Best Of Deborah R Dolen

Like a fine wine, some oils get better with age! These include clove, rose, patchouli, sandalwood, spikenard, myrrh and vetivert enhance as they age, but others, notably the citrus oils, oxidize and can become toxic and irritating with age.

Vetivert, I've had for many years, has a magnificent deep sandalwood fragrance. At that time of this writing, Sandalwood is $1,500 a pound and Vetivert $100 a pound. Essential oils high in antioxidants, including black cumin and carrot --should also survive for many years. Fading is the only affect I've seen over many years. Some essential oils are less rugged than others. Lemon and clary sage seem to fade after a year, but tea tree, lavender, and clove seem to hang in for two or three.

Most important to the life span of essential oils is the quality you get and then you store it. Closely sealed dark glass bottles stored in a cool dark place. Metal bottles, I truly enjoy--do tend to corrode in after 3 years. I'm sent professional grade metal containers that are treated and do not do that. Glass is the vessel that is perfect as it will not absorb the oils. Plastic is not going to operate unless it's a non-petrochemical composition and there's one I like and used only for modest quantities. Essential oils when stored in totally topped up, tightly sealed, light impervious containers in a cool place 68 degrees Fahrenheit (under 20 degrees Centigrade), preferably under nitrogen, can survive from 6 months to 2 years.

Oils degrade - causing some to lose valuable properties and causing some parts to become sensitizers or irritants (particularly citrus & conifer oils) , so keep closed and out of direct light. It may be advisable to rebottle to smaller bottles as oil is utilized to minimize the headspace (thus minimizing contact with oxygen).

Bottles do not need to be colored or dark, that's more of a myth. What color is your bottle? Unfortunately many people have succumbed to the fear mongering and propaganda set forth by the makers of coloured glass when it comes to keeping essential oils. The amber glass makers will say that amber is greatest, the green glass makers will tell you that green is best, etc. The reality is that the majority of essential oils are inactive in the visible area and reactive in the ultraviolet (UV) region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Since UV light of high enough energy is absorbed (not transmitted) by normal glass, irrespective of color, it makes no difference if the oils are in brown, blue, green, purple or whatever color glass. Of course there are a couple of exceptions, like with the chamazulene featuring oils (blue chamomile, blue yarrow, blue tansy, etc.) that you would not need to keep in colorless bottles for long periods under heavy lighting conditions. This is because chamazulene has strong absorption in the OBSERVABLE area of the spectrum (consequently the intense dark blue color of these oils) and so it is not just UV light that may effect these oils and the lower energy visible light.

I know many folks will still believe they have to keep their oils in drab brown bottles, even after reading this, but I can let you know that based in the research I have done and renowned chemists I hang with, it makes no difference what colour the bottle is for most the oils. You can extend the life of your oils with ROE, Rosemary Oleoresin infusion--which isn't to be mistaken with Rosemary Essential Oil. ROE slows down the oxidation process dramatically, as well as a bit of Dendtritic salt. ROE is a dark green, syrupy looking fixing and may be used at under half a percentage (maximum) to your total. These days I like just adding dendritic salt and vitamin e. I am not still truly mad about ROE.

I store my more valuable essential oils in a wine cooler. Plus they could be on "display."

Excerpt How to Make Perfume and Aromatherapy Basics Copyright © Deborah Dolen 2011 This e-book is available in full version on Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook. By Deborah Dolen AKA Mabel White

About Dean Deborah Dolen

Deborah Dolen is the Editor in Chief for Mabel White DIY and author of over 25 DIY books, 1,000 articles and several TV "how to" Films.  Deborah Dolen is also an environmental writer and has her own content syndication.  Deborah Dolen was widowed when she was on her 30's and went on to raise three great daughters in FL up against many obstacles.  This is the time period she generated her most fascinating DIY books.

Deborah Dolen was born in a Catholic Infant Home on Niagara Falls, the U.S. side.  It was known as Our Lady of Victory.  Deborah grew up in the Adirondack mountains in Upstate New York although moved around a lot and always in transition.  Her teenage years were more stable and thoroughbred race horses were her passion. She skipped school a lot in the 70's to walk and groom the likes of Man o' War and Secretariat.  When she was not grooming horses in Saratoga she was hitting the ski slopes of Killington in Vermont, Pikes Peak, or Gore Mountain to name a few.  To this day K-2's are her favorite skis and Head are her favorite bindings.

In her 20's  Deborah Dolen built some 520 legal clinics for the poor from the ground up and ran for 17 years.  People simply needed affordable legal access and that still has not changed much.  Having grown up poor and discriminated against-even disallowed to play with certain toys...Deborah had never been a quiet type and bucked many regimes as an adult.  In the 80's she felt almost all legal fees were oppressive to the majority for no reason and feels they still are.  Her organization helped well over 100,000 people.  Many of those were able to teach other people in turn.  As with health care, Canada does not charge its citizens for most common family law issues and Deborah feels family issues, including financial ones, should not be a feeding frenzy in the states as it still certainly is. No one should profit of the demise of another person.

Fast forward a few decades and Deborah Dolen is very much into flying and canine rescue as well as DIY projects she writes about and films from her Florida home.  Although her passions have always been with horse racing she is very into auto racing, focus and performance in Daytona and Charlotte, NC.  Deborah presently writes about environmental topics beyond DIY subjects that will always fascinate her.  Her dog Ringo, adopted from Katrina, is usually by her side.

You can join Deborah Dolen her on twitter facebook or check out her home page for RSS syndication.    See demos of her work on YouTube here and Amazon.