Perfect Potion Bondi

perfect potion chakra essential oil blends

2012-02-07T21:33:00.000-08:00

Hello Perfect Potion Enthusiasts,

Welcome back to our insightful and illuminating blog, we hope that you’ve had an eventful and historic start to 2012! (Let's hope the Mayans got it wrong, drinking a few too many vinos instead of burning a little rosemary to spark cerebral clarity and instil a more realistic manner in approaching their forecasts.)

It’s promptu time to infuse your beautiful great minds with a question. Before we go there though, I want to share with you a conversation I was immeresed in with a good friend recently. Among an array of fascinating subjects came the topic of happiness, more specifically what are the impetuses that aid us in acheiving true and unfeined happiness? So I pose the question to you. Are you happy? Do you have fun... generally in life? If your answer is ‘yes’, good! Keep at it! If you had a slightly less optimistic response, then the good news is, all you have to do is really want it. Happiness is synonymous with your desire to cultivate it. Sometimes we just need the stimulus to incubate feel good endorphins to revive us and lift our spirits.

One way of doing that is through the contraindications of essential oils and their effect on olfaction and the brain. The olfactory region of the brain is closely associated with the limbic region, that being the centre of emotions, memory, sex drive and intuition. The limbic system is also connected to parts of the brain that control heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure and stress levels. Further, the olfactory region connects to the hypothalamus, which controls the entire hormonal system by influencing the pituitary. This gives us good ideas as to why the aromatic compounds of plants and essential oils can have an 'aromatherapeutic' effect. For example when measuring brain waves, it has been noted that there was an increase in alpha waves when smelling lavender oil, assumed to be a relaxant fragrance. When using alerting odors, such as jasmine or rosemary, an increase in brain activity was noted. There are an array of essential oils that provoke positive emotions and spark happiness, such as, orange, bergamont, ylang ylang, geranium and frankinsense, to name just a few.

In my opinion happiness is a by product of many factors including our state of affairs, our environment, the quality of our relationships with others and ourselves etc. However there are numerous tools available to us in assisting our euphoria, the best and most widely accessable place to find them is in nature. Our range of essential oils are but one ingredient in the mixing pot. The truth is, we have unlimited supplies of exuberance, and pleasing amounts of vivacity inherent inside of us, despite the volatile disposition of such emotions. Sometimes though, we just need a catalyst to get the ball rolling.

If I could recommend a few of the best products we have on offer, I’m sure it would account for an extensive list. However in an attempt to streamline that menu, our prize collection of blends, specifically the highly esteemed Chakra Essential Oil Kit is an epic tool in harvesting your happiness, if you want it. They are sure to give you a fix that can be used as an impetus to generate all of the best qualities already within you and bring them to the surface for everyone to see.

Here is some information on how they work. Firstly to give you a bit of background knowledge. Chakras are energy centres that connect to major organs and glands that govern other body parts. They are considered the centre of our subtle energy or life force, also known as Qi in Chinese Medicine. Cool huh!

Anatomically, each chakra is associated with a major nerve plexus and a minor endocrine gland. The seven major chakras are located in a vertical line ascending from the base of the spine to the head.

Taking into account the vibrational energy of each individual chakra. Our boss, the highly acclaimed aromatherapist and natural therapies practitioner, (not to mention the genius behind text books supplied to universities and colleges all over the world) Salvatore Bataglia, has specifically engineered each blend to match the emotions orbiting each chakra. They are designed to engender the healing qualities that can be activated, to bring about a sense of well being and subsequently make you more, well... happy.

Here is a guide to each blend in our acclaimed chakra pack and how they constitute the unique healing qualities essential oils have to offer. (Much more than just a pretty face, that’s for sure. Although if you come in store, no doubt a pretty face will escort you around and infuse your mind with invaluable knowledge on the art and science of aromatherapy. Our beaut team of foxy goddesses will of course endeavour to uncover your needs and give you what you want in all cases, that’s a guarantee!)

Let’s work from the bottom up.

Balance Chakra Blend (Stimulates Base Chakra) – The base chakra reflects the degree to which we feel connected to the earth or are grounded in our activities. The Balance Blend is made up of patchouli, lavender, black pepper, cedarwood and vetiver. These oils are grounding, strengthening and help us stay centred in our lives.

