This was a really helpful title for a beginner essential oil user. I have added it to my purchase list for my library. Thank you!

Fabulous, as I have just started using essential oils and researching their many uses this book could not have come at a better time. Absolutely fabulous!!

The world of essential oils has become increasingly complicated since the rise of multi-level marketing EO companies in the past couple of decades. I started using essential oils regularly about 15 years ago, when a trusted friend in a natural parenting forum posted about how wonderful lavender oil was for healing wounds. It really was nothing short of miraculous, since it is naturally antibacterial and also speeds healing like nothing else I’ve ever bought. We’ve used lavender oil ever since, along with many other essential oils.

My children grew up reaching for the lavender EO when they got any kind of minor cut, scrape or burn. It’s one of our standard go-to remedies in our home, and we have a bottle on every floor. I typically buy organic EOs online from reputable companies like Mountain Rose Herbs for around $10 a bottle, but I’ll also buy it at the grocery store from brands like Aura Cacia for around $7.

If I want to make up a cleaning product, I’ll generally mix up some vinegar and water and add some sweet orange EO or another fabulous scent.

If one of my teens has a spot of acne, they’ll dab tea tree oil on it, which we also use for wounds.

When our youngest child was sick while we were visiting friends last winter, we diffused a variety of oils every night that are good for respiratory ailments and safe for children. We made a different batch every night, having fun mixing and matching, and avoided those that we knew were contraindicated for epilepsy since I have a seizure condition and was sleeping in the same room.

So I was happy to preview a digital loan of Stephanie Tourles’s Essential Oils: A Beginner’s Guide, due to be released in August. While I’ve been using EOs for many years, I am always anxious to learn more and loved the idea of some new simple recipes.

There were things I liked about the book, including:

The author is trained in the subject matter. Amazon says, “As a licensed holistic esthetician with a strong background in Western and Ayurvedic herbalism, she has been practicing and teaching healthy living for more than 25 years. Tourles has extensive training in the nutritional sciences, is a certified aromatherapist, nationally certified reflexologist, and a professional member of the Alliance of International Aromatherapists.”

There are beautiful pictures throughout.

Detailed information is given about 25 essential oils (11 that she says are must-haves and 14 more that she recommends), most of which are fairly affordable oils.

The price is quite reasonable, retailing at $16.95 for paperback (also available on Kindle).

Ultimately, though, I decided this wasn’t a book that I would personally buy or recommend. While it does have a lot of recipes and has good information about how essential oils are made and the characteristics of each one, it was not a book I absolutely trusted and the recipes were not the types that would be helpful for me.

Some of my criticisms with the book included:

The author talks about “therapeutic grade” EOs, which right away had me suspicious, as that’s MLM sales talk. Companies like Young Living and DoTerra that don’t sell organic oils often say they’re superior to competitors because they’re “therapeutic grade.” Tourles admits that there’s no standard for therapeutic grade EOs in the book , but she says that brands use it “to indicate that their oils are of superior quality.” The term is an absolutely meaningless claim, and making it seem like a term to look for made me wonder if she sells a MLM brand like DoTerra. A quick check to her suggested resources at the end shows that she herself is one of her suggested sellers, and yes, she sells DoTerra.

The author gives the impression that you need to buy expensive EOs to get suitable results. At one point she cautions about buying essential oils for $5 at the drug store, suggesting that they won’t work or worse, will be dangerous. I have often picked up tea tree oil for that price at local stores and have had nothing but excellent results. There are reputable brands like Aura Cacia that you can easily buy for just a few dollars at health food stores, grocery stores and such. Of course you do want to look for trusted brands and be sure they’re real (I would trust online sources less, especially in this day of fraudulent reviews and fly-by-night Amazon companies), but you do not need to pay a fortune to get quality essential oils.

Many of the recipes use lists of ingredients that can get costly and complicated instead of super simple remedies. As I mentioned, when we have a wound we just put a drop of lavender oil on it. Done. When our family uses EOs, we tend to either diffuse them into the room, use them “neat” (undiluted, which is only safe with a few oils like lavender and tea tree) or simply mix them in a simple solution with a carrier we have on hand like almond oil or witch hazel. These recipes call for a specific variety of essential oils and then ingredients like plantain infused oil, rosehip seed oil, callophyllum oil and beeswax, along with a variety of different EOs.

