NYC Aromatica

15/08/2025

August 15. Morning photos from the garden.

Unedited, no filters; simplicity, serene, bliss, grounded.

Spectacular yet unspectacular, like everyday life.

14/03/2025

🦋Aromatherapy, Sensuality, and Sexuality Class

How can aromatherapy help us embrace our inherent s*xual and sensual nature? We often start with the stress response, but it goes beyond that. Essential oil molecules touch our mind, body, spirit. Influencing our mood, emotions, and neuro-hormone levels, they influence and support us on the cellular-electron level. PLUS: scent molecules are a part of deep knowing...

Join me at the New Center for Holistic Learning .ny (hosted by Anthroposophy NYC) on Friday, March 21st, at 6:00 PM to explore the yin and yang of sensuality and s*xuality: two sides of the same coin. Discover how essential oils and aromatherapy can support these vital aspects of ourselves.

Let’s take Patchouli, it is considered an aphrodisiac. Why is that? How is Clary Sage able to influence feelings of euphoria? We touch upon these and other thought-provoking topics such as the intersection of sacra, sacral, sacred, s*x; olfaction & gonadotropin organogenesis (and more!). AND experience select essential oils.

🐝To quote a poem from Stephen Harold Buhner “…men….plant their seed, when, in fact, what they are doing is pollinating flowers”.

🔥Create something all your own! You'll get to create and take home your own gorgeous massage oil blend.

See you in class!
~~~
Info & Register: https://www.newcenterny.org/event/aromatherapy-sensuality-s*xuality/
Friday-03-21-2025 06:00 PM @ New center for holistic learning
138 West 15th Street, New York, NY 10011
~~~
*xuality *xandsensuality *xuality *xualhealth

11/03/2025

Gentle Yarrow, Powerful Yarrow, Common Yarrow. A potent yet "common" plant, it could be considered a "w**d". Many essential oils are from tenacious plants; there's great beauty in that. Would you agree?

A Poem: Yarrow (by yours truly). An excerpt from the Essential Aromatica Podcast (Season 4, Episode 4)
🌿

27/10/2024

Feathers still, silent
Tears falling by the Tree
Where my soul meets air.

08/03/2024

Candles scented with fragrance oils? No thanks.
Candles made with essential oils? Yes, please!
🧐BUT.

It takes a LOT of essential oils to make a candle with enough "throw", essential oils are expensive, resource intensive and: many essential oils cannot handle the inherently destructive combustion process that comes with burning a candle.

What to do? Here's a few guidelines:
* Set an intention before making your candles. Always.
* Remember the intention when burning the candle.
* Fragrance oils may be overpowering and induce headaches for some people: mindfully chosen essential oils that can hold up to the flame may be soothing and provide actual aromatherapy benefits.

Learn more about soy candle making with essential oil in my blog post and related class that I've taught at the New York Botanical Gardens:
Online Class: https://nycaromatica.com/online-classes/making-soy-container-candles-with-essential-oils/
Blog Post: https://nycaromatica.com/the-art-of-candle-making-and-the-enchantment-of-essential-oils/

One of my long-time clients enjoys a "Clean" blend made just for her of Lemongrass, Rosemary and Eucalyptus. Find blending ideas and oodles (!) of more information in the online class.

10/02/2024

Aromatherapy and essential oils are versatile--almost to the point of saying "there's an oil for that". (Yikes). Applications can range from the very physical (wound care, digestive help, immune support and more) to the emotional and subtle. The latest episode (less than 20 minutes, too!) on Essential Aromatica dives into the intersection of scent detection, reception and emotions. Emotions are the bridge between the seemingly separate mind and body. By noticing, listening to and controlling our emotions, we bridge the seemingly vast divide. Olfactory-based aromatherapy notably helps us do this.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1r6WDiVxF3idOCwNeQelH5?si=4fe2f923d5c04839

Episode · Essential Aromatica · This episode's title could also be "how to smell an oil", but that doesn't read as good in my opinion. This episode topic has been on my mind for years, but recent correspondence with an aromatherapist and physiotherapist based in Switzerland (thank you, Katrin!) pr...

27/12/2023

Greetings and wishes for a wonderful Winter season and New Year!

These darker days (growing lighter by the day!) can be challenging, and I often turn to extra illumination to brighten my mood. Do you do too? Illumination from holiday lights, taking time for daily walks, writing, candle making and gazing and extra time for movement and breath enhancement never fail to inspire and help me recharge.

