listing a few.  My flower waters are not to be confused with hydrosols-I dissolve essential oils in pure grain alcohol to make an essence then add the essence to distilled water.  This gives you the benefits of the essential oil in a more diluted form plus the alcohol acts as a preservative so there's no need to refrigerate them.  It's also a lot more economical!  I love making these because I can carry them in my purse, or leave a bottle in my locker or keep a bottle in my nightstand to use as a pillow spray and they won't spoil.  Plus since I can do this with just about any oil I have so I can make any water or blend that I like.  I felt inspired to do this when I received the order for the surprise package so she is getting a bottle of Rosalina flower water.  I also made essences from Fragonia and cermonial White Sage today.  I have been thinking about doing a kit with essential oils for meditation with 10% dilutions of Holy Basil, Sandalwood, Frankincense and Myrrh so the sage spray would be a nice edition for clearing sacred space.

I'm also getting ready to make anointing ointments based on the Temple blend of Exodus.  Some people get nervous about duplicating this blend because of the stern warnings in the Bible.  But it is supposed to be formulated by a perfumer (aromatherapist?) for use by the priesthood.  Under the New Covenant we are all members of the common priesthood.  Besides, it is extremely unlikely that I am duplicating the exact formula for a number of reasons: 1)  We can't be 100% certain that the translation is correct 2)  Even if it is correct which Myrrh is it referring to? 3)  They wouldn't have been using essential oils but infused oils  and 4)  I have no clue what a HIN is.

Helichrysum Essential Oil

I wanted to write about this oil this morning because I have been working with it today (and ran out) and because it's one of my favorites, as well as one of my most useful oils.  It is one of the pricier essential oils, but worth every penny.  Thank goodness I ordered some more last night because after my work this morning I don't have a single drop left!

The scent is a dry floral, tea with honey smell.  It's gentle enough to be used neat on the skin and, actually, that's my preferred method of using it on bruises.  It's THE best essential oil for healing bruises and one of my projects this morning was making a bruise healing oil with Arnica infused oil and Helichrysum essential oil.  Since we still have yard work to do this weekend we'll be using it for pain and we always seem to end up bruised, especially my husband since he's on blood thinners.


Helichrysum is also commonly used in facial oils to prevent wrinkles, as a wound healer (it also prevents scarring) and for trauma.

I also made an under eye oil for my daughter using this oil blended with avocado oil to help clear up her dark circles.  I ran out at that point so for my eye oil I used my scar treatment blend (which contains Helichrysum and other goodies for middle-aged ladies) and I threw in some Neroli to smooth out the lines around my eyes.

This is one of my "must have" essential oils for youthful skin along with Lavender, Neroli, and Rose.


I bought some plants this year, hoping to be able to infuse the flowers and save some money, bu they never produced flowers :(  I am hoping they survive the winter in Kentucky.  Not likely unless we have a long-overdue mild winter.

Specials, New Stuff, Perfume Updates

I have lots of new stuff going on.  I ordered pretty new business cards and a few magnets and they arrived this week so my best customers will receive a magnet with their next orders to put on their fridge.  i have a limited quantity of these for now but I may order more soon just because they're really cool!

I will also be sending out coupon codes for some of my customers.  My top shoppers will be able to get 10% off all their orders for the rest of the year.  Second tier shoppers can get 5% and I may promote some of you who shop with me a lot for the Holidays! These discount codes will also be valid on custom orders.   I will also be offering special gift bags that you can customize.  I have 2 sizes of nice vinyl travel bags so you can customize a gift package for loved ones (or yourself).  I will have a listing for the gift bag and you can set up a custom order with me to fill it!  Or you can just buy the bag and fill it yourself but what's the fun in that?

I am working on aromatherapy oils in 15ml dropper bottles.  These are strong dilutions (10%) of essential oils in fractionated coconut oil.  The base oil has an indefinite shelf life and since you won't use much and you will not have to put your fingers in it, they will last for a very long time!  I will be replacing my Sleep Easy roll on with this type of oil.  I have also been using one myself for hormonal balance with pretty impressive results!  I also have a formula for emotional release with some pretty amazing oils from Australia.

I did my perfume blends.  One is an amber blend with Rose Absolute, which smells nice but not quite balanced so it needs more work, I think.  The other is the Chypre type with cistus, oakmoss, citrus oils, petitgrain, lemon petitgrain and Jasmine.  I am really pleased with this one and I am very partial to this perfume type anyway. 

A customer placed an order with me for a surprise package last night and we did some emailing back and forth so she is going to be an official tester for these!  The listing does say that you can preview new products and I tend to be overly generous....

I have also done a cologne version of my JOY aromatherapy perfume which I will probably just put in my consigned stores.  It is still my greatest masterpiece!

Just in Time for Mother's Day

I just got some cute little perfume bottles and I have been playing around with some blends.  So I thought why not have a giveaway and let my readers have a chance to win some!  You could win a 10ml spray bottle of pefume to keep for yourself or to give your Mom for Mother's Day.  All perfumes are made with pure essential oils and/or absolutes in perfumers grade alcohol with a fixative added.  I'll let you choose:

EAU DE COLOGNE is a classic light blend with citrus oils and Neroli.  I love it but it contains all top notes-so I added orange blossom absolute instead of Neroli, which gives it much more staying power.  I also added lemon petitgrain (from the leaves and twigs of the Lemon tree) to lift the blend.  Other oils include bergamot, lemon, petitgrain (from the bitter orange tree) and a touch of orange and lavender.  This is a gorgeous Spring/Summer scent-light and uplifting.

