June - Happy Father's Day to all our Dads.

This newsletter contains:

• A special group of new products just for Dad
• New Patchouli Hydrosol
• New Cranberry Seed Oil - a sheer delight!
• Skeeterbeater, MuscleEase, Miracle Oil and Sunburn Soother - save 10%
• Essential Oil sale
• Ordering Deadline - Baby Bottom Balm and Shea Souffle
• "Family Stuff"
• More "press clippings"
• "Our clients say"  (Sciatica, nerve damage, athlete's foot, hay fever, and FUN stuff!)
• Formulas and recipes for Dad's Day
• Aromatic Quotes of the month

All of the products below, and/or the special prices mentioned, are available only on our Specials page.

NEW - for Dad:

He loves our Santal Shave Cream... we've added Sandalwood Splash Aftershave...gentle skinsoothing calendula, aloe, glycerine, a range of healing hydrosols, a bit of alcohol for quicker drying, and, of course, lots and lots of Sandalwood oil and absolute. One friend is buying one for her brother, and adding some Rose Hydrosol to another for herself.   Also, Sandalwood Shower Gel...our rich, moisturizing shower gel, enriched with two different Sandalwood Essential Oils (from India and my favorite Sri Lankan oil) and Sandalwood Absolute.

At Nature's Gift, we want all our men to smell of Sandalwood. Now yours can too!

NEW: Patchouli Hydrosol 

Freshly distilled for us on June 1, we're pouring and labeling as I type. 

NEW: Cranberry Seed Oil

Delightfully fresh light fruity aroma, light quickly absorbed texture.  Cold pressed, ethically farmed, just in from Canada.  A delightful skincare oil, absorbs even more quickly than my beloved Argan oil.

SPECIAL SALE FOR THE OUTDOOR DAD (or Mom, or anyone!)

Skeeterbeater, MuscleEase, Miracle Oil and Sunburn Soother - save 10% Only, of course, on our specials page.

If  you are new to our site, you may not be aware of our SkeeterBeater... last month's newsletter was filled with client feedback raving about how effective it is. I have to make time to add those comments to the SkeeterBeater testimonial page!

Essential Oil Sale:

New... our favorite "Sweet Patchouli"...the most richly aromatic and 'wearable' Patchouli oil we have ever experienced, now in a 10% dilution, ready to wear as perfume.  Sadie has been on me for months to offer this and we thought the week we were announcing our new Patchouli Hydrosol would be the right time.  Also on sale,  Green Mandarine... "try it, you'll love it"... and Rose Geranium, which has been building a reputation as a tick repellant.  Two or three mls added to a bottle of SkeeterBeater couldn't hurt, and just might keep the ticks away. Christi has been using it on her dogs with great success. Again, only on the specials page!

Deadline:

If your baby's bottom depends on our Happy Baby Bottom Balm to keep him or her happy, please remember that once summer's heat arrives we can no longer ship this product, or our Shea Soufflé.  We don't want you to receive soup, instead of soufflé.  My daughters-in-law each have two in diapers, and are stocking up to get them through the summer.  You might want to do the same.

Family Stuff:

Most of you know I had two grandson's born this past February.  Jack's family finally brought him down to visit over the long Memorial Day weekend.  If you'd like to see photo's of how Lief and Jack have grown, you may see the latest snaps here.

Press Clippings:

Just found out I was quoted in an article on Apartment Living in the Washington Post this past March.  I had answered a couple of questions from someone who I knew was a writer, but she never mentioned that the article had run.  I'm not sure how I feel about having our precious oils mentioned in the same article with Glade plugins...but...   http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/29/AR2008022901614_pf.html  There it is.

Our Clients Say:

Just this week got an order from someone who wanted to remain anonymous...but in her comments she wrote (regarding her order of Marge's Miracle Oil) "Please hurry, my sciatica is killing me."   I hurt FOR her...but the comment made me smile.

Nerve Damage Blend

Ruth Gilbert is one of my favorite clients! She is always sharing her experiences with the oils...one of the people I learn a lot from. and she gave me permission to share this tidbit wherever it might help someone. I've already passed it along to some of our oncology nurses.

I have a student who has had intensive chemotherapy and radiation and as a result has nerve damage in both her feet so that there is both numbness and pain.  She recently broke one of her feet and also has arthritis in her big toe.  Big pain!  I made a linament with base oils of 3/4 oz St John's Wort, 1/4 oz (approximately, as I kind of melted and mushed my solidified callophylum) with 4 drops black pepper, 4 drops helicrysum, 4 drops lavandin (not the super which I was out of) (basically your back ease synergy) plus 2 of ginger,  and 2 of juniper. It actually has brought back feeling into the nerve damaged tissue and greatly relieved the pain in her feet.  I didn't just use your "miracle blend" because I wanted to get those nerves healing and also relieve the muscle pain.  I thought I'd pass it on in case you know anyone else dealing with the problems of nerve damage from cancer treatment.

