Intro to Essential Oils with Adele Cole

Tuesday night, a group of about fifteen adults sat down to an Intro to Essential Oils course at the East Shore Area Library. Adele Cole, registered nurse and Wellness Educator, directed the class. She began by giving a brief rundown of her own history with essential oils.

“They’re not a cure-all,” she said. “Essential oils are plant-based extracts. They can help the normal functions of your body, but they’re not going to actively fix anything. The oils help your body do what it does naturally.”

As a child and young adult, Cole suffered a myriad of health concerns. These symptoms were later traced back to a childhood case of Lyme’s Disease. Essential oils were not a magic (or even medicinal) cure, but they made Cole feel better during a difficult time in her life.

Cole urged students to continue following the advice of their doctors and medical practitioners. Essential oils could work as kind of a natural supplement, a positive influence on mental state, or a combination thereof. 

She continued with a brief history of essential oils and modern attitudes toward their use. Today in Germany, diffusers are a popular method for utilizing essential oils. Germans rely on inhalation as a method of obtaining oil-based benefits. In the United Kingdom, essential oils are aromatics and topical treatments. The French—who sound like the biggest fans of the stuff—use essential oils in diffusers, as topical ointments, and even in their cooking.

(Cole did warn the class that she did NOT advise consuming essential oils. While a bit of pure essential oil shouldn’t hurt you, the FDA does not currently regulate all the different brands of essential oils. Some brands are not safe to consume, particularly those with warning labels such as, “Do not apply to skin!”)

During the class, Cole passed around twelve bottles of essential oils. Students sampled these, whether by sniffing the bottle or applying a drop of oil to their skin. There were some conventional scents (e.g. lavender, lemon, and mint). The latter group of oils consisted of mixed scents. Cole used these to explain the different ways we can combine essential oils, and what effects these combinations can produce.

The class ended with all the students concocting their own roll-on vial of essential oil. Students mixed a base oil with about 5-10 drops of “Thieves” oil.

“There’s kind of a legend that goes with this oil,” said Cole. “Basically, these four thieves were captured by the French during the 15th century. They were only released because the thieves claimed they had an elixir that would prevent you from catching The Plague. That mix of spices is the basis for this essential oil.”

She advised that students use their samples of Thieves topically. Thieves is an autumn smell: a blend of cinnamon, clove, eucalyptus, and other spicy-sweet scents.

Cole went on to say that a lot of people like to use essential oils as an alternative to harsher commercial cleaning products. 

“If you’ve ever left a wet load of laundry to sit overnight—not that I’ve ever done that—it’s nice to spritz your musty clothes with a bit of essential oil.” Cole explained, “At one point I had two kids in diapers, two dogs, and a husband who did manual labor. We had a lot of interesting smells in our house, and essential oils went a long way toward fighting those smells.”

Essential oils can be used in everything from medicine to cooking, cleaning to personal grooming. They aren’t going to cure cancer, but they do smell nice!

The Library offers a range of classes for adults. If you would like to peruse our offerings, check out our Events & Programs section and click on “Programs for Adults.”