Essential Oils Or Nothing

As essential oils slip into the mainstream, we’re here to decode what they are, how they work and what to do with them
by COURTNEY REILLY-LARKE

A FEW  YEARS AGO, IF  YOU CASUALLY LISTED lavender  essential oil as your preferred sleep aid, you probably would have received skeptical  stares reserved for talk of crystals and chakras. But it’s 2017 and essen tial oils  are  becoming  more  popular  across  Canada. However,  the million-dollar question remains:  Do essential oils work?

“I’ve always been interested in essential oils and the traditional healing  power  of plants in  different cultures,” says Dr. Roohi Qureshi, a Toronto-based doctor and  founder  of the natural skincare brand  Leaves  of Trees.  “A lot of our pharmacological treatments today actually have their origins in different plants.” She cites the likes of aspirin (originally derived from willow bark) and digitalis (which comes from the foxglove plant), to name  a few. “It makes  sense  that essential oils would have healing properties,” says Dr. Qureshi.

Even the original 1886 recipe for Coca-Cola included essential oils like orange,  lemon,  nutmeg,  cinnamon, coriander and neroli. They’ve been steadily popping up in beauty and skincare products, too. They’re no longer strangers to the mainstream, but why the sudden  leap from  crunchy  health-food store aisle  to swanky  mall real estate?

One of the reasons why essential oils may soon be ubiquitous in your medicine  cabinet  and on your skin- care shelf is because  of our sparkly new sense of envi- ronmental awareness. “People are seeing the difference between chemicals – with their effects on the environ- ment and the body – and natural remedies,” says Isabelle Pacchioni,  co-founder of the French essential oil and natural product line  Puressentiel. “We’re at  a  point where we need to change our way of thinking.”

Little plants can have a big effect on your health, but how? Make no mistake, essential oils are entirely differ- ent from the vegetable oil in your pantry. This oil – the volatile oil that’s found within that offers extra benefits and strength – is but one component of the plant that has been extracted with steam distillation. The process goes like this: Freshly  picked plants are placed over boiling water so that the steam pulls the oils out. The rising steam is contained in a vessel and moved along a tube, where it’s quickly cooled so that it condenses back into water. The water and essential oil don’t mix, making it easy to retrieve the oil. This leaves us with a highly con- centrated oil to use for aromatherapy, the therapeutic use of plant-derived, aromatic essential oils to promote physical and mental wellness.

Next, the essential oil needs to get from the vial to the body, but it’s not as simple as drinking it (which, by the way, you should never do). Julie Clark, a certified aroma- therapist and founder of the Toronto skincare company Province  Apothecary,  says  that essential oils  can  be absorbed  into your body in a few different ways. The first way is inhalation, entering your system through your mucous membrane and affecting your nervous sys- tem from there. Most aromatherapists also recommend putting essential oils  in  your  bath because  they can enter your system that way (and it doesn’t sound like an entirely  unpleasant  experience).  They   can   also  be applied topically, penetrating the skin to enter the blood- stream, similar  to a birth control patch (Clark recom- mends putting them at the back of your hairline).

Once they’re in your body, the  oils do all the  work. “Essential oils  affect  your  parasympathetic nervous system [your unconscious nervous system], so you don’t have to do anything,” says Clark. “Once they get in your bloodstream, they will affect you, just like how drinking camomile tea has tangible effects.”

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