If you have been searching for a way to reduce respiratory diseases, ease anxiety, or improve sleep then The Oil Apothecary is the book for you.The Oil Apothecary was born out of a need to organize and convey important safety information about essential oils.A personal experience with safety issues and a child created a learning frenzy that had many people messaging with questions.Answering … questions.
Answering individual questions takes forever while handing them a book means they can become knowledgable on the topic themselves.
Careful research using a government database, studies, and textbooks such as Robert Tisserand’s book “Essential Oil Safety” was undertaken to ensure the most accurate and complete information would be given.
The book has been written so that even a complete novice could understand it while the unique Quick Reference Data Sheet would make it useful even for trained aromatherapists.
Quick Reference Data Sheets for each oil.
These break down the information into 6 sections;
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The Latin name.
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The biologically active constituents that are not ubiquitous. For example, water and carbon are excluded because they can be found in every fresh herb.
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The properties under their technical names.
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Basic uses, divided by usage type, eg topical vs ingestion. Not an exhaustive list.
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Cautions including drug interactions and other safety info.
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And any immediate first aid information that may be needed.
Easy to read lists let you know which oils to avoid for seizure disorders, what is safe to use with your pets, and common medical concerns.
No specific brands are promoted. Instead, the reader is shown how to navigate the marketplace by learning what to look for in an oil and a company.
With 128 individual oil profiles, this is the most complete book on the topic for laypeople.
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Somewhat Awkward Reference
If you have an interest in essential oils, this book lists many of them and their chemical components, properties, uses, cautions, and first aid. Before this largest section of the book, the author talks a little about what essential oils are, how they’re made, their history, how to use them, dilutions and diluents, and precautions that you should keep in mind for pregnancy, children, and pets.
The section on all the different oils is not A to Z. Instead, it is divided into sections based on how safe it is for people of different ages and during pregnancy. I think the book would have been better if it were organized from A to Z, with specific precautions listed for ages and pregnancy as needed. I think the inclusion of the chemical constituents unnecessary unless you are a chemist or like to nerd out on that kind of specificity. I also found the list of properties to be unhelpful at times. The author sometimes used a ton of unusual words, some that even my Kindle look-up feature couldn’t find. Why say an essential oil has “emmenagogue” as a property when you can just say that it stimulates menstrual flow? Why not say “relieves flatulence” instead of “carminative”? Just use plain English so that the descriptors can be more easily understood without having to resort to a dictionary for every third word. (I was a medical transcriptionist and went to nursing school, and even I don’t know a lot of these words!) Some words seemed odd or didn’t truly describe a property, too. When used in a list that is supposed to be about an essential oil’s properties, what does “cephalic” mean? With my medical transcriptionist training, I know that just means “about or pertaining to the head.” So, how does that relate to an oil’s properties?
The first aid instructions as well were pretty much always the same: how to get oil off your skin if you’re having a reaction (cornstarch), how to get it out of your eyes in case you accidentally get it in there, and for certain ones, to watch a pregnant woman for signs of miscarriage or labor. Since these are pretty much always the same, perhaps just put them in a first-aid section in the book rather than repeated over 100 times? The book definitely had some issues with grammar, punctuation, and usage. Commas were problematic. If you need some quick and dirty details about a lot of essential oils, this book could be helpful, but the organization and the use of a lot of words that people won’t commonly know doesn’t make it an easy book to use as a reference.
I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of this book via Booksprout. This book is a condensed version of some very useful information for those of us who are into essential oils. It’s informative, contains very useful definitions and various names of some common oils, talks about how oils and other scented plant products are produced and as well as how some oils are used and how some shouldn’t be used. It tells you what oils are safe for what and when. I would definitely recommend this book if you are into essential oils, essences, waters (like rosewater) and the like. I only wish that I could find the name of the app that the author built. It’s obvious that the author had done her work so that this short book can be as concise as possible.
An ARC copy was gifted to me by the author.
This is a very well laid out book. with all the do’s and don’t needly define to help every person that wants more information about essential oils.
It is easy to understand, even the big words are explained that even a layman like me can find it interesting. Personally, this will be a go-to book when I want to bring or use the knowledge in a plot, especially in my fiction writing.
Each oil is divided into distillation and application, knowing what to use with which ailment. Plus the makeup of each product.
From human beings to animals, this is a very good reference book for all users.
A book I can definitely recommend.