There is a date change to April 30 same time Join Jane Lawson and myself on the free lecture series. She will be discussing her new book This is where you sign up. https://www.rbkaromatherapy.com/contact.html If you are already osigned up you will see an email from me today

Here's my first webinar presentation on my new book: The Natural Approach to 'The Poisons', Herb v Essential Oil, Which Is Best? which I have been very kindly asked to present by my very good friend @Robin Kessler . It will be on April 23rd at 7pm GMT, 3pm EDT. Full details below, but you do need to register to attend LIVE completely FREE otherwise there will be a fee of $15 to access the replay if the time is not suitable. If you attend LIVE you get access to the replay FREE. Here is the link for the registration form: "You need to fill out this contact form to join and the RSVP is April 20 please write in notes you want to join Jane’s lecture" https://www.rbkaromatherapy.com/contact.html

I got a bit Maverick myself this week, when I saw a post suggesting that ignoring correct Latin naming might amount to bad practice. And to be clear, right from the start, I do kinda agree that it does. So I read on. When I looked at the list of most regularly offended oils I found that (according to the writer,) we are no longer supposed to use the name Boswellia caterii for Frankincense. Feeling a tad sheepish...because that is exactly what I DO call it...😬😳🙈...I decided I'd better go and do the work and find out why. And, to begin with, when I fount out the botanists had decided the TREE should renamed, I was kind of convinced for a while. 🧐 Better go and make some changes then, I thought. But then something deeper caught my eye🧐 which showed me what a dangerous mistake this name change will be.... And first I was intrigued, but then I became worried and frankly a bit bloody irate. So I first I blew my top 🤯😤then I threw my toys out of the pram! 😈 It took a whole week to do this bit of work, 17 video versions and a lot of shoulder blade pain, but I think it might be appreciated in this group, because detail matters. Good results matter, and sometimes being a bit arsey matters too. 💩 On reflection, this kind of speaks to the same issue in @Jane Lawson 's new book...because arguments for plants and essential oils are not always the same. Lastly, before I sign off I want to say a massive thank you to @Robin Kessler who managed to read my blog post in the whole 30 seconds it was up between all the changes and to, say "good job" and to let me know I was not the only one who thought this. (Honestly Rob, that meant such a lot. Thank you.) So here we go. This is for my fellow troublemakers at the back of the bus. 🚍 I call it... "I decline to refer to Boswellia carterii (Birdw) as B. (Flück) . Here's why. Subtitle: The Discovery of the Hidden B occulta tree, and Enantioner Alpha Pinenes. 🧪⚛️🐝🌻🌼

Friday 13th remains a lucky day for me! This is my unashamed plug for my new book which is now available on Amazon! Woohoo! This is the back cover.... "Very often there is a confusion in the healing benefits of a herb and the resulting essential oil which has been extracted from the plant. Assumptions are made that if the herb does 'x, y, z' then the resulting Essential Oil will do the same. This is not always the case. By herbs, I mean plants which are used for their healing properties as in herbalism, not just the botanical group called herbs. There are many Essential Oils which, in the past, were not readily available to the general public, only to qualified Aromatherapists which are now accessible to everyone. Some of these Essential Oils are classified as hazardous, or toxic, are on official poisons and hazardous lists such as the NHS holds. In some cases I question and often shake my head as to why they are even extracted from the plant material at all. This always makes me think of Jeff Goldblum playing Dr. Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park saying "They were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they never stopped to think if they should." I want to point out, I am not a herbalist. My knowledge about the herbs comes from an Aromatherapy perspective, where we do look at the original plant to better understand the chemical components that are present in the Essential Oils. Some will even delve into the Doctrine of Signatures and more. Herbalists will often reverse the learning process or compare their herbs to the Essential Oils. For the public, the biggest mistake made is people thinking, for example "Well, I eat garlic to help my circulation and cholesterol, that's natural, so the essential oil is natural and must be safe." No, that does not follow, in fact quite the opposite is true in many cases. With this in mind, I decided to look at many available Essential Oils which are classified as hazardous or toxic and compare them to their herbal use for better understanding of which should or should not be used as Essential Oils.