LAVENDER made with French Lavender EO and Lavender Absolute.  This reminds me of the little bottle of lavender perfume I bought in Paris.  No one does Lavender better than the French!

JOY my best selling aroma-perfume in an alcohol base.  This blend includes bergamot, pink grapefruit, ylang ylang, jasmine, vetiver and oakmoss absolute.  My customers love this!

SOFT PATCHOULI is mainly Petitgrain with enough patchouli to add some earthiness and tons of staying power.  Don't let the name fool you-it's made with an aged patchouli which is soft and mellow.  Patchouli can be hard to take if you smell it straight but it completely transforms when it's blended with other oils.  This is my favorite Patchouli blend and I get tons of compliments when I wear it.

This giveaway will end at midnight eastern time on April 30th.  I will notify the winner on May 1st so we will have plenty of time for transit in case you want it for Mother's Day.  This giveaway is open to US residents only!  Just leave a comment to be eligible.

Clearance Specials

 It's Spring-sort of- so it's time to start clearing out last season's inventory so I can make room for my fresh oils this summer.  I will be offering free domestic shipping on some of my infused herbal oils-Arnica, White Sage, St. John's Wort.  I am also going to attempt to grow my own calendula flowers again.  If I can keep the squirrels from eating them I will have a Calendula Supreme oil-infused with freshly harvested flowers.

Aromatherapy Inhalers

I am going to revise a couple of my formulas on the aromatherapy inhalers.  The allergy blend will now include Nerolina and the vapors blend will also include Eucalyptus polybractea-guaranteed to make your nose run!  Which is the point now isn't it.............

Eucalyptus polybractea

I added a few drops of this oil to my anti-viral inhaler last night and just tried it out.  It has a higher concentration of cineole than E. globulus so I figured it should be a stronger inhalant.  Wow was I right!  It is way more intense than E. globulus!  Bring a tissue.........

New Listings

I have listed 3 new essential oil kits in my etsy, artfire, and hyenacart stores

I finally got the ylang ylang kit up plus a set of eucalyptus oils and a really awesome set of oils from the Melaleuca family.  Here are the links:

http://hyenacart.com/GloryBeHerbals/mt/1686/43725/Ylang-Ylang-Set-of-Essential-Oils-All-Fractions
http://hyenacart.com/GloryBeHerbals/mt/1686/65545/Set-of-Seven-Essential-Oils-from-the-Eucalyptus-Family-
http://hyenacart.com/GloryBeHerbals/mt/1686/59641/Melaleucas-Set-of-Essential-Oils

http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=3083544
http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=3083371
http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=3083132

http://www.etsy.com/listing/70915656/melaleucas-set-of-essental-oils
http://www.etsy.com/listing/70913538/set-of-seven-essential-oil-from-the
http://www.etsy.com/listing/70910312/ylang-ylang-set-of-essential-oils-all

Essential Oil Experiments

I used the Rosalina in the nebulizer last night and just absolutely loved it.  It really is a bizarre yet beautiful combination eucalyptus/rose/rosewood/lavender type smell and I think it really helped with the little chest congestion I'm having and definitely helped me drift off to sleep.  I actually got the best rest last night that I've had in a long time.  I have been dragging all week.  I also had a very vivid work-related dream that is directly associated with stress I'm experiencing in the work place so I am wondering if Rosalina may help release blocked up stress.  I'm going to put some in a bath here shortly too if I can get myself off of the computer and into the bathtub.

The Australian Blue Cypress has also really helped with the sorenes from my eczema outbreak I'm having on my right foot.  Did I mention I'm a little stressed?  I have also been drinking nettle tea to try to detoxify my liver (a little Spring cleaning) and build up my blood.  My iron is always low so I'm sure it's also the source of my feeling tired all the time.

I wanted to start playing around with my eucalyptus oils when I got up this morning so I started with the Eucalyptus dives (AKA peppermint eucalyptus).  I added a couple drops to some sunflower oil and used it as a chest rub, a sore muscle rub and on an open lesion on my foot.  It was very cooling and very quickly numbed the soreness in the sore muscle, much like menthol.  It has been working best as a chest rub and the muscle is sore again.  I suspected this would be the case since it contains a very high concentration of cineole.  My thoughts on this one is it will be great for inhalation for congestion and would make a wonderful cooling bath or spray in the summer, much like peppermint.

I will keep you updated on my experiments as I conduct them this weekend!

New Essential Oils

I got an order in today with some new essential oils.  I bought several varities of Eucalyptus (E. polybractea, E. dives,E. camaldulensis) that I'm going to play around with.  I also bought a bottle of Australian Blue Cypress which is supposed to be a great anti-inflammatory.  It is a blue oil and it smells wonderful.  I have a rash on my foot so I will be using that tonight.  The oils I'm most impressed with are Rosalina and Nerolina.  They are melaleucas, which means they are related to Tea Tree-you wouldn't know it from their scent!

Nerolina is also known as Lavender Tea Tree.  To me the scent is fruity not Lavender.  It's much more like Roman Chamomile but not as overpowering.  It's also good against allergies so I will be including this in my blend for the allergy relief inhalers.

Rosalina is a good name for this oil.  It is definitely reminiscent of Rosewood  only brighter.  It is relaxing and anti-infection so this is going in my nebulizer tonight!

I mentioned in a previous post that I would be doing a Ylang Ylang kit (will be posted this weekend).  I will also be doing a Eucalyptus kit with 7 varities of eucalyptus oil;  Now I am also thinking about a kit for the melaleucas and will include the Rosalina, Nerolina, Tea Tree, Niaouli, and Cajeput.  You won't believe the range from down-right medicinal to floral and beautiful!