Essential Oils: The World in a Bottle
It has been difficult for many of us to travel lately. For those who crave a little adventure without leaving the safety of their homes, essential oils are the perfect way to take your senses on a wonderful journey. PURA D’OR is proud to present our top-of-the-line essential oils. Here’s everything you need to know!
Essential oils are extremely concentrated natural chemical compounds derived from plants. These oils are made from the flowers, roots, bark, stems, or leaves of plants like cedarwood, eucalyptus, and even tangerine. They are usually created by a process called distillation that pushes steam through the plant pieces and pulls out the oil. However, they can also be created by a cold pressing process that involves squeezing the plant under extremely high pressure to expel the oil.
How are Essential Oils Used?
Essential oils are often used in aromatherapy. The key idea is that when you breathe in the scent of an essential oil, you absorb the benefits of the plant whose essence you’re inhaling. Scent has been used as a mood enhancer for millennia. Almost 2,000 years ago, Pliny the Elder wrote that “the very smell of mint reanimates the spirits…” and it’s still true today! Ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Greeks, and others understood the power of nature and scents.
They used essential oils to aid with everything from minor ailments like headaches to major life-threatening injuries.
Even today, aromatherapy is wonderful for relieving stress, increasing sleep quality and limiting insomnia, and reducing headache and stomach discomfort. Overall, it helps create a perkier, more energized version of yourself. But as always, if you’re suffering from a serious complaint, don’t rely on aromatherapy alone to cure it: Please consult your doctor!
How PURA D’OR Sources Essential Oils
Part of creating a great product involves relying on first-rate processes and caring about the intangibles that go into making the final result. Here at PURA D’OR, we care about our customers, workers, and Mother Earth. We’re committed to providing ethical, sustainable aromatherapy and beauty solutions for those who want to live a cleaner life with a smaller carbon footprint. We believe that even those of us in huge cities can connect with a piece of nature via the essential oils in PURA D’OR products.
You may have heard discussions about ethical sourcing of oils. This concept is very important to us. We believe in fair trade practices and we put time, money, and effort into ensuring our partner distilleries meet and surpass our requirements. You never have to worry about poor work practices at PURA D’OR. We only source oils from certified organic farms that employ adult workers and pay them fair wages in safe work conditions.
In addition to caring about workers, we care about the planet we all inhabit. That is why we engage in sustainability practices like using a solar-powered warehouse. We know we need to safeguard the natural world and help replenish its supplies. In fact, we’ve planted over 185,000 trees with the Eden Reforestation Project. Our goal is ten million trees in the next decade! We’ve committed to planting 10,000 trees every month and one additional tree for every bottle purchased at www.purador.com.
When it comes to essential oils, from farm to bottle, each step of the distillation process is sacred. The farmers who work at our partner distilleries don’t use harmful pesticides. Their machines are tested for safety and effectiveness, and the essential oils are checked for purity after distillation. You’d be surprised at how many factors are involved in creating high-quality essential oils. The process requires many steps, but we believe you’ll love the results as much as we do!
Meet Our Aromatherapist
How does PURA D’OR make sure that we source the very best oils available? We hire a specialist to help us! We’re proud to say our Professional Aromatherapist, Mikki Anderson, graduated with honors from the American College of Healthcare Sciences, an accredited college with its own Department of Aromatherapy. She is a Professional Member of the Alliance of International Aromatherapists. This means she has completed at least 200 hours of documented and verifiable instruction in Aromatherapy, in addition to taking 12 continuing education credits each year. In fact, she has completed well over 1200 hours! She also teaches as an NCBTMB Continuing Education Provider of Aromatherapy. Mikki’s training, expertise, and passion for Aromatherapy ensures that she sources our essential oils in an ethical, sustainable manner. She won’t settle for less than the best!
Oil Sourcing Trip to Portugal
PURA D’OR searches far and wide to source top-notch essential oils. In spring 2022, Mikki went to Portugal to look for small, sustainable farms to partner with us. She visited Porto, Lisbon, various small villages, and beautiful Sao Miguel Island. In Portugal, she met with local distillers and observed their farming practices, protocols, and procedures.
During her stay, Mikki experienced wonderful hospitality and ate freshly picked produce and eggs from hens. Safe to say, she had a great time and met some wonderful new friends! But her trip involved a serious work component, too.
As a Professional Aromatherapist, Mikki looks for oils that are grown, harvested, and distilled using sustainable methods. She seeks oils produced in small batches, which helps to monitor and ensure their quality. After Mikki returned from her sourcing trip, she told us, “I was authentically there to see their processes, meet the owners, and negotiate prices for the oils that we currently use in our products.”
Oil Sourcing Around the World
You can see from Mikki’s beautiful photos that her trip to Portugal was amazing! Over time, she has traveled throughout the USA, Canada, and Europe to find distilleries that match PURA D’OR’s high standards. PURA D’OR also sources oils from Africa, Asia, Oceania, and South America. So essential oils truly do bring you every piece of the world in a bottle.
Benefits of Specific Oils
Plants grown on the grounds of Portugal’s distilleries produce essential oils like lavender, rosemary, lemongrass, and basil. All of these oils are found in either PURA D’OR’s Sweet 16 or Perfect 10 Essential Oil Sets. Let’s review a few of their potential uses and benefits.
