Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsIt has a lot of information, but I wish it was more in depth.......
Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2016
I'm not really sure why this is not showing a verified purchase, I bought it on amazon and paid full price...... anyway....... I purchased this book mainly for its blends. The essential oil and carrier oil profiles are just a plus for me. I like that this book has many chapters. It has many seperate sections, and it has a lot of information! It has over 800 essential oil blends, which I am very happy about, as it's why I ordered the book. The carrier and essential oil profiles are good, and I like that there are carrier oil profiles, instead of just essential oil profiles. There is also a lot of information in this book for using essential oils with children. I have an 18 month old daughter and I always seek the natural route first. I love that she has the blends organized according to ailment. There is a great section on skin care and hair care with essential oils and carrier oils, as well as insomnia, the two sections I have personally found most helpful so far. I have made several blends based on her information and all have been wonderful! There is also a section all about hydrosols and profiles for hydrosols. And there are even cooking recipes for using essential oils in food! I have been using essential oils for 10+ years, so this book was purchased for a bit of inspiration for blends. Now that I've stated the positives, here are the negatives. There are reasons I gave this book 3 stars, first because I am not thrilled with how thin the pages are (slightly thicker than Bible pages). It makes it harder to flip through the pages quickly, and I feel I have to be very gentle, as not to tear the pages. I also didn't see any rare oil profiles and I was very surprised there was no oil profile for or mention of moroccan blue tansy essential oil. I use this essential oil quite often and I would have liked for it to be used in some of the blends. This book came highly recommended by my essential oil supplier and I can see why! It does have a lot of information! But I would prefer more in depth information, honestly. I can see this book getting some use in my home. I have many books on essential oils and I'll add this book to the collection. I have included a photo so you can see how thick with information this book literally is! UPDATE: I wanted to update my review. I'm a little annoyed with the organization of this book. I also do not like the fact that many of the recommendations of carrier oils and essential oils for skin and hair, are extremely general. For example; every carrier oil is good for All Skin Types! There is not one carrier oil that is not good for all skin types! She does not give any absorption rates or comedogenic ratings for carrier oils. I've started to notice parts of this book that are lacking, and I would have thought being an edited version and the 25th anniversary edition, that this book would have more depth, better editing, and more organization. I'm a bit irritated now that I've had more time with this book and prefer my other essential oil books for reference. My favorite authors are; Julia Lawless, The Encyclopedia of Essential Oils (my go to quick reference), Robert Tisserand, Essential Oil Safety (he writes the book on essential oils!), and Kurt Schnaubelt, The Healing Intelligence of Essential Oils (thats his newest one, it is a wealth of knowledge) and my absolute favorite: Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin by Steffan Arctander, a classic that will probably never go out of print. I feel there are better choices as far as essential oil books go other than this book!
