Did you know there are REAL scents that can actually help you feel better? They are essential oils.
They are not really oils (so they aren’t oily) but they are extracted or distilled from real plants and flowers.
On the other hand, we have FAKE smells. They are created in laboratories. From chemicals. Could they kill you? Over time, perhaps.
Yuck. 🙁
This article came about because I saw an ad for a ‘wonderful smell’ that would make you feel like you were on a tropical vacation every time you get a whiff of it.
You will catch the scent every time you walk in the area and every time you walk past you will breathe–are you ready?–chemicals into your beautiful body.
And so will your kids. And your pets.
You know that smelly purple household cleaner? I know a woman who loved the smell and dosed the house with it a lot. Her little kids all had a small, continuous cough. Guess what happened when she stopped using the purple cleaner? You got it. No more coughing. She didn’t figure out the cause and effect until I suggested it.
Do you really want regular doses of chemicals that you don’t need and your body doesn’t like? Really?
What’s the option to the fake scented products that make your home smell ‘fresh’ and ‘clean’?
Buy essential oils.
You’ll still have to read labels or buy a reputable brand to be sure you’re really getting true essential oils derived from plants. Otherwise, you may still accidentally buy more fake scents.
The essential oils (EO’s) that are sold in health food stores will be legitimate.
You can make your own blends of essential oils or use them individually. You can find blends at most health food stores. They come in small bottles. They usually have testers so you can smell them first.
I am currently using a mix of clove and rosemary in my home. Smells warm and spicy.
My last batch was lavender, rosemary and red thyme. Very refreshing and evergreen smelling.
Essential oils are very strong so you need only a few drops to scent a whole area. There are many ways to scent the air with these precious natural oils.
You can mix with water to dilute the oils and spray them, place them into a reed diffuser (that’s what I usually use), put 4-5 drops straight into your bath water after it has finished running or add a couple of drops to your shampoo or hand lotion.
Most EO’s need to be added to something (like oil or lotion) before being applied to your skin. The only two that you can apply directly to your skin are tea tree oil and lavender.
Remember: As with everything else, you have to read labels to be sure that you are truly getting essential oils and not something that a chemist in a laboratory brewed up to boost product sales.
There’s plenty of that fake stuff out there. It’s much cheaper than real essential oils (that’s why manufacturers use it) and the fake scents don’t do you any good–and could do you damage.
Oh, wait! You’re thinking these fake scents must be okay to use, right? They’re government approved or regulated, right?
What does ‘GRAS’ mean to you? To the government, it means ‘Generally Recognized As Safe.”
Are you willing to take a chance with ‘generally’? Or would you rather be safe than sorry?
One reply on “Are The Wonderful Scents In Your Home Killing You?”
An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile aroma compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils or aetherolea, or simply as the “oil of” the plant from which they were extracted, such as oil of clove. An oil is “essential” in the sense that it carries a distinctive scent, or essence, of the plant. Essential oils do not form a distinctive category for any medical, pharmacological, or culinary purpose.