Preparing for the Holidays with Nature’s Gift

This newsletter contains:

Holiday Specials

To put you in a holiday mood, all of our Conifers are on sale… shop your favorite Christmas tree, whether it be a Pine, Fir, Cypress or my beloved Black Spruce.

Also, all of our holiday synergies and anointing oils ( O Christmas Tree, Holiday Joy, and Three Kings ) are on special sale from now through the holiday season, as well as our seasonal resins… Frankincense, Myrrh and Sweet Myrrh (Opopanax).

For gift giving, all of our Aromatherapy Jewelry, and for the ultimate in gifting, all of our unique Nature’s Gift Kits are, for the first time ever, at a 10% discount.


Thanksgiving Sales

1. Black Friday is the Fourth Friday of November. Free Ship Friday… use the discount code Friday-Free and receive free domestic shipping on orders over 5.

2. Thanksgiving weekend… From Thursday, Nov. 24 through Sunday Nov. 27, use the discount code Gratitude and save 10% on all our retail sized products. Bulk products, our imported books, and our kits are not included in this sale.

3. Cyber Monday… Use the discount code CYBER and finish off your holiday shopping by saving from 12 to 18% on all retail-sized essential oils, absolutes, and CO2 extracts. Everything listed here is included.


NEW Products

German Chamomile Select CO2: Superb anti-inflammatory effects.

Rose Hip FRUIT Extract (the whole dried berry, both seed and pulp): All the skin-healing effects of our Sea Buckthorn Pulp, in a more convenient pourable form.

Thyme Linalol Hydrosol: A powerful antibacterial agent, effective as a wound cleaner, or for treating skin infections.

PomPom Lockets: New Aromatherapy Jewelry (supplies limited).

EO Bottle Key/Opener: Handy gadget to help remove orifice reducers, pop the roller ball assembly out of a roller bottle, remove a sample vial cap, and re-apply all of the above.


Back in Stock

Blue Tansy Essential Oil (after a two year wait!), English Lavender, Population Lavender, Rosemary Cineole from Tunisia, Cistus Essential Oil (see our newsletter for updates on availability of this treasure).

Organic Peppermint Hydrosol, Organic Roman Chamomile Hydrosol, Organic Carrot Seed Hydrosol, and Organic Witch Hazel Hydrosol.

Our favorite astringent carrier oil: Hazelnut Oil. We had briefly run out but it has arrived. Evening Primrose CO2, long lasting skincare additive/oil.

Blends and Synergies: Marge’s Miracle Blend, Trauma Oil, O Christmas Tree, and Holiday Joy.

A skincare favorite: Nature’s Gift Facial Masque and with its return, our Cleopatra’s Secret Gift/Travel Set.

Almost but not quite Back In Stock… our beautiful French St. John’s Wort Infused Oil. This is stuck in customs and being reviewed by the FDA. We could conceivably have it on Friday but midweek next week is more likely. We will announce its arrival on our Facebook page. Also stuck in customs, our new shipment of Elemi essential oil. Again, we will add it as soon as it arrives, and announce it on FaceBook. I expect both of these products to be available for the Thanksgiving sales, but can’t guarantee that.


Blog Update

Not many articles since last time, since I was traveling most of October, and Christi was covering for my absence.


Our Clients Say

“That’s Better”

In Mid September my friend Penny, in Florida, posted about a rather bizarre accident in which she was picked up and thrown by a strong gust of wind. (Penny, next time let GO of the umbrella!) She was heavily bruised all over, all the way to the bone, with cuts and scrapes on top of the bruising. Fortunately, the xrays showed no broken bones, but she was in dreadful shape and tremendous pain. (Peggy is close to my age, so any fall can have serious consequences.)

I emailed asking for her mailing address, wanted to send her something that might help, “That’s Better!”

Penny’s responses and healing progress:

Thanks, I really appreciate it. Meanwhile, I’m going to take aspirin to thin my blood because I’m afraid of blood clots from this thing…and of course, I’m still icing.

