The Beginner's Guide to Essential Oils

by Christina Anthis

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

The Beginner's Guide to Essential Oils is a practical tutorial guide with recipes on using and understanding essential oils by Christina Anthis. Due out 20th Aug 2019 from Althea press, it's 186 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats. Worth noting, the ebook version of the book is available already (11 Aug).

This is an appealing book, with clean graphics and easy to understand language. The book's logical layout (and interactive links) make it easy to navigate.

It's unclear from the publishing info available online, but the eARC I received has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references. I hope the ebook release version does also. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. Presumably that feature will carry through to the final release version.

The book's introductory chapters cover some definitions, basic ingredients and oil processing methods of production, tools and other definitions. The second chapter contains how-to's regarding use, storage, judging oil strength and quality, safety, and reading labels.

The second full section contains chapters on choosing carrier oils for different purposes as well as profiles and uses for 30 different essential oils.

The third section contains the recipes and uses. These include a wide variety of recipes for different purposes and with varying effects. There are household cleaning products, health and beauty, wellness, deodorizers, sprays, roll-ons and more made with gentle safe ingredients.

These are appealing and well written recipes. It is definitely slanted toward the layperson. My only quibble with the book (and it's a small one) is that it includes a fair bit of alternative 'woo'. For example, there is no scientific evidence that putting aromatics on the bottoms of the feet will ameliorate coughs, but that advice is in the book. On the other hand, as a healthcare professional in a hospital setting, I've personally heard exactly the same advice being dispensed by a western medicine trained practicing physician. Nothing written in the book, used as stated, will be dangerous, and all the usual disclaimers apply. These are good and gentle alternatives for a lot of the products which we use every day, especially the cleaning supplies listed in the book are better than those which are commercially available.

I heartily recommend the book to anyone looking for a bit of DIY in our household and beauty/health products.

Five stars. Well done. The resources and references at the back of the book (aimed toward readers in North America, but usable for readers in other areas of course) are very comprehensive and likely worth the price of the book on their own merits.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.