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An article I wrote in 2007 which was published in the IFA magazine.
All Bottled UP! By Gillian Avart LLSA MIFPA MIFA Cert.Ed.
I recently had the dubious pleasure of trouble-shooting an NVQ level 3 beauty course that contained an aromatherapy unit. Historically the individual oils would have been studied in-depth along with how to mix appropriate blends for clients. It must have been just a few years ago that only ‘pre blended’ oils replaced the detailed study of aromatherapy in the criteria. Unfortunately, the students had been wrongly advised to buy a set of neat oils and carriers. They expected more traditional aromatherapy training – but this was ‘new beauty’. Something had to be done and quickly!
About TermThere seemed to be confusion over what the term ‘blended’ means. Yes it does mean adding one oil to another and this could be neat or diluted. That is blending. The NVQ criterion states ‘massage using pre-blended oils’. I feel that this use of terminology is misleading and a translation into the colloquial term ‘ready mix’ when referring to massage blends. My preferred alternative to indicate exactly what they mean is ‘diluted aromatherapy massage blends’. Why couldn’t they put it that way to save misunderstanding? I’ve come across this before when I was verifying at another college. It’s happened before and will no doubt happen again.
Pouring oil over troubled watersThe college offered to buy back the oils from the students and I offered to utilise those to make up the pre-blended (diluted) oils for the course to satisfactorily complete. Hmmm… this had a very short time-scale – what have I let myself in for? Students must not be kept waiting!
What they required were three blend types – ‘uplifting’, ‘relaxing’ and ‘stimulating’. They were going to use these with an aromatherapy-style massage oft found on offer beauty salons.
It was planned to offer the students one of each blend for home practice and have some left over for college teaching use.
I researched suppliers for the empty bottles. I have never ordered such a large quantity before. I estimated they would need 60 100ml bottles to satisfy the demand. I also asked for 6 litres of Grapeseed. I anticipated an unknown quantity and types of essential oils.
I chose Grapeseed due to its ‘for use by anyone’ property and mixing the oils was going to be challenging enough. These oils were going to be used up quickly – in a matter of months so I felt there was no need to complicate matters by adding in a vitamin E preservative (Wheat germ for example).
[Having said that; I did almost reduce my personal supply of bases to just Grapeseed then I had a client who said she was allergic to grapes! Err... lucky I still had a selection handy].
I advised the college what and where to get it. I looked forward to the challenge ahead…
What turned up? Not 60 100ml bottles but 39 200ml bottles although they did come with a useful decanting funnel. Two flagons of Grapeseed and one set of oils arrived. I assumed that the other students had started using their oils at home and didn’t want to part with them (who would!).
I was about to discover what it must be like running an oil supply business –albeit very small scale.
1. Blend Creation
I checked the oils for fragrant appeal. Yuk Sandalwood smelt off – it had oxidised. I wouldn’t be using that anyway as I feel that it is unethically produced wherever it comes from and was it real anyway? The whole oil box price was only £60. Sandalwood went back in the box for use as a sample of oil that had ‘gone off’.
Lemongrass - Not my favourite and described by an oil supplier who is now a friend of mine as ‘lemon with a hint of vomit’ was not a disappointment. It smelt just like that so I knew it was OK. I don’t like it but someone else will and my blending of it would aim to soften the odour. All the other oils were fine but I vowed to keep peppermint to the minimum and totally under control otherwise the whole lot would become contaminated. I keep my peppermint double bagged and in a different box from all my other oils. I never use it for massage, more for ‘first aid’ events such as headaches and stomach aches…how much to put in a blend for massage?
My blending skills will be tested here. What is the difference between stimulating and uplifting? And again, relaxing oils can lift up the spirits too. I have found that if in doubt with such criteria, simply make up your own mind and as long as there is a firm base for ones own judgement, you cannot go wrong. I decided that uplifting was more euphoric than obviously physical or mental stimulant effect, a stress buster. Never mind, carry on, and just try to use all the oils in the most effective way. Use the citrus oils and citrus smelling oils for fragrant appeal… and try not to put Rosemary or Peppermint into a relaxing blend.
With smelling strips at the ready, I spent the evening working out the 3 basic blend types I could make from all these oils. The results are shown in the table that follows. I attempted to make up one with ‘more feminine’ appeal and one ‘more masculine’ to suit the different client types the students were likely to encounter. I also needed alternatives in case one or more students were contra-indicated to particular oil and therefore would be unable to use them. Students need to use each of the three blends at least once in their assessments. I ‘spread the risk’.
2. PreparationI knew I had sufficient base oil, (8 litres were delivered) yet I was not sure how much, in drops, neat oils I had. Nevertheless there was something to work with so I decided I would address that problem if it arose (and it did).
The following day with all bottles sterilised, I sought out my ‘special measure’... and this job needed special measures! It was one I had bought when I first started up in practice. It seemed expensive then, about £20 from the chemist in the early 1990s. It’s a glass ‘V’ shaped scientific measure. It measures up to 100ml unlike the 30ml glass beakers I use.