Nothing in the book warns of contraindications for people with epilepsy or seizure conditions. This kind of warning is quite standard on any information about EOs, so I was surprised it wasn’t even mentioned. The Epilepsy Society of UK says: “Rosemary, fennel, sage, eucalyptus, hyssop, camphor & spike lavender are not recommended as essential oils if you have epilepsy. This is because these essential oils may trigger seizures in some people with epilepsy. For pregnant women there are also a number of other oils to avoid.” The book also didn’t include any warnings that I could find about pets (other than not to let them get into them), despite having read quite often about how dangerous they are for cats (even just distilling them).

The cautions are not very cautious. Tourles says that you should just use lower concentrations for pregnant women, children and those with medical conditions and to ask your doctor if you have medical issues and concerns (though she has additional cautions for some EOs in their own sections). She says, “As long as you are careful, however, you need never worry about using essential oils.” Never? And her cautions about oils like eucalyptus for children under 10 go against what many specialists that I trust recommend. She says not to use them near the face for children under 10, and does not mention whether diffusing them is safe or not. This is a topic that has seen years of heated debate and I don’t know the answer myself, but I would prefer to see the opinions of the other side presented along with hers.

Many of the recipes would be better without essential oils. It’s a book about essential oils so the recipes have to pretend that they’re the stars, but there are many recipes in here that would actually be better with something like real herbs. For instance, the “Peppermint Nausea Relief” calls for water, half a lemon or lime, honey and one drop of peppermint EO. Peppermint is one of the best known herbs in the world for nausea, but peppermint tea is the standard way to take it. We always have peppermint growing in our yard (it quickly spreads and becomes a weed) and have some dried in our canning shelves all year. You can also just purchase peppermint tea or mint leaves.

The essential oils aren’t even the real star healing ingredients in a lot of the recipes. In many of the recipes, I recognized one of the other ingredients as the real healing star of the recipe. For instance, using plantain infused oil as the base of many of these recipes is very smart, as plantain (a wild plant you probably have in your lawn) is fabulous for skin ailments. Adding a few drops of EOs is nice too, but you can make a great healing oil just by infusing plantain in oil (any of a number of oils you have on hand at home) and using that. The hemorrhoid wipes use witch hazel, which is a famous remedy, along with a bunch of other ingredients. The aloe juice and glycerine she calls for would help with healing and consistency, too. The cyprus, lavender and geranium EOs are likely to make it smell nice and give some extra healing benefits, but plain old witch hazel has been a classic remedy for years and costs pennies compared to the cost if you had to go out and buy many of the ingredients in this recipe.

Some of the information is just plain wrong. I was surprised to read in the recipe for “Herpes Healing Drops” that herpes “is caused by the chicken pox virus.” That didn’t seem right to me so I looked it up and this not correct. The Mayo Clinic says, “Varicella-zoster is part of a group of viruses called herpes viruses, which includes the viruses that cause cold sores and genital herpes. Because of this, shingles is also known as herpes zoster. But the virus that causes chickenpox and shingles is not the same virus responsible for cold sores or genital herpes, a sexually transmitted infection.”

There’s very little about diffusing oils. I really like to just pop a few different EOs in the diffuser and let it go, and I’d love a bunch of different suggestions for blends (with substitutions listed) for all different needs and situations.

Ultimately, this just wasn’t a book that I felt was useful for me. I do think it could be a great book for someone who makes products for sale or who already has a big stash of not just different EOs but lots of kinds of carrier oils and natural ingredients like vitamin E drops, beeswax and glycerine, plus the containers to package them in. It would also be a good choice for someone who just has fun making homemade products with lots of ingredients.

The book would likewise be a good primer for someone who just wanted a guide to the most common oils and how they are typically used. Each oil does have basic information about how it’s best used and safety information, so it would be a great asset if you just want something to flip through to look up individual EOs.

Personally, I’m happy to just keep using my oils in simple ways, but I am still on the look for an inexpensive guide to help me learn new ways to love essential oils.

I have been using and studying essential oils for about the last 3 years and I've found that the more information I can get the better I can help others with those oils.  Because of that, I have a growing library of books written in and out of the USA as well as books written before the FDA required compliance regarding what can be said about what oils can do or cure.  I jumped at the opportunity to review Stephanie Tourles's Essential Oils: A Beginner's Guide to be released in August 2018.

