Customer Reviews

The Complete Book of Essential Oils and Aromatherapy: Over 600 Natural, Non-Toxic and Fragrant Recipes to Create Health - Beauty - a Safe Home Environment

5 star:		(110)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The book is filled with some good information. However, There is no safety data for the oils presented. Some oils are not safe to use during pregnancy, estrogen dependent cancer, or may cause skin irritation or phototoxicity (sunburn). Use caution when trying the recipies in this book or research the oils further.

A disturbing section was the one on pets. I would definately do more research before putting anything on a cat. Cats lick their fur and not all oils can be ingested. Eucalyptus is toxic if taken internally. There have been reports of Tea Tree nearly killing cats. In addition, they recommended adding tansy to a horse's feed to treat worms. Tansy is very toxic to horses and cows. People usually try to remove the plant from their pastures.

Last word. Do your research and don't just use one book.

Valerie Ann Worwood's book "The Complete Book Of Essential Oils & Aromatherapy" is one of the most complete and down-to-earth books on the subject, especially for the beginer. If I were to teach a course on aromatherapy for beginers, this would be one of two main texts I would use, as it is so complete. Here writing style is very clear, easily understood, and enjoyable to read. No dryness here. She begins by discussing ten essntial oils as a "basic care kit," and explains how such oils should be used via an A-Z list of common household occurances. The list includes the following as some topics: -Abdominal pain. -Abraisions. -Black Eye. -Bruises. -Colds. -Fever. -Headache. -Hicups. As a matter of principle, she explains at the very begining of the book that the information contained therein is NOT intended to take the place of a Physician's care. Her chapters on Travel, Sports related injuries, and Beauty (3 chapters covering head to feet!), Maternity and Motherhood, Mens/Women's health (seperate chapters), and Aging are exceptional. She closes with chapters on aromatherapy for animals, and gardening; which I have not seen except in a work by Dr. Gary Young. The charts at the end of the book are indespensable, and complete as a ready quick refrance. Valerie's bibliography contains such authors as Belaiche; Gattefose; Valnet, Duraffourd, Lapraz; and Wells; shows that she is very well read as she is experienced. These authors are the very pioneers of the modern resurgence of aromatherapy, and should be read by all who desire to be serious students of the art and science that is aromatherapy. Those who may wish to criticize her lack of litterary sitations should go and read the works cited here, remembering that Valerie has over 25 years of practical experience as a student and practicioner in a country where aromatherapy is taken seriously, and all they will be left holding is empty litterary critique. Better still, they should utilize her book, and let experience speak for itself! My only sugestion for a revision would be an in-depth chapter on essential oil chemistry, and their interaction with the bodily systems. Otherwise, I consider this book to be amoung the best out there on the subject. It makes a great gift for all occasoins.

This is the most practical aromatherapy book ever! I've finally found a book that gives actual formulas for all kinds of everyday health problems, plus others for serious health conditions I didn't expect to find in it. Every formula we (my friends and family) have tried works! It's like having your very own health care specialist on hand, and its become indispensable. And it's written like a friend talking to you. As well as all that, there are whole chapters on pets, gardening, cooking, children, babies, elderly, the home, work-related problems etc etc etc. This book has totally changed my life!!- and I feel FANTASTIC about it. What this book is not - a boring catalogue of details about essential oils, with no practical advice. This is the book for everybody. You'll wonder how you lived without it. It's given me control of my life. Feel stressed? Just look it up, put the oils in the bath and - hey presto - no more stress! A WONDERFUL LIFE-CHANGER!!

I think this is a good concise book on essential oils (and I have many in both English and Italian, giving the aromatherapy perspective from England, North America, Italy and Germany). However, I caution you all to ignore Wormwood's advice on using essential oils on animals. Wormwood recommends the use of certain oils including tea tree oil, lavender and others on cats all of which are highly toxic to felines. Before buying this book, I had instinctively known to never use any essential oils on my two cats (I think mainly because whenever I would use tea tree oil or lavender on myself, they would avoid me like the plague). But when I saw these same oils highly recommended in Wormwood's book for use on cats, I foolishly thought that if it's in print, it must be true. So, when one of my cats got an abscess on her hip from a cat bite, I tried Wormwood's abscess treatment using tea tree oil (only a couple drops) on her. She frantically tried to get away from me as I tried to apply the drops and then within about 15-20 minutes, started acting very ill. Thank God I had the common sense to stop the treatment, did a search on Google and found out that in fact, tea tree oil as well as a number of other oils that Wormwood recommends are highly toxic to cats - their livers cannot process certain oils and become poisons in their systems. I've even read reports of kittens being killed from low dosage applications of tea tree oil. I would say this is a very good reference book for applications on humans but if you care about your pets, do more research on your own to find out the facts about using essential oils on animals. You might just save their life. If it hadn't been for the dangerous misinformation in the pet section, I would have given the book 4 stars.

