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Achillea millefolium is a perennial herb that grows up to 1 meter high and has fern-like feathery leaves and bears numerous pink-white, dense flower heads. It is also known as milfoil, referring to its feathery appearance and was used as a charm in Scotland and was credited with having powers to ward off evil.

Yarrow has a reputation of having an all-healing action and has been used for a variety of ailments throughout the ages and is even added to some Swedish beers.

Pistacia Lentiscus  is a dioecious evergreen shrub or small tree of the pistacio genus growing up to 4 m (13 ft) tall which is cultivated for its aromatic resin, mainly on the Greek island of Chios.

The aromatic, ivory-coloured resin, also known as Mastic, is harvested as a spice from the cultivated Mastic trees grown in the south of the Greek island of Chios in the Aegean Sea, where it is also known by the name "Chios Tears".

Originally liquid, it is hardened, when the weather turns cold, into drops or patties of hard, brittle, translucent resin. When chewed, the resin softens and becomes a bright white andopaque gum.

Mastic Hydrolate is an aqueous extract obtained from Mastic resin (Pistacia Lentiscus var. Chia) is distilled with water vapor (steam distillation).

Daucus carota is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae, native to temperate regions of Europe, southwest Asia and naturalised to North America and Australia.

Daucus carota is a biennial plant that grows a rosette of leaves in the spring and summer, while building up the stout taproot that stores large amounts of sugars for the plant to flower in the second year.

Orange Blossom Water is the clear, perfumed by-product of the distillation of fresh Bitter-Orange Blossoms for their essential oil.

In Morocco Orange Blossom Water is called Ilma Zhar, phrase in Arabic literally meaning "Flower Water," in contrast to Llma Ward, which is Rose Blossom Water. Orange Blossom Water serves two purposes in Morocco.

One usage is a perfume or freshener, usually given to guests to wash their hands upon entering the host house or before drinking tea, in a special silver or metal container; recognizable in the Moroccan tea set. but this old custom is fading away in the present day

Neroli Hydrosol, also known as Orange Blossom, is one of the most versatile Hydrosols with a pronounced impact in both skin care and Aromatherapy.

This delightful Hydrosol has an uplifting bitter-sweet citrusy floral aroma that is quite complex. It is a very mild version of its essential oil counterpart, making it a beautiful addition to formulations.

It is a wild growing, herbaceous green and straw-colored grass, with long slender stems, terminal flowering tops and fragrant grassy leaves. It is harvested before the flowers appear and the highest yield is obtained when the grass is fully dried - about one week after it has been cut.

Palmarosa plantation remains productive for about eight years. However, the yield of grass and oil starts decreasing from the fourth year onwards. It is, therefore, recommended that the plantation be kept only for four years.

The grass is either distilled afresh or is allowed to wilt for 24 hours. Wilting reduces the moisture content and allows a larger quantity of grass to be packed into the still, thus economizing the fuel use. The current method of distillation adopted in Kerala is primitive and obsolete and gives oil of poor quality, as it is based on hydro-distillation or direct-fired still. For good quality oil, it is advisable to adopt steam-distillation.

Palmarosa Water gets in distillation process of Cymbopogon Martinii essential oil.

Palmarosa Distillate has a sweet floral, rosy, geranium scent, giving a refreshing and clarifying feeling. It is wonderful to use as a general spray any time of the day.

Botanical Name: Thymus vulgaris

Common Method of Extraction: Steam Distilled

Part Typically Used:  Inflorescences

Color: Reddish-brown to amber

Consistency: Slightly oily feeling

Perfumery Note: Middle

Strength of Initial Aroma: Sweet, strongly herbal smell

Chemical structure: The main chemical components are a-thujone, a-pinene, camphene, b-pinene, p-cymene, a-terpinene, linalool, borneol, b-caryophyllene, thymol and carvacrol.

Thyme oil is extracted from Thymus Vulgaris of the Labiatae family and is also known as common or Red Thyme.

It has a rather sweet, yet strongly herbal smell and is reddish-brown to amber in color. It is extracted from the fresh or partly dried flowering tops and leaves of the plant by water or steam distillation and the yield is 0,7 -1,0 %.

Botanical Name: Cymbopogon citratus

Common Method of Extraction: Steam Distilled

Part Typically Used: Leaves

Color:  Dark yellow to amber and reddish in color

Consistency: Slightly oily feeling

Perfumery Note: Middle

Strength of Initial Aroma:  Lemony, sweet smell.