A surefire way to bring in a "breath of fresh air" is through the aromatic plants and their concentrated essential oils. Essential oils are wonderful for supporting breath, brightness and clarity when it's harder to get outside (ice, snow, cold temperatures...).

My recent newsletter (click on the below picture to take a scroll) shares 2 essential oil blends (Chai and Forest Bath, scroll down for the blends and check out more detailed usage ideas in the newsletter) to help connect with plants and nature overall when it feels too dark or chilly to step outside.

I’ve also published video-based class on making soy container candles with essential oils (Here's a link to the class description: https://nycaromatica.com/online-classes/making-soy-container-candles-with-essential-oils/ ). While it’s instructive, filled with practical matters I hope you find it thought provoking—contemplating how much essential oil it takes for creating one candle and weighing that against sustainability & intention setting.

Wishing you much brightness and light in the new year!

Chai Inspired Essential Oil Blend
13 drops Ginger (fresh) essential oil
9 drops Black pepper essential oil
6 drops Cardamom essential oil
2 drops Cinnamon leaf (preferably Cinnamon Verum) essential oil
1 drop Cinnamon bark (preferably C. Verum) essential oil
3-5 drops Rose absolute (Rosa x damascena absolute from Morocco)

Forest Bath Inspired Essential Oil Blend
1 drop Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens)
1 drop Juniper Berry (Juniperus communis)
2 drops Frankincense (Boswellia carterii or B. sacra)
2 drops Balsam Fir (Abies balsamea)
2 drops Black Spruce (Picea mariana)

Greetings on the winter solstice! This is one of my favorite times of year, do you feel similar? Sure, days are shorter, and the weather is cooler (colder!) in the northern hemisphere, but that means

27/10/2023

Yesterday I went down a rabbit hole reading about a CS Lewis quotation mentioned in a WSJ opinion titled "C.S. Lewis on Two Types of Tyranny" submitted by Bill Casey.

Which led me to John Fraim's thoughts on Lewis’ quotation AND a post about plant intelligence. (A rabbit hole, indeed!) Until rather recently, the notion of plant intelligence was a controversial concept. How could anything other than human (plant, animal, "other") have importance or intelligence!? Preposterous! Alas, there is plant interconnectedness and influence: caffeine or ni****ne, anyone? What about the much-hyped cannabis and CBD that many are trying to capitalize on these days? The plants create the air we breathe and the food we eat, after all. And dance with the receptors through our body-mind-spirit-soul. Preposterous? Maybe not.

Plants are living beings that communicate and influence us myriad ways. As a curious and contrarian aromatherapist I choose to focus on the aromatic plants and their fascinating chemistry (still learning, there's SO much I don't know and never will). The influence essential oil-bearing plants have on us is incredible: memory formation and recall (Grandma's spiced apple pie!), cultural and personal associations of "good and bad smells", and what I think is the most powerful: the chemical dance between our neuro-endocrine receptors and plant chemicals. This redolent chemical information communicates with us; as receivers we only need to pay attention. Many herbalists call this "attunement" and plant journeying. I do this, maybe you do too.

Following is a quote from Fraim’s post that I hope you enjoy as much as I do:
“The plant world. Why isn’t it at least as big as AI to everyone these days? Just askn.

It is seen as someone in culture dropping out. But what if it is more of a dropping in rather than a dropping out. A dropping in on another species of life.

Plants. Perhaps what plants have to tell us is the most important things waiting to be told us in the future. After all, there is not much intelligence about our planet coming from the civilizations of the world.”

https://midnightoilstudios.org/2023/10/21/24928/

25/10/2023

There's already been a lot said about Lavender; it is the plant that started modern aromatherapy after all. But that didn't stop a Plant Talk video from being made when Lavender was blooming a few months back. In fact, a cultivar of True Lavender is blooming again, in October!

Join me in the garden to muse about Lavender, its essential oil and the usual poetry and Plant Talk banter. Find more Plant Talk videos on YouTube and at nycaromatica.com

https://youtu.be/ykb9zRSILps?si=Q1-FhLg4bHM2tu5r

True Lavender: Calm, Cool and CollectedHere we are in June and True Lavender is blooming! Which means it's time to celebrate Lavender and its essential oil w...

20/08/2023

Rox Madeira - Trossachs Wild Apothecary -- Thank you for having me as a guest! Plants bring people together. :)