Neem oil is a naturally occurring pesticide found in seeds from the neem tree. It is yellow to brown, has a bitter taste, and a garlic/sulfur smell. It has been used for hundreds of years to control pests and diseases. Components of neem oil can be found in many products today.
Dill seed essential oil has stimulating, revitalising, restoring, purifying, balancing and cleansing properties. It has a fresh, herbaceous scent that is gentle, warm, and spicy.
Anise star (or star anise as it is otherwise known) has stimulating and energising properties having a particularly refreshing and stimulating action on the digestive and respiratory system when used in massage. It also has emotionally uplifting properties. Anise star essential oil has a strong, sweet, and powerful scent, which smells just like black licorice. Star anise contains anethole, the same ingredient which gives the unrelated anise its flavour.
Black pepper essential oil has a warm, fresh and spicy aroma. Black pepper essential oil is warming, stimulating, revitalising and a general tonic in maintaining healthy circulation. Used in massage, black pepper essential oil is known to relax tired muscles and ease muscular stiffness after exercise. Black pepper is produced from the still-green unripe berries of the pepper plant. The berries are cooked briefly in hot water, both to clean them and to prepare them for drying. The heat ruptures cell walls in the pepper, speeding the work of browning enzymes during drying. The berries are dried in the sun or by machine for several days, during which the pepper around the seed shrinks and darkens into a thin, wrinkled black layer. Once dried, the spice is called black peppercorn.
Bergamot essential oil has antibacterial, deodorising, refreshing, soothing, and uplifting properties which make it excellent for body skincare preparations, for ensuring healthy and vital skin. Bergamot essential oil has a fresh, citrus and slightly spicy aroma and is powerfully refreshing, uplifting and invigorating and helps maintain a balanced mood. Dr Nicholas Monardes who wrote a book about the plants of America in 1569, named the plant Bergamot because the scent of its leaves resembled the Italian Bergamot Orange, Citrus Bergamia from which an essential oil is made.
Clove bud essential oil (Eugenia Caryophyllus Bud Oil) or oil of the clove as it is often referred to is highly antiseptic and piercing. Clove bud essential oil is both uplifting and stimulating. It soothes and relaxes the digestive system when used to massage the abdomen. It is a natural analgaesic and antiseptic used primarily in dentistry for its main ingredient eugenol. It has a spicy and slightly fruity aroma. The various basils have such different scents because the herb has a number of different essential oils which come together in different proportions for various breeds.
Frankincense essential oil is a lovely warming essential oil for tired muscles and for soothing everyday aches and pains. The balancing, rejuvenating and skin tonic properties of frankincense essential oil make it useful to help maintain good circulation and optimise healthy digestion when used in a massage oil. Frankincense essential oil has a rich, woody, sweet aroma. Its quietening properties also make frankincense essential oil popular for use in meditation.