Sept 19: I just received your package and just rubbed some on my leg. I’m still applying ice and this morning I cut a leaf of aloe from my plant and applied it. The aloe appeared to lighten the bruising a bit but I still have pain underneath the skin when I apply pressure anywhere from the knee down to mid-calf. The “That’s Better” has a warming effect when I lightly massage it on. Kunzea essential oil is a new one to me, as well as a couple of the samples. Thank you soooo much and I will let you know how it does. BTW, it’s taking the heat out of it too…guess that’s the heli. Color me happy!

Sept 20: On Sunday, there was still diffuse bruising below the swelling in a line across my leg. In just over 12 hours after using “That’s Better” the broad bruising is gone and only remains at the point of impact, as you can see the bruising is now yellowing; the swelling is gone and most of the tenderness. The product removes the pain for roughly 6 hours. Most of the stuff under the skin is gone and the painful areas have decreased. One request: I have removed most of the front of the label by handling it with hands that have the product on them…can you make the labels resistant to this by covering with tape or some other way? This is truly a miracle in a bottle and the progress was really slow going before your product. Bless you!!! (BTW, today at noon will be exactly one week since it happened.)

Sept 22: Went for my annual doctor visit this morning and he was having fun calling me Mary Poppins. LOL He was blown away about the accident and said to start applying heat to help break down the remaining blood but without my asking, he reassured me not to worry about blood clots. He loved the aromatherapy preparation Marge Clark sent me at no charge (she’s an angel!) “That’s Better.” He knew the properties of each essential oil and said it was better than him prescribing each individual drug to take.

Oct. 1: I feel like I’m nearing the end of the journey to healing thanks to you. I used “That’s Better” last night when I dropped something on my big toe…voila! no pain and bruising is greatly less than expected. The benefits of your product appear to be that it acts quickly, relieves pain for about 6 hours, immediately lessens bruising and makes it feel better. I’ve also used it on the scabs from scrapes in the fall and it has helped them a little too. I’m coming up on 4 weeks and all that remains is a little scabbing, some deep areas (painful with pressure) and bone bruising that is easing. Adding heat as my doctor suggested has helped too. I apply “That’s Better,” then apply heat. Thank you again so much!

Nov. 7th: Yes, it took a full 8 weeks but the part I used your product on took 5 weeks. Thank you so much…still have some left but will be reordering. You made a huge difference!

– – – – –

Michelle wrote:

So my mom had all of her remaining teeth pulled last week. We did not realize until I picked up her pain prescription that bruising would occur on the face. Her pharmacist was kind enough to let us know. The next morning the swelling and bruising started and she looked like a beat up chipmunk. The pain meds were not helping that situation so she dug out a bottle of “That’s Better,” I had given her quite a while ago. She is using that and an ice pack and it is really helping. She said the relief was almost immediate.
Yay Nature’s Gift!
Michelle

Helichrysum Hydrosol

The following week Michelle wrote:

My mom went for a dental follow up and the doctor told her she was healing up but that her mouth was very “angry.” I took home 1 oz of Heli hydrosol yesterday and she just texted me that her mouth is already feeling better.
Thanks for the advice!
Michelle

– – – – –

Haly was really worried. Damon was having a LOT of teeth pulled and had never had anything like this. She was braced for a bad time. From the time they left the dentist’s office she sprayed Helichryum Hydrosol in his mouth on his lacerated and stitched gums. He slept for close to 24 hours after the oral surgery. She applied compresses of Heli oil in cold water to his face when he would allow it, as well as spraying cold heli hydrosol on his face, as well as in his mouth.

Forty eight hours later he was eating everything in sight (that could be eaten without chowing of course). No swelling, no bruising. She she added that they had to grind down a lot of the bone on his lower jaw. Whenever THAT starts to hurt he just s prays some more heli hydrosol on it. No need for Tylenol, pain pills or any of that sissy stuff.

Amazing things these oils!


Industry Updates:

Extreme weather conditions ’round the world continue to affect essential oil production.