Patchouli in the bath:
 

and Penelope Cansler recently wrote:

Wanted to tell you about my fun experiences with patchouli over the past several months. Last fall I began using patchouli in my bath every morning.  (It was after I received my first bottle of Sweet Patchouli.)  During the day I would catch whiffs of patchouli, but thought nothing more about it, until different people began telling me how good I smelled. People like the chef at the cafe nearby where I go to pick up lunch every day, - a woman waiting on me at the cafe in Barnes & Noble, the other secretary I work with, etc.  Then one of the church members who came by the office,  said - "Oh, how good you smell, what perfume are you wearing?"  Of course, I wasn't wearing any "perfume," but I guess the patchouli had just enveloped me.  This same church member a couple of weeks later, wanted to know where I got my patchouli.  I told her, but since I had just received two bottles of Sweet Patchouli from you all, I sold her one of my bottles.  The Sweet Patchouli is wonderful stuff!

(I had forgotten this message, and came across it serendipitously while working on the newsletter. Yes, the sweet patchouli Penelope is talking about is the same one we are now offering in a 10% dilution.  I'm wondering how it would work in some unscented shower gel?)

Hay Fever:

Now, I don't get hayfever. I sniffle one time, and whatever it is goes straight to bronchial pneumonia.  But normally I am spared the endless sniffles and drippy nose mess.  A week ago, though, things were different.  I sniffled. My nose dripped. I couldn't walk across the room without a box of tissues in my hand.  SineEase wouldn't help. I certainly didn't need my sinuses "unclogged"...  

I remembered Jeanne Rose's remedy for Asthma attacks.  And thought to myself... "hmmm... both are caused by allergies."  Jeanne Rose's Asthma remedy is a single drop of Blue Tansy Essential Oil (tanecetuum anuum) on a sugar cube, let it melt in your mouth. She swears by it.  Well, I didn't have any sugar cubes; but I do always have honey.  One spoonful of honey, with a single drop of Blue Tansy in it.   And I swallowed it down FAST. (Doesn't taste good!)

Almost immediately I went from finishing off a full box of tissues every two to three hours, to needing a tissue perhaps every half hour to an hours.  I've not done it more than once. I wouldn't do it more than once.  And I don't recommend internal use of the oils. 

But this helped immensely!

Athlete's Foot Blend:

A few years ago, Marlene Smith, in Canada, shared this blend on a list we share...I've used it for friends and found it very effective. (I used it in an aloe vera gel base, and it worked wonders.)

I previously made a essential oil blend based on a Study done at Warwick
University in England and had great results.  I haven't had the same results
using just Tea Tree (maybe it was too old).    The oils I used where
Lemongrass (10%), Niaouli (20%), Mandarin (10%) and Palmarosa (60%), in a
sweet almond oil base. Because it was localized and I was treating my
husband we justified using that much, but I do not recommend anyone else use
this dilution. I used a high dilution for one week at 20%, 2nd week at 15%,
and 3rd week at 10%.  I kept a log and after the first 24 hours the itching
completely stopped, spots were not as inflamed and pink only. By the 3rd
week there was no sign of spots or itching. That was in December 2002.

BLENDS for HIM

Years ago there was a woman named Cat on some of the soap and/or toiletries lists. I've not seen smiling typeface around in a long long time.  Back around the turn of this century I snagged some of her formulas... If I had her email address I'd ask for permission to share them...since I don't...I'll apologize later!

Please remember... all of these will need diluting before using on the skin!

Vanilla Sandalwood

3 parts vanilla absolute
2 parts sandalwood e.o.
1 part patchouli e.o.
(if desired, add a touch of jamine or rose abs.)

Bay Rum

5 parts West Indies Bay (pimenta racemosa) e.o.
1 part orange e.o.
1 part clove or allspice e.o.

Belladonna

(a very "Gothic" scent)
12 parts sandalwood e.o.
6 parts rosewood e.o.
2 parts myrrh e.o.
1 part rose abs.
1 part patchouli e.o.

Dark Moon

2 parts myrrh e.o.
1 part sandalwood e.o.
1/2 part patchouli e.o.
touch jasmine abs.

Bay-Patchouli

4 drops West Indies Bay
2 drops Orange Oil
1 drop Sumatra Patchouli.

Forest Blend

3 parts fir needle e.o.
2 parts cedarwood e.o.
1 part juniper berry
1/2 part cypress e.o.
1/2 part patchouli e.o.

(I would only use this last as a blend for the lamp or diffuser, it would be very irritating for the skin.)

"Aromatic (or not) quotes of the month"

I'm thinking of one dear friend who will be reading this, who lost her Dad not long ago. I know she misses him a lot.  And remembered a quote that helped me during a time of loss... Carly Simon:

"Life is eternal
and Love is immortal
and Death is only a horizon
and a Horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight."

In honor of our Patchouli and Sandalwood... the Eastern oils...

A puff of wind, a puff faint and tepid and laden with strange odours of blossoms, of aromatic wood, comes out the still night. The first sigh of the East on my face. That I can never forget. It was impalpable and enslaving, like a charm, like a whispered promise of mysterious delight.... The mysterious East faced me, perfumed like a flower, silent like death, dark like a grave.
Joseph Conrad

And a third quote...  one  that is the "quote of the month" on a calender we were given...  that seems to fit who and where we are today:

"Dedication:  It is the effort of many that creates the ripples that can move mountains."   I wish I could send you the picture that accompanies this quote...a deep forest ravine, with a plunging waterfall.   Ultimate serenity.

We all wish you a serene June!