This book is truly a beginner's guide to essential oils in the post positive meaning of the phrase.  The author starts at step one and explains what essentials oil are, their extraction methods, quality, safety, storage, and ways to use oils.  I like that she is very clear about how to read the label of the oils to determine quality and origin.

The author gives a list of essential oil companies in the back of the book.  I'm always disappointed when I don't see Young Living in a list because they don't outsource their oils as many other companies do and their products are all organically farmed.  Check out Seed to Seal dot com for more information.

The author then profiles her 11 top essential oils:  German chamomile, Roman chamomile, clove bud, eucalyptus, geranium, lavender, lemon, peppermint, rosemary, tea tree, and thyme.  With each of these oils, she gives a history of the oil and safety guidelines for using it.  She then gives a few recipes highlighting that particular oil.

She continues by highlighting an additional 14 essential oils:  bergamot, cardamom, cedarwood, cinnamon bark, cypress, balsam fir, frankincense, ginger, grapefruit, helichrysum, sweet marjoram, myrrh, sweet orange, and Scotch pine.

The next section of the book, Tourles educates on base or carrier oils, herb-infused oils, and other blending ingredients.  She discusses necessary tools for making essential oil recipes.  Finally, she has a list of essential oil resources and reading resources.

I recommend Stephanie Tourles's Essential Oils: A Beginner's Guide for essential oil education and for the over 100 aromatherapy blends and helpful recipes.  It's a great reference for both oil newbies and for general essential oil education.

I was given a copy of this book from NetGalley in return for my review of the book.

I found this a really difficult book to get in to and had trouble feeling any kind of empathy for any of the characters - with the result this took me ages to read.

The summary of the book sounded as though it could be really interesting, but in actual fact it was really dull. The only reason I finished it was because I thought I'd come this far, I may as well. Now that I've finished it, I wouldn't recommend.

Sorry
Review posted on Goodreads 26.04.2018

I was really impressed with this book from beginning to end it was very informative.

If like me you are after a book of where to start then this is the one for you, it gives you what oils to use and what they can be useful to use and how to use them,

The book is full of ideas to get you started or just to brush up your knowledge well revommended

If you’re an essential oils enthusiast or just new to essential oils, or both, this is the book for you! I’ve gotten so much information from first page to last page & I found it to be extremely interesting. I give the author kudos for doing a great job with her knowledge & breaking down the chapters with information you should know, to info on the oils themselves & then concluding the book with more information Job well done!

I have no experience with oils. I do have a desire for all things self-help that taps into my creative side. Stephanie Tourles’s Essential Oils: A Beginner’s Guide is a great book for beginners and is exactly what I was looking for.
First off, the photography in this book is absolutely gorgeous! If I wasn’t devouring and trying to absorb all the knowledge in this book I would happily have it as a wonderful coffee table book.
The book details 25 oils and their benefits and uses. This breaks it down so a beginner can start to build a foundation of knowledge. Whereas other books throw everything at you, this book made me feel so comfortable and did not overwhelm me with information.
Stephanie gives us some amazing recipes in this book that I can actually do! The best part is you are not required to buy all 25 discussed oils to do these recipes. There are a basic 11 oils that are disused. The recipes in this book range from basic to a little more advanced.
This book is a book is a keeper for me and will be on my shelf for many years to come. Stephanie Tourles helps you build a foundation as you discover oils and aromatherapy. After a couple weeks with this book I feel comfortable in that foundation I can now experiment and be creative with my recipes and uses. This book was such a joy to read.
I was given an ARC of this book through NetGalley and the publishers for an honest review.

I have been curious about the benefits of using essential oils and found this book to be incredibly useful, as the information was laid out in a way that made the book enjoyable to read.

This is an informative handbook for anyone who wants some introduction on essential oils. The author introduces 10 main essential oils, describes where these come, from how oil is derived from the plant and the main benefits.
What I particularly liked is that Stephanie Tourles provides several applications for all the oils. I did like that these included oils ,sprays, roll-ons and balms. The layout is visually very pleasing with plenty of pictures. I found several charts very helpful.This is a helpful and informative reference book for everyone interested in essential oils.

