The Atlas Collection: Diffuser Blends From Far & Wide

CELEBRATING THREE BRAND NEW, LIMITED EDITION DIFFUSER BLENDS!

We’re thrilled to announce and share with our Community that here for a limited time only is our brand new collection of diffuser blends called The Atlas Collection, inspired by plants that grow natively in many different regions of the world.

We celebrate the uniqueness and biodiversity of different plants and the areas of the world they thrive in, which are being showcased as part of our brand new diffuser blend collection, Atlas. We’ve chosen to highlight three different regions of the world, Canada where we’re fortunate to call home, the United States and Australia, three distinctive areas that produce many of the well-loved essential oils you already know and use regularly.

In this article, we want to share the farm to shelf story with you our Community of a few of the precious oils we’ve blended together and the many hands it takes to produce these extraordinary essential oils. Read on to learn more about the inspiration behind each of these three brand new, limited edition blends.

ATLAS DIFFUSER BLEND #1: TRUE NORTH

Oh Canada! The sweet and woody notes of the mighty Balsam Fir that calls the West Coast home meets the earthy, grassy wild yellow flowers of the Prairies named GoldenRod and is tied together beautifully with the herbaceous and resinous notes of the East Coast’s Labrador Tea. These exquisite aromas are those you may be familiar with if you’re a true nature lover anywhere in Canada.

The essential oil we’re choosing to focus on from the blend called True North is balsam fir. One of Canada’s most abundant coniferous trees, both the needles and the branches of the tree are distilled to produce the fresh, green aroma of the well-loved essential oil. Balsam Fir essential oil is produced sustainably, and is also referred to as what is called a wildcrafted oil.

In nature, these trees can end up growing very close to one another in proximity. The harvesters maintain the health and wellness of the trees by trimming the low branches so that smaller Fir trees have better access to the sun and can continue to branch out as they mature and grow. This process is called thinning; these trimmed branches are then gathered and brought to the distillery where they are chipped. Chipping is an important part of the process as this provides the most biomass, which yields the most aromatic oil, and it helps the Team move all of the plant matter into the stills used for distillation. If thinning of the balsam fir was not practiced, much of its biomass would accumulate on the forest floor, which has the possibility of leading to larger forest fires. Essential oils are considered non timber forest products, which means that they are products of biological origin other than timber that originate from the forest and can often make a significant contribution to many rural communities and households across Canada through sales revenue and seasonal employment.

Balsam Fir is also available as part of our Mountain High, Rain Forest and After The Rain diffuser blends.

ATLAS DIFFUSER BLEND #2: STARS & STRIPES

The second blend in the new Atlas collection is called Stars & Stripes, and comes to us from our friends in the good old US of A. This blend is special to us because even though we are showcasing the sustainability story of minty, fresh spearmint essential oil, we’re also blending with a new-to-us essential oil called Virginia Cedar, a rich, dry and woody aroma we’re excited to share as part of this blend. Bright, cleansing lemon rounds out the aroma profile of this uplifting and cheerful blend.

The essential oil we’re choosing to focus on from the blend called Stars & Stripes is spearmint. An abundant herb in which the leaves of the plant are distilled to produce the essential oil, our spearmint comes to us from a family owned and operated business in the USA that began in 1945; the family distillery has worked tirelessly to create relationships with more than 250 mint farmers throughout the USA during this time. The mint plant itself can grow up to three feet high and is known as a sterile plant, which means that it does not produce seeds. The life cycle of a spearmint plant is on average 4-5 years, at which time the roots are replanted in a new field with fresh soil. Harvest season for spearmint is typically late July through mid-September. When the farmer feels the conditions are optimal, the harvest begins; the plant matter is cut and what is referred to as the ‘mint hay’ is gathered. All of the residual plant material from the distillation process is composted, which means that no waste is left behind. Our partners in obtaining spearmint essential oil remain the only family-owned business in the USA that is 100% dedicated to mint oils.

Spearmint is also available as part of our Refresh, After The Rain and Mountain High diffuser blends.