Cymbopogon Citratus, commonly known as lemon Grass or Oil Grass, is a tropical plant from Southeast Asia. It is a perennial fast-growing aromatic grass, growing to about 1 meter  high with long, thin leaves and originally was growing wild in India. It produces a network of roots and rootlets that rapidly exhaust the soil.

Lemongrass oil is extracted from the fresh or partly dried leaves by steam distillation. This oil has a lemony, sweet smell and is dark yellow to amber and reddish in color, with a watery viscosity.

Chemical structure:

The main chemical components of lemongrass oil are myrcene, citronellal, geranyl acetate, nerol, geraniol, neral and traces of limonene and citral.

Botanical Name: Picea mariana

Common Method of Extraction: Steam distillation

Part Typically Used: Needles and twigs

Color: Pale yellow

Consistency: Thin

Perfumery Note: Top / Middle

Strength of Initial Aroma: Fresh-balsamic, oily-sweet coniferous aroma, with a fruity-resinous undertone. Clean, with sweet hints of wood and earth.

Spruce Black essential oil is one of Canada’s best kept secrets. It is sweeter, and softer than most evergreen oils with a balsamic, resinous odor with green woody notes. Overall, the scent is very clean, fresh and pleasant.

Black Spruce essential oil has a much milder, sweeter scent compared to other oils from the evergreen family.

Picea mariana (black spruce) is a species of spruce native to northern North America, from Newfoundland to Alaska, and south to Pennsylvania, Minnesota and central British Columbia, in the biome known as taiga or boreal forest.

Picea mariana is a slow - growing, small upright evergreen coniferous tree, having a straight trunk with little taper, a scruffy habit, and a narrow, pointed crown of short, compact, drooping branches with upturned tips. Through much of its range it averages 5 - 15 m tall with a trunk 15 - 50 cm diameter at maturity, though occasional specimens can reach 30 m tall and 60 cm diameter.

The bark is thin, scaly, and grayish brown. The leaves are needle - like, 6 - 15 mm long, stiff, four-sided, dark bluish green on the upper sides, paler glaucous green below. The cones are the smallest of all of the spruces, 1,5 - 4 cm long and 1 - 2 cm broad, spindle - shaped to nearly round, dark purple ripening red - brown, produced in dense clusters in the upper crown, opening at maturity but persisting for several years.

The timber is of low value due to the small size of the trees, but it is an important source of pulpwood and the primary source of it in Canada. Fast - food chopsticks are often made from black spruce.

Black spruce is the provincial tree of Newfoundland and labrador. The black spruce tree grows along side other trees such as white spruce, red spruce, as well as larch (aka Tamarack). The forests in which they grow harbor safety of much wildlife such as deer, moose and elk. This symbiotic relationship adds much to its energetic properties.

Chemical structure:

In terms of its chemical constituents, the essential oil is rich in monoterpenes including alpha- and beta-pinene, delta-3-carene, camphene, l-alpha-phellandrene and esters including bornyl acetate.

Black spruce essential oil has a significant percentage of camphene. This monoterpene is known specifically to be a powerful mucolytic so it is quite beneficial for respiratory issues.

Canarium Luzonicum commonly known as Elemi, is a tree native to the Philippines, and an oleoresin harvested from it. Elemi resin is a pale yellow substance, of honey-like consistency. Aromatic Elemi oil is steam distilled from the resin. It is a fragrant resin with a sharp pine and lemon-like scent. One of the resin components is called amyrin.

Botanical Name: Melaleuca alternifolia

Melaleuca Alternifolia essential oil eases mental stress and purifies the mind and body of emotional wounds. Once old wounds are released (or healed), the body can then change the behavioral patterns that led to the wounding to begin with.

The emotional roots are often associated with distrust of self or others, guilt and shame. Of all which, can be released with the assistance of Tea Tree.

Used in meditation:

This oil will actually expand all the Chakras and then align them with the Crown Chakra.

Botanical Name: Ocimum sanctum

Common Method of Extraction: Steam Distilled

Part Typically Used: Leaves and Flowers/Buds

Color: Pale Yellow

Consistency: Thin

Perfumery Note: Top

Strength of Initial Aroma: Strong, warming and spicy.

