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Aromatherapy is the therapeutic use of pure essential oils derived from herbs, flowers and other plants to promote emotional well being and physical healing. If you’ve ever napped with lavender eye pillow, burned a citronella candle to keep mosquitoes at bay or taken mentholated cough drops, you’ve experienced the effects of aromatherapy.

The Science of Scent

Aromatherapy works with your sense of smell and when used for medicinal purposes, when essential oils are absorbed into the bloodstream.

When you inhale, scent is picked up by your olfactory receptors and transmitted to your brain’s limbic system, which is connected to memory and emotion. That’s why coming across a scent from your childhood—cotton candy, for example—takes you straight back to the first time you went to the county fair.

Aromatherapy works on the same principle. Different essential oils have different properties—some calm and relax, while others stimulate and awaken—and may be used separately or in combination to bring about the desired effect. When aromatherapy is used topically, like in aromatherapy massage, the oils are absorbed through the skin.

Aromatherapy Essential Oils

The use of pure essential oils is at the heart aromatherapy and these oils are used in a precise, deliberate manner—not added as an afterthought to dryer sheets. Store shelves are full of aromatherapy products that advertise mood-enhancing benefits, but unless they contain pure essential oils, they’re not truly aromatherapeutic—they just smell nice.