The north wind shall blow and we shall have snow…

March is certainly coming in like a lion across most of the US. We are confident that Springtime will be coming, and so offer a newsletter full of springtime sales and new beginnings.

This newsletter contains:

• New and Back in Stock Essential oils
• New skincare products
• Spring Citrus Sale – light at the end of the tunnel: Spring Sunshine and Citrus smiles.
• Client Feedback
• Facebook and LinkedIn Snippets
• St. Patrick’s Day Sale
• Aromatic Quote of the Month

New and Back in Stock

Boutique Organic USA Peppermint, very rare, exquisite French Rose de Mai Absolute, a tiny bit of Rhododendron from Nepal, organic French Angelica Root, exotic organic Ylangylang Extra, and antiviral Ravensara Aromatica, from Madagascar. See them all on our new and special page.

New Skincare products

“Best Foot Forward” a healing foot balm, and “Soothing Salt Scrub,” based on organic Aloe, Organic Coconut, and extra fine Himalayan Salts. “Cool It!” — a blend of our most powerful anti-inflammatories. Also on our new and special page.

Citrus Smilebringers Sale

We are so tired of winter we thought we’d use some citrus to cheer us all up. Save 10% on all of our citrus rind oils, and on our Spring Sunshine Synergy. Sale pricing only on our new and special page.

Client Feedback

Anne Chilton won our most recent Pinterest contest — her prize was the product she had pinned, our new “Winter Rescue Lotion.” Her comments? “Oh my gosh! Thank you so much!!!! This has to be the best thing ever created for my hands during winter. I have tried everything and this is the first time my hands went from looking like pre-molting reptile skin to normal human looking skin in just one application!” We LOVE reactions like that!

More about the Winter Rescue Lotion, from Dyan Simms, who I think received the first small bottle we shipped, “Just got it today. It smells awesome and feels wonderful on the skin. This bottle will probably last about a week.:) Great skincare product! —Dyan Simms”

Allison Bush, from Norway, wrote re our Clarifying Gel: “My daughter 12 loves the clarifying gel! The only thing that works:-) Thank-you for a great product.” When I asked if I could quote she said “Of course you can, my daughter has nagged me since her bottle was empty, and I have been so busy I havent had time to order, so today she said as soon as I walked in the door, sit down and order my gel, please! So I did:-)”

Sunburn Soother: Andrea Link and I have been emailing back and forth about our Sunburn Soother. She wrote:

Thank you for your suggestions on Facebook regarding my husband’s poison ivy, it has been very helpful. Thankfully, his blistering, etc, has started clearing up, and last night I used your sunburn soother to help relieve some of the itching, and it worked very well — well enough that he’s taken my bottle to work today in case the rash continues to bug him (he’s not one for natural remedies, etc). I have also found that it works exceptionally well on some of my more severe bruises (I bruise easily, and sometimes they act almost like burns, not only being discolored and sore, but inflamed and hot to the touch), and in the heat of summer, it’s a nice, light, refreshing yet moisturizing gel to use on my face in place of my typical moisturizer if I’ve been out all day. This is definitely a product I don’t want to be without since it seems to have so many uses! I know on your site, you only offer it in the 1oz size; out of curiousity, how much would a 2 or 4 oz bottle be? I will be placing an order in the next few weeks and would like to include this at that time if possible.”

Later she wrote:

And yes, please feel free to quote me — I really do love this product, and it is SO versatile. I know they say if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, but I wonder whether switching to an oil other than jojoba (for more of a skin-care application) might not be an alternative. Say, raspberry oil for its UV protection aspect when used as a light moisturizer in summer, stuff like that.:) Actually, what might be nice is having the oil blend available on its own (the way you do with the clarifying synergy) so that one could mix their own blend with whatever carrier oil they prefer. Just thoughts… Actually, now that I think about it, is it possible for me to buy a bottle, say 5ml, of just the blend??”

Because we LISTEN we are now offering our “Cool It!” synergy, above. I would not have thought of some of the uses for this blend that Andrea mentioned, but I CAN see the need for a very powerful anti-inflammatory blend, and this is it.

Facebook and LinkedIn Snippets

Internal Use
We’ve had a lot of discussions about routine internal use of the oils. There are those who think because, as responsible suppliers, we label our oils “not for internal use” it means our quality is inferior to that of the marketing firms that push routine, daily internal use of their oils. Someone recently asked “We drink Peppermint Tea and eat Peppermint Candy, why should we not ingest the essential oil?” I gave some indications of the intensity of the oil compared to the dried herb or alcohol extract, but a really full answer was given by Chris Burder, Lavender grower and distiller at Stone Rise Farm, in Victoria, Australia:

I’ll talk lavender if you don’t mind, leaves of peppermint are the same concept. Let’s say from a charge of fresh lavender the oil yield is 15 mL/Kg. [For those not comfortable with metric measurements, that means 1/2 fluid ounce of essential oil from 2 1/4 pounds of lavender blossoms.) Let’s also say that a mature lavender bush gives 150 g of flower at harvest. Then we would be looking at 2.25 ml of oil per bush. Lets say the bush has 200 flower stems, that’s 11.25 uL (micro-litres, or thousandths of a millilitre) per stem. And lavender is one of the highest yielding of plants. To us, this is enough to feel when rubbing or smell when sniffing the flowers, but to put ONE THOUSAND times that (11 mL) either on your skin or down your throat could be very dangerous. Think how little peppermint EO is in the 3 leaves you put in your teacup (maybe only one hundredth of a drop).

Most countries have heavily regulated government administrations when dealing with either therapeutic goods or prescription medicines. These regulations have labelling requirements for essential oil manufacturers who want to make a therapeutic claim for the product. The labels MUST have things like “NOT TO BE TAKEN” and “KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN” on them, regardless of whether a health care practitioner subsequently recommends that a patient take the substance. I make no therapeutic claim for my oils (I leave that to the practitioners) but I include those warnings anyway. Marge is correct in that it is the responsible thing to do.

 

Free Journal
Free download of the current NAHA Aromatherapy Journal. CLICK HERE for free download.

Cancer Research
Pubmed article showing the use of aromatherapy inhalers (called “aromasticks”) shown of use to cancer patients in managing anxiety, nausea, and sleeplessness.

Free Rose E-book
The American College of Healthcare Sciences offered a free Rose Ebook Download for Valentines day:

These are just a few of the announcements our Facebook Friends viewed. Join us at http://www.facebook.com/NaturesGift

St. Patrick’s Day

There will be a St. Patrick’s Day sale on Sunday, March 17th. The Promotional Code will be “Shamrock” (without the quotation marks.) We haven’t decided yet what the sale/discount will be. It *might* be 17% off a certain group of products…oils, skincare, hydrosols, something. We haven’t decided yet. It wil be announced on Facebook and Twitter and perhaps added to this newsletter on our website once we decide. But if you order on St. Patrick’s day, and use the promo code Shamrock *something special* will happen. There MAY be an “Ides of March” sale on Friday March 15th. You might check back and read this newsletter online closer to the time.

Quote of the Month

“March is a month of considerable frustration — it is so near spring and yet across a great deal of the country the weather is still so violent and changeable that outdoor activity in our yards seems light years away.” — Thalassa Cruso

“No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.” — Hal Borland

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