ATLAS DIFFUSER BLEND #3: DOWN UNDER

The third and final diffuser blend in the collection, Down Under, comes to us from all the way across the world in sunny Australia. A haven for plants that produce both common and incredibly rare essential oils, Australia has the weather and growing conditions that support the long lifespan of many plants that are used in part for the essential oils they are able to produce.

Beginning with eucalyptus, commonly referred to in aromatherapy as ‘the breathing oil’, this fresh and opening blend also includes an extremely rare essential oil called fragonia that is exclusive to only one producer of this oil. The oil that rounds out this uplifting blend is sandalwood, which is the ingredient story that we’ll share as part of this article.

The Essential Oil partner we work with in Australia is considered a world leader in the production and supply of ethical, sustainable and reliable Australian-grown Indian sandalwood called Santalum album oil.

There are several challenges that are unique to the cultivation of Santalum album. Firstly, it is a semi parasitic tree that requires specific ‘host trees’ to grow, such as acacia, that act to provide water and metabolites that are essential to the growth of the sandalwood tree. Secondly, the essential oil is only found in the central portion of the trunk, referred to as the ‘heartwood’, and in the roots, so trees have to be felled for oil production. In the wild, trees do not produce viable amounts of essential oil-rich heartwood until they’ve reached approximately 30 years of maturity.

The sad reality is that because of the number of years it takes for a sandalwood tree to reach optimal maturation for essential oil distillation, Indian Sandalwood was being driven into extinction in the wild. Our Sandalwood provider began growing Album trees in the Northern part of Australia approximately 20 years ago; the idea behind this was that in order to meet the demand for sandalwood in consumer products, they would grow Album on plantations rather than by wild harvest. Our provider found that by replicating the natural environment of India’s forests, plantation-grown Indian sandalwood trees produce heartwood and oil naturally. A pleasant surprise has been discovering that cultivated Album trees grown sustainably in plantations only need 15-20 years to mature, compared to 30-50 years in the wild.

Our provider now manages more than 5.5 million Album trees and more than 12,000 hectares of land. Advanced techniques in water recycling systems using bacteria to purify the distillation water allow it to be used in cooling towers, which saves around 7 million litres of drinking water each year and has won several water saving awards, including the prestigious Champion Award from the Western Australian Water Corporation.

Additionally, our supplier is using all parts of the tree to minimize any waste; for example, they’re obtaining the essential oils and ensuring that any leftover wood is used for creating beads, religious artifacts, powder, etc. By choosing this plantation grown oil, we are contributing to the bigger picture of saving wild Album trees from destruction and possible extinction and continuing to bring the healing and restorative properties of sandalwood essential oil to our Community.

Sandalwood is also available as part of our Goodnight and Present Moment diffuser blends.

LIFESTYLE TIPS FOR INCORPORATING DIFFUSERS AND DIFFUSER BLENDS INTO YOUR WELLNESS ROUTINES

To enjoy your new diffuser blends as they were intended, we encourage you to try one of our heat-free, cool-mist, whisper-quiet ultrasonic diffusers, designed specifically for use with clean water and 100% pure and undiluted essential oils. Below we’re sharing our top tips for using your new diffuser blends with a diffuser of your choice.

1. Less is more. Oftentimes, you’ll find you need less essential oil than you think to achieve a vibrant aroma in your air. We suggest starting with 8-10 drops of a diffuser blend and adjusting according to your scent preference.
2. Clean your diffuser regularly. To ensure you aren’t having a less than optimal scent experience, we recommend cleaning your diffuser at least once a week to every two weeks, depending on how often you use it. Cleaning your diffuser is quick and simple but can ensure you get the most out of your blends and maintain the long term well-being of your diffuser.
3. Try intermittent diffusing. A popular functionality of many of our most well-loved diffusers like our Aroma Om is called intermittent; this means your diffuser will run for 30 seconds and go dormant for 30 seconds, repeating this pattern until the water tank has emptied. This is a popular functionality in part because it extends the length of time your unit runs, (the Aroma Om will run continuously for 3 hours and intermittently for 6 hours) and also because after a certain period of time our body, in particular our nervous system, habituates or ‘gets used to’ the amount of aroma in the air. This leads us to believe that there are no substantially increased benefits from continuous diffusion that would make it more preferential.