Creating Aromatherapy Candles

Adding a few drops of essential oil to your melted wax before pouring is a simple way to make an aromatherapy candle. Alternately, if you want to add an aromatherapy scent to an unscented candle you can put several drops of essential oil around the wick before lighting. Essential oils are not the same as manufactured perfume scents because the oil is distilled from the actual plants leaves and stems as opposed to being chemical or man made.

Some suggested scents to alleviate different ailments and moods:

Lavender and Bergamot are good for anxiety. I find Lavender especially soothing and it is a pleasant smell most men enjoy. According to Fox News, every smell boosts men’s sexual arousal, but Lavender and the smell of pumpkin pie knocks it up 40% more. Lavender and Jasmine are recommended scents for depression.

Chamomile tea has been known to sooth shattered nerves and this essential oil’s smell is also comforting for irritability.
Ylang Ylang is one of my favorites and is supposed to be both relaxing and stimulating because it is touted to be both an aphrodisiac and an antidepressant. Bergamot is also used to lift spirits.

Peppermint and Citronella help invigorate you which makes sense because they are both refreshing.

For some essential oil recipe combinations see Ananda Apothecary’s site. They are for air fresheners, but if you reduce the amounts to a couple drops each they would also work for candles. I especially like their recipe called “essential sunshine”, a combination of lime, orange, grapefruit and patchouli. Candles by Montserrat offers many different essential oils for sale along with candle making lessons.

There’s an ancient soothing appeal to candles, but when you add an aromatherapy scent to them it can add to the ambiance by influencing your mood further.

If anyone has an essential oil recipe combo for pumpkin pie spice, let me know!

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It might seem weird to feature a book about protest movements around the Fourth of July, but as Rise Up! Powerful Protests in American History reminds us, protest is patriotic and part of the very fabric of American life from the beginning.

This picture book, written by history teacher Rachel C. Katz and illustrated by Sophie Bass, tells a rhyming story of how Americans have stood up throughout the nation’s history to protest and spread the word about injustice and unsafe conditions. From the Boston Tea Party to modern movements like the Standing Rock pipeline protests and the Obergefell case, it touches on women’s rights, environmental activism, civil rights, Pride, access for disabled people and more.

The illustrations, often based on historic protest signs and artwork, help tell the stories, while a timeline, map, and overview of each event for further discussion. Readers will learn about Silent Spring and The Jungle, the Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike, the Seneca Falls convention, Robert Smalls, the Delano Grape Strike and the movement to un-dam the Klamath River, to name a few.

Each event includes a few bullet points to provide context about what happened, why and what the result was. The book reminds readers that protests are not always effective, or don’t always get the people involved what they want right away (since it took women 72 years to get the right to vote after Seneca Falls, for example).

This book is a great way to introduce kids to the long and proud history of protest movements in the United States and could prompt discussions about current events and things happening that they might want to see changed. It could also be used to start kids researching different protests discussed in the book for further learning. You can talk about how art can educate people and encourage kids to make their own art pieces to educate others about something important to them.

Rise Up! is a great starting point for learning about the history of protest and the effects it has had on American history. The publisher’s website has more resources for teaching with this book at the link below.

About the book: 48 pages, hardcover. Published 2025 by Barefoot Books. Suggested retail price $17.99.

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