Essential Oils and Hydrosols

For over 10,000 years, cultures around the world have used essential oils for ritual, purification, celebration, and meditation. For over 25 years, KM Herbals has partnered with artisan growers, farmers, wild-crafters and distillers to harness these fragrant pharmacies and incorporate their nurturing gifts into a line of aromatherapeutic and botanical personal care products.

For over 10,000 years, cultures around the world have used essential oils for ritual, purification, celebration, and meditation. For over 25 years, KM Herbals has partnered with artisan growers, farmers, wild-crafters and distillers to harness these fragrant pharmacies and incorporate their nurturing gifts into a line of aromatherapeutic and botanical personal care products.

If you’ve ever stopped to take in the freshness wafting from a local flower shop, the aroma of dewy pine during an early morning hike, or have even just paused to bathe your nose in the rich steam rising from your coffee cup, you’re having a physical conversation with plants. Humans evolved with plants, so the calm sigh we experience when we can actively acknowledge them around us is something most can admit to. As our lives have become busier, more accelerated, and we spend long days in city buildings with our faces in phones and computers, it can be easy to disconnect from the flora and fauna that thrive around us. However, this connection is essential to both our physical and mental health. Edward O. Wilson describes this as “Biophilia” - the intrinsic human need to connect with nature. But as we may not always have the time or resources to access that early morning hike among the conifers, it’s important to seek other ways to communicate with plants. Using botanical and aromatherapeutic personal care products with essential oils are one way to offer yourself a daily connection to the natural world when our lives may demand otherwise.

Pure essential oils can be utilized in a variety of skincare applications and have an abundance of therapeutic benefits. These aromatic molecules can be inhaled through the nose and carried through the olfactory nerves to the limbic system of the brain, or absorbed by the skin and lungs, passing directly into the bloodstream for immediate and effective results.

Apart from their enchanting aromatic effects, the use of essential oils can address issues ranging from congested skin conditions and sun damage to helping improve the look of scarring and discoloration. On an emotional level, essential oils uplift the spirit, warm the soul, invigorate the senses and stimulate memory, both consciously and subconsciously. In addition to relieving stress and balancing emotions, many essential oils can even address physical discomforts to further create a sense of harmony and well-being.

Hydrosols are another refreshing way to enjoy aromatherapy. As facial and body toners, hydrosols provide the powerful healing and hydrating benefits of some of our favorite botanicals and deliver them in a fine gentle mist.

But hydrosols are more than just toners. You can also enjoy them as:

• room or body fresheners
• aromatherapy spritzers
• powder makeup setting sprays
• post-workout skin refreshers
• liquid bases for powdered masks

KM Herbals greatly values education, and has authored many resources within the skincare and wellness industries to help further the understanding of how plant extracts like essential oils and hydrosols can be properly utilized and sourced. To learn more, please explore some of our recent industry publications:

Fragrant Pharmacies: The Many Gifts of Essential Oils for Skin Inc. Magazine 
by KM Herbals founder Kim Manley
What Makes Oils Essential for Skin Inc. Magazine
by KM Herbals founder Kim Manley
Incorporate Essential Oils Into Your Own Self-Care for Massage Magazine 
by Amy T. Simmons
Hydrosols: The Other Plant-Based Aromatic for Massage Magazine 
by Amy T. Simmons