Lavender
Lavender oil is possibly the best-known essential oil. It has been nicknamed “Grand Madame” by our Aromatherapist. Lavender has a broad range of benefits that range from relaxing your mind and boosting your mood to benefitting your skin.
Lavender is a popular oil to diffuse, especially at night. It has been shown to be a natural remedy for mild insomnia and may even improve the quality of your sleep. Who doesn’t want to wake up feeling as fresh as a spring chicken? Lavender essential oil is also a rich antioxidant with antibacterial properties, which is why it’s a common additive in anti-aging and acne skin care products.
Rosemary
Rosemary essential oil, known as “brain oil,” helps create laser beam focus for precise tasks like working or studying.
Additionally, it may help alleviate headache symptoms, calm an upset stomach, and repel those pesky mosquitoes.
As an herb, rosemary is used to flavor food. But it isn’t just great with bread; it’s great for your skin, too! Rosemary essential oil is often found in natural toners since it balances the pH of skin cells. It also acts as an antimicrobial that tackles breakouts before they even show up.
Lemongrass
Lemongrass is commonly found in tasty, tangy dishes. But did you know that it’s also an excellent essential oil? Lemongrass essential oil has a robust citrus scent that is high in many essential nutrients, including Vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, C, folate, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese, copper, potassium, calcium, zinc and iron. Basically, lemongrass hits the nutrient jackpot!
Many people use lemongrass as a natural air freshener. Lemongrass essential oil is also known as citronella oil, a natural mosquito and bug repellent. There’s no need for dangerous chemicals in your bug spray: Simply dab some lemongrass oil around your clothing for bug protection. You can put a lemongrass plant on the patio since its scent keeps away gnats and mosquitos.
Basil
Basil has a soothing and calming aroma that many find to be helpful for headaches, breathing issues, and upset stomachs. Since basil is rich in Vitamin C, when it’s used in beauty products, it creates a stunning luster in the skin and hair. It’s also an anti-inflammatory. Basil is a common ingredient in natural deodorants since it fights odors and reduces the feeling of wet underarms.
Basil oil is also a bug repellent. Use it hand-in-hand with lemongrass for maximum effect!
PURA D’OR Sweet 16 Essential Oil Set
PURA D’OR’s Sweet 16 Essential Oil Set contains all four of the oils we mentioned: Lavender, rosemary, lemongrass, and basil. It also offers twelve additional oils to experiment with and to love!
Our PURA D’OR Sweet 16 Essential Oil Set is one step up from our Perfect 10 Set in terms of quantity and variety. It makes a perfect gift, both for experienced essential oil users and for beginners who like to jump into the deep end! You’ll get 16 oils: Lavender, rosemary, lemongrass, basil, peppermint, tea tree, lemon, frankincense, eucalyptus, cedarwood (so, all of the oils in the Perfect 10 Set), AND ylang ylang, turmeric, patchouli, bergamot, tangerine, and sweet orange. That’s a whole lot of scents to enjoy!
Your Sweet 16 Essential Oil Set can provide you with the ultimate sense of adventure, and you don’t even have to leave your bedroom: Simply unscrew the lid, take a gentle sniff, and be transported to a relaxing, invigorating new world!
PURA D’OR Perfect 10 Essential Oil Set
Our PURA D’OR Perfect 10 Essential Oil Set is an excellent choice for someone
just getting into aromatherapy. You’ll get ten of the most popular and versatile essential oils. The best part? The Perfect 10 Essential Oil Set comes in an aesthetically-pleasing, easy-to-store wooden box that looks adorable in your bathroom or bedroom.
Like the Sweet 16 set, this smaller essential oil set has many uses. You can diffuse the oils, apply them topically after combining them with a carrier oil, or simply carry a bottle around in your purse and take a whiff when you need a pick-me-up in the middle of a rough day. Aromatherapy can bring a lot of benefits to your life, and the Perfect 10 set is the perfect way to start basking in those benefits. (The name is Perfect 10 for a reason!)
Expand Your Horizons with Scent
If you like to travel, you may have noticed that not only is travel a bit of a concern during this pandemic era, it’s also expensive. We find that experimenting with essential oils is much more cost-effective (especially when you pick PURA D’OR) and it’s a simple and fun way to try something new. Variety is the spice of life, and there’s a whole world of scents out there! So maybe the choice between the Perfect 10 and Sweet 16 sets just comes down to how adventurous you’re feeling!
In addition to checking out our Essential Oil Sets, be sure to visit the PURA D’OR homepage. It’s a one-stop shop where you can keep up with the latest in PURA D’OR skincare, haircare, bath & body, and aromatherapy offerings. We’re proud to say we have beauty solutions for your skin, scalp, hair, and even your feet! You can also check out our other blog posts to learn more about PURA D’OR products.
Any questions? We’d love to hear from you! Please message us here:
https://purador.com/pages/contact-us
To wrap up, let’s take a moment to celebrate the power of scent. A plant or herb’s natural fragrance can take your mind on journeys to beautiful places and happy memories. As Helen Keller wrote, “Smell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousands of miles and all the years you have lived.” Poet Gwendolyn Brooks wrote, “Life must be aromatic,” and we agree. We encourage you to learn more about the benefits of aromatherapy, and Happy Travels!