Books
The Complete Book of Essential Oils and Aromatherapy
Valerie Ann Warwood is a recognized authority on essential oils. This is a comprehensive guide to their uses, including as alternatives to commercial products which often contain harmful chemicals. The book includes recipes for over 500 remedies and solutions. One reviewer found the formulas to be complex. If you find this to be the case, take advantage of other information provided and create your own formulas.
Soapmaking for Fun and Profit
This book is a must-have for anyone wanting to start a home-made toiletries business. Basic information about soap-making is provided. The strength of this book is the attention to details like setting up an efficient work area and other work-related tasks. The book does not give specific recipes for soap but explains how soap is made and what the ingredients do. The history of soap-making in the first chapter is fascinating!
Making Natural Liquid Soaps
This book's mixed reviews suggest that it may be best suited for advanced soapmakers.
375 Essential Oils and Hydrosols
In this book, Jeanne Rose profiles essential oils, describing the plants they come from and what they do. This is an excellent resource to have in your library, especially if you want to create your own formulas.
The Fragrant Mind
This is a good book describing how essential oils are used in psychiatric conditions. I found some of the information a bit on the strange side, but a lot of it is extremely useful. I used this book as a resource when creating some of my own formulas.
The Naturally Scented Home: Creating Traditional Scented Products with a Modern Twist
This book gives ideas for using herbs and oils to combat odors as well as make enjoyable scents.
Advanced Aromatherapy: The Science of Essential Oil Therapy
If you want to know how essential oils work and why, this book is a must-read. It goes beyond listing the uses of oils and discusses their chemical combinations. This information is invaluable for people who are creating their own formulas.
Essential Oil Safety: A Guide for Health Care Professionals
Knowing how to use essential oils safely is vital, even if you are using them primarily for enjoyment and not for health benefits. This book can help you to take appropriate precautions when using oils.
Holistic Aromatherapy for Animals: A Comprehensive Guide to the Use of Essential Oils and Hydrosols With Animals
Kristen Leigh Bell is an expert on aromatherapy for animals. In this book, she provides recipes and importnat safety information for people who want to use essential oils in remedies for their pets.
Aromatherapy for Healing the Spirit: Restoring Emotional and Mental Balance with Essential Oils
This book explains the emotional uses of essential oils and also provides techniques for massage. Aromatherapy and massage work well together, and I recommend this book especially for massage therapists or others interested in the subject.
The Practice of Aromatherapy: A Classic Compendium of Plant Medicines and Their Healing Properties
This book was first printed in 1980 and is now in its third edition. It is highly rated as a textbook on aromatherapy.
500 Formulas For Aromatherapy: Mixing Essential Oils for Every Use
This book is highly recommended for beginners as a "recipe book" for aromatherapy.
Aromatherapy for the Healthy Child: More Than 300 Natural, Non-Toxic, and Fragrant Essential Oil Blends
Valerie Ann Worwood shares her expertise again, biving information about how essential oils can treat common illnesses and how to use them safely with children.
The Tea Tree Oil Bible: Your Essential Guide for Health and Home Uses/Your First Aid Kit in a Bottle
Tea tree is a versatile oil when used safely. This book provides information about the various uses of tea tree and how to use it safely.
Prescription for Nutritional Healing: A Practical A-Z Reference to Drug-Free Remedies Using Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs, and Food Supplements (Prescription
This book provides a wealth of information about the impact of nutrition on many health conditions, how to choose supplements, and other types of alternative medicines.
When taking nutritional supplements, it is important to know how they may interact with medications. The following two books can help provide this information.
- Herb Contraindications and Drug Interactions Third Edition
- The A-Z Guide to Drug-Herb and Vitamin Interactions
A Doctor's Guide to Herbs and Supplements
This title may make you think the book is a guide for doctors. On the contrary, it is a guide for consumers written by Dr., an internist and oncologist. The book includes information about common herbs, how herbs work, interactions with other medications, and questions to ask before taking a supplement. The book includes information about scientific studies done on the use of herbs.
Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine: The Definitive Home Reference Guide to 550 Key Herbs with all their Uses as Remedies for Common Ailments
This is an updated guide to herbal medicine including information on hundreds of herbs, parts used, and their effects. Illustrations are included.
Handbook of Psychotropic Herbs: A Scientific Analysis of Herbal Remedies for Psychiatric Conditions
This book discusses the history of using herbs to treat psychiatric illness, common herbs used, and the mechanism of action.
The Herbal Drugstore: The Best Natural Alternatives to Over-the-Counter and Prescription Medicines!
This book discusses safety precautions for using herbs and provides information about herbs used to treat common illnesses. This is an excellent book to have if you're looking for alternatives to commercial drug treatment.
The Natural Soap Book: Making Herbal and Vegetable-Based Soaps
This book is highly recommended as a resource for beginners. It deals specifically with vegetable-based soaps so is not a complete reference on soap-making. A companion book is also available with recipes for smaller batches.
Herbs for Health and Healing
Kathi Keville explains how and why herbs work differently from mainstream drugs to treat common illnesses, provides instructions for making herbal remedies, and discusses the uses of herbal remedies to treat various illnesses in great detail. I could not put this book down!
The Herb Book
This book is an excellent source of information about the history of herbal medicine, obtaining herbs and herbal products, and the uses of specific herbs. Herbs are arranged alphabetically, and recipes for herbal remedies are provided.
Magazines
Supplies
My search for suppliers of essential oils, herbs, and soap-making supplies has led me to some excellent shops and dedicated people. I wish that all of the companies had affiliate programs--I love to promote companies I support, and I also appreciate it when the companies recognize the promotional work I do for them. I recommend the companies listed on this page because I have bought my own supplies from them and found them to be of exceptional quality.
Mountain Rose Herbs carries most essential oils, butters, carrier oils, and several hydrosols as well as a large supply of herbs available in bulk for very reasonable prices. Mountain Rose Herbs also has tea brewing supplies, capsules, and bottles and jars. The customer service is wonderful! Purchases you make after following this link will help to support this site as well as provide you with fine supplies and ingredients to use in your products.
Glenbrook Farm carries a huge selection of herbs at reasonable prices. Besides being good for scent, they're also yummy! Purchases you make after following this link will help to support this site as well as provide you with fine supplies and ingredients to use in your products.
Snowdrift Farm carries a wide variety of carrier oils, a fair supply of essential oils, and other soap-making supplies. Their fragrances are formulated by a chemist, and visitors can interact with the owners via an email list affiliated with the site. SDF carries the finest rose (rosa sentifolia) that I have ever purchased--they are now my first stop for rose.
Nature's Gift carries the largest array of essential oils I've seen in one place. If I don't find it anywhere else, I can probably find it here. I buy most of my oils from other sources, where I can get them in bulk, but I do buy a few from NG. NG also carries floral waxes, which I've never seen anywhere else. I love to use these as a special addition to my lotions.
Brambleberry carries a very nice line of fragrance oils and soap bases for melt and pour and rebatching. Their customer service is superb, and they include a sample fragrance with each order. I purchase my soap-making supplies from them if at all possible.
Sweetcakes, which carries a very large assortment of cosmetic-grade fragrance oils and soap and candle-making supplies. I was impressed with their frequently asked questions, and they have a good discount for buying in bulk.
Dreaming Earth also sells essential oils in bulk at reasonable prices. Their site also provides a page discussing the importance of quality and tips for buying essential oils.
Auroma is also a good source for a variety of oils and accessories. They're a bit more pricy than some of the other vendors I've used, but this is not always the case. I found 100 ml of cassia (Cinnamomum cassia) for $22--a bargain since I used up my 15 ml very quickly! Auroma also carries some herbs and oils that I couldn't find elsewhere, like non-phototoxic Bergamot.
If you don't want to make your own products but do want to try using products made with essential oils, please visit http://www.aromalchemy.com and take advantage of Francoise Rap's services. She is a professional aromatherapist and can create personalized blends for you to use. She also offers classes, ebooks, and a free newsletter via her site. Your purchases made after following this link will help to support my work on this site.