Allure Chakra blend (Sacral Chakra) – It represents our creative energy and is associated with the functions of our reproductive organs. From a psycho-energetic standpoint, the sacral chakra is all about expression of sensual emotion and sexuality. Using essential oils that are sensual and warming in nature. The Allure Blend is a synergy of sweet orange, cardamom, ylang ylang, patchouli, jasmine, rose absolute and sandlewood. That's hot! Honey I’m home and devilishly randy. Allure anyone?

Harmony Chakra Blend (Solar Plexus Chakra) – This is about the power of being an individual, to be unique, while celebrating our continuing connection with all humanity. It relates to trust, fear, intimidation, self esteem, self confidence and self respect, care of oneself and others, responsibility for making decisions, sensitivity to criticism and personal honour. The harmony chakra blend is a synergy of vetiver, juniper berry, lemon, frankincense, roman chamomile and aniseed. These oils help build confidence and protect us against negative influences. Damn straight Gollum, that ring does not belong to you! I've no doubt Bilbo Baggins would have benefited monumentally from our harmony blend on his journey through Middle Earth to sworn off evil.

Compassion Chakra Blend(Heart Chakra) - This is where it begins to get really yummy! This chakra is integral to an individual's ability to express love. Mastering the heart chakra helps us to enhance our emotional development and recognise the potency of the powerful energy we call 'love'. Our blend constitutes, rose absolute, ylang ylang, lavender, may chang, neroli and bergamont, which help open the heart chakra and let the love energy radiate out. That's powerful, sublime and vastly beyond a witty retort.

Expressive Chakra Blend (Throat Chakra) - Associated with communication, self expression and creativity through sound. Mastering the throat chakra helps us grasp the importance of purifying ourselves by honestly recognizing how we feel, and having the confidence to communicate our emotions to others. Essential oils that promote a sense of calm, strength and enable the truth to be spoken help to open the throat chakra, these oils include chamomile, sandlewood, basil and sweet orange, all of which you can find in our Expression blend.

Insight Chakra Blend(Third Eye Chakra) - One of the psychic centres that gradually develops with meditation. Mastering the third eye chakra will help you to keep your mind focused on related issues, including the awareness of the benefits to be gained from transcending the purely physical world and opening yourself to intuitive sight and wisdom, the ability to learn from experience and emotional intelligence. Using oils that help us to connect with the higher levels of the mind and bring clarity to our understanding of spiritual truths help in this domain. The insight chakra blend consists of clary sage, myrtle, lavender, rosemary and bergamont. The world is a more immaginative and magical place when you can see it through three eyes, go ahead and open up your third, trust me, it's much more fun!

Cosmic Chakra Blend (Crown Chakra)- When awaken the crown chakra we open the possibilities of infinity of space and time and have divine wisdom and understanding of humanity, selflessness, spirituality and devotion. Our cosmic chakra blend is a composite of essential oils that act in bringing about higher states of consciousness, these include, lavender, frankencense, east indian sandlewood and cold pressed lime. Boom! Enlightenment is that easy. Who needs a cave and ten years of reflection, solitude and quietude. Boring! Next time you come across a budhist monk, recommend the cosmic blend and give him a pair of levi jeans.

There ya go kids, something to get started with, on your yellow brick road to a grander state of happiness and fullfillment.

Love,Alana and the Perfect Potion crew.

Christmas time at Perfect Potion

2011-11-25T18:17:00.000-08:00

The buzz has begun don’t you think? You know, that collective hum of excitement that starts this time of year. The days are longer, the beaches are packed, people are starting to think about Christmas. It has definitely begun in our Bondi store. More and more customers are coming in with lists for Chrissy presents and Secret Santa gifts all bronzed and happy with the summer approaching. Celebration, and happiness abounds.

Perfect Potion is having a celebration of its own at the moment. The company turns 20 this year! Once a small market stall the company has expanded across the nation and now Japan but has managed to maintain its integrity and intention along the way. It is still Australian owned, 100% natural, not tested on animals and infused with the deliciousness that is aromatherapy.

To celebrate, owner Salvatore Battaglia felt to create the ultimate essential oil blend that represents Perfect Potion and what it means. He asked his “Green Goddesses” (staff) in all the stores to contribute to how the perfect combination should smell, which oils define the company and its values. Sal was so overwhelmed and pleased with the responses from staff he has created the ultimate essential oil blend. It is a blossoming of all the staff’s inspiration, love and hopes for Perfect Potion. It is an expression of Mother Nature and all her bounty singing with an orchestra of the elements, the stars and the moon (well I think so anyway!).

