The Aromatherapy Store is very conscious of the value of learning to identify your oils by fragrance alone. At first glance this might seem a rather ridiculous statement to make – surely the essential oil lover must know the fragrance of the oils they purchase or how else would they have made the decision to hand over their hard earned cash?
Take lavender oil for instance. The scent of lavender is one that is used extensively through our society. We will see it in air-freshners, pot pourri, furniture polish, shampoo, soap etc etc. However much of the ‘lavender’ fragrance used in these instances are actually synthetic products – which emulates a generally accepted sense of what Lavender ‘should’ smell like. 
Whilst researching suppliers for The Aromatherapy Store we purchased over 20 different bottles of Lavender Essential Oil – including the most highly respected brands such as Tisserand and Neals Yard, Holland and Barrett as well as smaller independent producers on the internet. What’s fascinating, in a blind testing scenario, is the broad difference in the smell of each of the oils.
People who research their oils know that different years produce different fragrances from the self same producer – depending on the weather that year – humidity, drought, etc – the season at which they producer was able to harvest their crop, and – especially amongst the co-operatives – how quickly they can get their crop through the distillation process as the aroma can fade from the raw material very quickly.
In the production of wine, a vast range of different products ends up in a bottle with the same identifying words on the label – Merlot or Sauvignon Blanc – and yet the wine buyer fully expects each vintage to be slightly different, and certainly different regions and producers Merlot and Sauvingon Blanc to be distinct.
So my point is that each time you purchase a bottle of essential oil then you should open it with an open mind and familiarise yourself with the essential essence and notes of that particular oil.
As with wines, memorising certain short cuts – identifying key identifiers – can help you get a very strong sense of the ‘identity’ of your oils. For example in the wine world the scent of crushed blackcurrent leaves is a strong indicator that the grape used for the wine is exclusively or partially cabernet sauvignon. That mental note helps you cut through the myriad of possibilities when trying to identify a grape in a blind tasting.
With essential oils there are similar short routes we can take to enable us to identify different oils in blind sniffings!
Think of your oils as being categorised into five headings:
…………………………………………………..Green - Citrus – Floral – Spicy – Woody
Some suggested oils Basil Lemon YlangYlang Cloves Sandalwood
for each heading include:…………… Petit-grain Bergamot Lavender Eucalyptus Patchouli
An important point to make here – all these categories should be YOUR definition. This system of classification is for your own personal benefit and it will allow you to not only identify your oils immediately, but also provide you with a good system of oil blending – combining an oil which you classify as ‘woody’ should compliment an oil from your classification of ‘spicy’ or ‘floral’ really well, depending on what effect you are trying to create. Whereas combining two oils both from your ‘floral’ group may create a blend in which qualities of the individual oil may be lost – and given the cost of oils you want to be sure to maximise their effect.
In my next blog in this series Ill talk more about breaking down the individual components of the fragrance and thereby getting ideas for ways of using and blending your oils.
The Aromatherapy Store is a site dedicated to promoting the safe and confident use of the natural qualities of essential oils and related products for the professional and amateur aromatherapist alike! Call 0845 500 1215 or email us on contact@thearomatherapystore.co.uk