HAITIAN VETIVER: The future of Haitian Vetiver is uncertain. The earthquakes that devastated this small island country again this year have destroyed many of the crops. (It feels very heartless to be writing about destroyed crops when so many lives were destroyed, but this newsletter is about essential oils and their producers. We hope that all of you have donated to Haitian relief.) At any rate, there is much uncertainty as to when more Haitian Vetiver will be harvested and the oil produced. As luck would have it, we had (very fortuitously!) restocked what we hope will be a two or three year supply shortly before the earthquake. Our prayers go out to the producers.

SPANISH CISTUS: This from my Cistus essential oil distiller: “Sorry to inform that 2016 cistus harvest is a real pain. For the first time in 20 years, we have quantity and quality issues…Because of totally unusual weather (too cold and humid until July, very hot and drought in July and August) cistus branches developed a much lower resin content than usual. As a consequence, yields in oil are 40% lower than usual, and quality is different with low alpha-pinene content.” Again, we restocked what we estimate to be a two year supply of the 2015 distillation last spring. If ordering cistus oil from any new source, or even a trusted source, we would advise getting a sample before ordering in bulk. There is going to be some very expensive, not very good Cistus being offered. (But not by us!)

AUSTRALIAN FRAGONIA™: Most of you know that John and Petra Day, developers, growers and distillers of Fragonia, were caught in a devastating wild fire last year. Much of Western Australia around Perth burned. Their plantation was destroyed. The trees burned. Fortunately no lives were lost, and most of their buildings were saved. Wisely for all of us, the 2013 and 2014 Fragonia and Rosalina distillations were stored offsite. We had ordered a LOT of the 2014 distillation this year. I recently talked to John about the prospects of a harvest this winter. He said that there might be a tiny harvest, with an experimental distillation this year, but certainly no commercial production. He hopes (note the word “hopes”) to be back in commercial production by the end of 2017. Needless to say, we immediatly ordered more of the 2014 crop. We hope to have enough to last us all until John is able to ship more.

TUNISIAN ROSEMARY: Again, hot dry weather wreaks havoc, even wth a crop that is accustomed to near desert conditions. As our supply of Rosemary Cineole dwindled, we reached out to “trusted sources” and started collecting samples. EEEWWWW… an unchanged litterbox! That’s what they smelled like. No. We can’t resell THAT. So we got more samples. EEEEWWWWWW. More cat pee! This was getting serious. Finally we found a specimen that did NOT smell like cat pee… but was… indifferent. Rather a “blah who cares” oil. Now, I am not a rosemary fan, so I didn’t trust my judgement. But Christi loves rosemary, so I left the choice up to Jim and Christi. They can judge more clearly than I can. “Do we have to?” was the response. They were unimpressed. More samples from more sources that I have bought from in the past. One organic, two conventionally / ethically farmed. We tried the organic oil first. EEEEEEEWWWW. Nope, not that one. We tried the second sample. I think it was identical to the “indifferent” oil we had sampled before. It smelled like the same oil. No one disliked it, but no one liked it. Sample number three. It does NOT, to my nose, smell like rosemary. It smells like a beautiful high-cineole eucalyptus variety. But Christi liked it. Jim liked it. And it cleared my sinuses. We have a CofA from the producer posted online for your edification. We may or may not decide to have an independent GC run on it. If you like high 1,8-cineole oils, you will love it.


AROMATIC QUOTE FOR NOVEMBER:

“In November, the smell of food is different. It is an orange smell. A squash and pumpkin smell. It tastes like cinnamon and can fill up a house in the morning, can pull everyone from bed in a fog. Food is better in November than any other time of the year.”
― Cynthia Rylant, In November

“Our Father, fill our hearts, we pray,
With gratitude Thanksgiving Day;
For food and raiment Thou dost give,
That we in comfort here may live.”
— Luther Cross, Thanksgiving Day

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. We are grateful, this year, and every year, for all of you, for your support, that allows us to continue doing what we love.

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