To be honest words can’t really describe this wonderful aroma, it just has to be sniffed to be appreciated!

The Green Goddess Perfume $44.95 and Green Goddess Essential Oil Blend $24.95 are both available for purchase (and decadent inhalations) in store now. Come in and check them out!

Stores will be having their very own Christmas parties in store very soon too, Bondi will be grooving with our favourite customers and anyone else who wants to join in this Thursday December 1 from 6pm. Come share a glass of champers with us and have a play!

Have an amazing week!

Lots of love

Alison and the Bondi Babes

xxx

Potions for gifts

2011-11-08T18:15:00.000-08:00

If you haven’t recently popped in store, now is a great time to have an explore of the new products we are getting in towards Christmas. Lovely soy candles, handmade decorations that directly support communities in Bangladesh, and our 5 elements oils finally in a beautiful gift box! Yay! Not to mention the beautiful new packaging we have for our gift packs.

Paola Milani is the artist of the gift boxes with the original concept born from Perfect Potion owner Carolyn Stubbin. Together they have created the most exquisite, evocative water-colour design that is as Zen as a walk in a park and as calming as a swim in the ocean.

I was so inspired by the artwork that I thought to write about creative expression. How important it is to honour the creative drives we all have. It can be hard to find time to embrace this part of ourselves, but it can be as simple as putting together a cute outfit, or coming up with a new combination of flavours for a meal made for your loved ones. Even giving your house a tidy and changing the arrangement of photos or trinkets you have on display allows your creativity to shine. We all have creative instincts, but often don’t have the time or confidence express ourselves.

The chakra essential oil blends can definitely help to support our creativity.

The Sacral Chakra, the chakra which governs creation of life, our sexual organs, our emotions, the moon, the tides. And the throat chakra, the chakra which allows us to speak our truth, communicate our creative thoughts, sing, express what our heart is feeling. Both the sacral chakra and the throat chakra oils are available in store either individually for $14.95 each or you can buy the whole set of 7 chakra oils for $79.95. You can vaporise them, pop a drop in the bath or add a few drops to base oil and massage it into your skin.

Think about how you can be creative this week, perhaps you might come up with a new combination of essential oils in your burner that you have never tried before, cook a new dish, write a poem or rearrange your bedroom with more colours.

I would LOVE you to post your ideas, pics and inspirations, so we can celebrate your creative selves!

Can’t wait to hear from you!

Alison and the team at Perfect Potion Bondi Junction.

xxx

Embrace colour!

2011-10-11T18:13:00.000-07:00

The Bondi store is brimming with colour at the moment... the new coloured balms, the Zen Ultrasonic Vaporisers with their changing coloured lights (kinda like a zen disco!) not to mention the Chakra Essential Oils keeping us all balanced, nourishing our chakras with the appropriate colours.

Speaking of Chakras our lovely Bondi manager Rita will be hosting an ‘Aromatherapy for the Charkas’ Discovery Night on Wednesday the 19th of October at the QVB store (don’t forget to book if you want to secure a spot!) There will also be Chakra Discovery Nights at Albert Street in Brisbane and Chadstone in Melbourne tomorrow night, then Melbourne Central also on the 19th. Visit http://www.perfectpotion.com.au/Learn-and-discover/Discovery-nights.aspx for more info.

The wonderful new signage for the Festival of the Face promotion this month is also bursting with colour. We are promoting our varied and colourful masks, some of which contain yellow, pink and green clays. We have rose buds and calendula petals sprinkled across our displays and colour in the windows (thanks to our lovely Shelly). It’s a tribute to India’s festival of colour which is celebrated by people throwing coloured powder and water at each other in a vibrant show of goodwill and cheer. The festival of colour is a time when the community discards the gloom of winter and rejoice in the colours and energy of spring.

Hope you all have a colourful week! Try to wear a different colour each day this week and see how it makes you feel. If you’re feeling adventurous you can even incorporate colours of the rainbow into your diet, yum!

Bye for now!

Alison and the team at Bondi Junction

xxx

Spring equinox

2011-09-26T18:08:00.000-07:00

We’ve been having a ball sharing our ideas and inspirations with you all. Keep up the comments, sharing and liking - we LOVE feedback! :)

I wanted to chat this week about something that I celebrate every year. The Spring Equinox! An equinox occurs both in spring and in autumn and is smack bang in the middle of our earth’s cycle and signifies when day and night are of equal length! So we just had our Spring Equinox on September 23rd and what a stunning day it was. It’s official everyone! The days are only going to get brighter, lighter and longer until next autumn. Woohoo!