"The Complete Book of Essential Oils and Aromatherapy" by Valerie Ann Worwood is a must for every home! I simply love this book. In fact my copy is in great need of replacement from constant use. In 1997 I received a phone call from a man who wanted to know if I could develop a scent that would depict a particular subject to him. Then next thing I knew he was asking me to make some soap for him. A project I always wanted to do, but never ventured into. That led me to learning about soapmaking, which led me to learning about essential oils. Valerie's book was the first one I looked at and purchased along with 2 from Julia Lawless.
Because I knew nothing about essential oils, "The Complete Book of Essential Oils and Aromatherapy" became my mainstay. Eventually, after learning more about essential oils, I ventured into the other books as well. Valerie's book makes learning about essential oils easy. Her book is easy to read, and easy for those like me who knew nothing at all, to learn and understand. This is an excellent book for beginners or those who are advanced in the art of essential oils as well.
"The Complete Book of Essential Oils and Aromatherapy" will have those who like me had absolutely no knowledge of essential oils, using them in a matter of moments! I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning what essential oils are and how to use them. Valerie goes into the usage for home, travel, emergency first aid, and the work place and gives formulas to make your own oils so you can put your newfound knowledge to work.

This is a great book for starting out or for recipes. As noted it doesn't cover the modes of action (turn to Kurt Schnaubelt or R. B. Tisserand if you want that), but it is an excellent book! It starts off with a basic care "kit" of ten moderately priced essential oils. However if you read the WHOLE (unlike those who claim she uses only ten) book you'll find she covers many others. She covers common medical problems (consult a doctor first, of course), beauty creams and lotions, household uses, garden uses, and food. I would research the pet uses first, she suggests giving tansy to a horse which is a good way to end up with a dead horse. When purchasing essential oils always check the scientific name of the plant from which the oils was extracted--otherwise you may end up with something other than you intended (ie. eucalyptus, eucalyptus lemon and eucalyptus peppermint depending upon whom you purchase them from are all labeled eucalyptus, it is the scientific name that distinguishes them) Overall this is an excellent, excellent book.

Valerie Ann Worwood's book is an excellent, well-written and easy to understand foray into the amazing uses of aromatherapy. She covers topics ranging from basic first aid to home uses and perfumes. She also clearly explains some of the potential hazards in using essential oils. This book should be on the shelf of any serious student of aromatherapy.

This book covers a basic care kit of 10 oils. It covers these oils well and provides receipes covering many ailments and situations using just this kit. If you are just interested in getting your feet wet in aromatherapy this book is a good one to start with. However if you think you might be interested in going beyond the beginning phase, then this book will not take you there.

The first edition of this book came out in England in 1990 under the title The Fragrant Pharmacy. You only have to look at the contents and index to see it covers just about every aspect of aromatherapy, health and home. As a full-time professional aromatherapist it is my primary source of information, indeed, it is known "in the business" generally as "the bible of aromatherapy". I doubt there is an aromatherapist in the world who doesn't use this as their reference book, because it is profoundly practical - giving answers to questions you didn't think had any answers. Looking at the many books written after this, its clear where their ideas came from.
If you want practical advice, with detailed recipies and instructions, whether just for home use or professionally, this is the book you need. Every recipie that I have used from this book proved safe, and works, and I wouldn't say that about any other book on the market. I also know for a fact of several vets who routinely use the information in the animal chapter to beneficial effect. Check out her other titles, and you'll see this woman writes in depth - Fragrant Mind, Fragrant Heavens, Aromatherapy for the Healthy Child, Aromatherapy for the Beauty Therapist,and Aromantics (also known as Scents and Scentsuality). Worwood has done research on aromatherapy, and was once Chair of the Research Committee of the International Federation of Aromatherapists. She knows what she is talking about, having been a working clinical aromatherapist for years. In the aromatherapy world she has the highest respect because without her, well, what would there be ...?

This is better than many popular works, but, in my opinion falls short in some areas.

Ms. Worwood uses geranium in almost every blend. Now, granted, geranium is a useful oil for physical and emotional balance, but she does tend to overdue it a bit.

She also really doesn't give quite enough information about the individual oils. A lot of suggestions as to their uses, but if you are trying to research an individual oil, this is not the place to start.

I'd also like to see more safety information; she seems to ignore the issue of sensitization.

It's not a bad book; but not the be all and end all of aromatherapy information.