I had not used this measure before. I have only made up blends for clients – say 50mls at the most and then just one-offs but I thought I had better do my best for these students and try and get it as near 100% right as possible.
With that sterilised too, I measured 200ml Grapeseed and decanted it into one of the brown glass bottles. I did this 3 times IE 3 bottles and from that I measured by line-of-sight. I hoped that my kitchen worktop was on the level. In the past and probably future too, I expected the result to end up at the start of the neck of the bottle. The final level of the mix being dependent on the amount of neat oils added.
(And…My kitchen has never been so clean. Suitably scrubbed from top to bottom!)
3. Bottling
The whole bottling event took much longer than I had anticipated.
I firstly decanted the Grapeseed into all the bottles, I spilt some base oil. Yes, I expected that, those ‘flagons’ are heavy to lift and pour without wavering. Well I mopped it up with kitchen towel, re cleansed the worktop and swabbed the outside of the glass bottle(s) with surgical spirit or the labels would not stick. Oh, this happened more than once!
I then began the seemingly endless task of drop counting. Fortunately some of the oils that took the longest time to drip out of the bottle were those that I had planned to have the smallest number of drops.
As I created blend after blend I put a mini sticker label on the top of each to keep track. I was lucky I had thought of that one as…
Uh oh…I obviously was in a state of oil induced euphoria when I mistakenly dropped a blend into an already made up bottle. The dilution was now 6%. Fortunately I still had a base only bottle ready to take that blend. I poured both into a sterilised glass jug and mixed them and re-bottled. I wouldn’t do that again! Stress!
I had to go out for half an hour in the middle of it to get a breath of fresh air, to clear my head and to avoid any further mistakes.
I ran out of various oils so I had to create alternatives (see table below). I felt that it was useful to offer a lower dilution and cunningly called this for the elderly or frail thus optimising the use of the materials to hand. They wouldn’t be working on children but as the students were taking some of these home, I also included ‘for children over 6’ on the label of my 2% creations and added that the 3% blends were ‘for adults only’.
I ended this task being unable to smell anything so the following day, I checked the maturing blends. They were fine.
This list shows my record of blends and bottles. I noted the number of drops of each simply to keep track of everything. It worked well.
Blend
Blend ‘Number’ (B1 B2 etc)
Number of bottles
Ingredients: 200ml Grape seed with:
Stimulating blendsB1 4 bottles
3% Juniper berry, Rosemary and Lemon in proportion 2:1:1
(60/30/30 drops)
B2 5 bottles
3% Black pepper, Lemongrass and Peppermint in proportion 2:2:1
(48/48/24 drops)
BLD (low dose) 1 bottle
2% Rosemary and Lemon in proportion 3:1 (60/20 drops)
Uplifting blendsB1 5 bottles
3% Grapefruit, Ylang Ylang and Geranium in proportion 1:1:1 (40/40/40 drops)
B2 bottles5
3% Bergamot, Eucalyptus, Patchouli and Tee Tree in proportion 1:1:1:1 (40/40/20/20 drops)
Relaxing blendsB1 5 bottles
3% Mandarin, Lavender, and Chamomile in proportion 2:2:1 (48/48/24 drops)
B2 5 bottles
3% Sweet Orange, Frankincense and Clary Sage in proportion 3:2:1 (60/40/20 drops)
BLD (low dose) 1 bottle
2% Sweet Orange and Chamomile in equal proportion (40/40 drops)
Grape seed only.8 bottles
(Insufficient aromatherapy oils to make more blends). Could use in other parts of the massage criteria EG Indian Head Massage or made into blends if more neat and fresh aromatherapy oils become available.
4.
Labelling
I was not going to produce or print the labels myself. My own labels are inkjet produced and I find I have to cover them up with sellotape to prevent the ink leaching and fading. No, these needed to be laser jet produced and the college were prepared to do just that.
With the fact that my order had not come in as expected, I needed to give the college a strict format for the labels to avert any more ‘errors’.
I produced templates for each blend and decided to test myself on the Latin names. Just two I couldn’t remember and I got Mandarin wrong, thinking it was
Citrus reticulata (the bottle label said
Citrus nobilis) well it used to be called that didn’t it? Has it changed? I later learned that
Citrus nobilis is a different kind of mandarin, known as ‘King mandarin’.
At least I remembered that the Latin names all have to be in italics and the second word in lower case.
I also added the common contra-indications and cautions on each blend just to be on the safe side and to assist students in their selection.
5.
Delivery
With my health and safety hat on, back straight and knees bent, I lugged the huge box into my car and got ‘my babies’ and label instructions safely to their destination.
6.
Outcome
They are being used and I am pleased that reports back are good so far.
With all products and items used to maximum capacity, my job is done and my kitchen back to normal. I am even more content now my invoice has been despatched!
If they do obtain smaller bottles so all the students can have more than one bottle each for home use, they will be able to decant from the larger and follow the same label format.
I don’t think I will do it again but it certainly was an experience.
