Tuesday's quick tip: Building your basic essential oil library

Healing work requires that you maintain a basic stock of essential oils at home. This can become an expensive hobby, or you can approach the purchase of your oils from a conservative place of just wanting to own what you need. I am listing my five personal favorites below. You can order them online (amazon.com carries an amazing selection from a variety of vendors) or go to your nearest Whole Foods/Sprouts/Henry's market to find them. Most can be purchased for between $5-7 per bottle.

1. Lavender - antiseptic, boosts mood, promotes relaxation.  A few drops in a warm bath after too much sun will help with sunburn.
2. Rosemary - also antiseptic, also mood-boosting, but this oil also helps with skin care.  It promotes smoothness of skin and with regular use and frequent dry-brushing, can eliminate cellulite and rough skin patches.
3. Eucalyptus - this oil you must keep on hand to diffuse into the air or just to put a drop under each nostril when ill.  It clears sinuses and helps prevent infection.  A drop or two in a warm bath serves the same purpose.
4. Tea tree or melaleuca - this oil clears blemishes and heals all kinds of skin and nail infections, even of a fungal nature.  It's a miracle oil!
5. Patchouli - is a strong one, so test it first to see if you like it.  It grounds you and calls you into present time, and can be used with the other oils to offer the grounding benefit as you heal specific ailments.

Others you might like include neroli, or orange blossom, which is pricey but beautiful and very intoxicating. Lots of people enjoy lemon and peppermint. A few drops of peppermint oil infused into a bottle of distilled water can be sprayed to stop ants from attacking indoors. That way you avoid the toxic fumes of ant spray! Lemon oil added to your kitchen cleaning supplies helps improve the scent and promotes effectiveness at cutting grease.

If you really want to take the oil collecting to the next level and already own "the basics", go here, to Young Living's site.  There you will find expensive but very exotic and incredibly high quality blends.  My favorite is Abundance, but I own lots and will be honest, they are all great.

Please use wisdom when applying pure essential oils directly on the skin; most need to be delivered via a "carrier oil" like almond or apricot seed, which you can get at your local markets as well, or you can add them to unscented lotion. Diffusing essential oils using a tealight burner (which you can also find on amazon.com) allows you to enjoy the scent without risks of physical contact. This can be very helpful in a child's room for example when little ones are sick, or in your own room when you just want to relax and unwind after a long day. And always with these oils, less is more; a little goes a long way.

Enjoy putting your oil library together!