The equinoxes are potent times to set intentions and goals for the new season. Why not make a list of what you want to achieve this Spring?

It might be a creative intention, maybe doing more yoga, treating yourself to more massages, being more organised or cooking more veggies. Pop it somewhere you’ll see it, like on the fridge or next or on your desk, and each week try to do something towards that goal.

When I have a specific intention I love to make up an essential oil blend to go with it. So, if it’s to be more organised I might put together a blend that makes me feel motivated (rosemary, peppermint, lemon are nice examples, or the Perfect Potion Focus blend) or if its to not get so stressed I might use the Perfect Potion Relax blend (delish geranium, lavender and ylang ylang), and I’ll add a few drops to a burner, or dilute a drop in a bit of almond oil and rub it into my feet. You’ll smell yum, but also hopefully each time you use the oil it’ll remind you of your goal. Who would’ve thought aromatherapy was so versatile?

I can’t wait to hear all about your goals for spring! Don’t be shy and post it here, it will make it even harder to avoid then. Looking forward to reading your posts soon!

Lots of love,

Alison and the Bondi store x

Our favourite spring products

2011-09-19T17:53:00.000-07:00

We hope everyone is enjoying our blogs so far! Make sure to comment on our posts and share our little tips and tricks with all your facebook friends.

Bondi’s manager Rita is a very lucky duck heading off to Bali this week to work on her book about holistic wellbeing and attend the Ubud Writers Festival as well as enjoy the sun and surf on her well deserved break.

But I realise we’re pretty lucky too! We live in such a beautiful country with so much abundance available to us! The jasmine is out and the days are getting longer. I’m in love with jasmine at the moment. I’ve been popping it into little tea cups and vases and covering every surface of my home with its delicate sweet blooms. I’m covering my body with jasmine too, not the flower of course, but Perfect Potion’s divine Green Tea and Jasmine range. It’s delish! And my current FAVE!

Sweet Orange lifts the sweetness of Jasmine and Green Tea is all about the anti-oxidants for the skin. I’ve been using the Green Tea and Jasmine body wash in the shower, then slathering the body lotion on in the mornings and following with a spritz of the Green Tea and Jasmine body spray. At night just before getting under my doona, I massage the super-dooper rich Green Tea and Jasmine Double Cream on my hands, neck and feet. Jasmine is incredibly uplifting and sensual. I’m all for honouring the Goddess within at the moment, and jasmine is the essential oil to do it!

Well that’s all for now, hoping to hear from you all. What’s your fave spring flower/smell? Share with us your favourite Perfect Potion products! What do you want to hear from us about?

Till next time! :)

Alison and Bondi Perfect Potion Team

Xxx

Spring is here!

2011-09-12T17:41:00.000-07:00

Hello to our wonderful Perfect Potion community!

We’re so excited that Sal has asked the Bondi Junction Store to start a customer blog! Maybe we were asked because we have so much to say, or maybe it’s because we adore our precious customers so much they knew we would jump at the chance to keep the conversation rolling outside of store hours! Nevertheless, let’s get this party started!

Now, this is our first ever blog, and in order for it to work we need YOU! We would love to hear from you, our amazing customers. Let us know what your favourite products are, what products you would like to see in the future. Share stories with us about and how you use aromatherapy in your life.

Our heads are spinning with ideas, we have so much we would like to share with you all – the fact that spring is here and the team are busy detoxing and cleansing our houses...Food seems to be a constant hot topic at our store, has anybody got any delicious and healthy delicious recipes they would care to share?

We've been filling the shop with hand-picked flowers we discover on the way to work, trying our best to bring the vibrant, fragrant spring energy into our store. We've also been discussing amongst ourselves how inspired we are to eat and cook healthily now the weather is a bit warmer and the produce is looking so fresh. It’s so lovely to see juicy strawberries in season and jonquils in the florists, yay! Oh, and the air smells divine doesn’t it? Ocean breezes all the way from the beach bringing with it a hint of jasmine - yum! Embracing those Jasmine scented nights!!!

What do you do at home with your oils? There are so many ways to use them other than just vaporising them. We want to hear all about your ideas and experiences!

Love the Bondi Junction team x