Yesterday I stopped in Aveda and came across a very lovely new line of chakra body sprays. Each bottle comes with a card about the chakra it’s for, with pithy and seemingly accurate details. And unlike a lot of Aveda products that make my sensitive nose itch, these appear to have completely natural fragrance.

Chakras are the seven energy centers of the body as per ancient Indian medicine. The word itself means wheel, and those who have the ability to see them describe turning orbs of light–each one with a correlating, emotion, color, sound, and other unique essential qualities. When they’re in balance–turning in their appropriate direction, clear, healthy and unclogged with energetic detritus–so are our bodies, minds, and emotions. 

I immediately sampled the spray for the fifth chakra–the throat. It’s all about expression and creativity–a perennial challenge for me. The Aveda site says that when that chakra is balanced, you have “inner trust, inner reliance and easily expresses their ideas and thoughts.” Cool. It also smelled so nice–a blend of rosemary, grapefruit, and ylang ylang. Yum.

But $30 was a little steep for me, so last night I went home, plucked those three oils out of my medicine cabinet, dug up a little glass spray bottle (glass is really important), and whipped up my own version. It lacks the moisurizers and a few other ingredients in the Aveda, but it’s similar (like an Imposter perfume, but natural) and I love it.

If you don’t happen to have essential oils and glass spray bottles lying around (I’m geeky that way), you might want to pick up a bottle–all the blends I sniffed were calming and nourishing and balanced. And if you’re a little crafty, you can follow this recipe. It won’t smell exactly like the blend, but probably close enough:

You’ll need:

– One ounce glass spray bottle–blue or amber (sunlight can damage oils in clear bottles)

– The three essential oils in the blend you choose. Aveda will hate me for this, but you can go to the store and sniff or go here and see the main essential oils in the one you like, write them down, and gather them. Make sure you use pure essential oils, preferably organic. You can get them at Whole Foods or similar.

 – Filtered, preferably distilled, water. The chlorine in regular tap water will zap essential oils’ oomph pretty quickly.

Then do this:

– Fill the bottle almost full with water.

– Add three drops of each oil.

– Shake well. 

– Use as a room or body spray. 

And remember this: Some oils are contraindicated for pregnancy or sensitive skin. So blender beware. Ask a doctor or naturopath before proceeding.

Enjoy! Do you have a favorite aromatherapy blend?