As popular as essential oils have become, and as much as we’re hearing about them seemingly everywhere, you’d think a book about diffusing essential oils could only be “more of the same,” but this one — Aromatherapy with Essential Oil Diffusers — surprised me by being kind of different.

Let me tackle the primary questions — safety/accuracy — right up front.  Yes, the information seems to be accurate, although the information about each oil isn’t all of the empirical scientific variety.  (More on that in a few.)  As for safety, I don’t see anything overtly unsafe recommended, but it does seem a little “weak” on warnings in a couple areas.

This particular book largely avoids topical application, so the general warnings on pages 76-77 are mostly adequate.  I would have preferred to see them precede the section that lists individual oils and their qualities, though; I think they’d be easy to overlook.  And the cautions regarding baths are not clear enough/strong enough, in my opinion.  Because essential oils are hydrophobic (water-“fearing”) and lipophilic (fat-loving), they not only “flee” the water, as Parramore puts it, but are attracted to our skin (which has oils on its surface).  So essential oils should always be prediluted before adding them to a bath, and “hotter” oils should generally be avoided in the bath altogether.

With that said, Aromatherapy with Essential Oil Diffusers is mostly pretty balanced, and doesn’t call for any crazy applications.

There are two main parts to this book, and these are each further subdivided.  Part one includes a brief history of the use of scent, types of diffusers, and the basics of essential oil.  The history of scented plants is pretty fascinating, although it’s just a very quick overview.

Types of diffusers is, of course, a key section of this book.  And let me tell you, there is more detail here than I’ve ever seen anywhere about the different diffuser options.  There are almost 20 pages of information about diffuser choices!

Essential oil basics addresses how aromatherapy works, a quick explanation of how essential oils are produced, how to diffuse safely, and how to store essential oils.  Right smack in the middle of that, the author addresses choosing essential oils, and here’s where it’s rather different from what you might be used to.  Coming from a background in Chinese herbalism, she uses a more intuitive method of selecting oils.  Not intuitive as in a purely emotional “what do I like?” (although she does point out that what you like matters — you probably don’t want to diffuse a scent you hate!)  Intuitive as in categorizing oils by their “natures” or “overall impressions,” rather than by a scientific breakdown of their constituents.  (This is a pretty common method of using herbs in most traditions.)  She briefly describes 64 essential oils, and offers a little bit of guidance for deciding whether to use a single oil or a blend.

Part two is called “diffusing essential oils,” and it’s basically what I would consider the “recipe” portion of the book.  This, too, is subdivided, into a section about diffusing for health (with selected health concerns listed), and to enhance the environment (with sections about things like reducing mold and getting rid of cooking odors).

Each concern has a brief introduction, then includes one or more blends, along with a sidebar listing single oils that are beneficial for that concern.  For most recipes, there are also suggestions for specific diffusion styles/methods that are a particularly good fit, and a few have “sidebars” with complementary topical treatments.

The resources section is full of well-respected texts that come highly recommended by trained aromatherapists, which adds to the author’s credibility in my mind.

Unless you’re a very casual user, if you’re going to have just one book about aromatherapy, I don’t think this would be my top pick.  But it’s worth considering for your collection.