Ocimum Tenuiflorum, also known as Ocimum Sanctum, Holy Basil, or Tulasī, is an aromatic plant in the family Lamiaceae which is native to the Indian Subcontinent and widespread as a cultivated plant throughout the Southeast Asian tropics.

Botanical Name:  Curcuma Longa

Common Method of Extraction: CO2.

Part Typically Used: Extraction pulls out all oil friendly compounds from turmeric root. At Living Libations, we use a topical application of the extracted root instead of the typical powder capsules, which cannot capture all of the soluble medicinal properties of the oil.

Color:  Yellow to brown liquid

Consistency:  Thin

Perfumery Note:

Strength of Initial Aroma:  sweet wood with subtle hints of spice

Turmeric is a native to South Asia , particularly India , but is cultivated in many warm regions of the world. It can be found growing extensively in all of India , but does especially well in the regions of Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Maharashtra.

Turmeric became valuable to humans when it was discovered that the powdered rhizome preserved the freshness and nutritive value of foods. It was originally used in curries and other food to improve storage conditions, palatability, and preservation. Because of its preservation properties, Turmeric played a vital role in survival and sustainability in South Asia , and was valued more than gold and precious stones.

Turmeric (Curcuma longa root) has been used medicinally for thousands of years. Also known as "Indian Saffron", the aroma, too, is simply wonderful.

Turmeric oil is used in food for coloring and spice effect. Turmeric used as spice il is in food industry.

The Latin name for Turmeric is “Curcuma Longa”, which comes from the Arabic name for the plant, “Kurkum”. It comes from the Zingiberaceae family (same as Ginger) and in Sanskrit is called “Haridra” (The Yellow One), “Gauri” (The One Whose Face is Light and Shining), “Kanchani” (Golden Goddess), and Aushadhi (Herb). It is called “Jiang Huang” in Chinese, and “Haldi” (Yellow) in Hindi, the most common name in India.

Turmeric is a native to South Asia , particularly India, but is cultivated in many warm regions of the world. It can be found growing extensively in all of India , but does especially well in the regions of Tamil Nadu, West Bengal , and Maharashtra.

It is also cultivated in Sri Lanka , Indonesia, China, Taiwan, Indochina, Peru, Haiti, and Jamacia.

India is the largest producer in the world: Jamacia and Peru are the chief exporters, and Iran the largest importer. Other large importers are the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Sri Lanka, Singapore and the Middle East.

When analyzed Turmeric oil may show the presence of 400 - 500 different kinds of molecules. What is even more amazing is that many of these molecules have receptor sites in our neuroendocrine systems too.

Turmeric mixes well with other spice oils, and other joint and muscle care oils.

You can seldom find an Indian kitchen without this noble herb named "Turmeric", used since 4000 years in the ancient healing system known as Ayurveda. Ayurveda has proudly named Turmeric as an "All-Purpose Cleanser",

This powerful essential oil can be diluted with carrier oils and used as a topical application

Chemical composition:

Turmeric oil contains varying concentration of curcumin, zingiberine, ketone, essential oils, phellandrene, limonene, ar-turmerone, a-turmerone, ß-turmerone, 1,8-cineole. Among these turmerone is the major constituent

The Curcuminoids are natural phenols that are responsible for the yellow color of Turmeric. Research has identified Curcumin as the agent responsible for most of the biological activity of Turmeric.

Curcumin based supplements for treating diabetic wounds found no significant positive outcome for human use.

The active ingredient in Turmeric “Curcumin”, although in its raw state turmeric only contains 2-5% Curcumin. Combined with Black Pepper, Curcumin becomes 2000 times more potent. Curcumin is now extracted from Turmeric, sold as supplements, and is the basis of most scientific research

Turmeric has hundreds of molecular constituents, each with a variety of biological activities. There are at least 20 molecules that are anti-biotic, 14 that are known cancer preventatives, 12 that are anti-tumor, 12 are anti-inflammatory and there are at least 10 different anti-oxidants. One database presented over 326 known biological activities of Turmeric. The rhizome is 70% carbohydrates, 7% protein, 4% minerals, and at least 4% essential oils. It also has vitamins, other alkaloids, and is about 1% resin.

Curcuma longa has a great importance in the food, textile, and pharmaceutical industries. It is native to tropical Tamilnadu, in southeast India, and needs temperatures between 20 °C and 30 °C.