It’s fascinating how an aroma can make us feel different emotions. It can make us happy, calm, and sometimes even blue when we associate it with something that made us sad. However, the good thing about aromatherapy is that there are known essential oils that can boost our moods and make us feel more cheerful. Keeping these essential oils in our aromatherapy kit can make us feel hopeful that when worry or a stressful situation comes, it can make us feel better.
One of the responsibilities of every aromatherapist is to be familiar with the scents of each odorous essential oil. This will enable us to know how the oils would make us feel. If we know the aromatic effects of each oil, we would also know how it would affect others.
Ways to Familiarize Yourself with the Scents
1. Description from legit sources
Honestly, it is challenging for me to describe the scents of some essential oils. There are many articles, and blog posts that talk about the scents of essential oils, but reading them makes me confused at times. Some descriptions are not accurate so it can make you doubtful. For example, one post I’ve seen described ylang-ylang essential oil has a fruity smell, but ylang-ylang has a floral scent. So if you don’t have an idea about ylang-ylang, you can be misled and believe that claim. It can be hard to figure out which one is reliable at times since there are many blog posts available. Hence posts from legit sources are needed for us to fully understand and learn the accurate description of the essential oil’s aroma.
2. Choose reliable brands
Scent makes a statement, it sends a message. Knowing the right and accurate message of the scent will enable you to know how clients will respond to a certain odor. The best way to familiarize yourself with the scent of essential oil is to have the real essential oil. There are different brands available, and buying an oil that does not have a good quality will make it hard to figure out the authentic scent of the essential oil. This is because the oil’s scent may not be as strong as it should be since it is not pure essential oil. Hence aim to have reliable and legit brands if you want to understand and be able to describe the real scent of essential oil. You can know which brands are reliable by looking at the label and the content written on it. Reliable brands indicate the necessary details about the essential oil, so these are the brands that you can trust that will enable you to identify more clearly the different scent details in an oil. Essential oils contain different aromatic compounds which influence their scent as a whole. For example, if I would describe peppermint scent, the main odor I could smell from it is menthol. But when I sniff it, even more, I could detect the herbally and somewhat camphorous odor too. This is because there are different details or aromatic compounds in one essential oil.
3. Use smelling strategies
Since I am just beginning to familiarize myself with the scents of essential oils, it is helpful that I follow some smelling strategies. Previously I tried to identify the aroma of the oils by just smelling the cotton ball with drops of the essential oil on it. But as I keep on reading, I get to see Basic Perfume Primer written by the Institute for Art and Olfaction, and discover that there are smelling strategies that I can do. The techniques written in the paper are the following:
a. Bunny sniff
You do this by making small rapid short inhales. This is what I do when I am already familiar with the scent of the plant. Since I am aware of the scent, I expect that the odor of the essential oil is the same. I use this strategy when I want to be sure or confirm that what I know about the essential oil’s odor is accurate. Also I use this technique when the scent is distinctive hence easy to pick up and remember.
b. Fly by
This is the smelling technique you can use when it’s difficult to detect the smell of the materials. This is effective because the airflow affects the scent. (1) To do this, you have to move the strip across your face. (1) In my case, I use a cotton ball, so what I do is I’m fanning the cotton ball or repeatedly move the essential oil bottle horizontally, back and forth. When it’s still hard for me to identify the scents in the oil, I put down the bottle for a few minutes then pick up the bottle to smell the oil again.
c. Mouth breather
Another term used for this is retronasal smelling, and you do this by smelling through your mouth. So far I haven’t done this yet, so I can’t describe much of it. This is suited to be done when your nose is congested. In this case, the scent passes first at the back of the throat going upwards, instead of the usual process where the scent passes through the nostrils to the olfactory bulb. Hence in this technique, we get to have an idea of the oil’s taste or flavor. (1)
d. Long, slow, gentle inhale
The longer you smell oil, the more you can feel that it affects other senses of your body too. This method is what I usually do when I’m trying to figure out the scent of essential oils. I take time to smell it because I want to make sure that I understand the aromatic details of the scent so I can describe and write my notes about it. I think this is helpful for me. However, when I detect unusual odor, it’s still hard for me to put into words the description of that odor at times.
I like to understand the scents accurately because as much as possible I try to avoid misinterpreting the aroma of essential oils. For example, peppermint, and camphor are said to have menthol aromas. However, just because they both have menthol scents does not mean you can conclude they smell alike. If you do not understand the aromatic details and effect of these oils, you might just get startled by the reaction they can cause to your client. Hence it is the responsibility of the aromatherapist to familiarize herself with the scents properly and I hope that essential oil brands will also provide clearer descriptions of the essential oils to help the aromatherapist understand the essential oil better.
Opt for the authentic ones
References:
- (1) Kessler A.E., Rogers M., Wilson-Brown S., Ausdal T.V., Basic Perfume Primer. Institute for Art and Olfaction
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