As a aromatherapist of over 15 years, I still refer to reference books to update my knowledge. I instantly loved the photography and layout, it is clean, crisp and easy to read in segments. I do like the essentail oil profiles that then have suggested receipes with them, this is then followed by base oil profiles. Using the right blend of base oil is just as important as the essential oil, I was very happy to see a well constructed section on them. An excellent addition to any collection for experianced and beginners.

A lovely introduction to essential oils, this book is filled with useful information about each oil, simple recipes for their use and beautiful colour pictures. I am definitely inspired to try some of the remedies and will purchase a copy of the book for myself and as gifts for friends and family.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an electronic copy for review.

Very wordy, not enough/not clear enough recipes/instructions on diy essential oil concoctions.

Interesting recompilation of the basics of essential oils. There is very useful information on general theory about oils, how to extract them and how to use them properly. Interesting although not deep enough to follow at home and prepare oils yourself, some techniques are difficult to follow and giving the fact that they can burn or cause a rash on your skin (natural does not always mean not dangerous), I would be very caution on the information on this book, given without any kind of scientific background or further reading. As a general introduction, it is a fine book, but I would not recommend it as a "cooking book" to follow unsupervised

I have always been a great fan of DIY/ Do it Yourself stuffs. The Products that can be made at home by using products found in the kitchen. Having used homemade lip balm and other homemade products, I was curious to read this book as i use essential oils in my DIY’s and i wanted to know more about it including safety, precautions and storage as they are very potent and should be used carefully. The book didn’t disappoint me it had detailed walkthrough on everything right from its storage to recipes including the types of carrier oils that can be used with it. Though i knew a bit about a few recipes i came across some new recipes in the book. The Author has put her 30 years of experience in the book and It surely satisfies your curiosity around essential oils with hell lot of information.

If you are new to aromatherapy, Stephanie Tourles’s Essential Oils: A Beginner’s Guide is a perfect starting point.

The author lists the top 11 oils that every practitioner should have available.
German Chamomile, Roman chamomile, clove bud, eucalyptus, geranium, lavender, lemon, peppermint, rosemary, tea tree and thyme.
She also lists 14 more oils that are nice to have but not essential.

For each oil, the history, its natural state, safety warnings, and what it cures both physically and psychologically are listed. Finally, each oil contains several recipes for its use. These recipes vary between balms, massage oils, roll-ons, mists, sprays, dropper bottles, bath salts, gels, beverages, and nasal “sniffer” tubes. Each recipe includes how to use the result. Many include recipe modifications for children and warnings about when usage in not recommended (i.e., on open wounds or for asthmatics). The recipes include deodorant, breath spray, toothpaste, mouthwash, bathroom spray, lip gloss, insect repellent, flavored toothpicks, and body wash. There are recipes that cure an amazing amount of illnesses like headaches, backaches, sore feet, dry hands, menstrual cramps, and acne. The recipes also assist healing of flu/colds, sinus infections, insect bites, hemorrhoids, dermatitis, eczema, burns and other wound care. Some recipes give psychological benefits like energy, stress reduction, concentration and happiness.

As the title indicates, this is a book only for those just starting their journey into aromatherapy. However, this book serves that reader well. It includes only the need-to-know information written in plain English—no chemistry degree needed. Most recipes need less than five ingredients. The in-depth coverage of a limited amount of oils mean the initial cost to try a few recipes would be lower than in more advanced books. If you are curious about aromatherapy, you should read this book.

Thanks to the publisher, Storey Publishing, and NetGalley for an advanced copy.

An excellent beginners text. I love the fact that it focusses on a group of oils, rather than inundating the reader with too many options. As someone who has a limited knowledge of oils, I dont want to be overwhelmed with information, so this was perfect.

I have been interested in the subject of aromatherapy oils for around 20 years now. It is a subject I dip in and out of so I already have a lot of knowledge. Because I am interested in starting to use my oils again I thought it would be interesting to use this book as a refresher. This was so much more informative than I was expecting. It goes through all the basics such as what aromatherapy oils are, how they should be used, how the oils are extracted, safety precautions etc. It then goes into detail of some of the more popular essential oils followed by easy to follow recipes. The text is broken up by the beautiful photography. This is a great book for those who are curious about the subject.

This is a good book but pretty basic information that you can get from many other but a nice book to add to your reference shelf if you want to focus on essential oils.