by Nicole Lee
We kicked off March with our sold-out workshop, Elevating Life with Essential Oils! For most of our alumni participants, it was their first time concocting their own signature scent. But thankfully, Ms. Wai Teng (from Soaprise) was here to guide them through!
Wai Teng began with a quick introduction to scents and their categories – citrus, earthy, floral, herby, medicinal, minty, spicy and woodsy. She also went on to explain the benefits of each scent – for instance, lemon carries detoxifying undertones while grapefruit aids in stress and anxiety relief.
She shared candid examples of how certain scented room sprays, such as peppermint, are highly effective in driving insects and small reptiles away from the home. An alumnus asked if there’s any scent that can battle cockroaches. Wai Teng’s answer? “Baygon! Do not waste your essential oil on cockroaches!”
She also got to the serious side of scents, explaining that it should not be used on infants below 2 years old for precautionary reasons. She also advised against using oil burners as over time, it will form a thin layer of wax on the room’s ceiling, which would need to be scraped off.
She left the technical details for last – detailing how to use the scent notes (top, middle, base) to curate a well-mixed scent and the rule of thumb (30-50-20) to guarantee a balanced blend ratio. It definitely felt like a mathematics lecture towards the end!
Finally, it was time to get some hands on! There were 36 participants and she had brought along four boxes of assorted scents. The class was swiftly divided into two groups – one side working on the calculations for their preferred scents, the other side working off the template scents given by Wai Teng, all eagerly ready to start blending!
There was a flurry of activities after that! An alumna spilled the essential and carrier oils, resulting in a rush for towels. Another alumna lamented that she had made a badly-mixed creation and so had to toss it away to try again. Wai Teng was running left and right tending to queries. Everyone else was making a beeline for their chosen scents, trying to squeeze in their final few drops.
The workshop overran by an hour but everyone had their five bottles! Everyone left the lecture hall smelling like a bed of roses (and lavender and lemongrass and everything else!)
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