Stefanie Palmer, the only registered aromatherapist in Ohio, will open the doors of Awaken Essential Oils to the public beginning June 8. In addition to her wide array of hand-blended and fragrant oils, Awaken Essential Oils offers a diverse collection of tea blends, gemstones, crystals, incense, jewelry and an assortment of spiritual tools. Here, she holds a pearly hunk of apophyllite. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
Get a whiff of this—Awaken Essential Oils set to open
- Published: June 13, 2019
Grapefruit, sandalwood, mandarin, sweet orange, lemon, clary sage, ylang ylang and rose. The organic extractions rush to meet the senses when opening one of Stefanie Palmer’s hand-blended essential oils. She calls it “Injoy.”
“I made it for a young woman who found herself in a deep depression,” Palmer said. “When you smell it, you just want to smile. You feel vibrant, uplifted and alive.”
For those looking to reconnect with mind, body and spirit, Palmer’s new shop, Awaken Essential Oils, will open its doors this Saturday, June 8.
Located at 213 Xenia Ave., in Suite 3, above The Winds Café, Awaken Essential Oils offers a cornucopia of aromatherapy products and a variety of spiritual tools such as prayer beads, palm stones, jewelry, herbal teas, gemstones and more — all of which are designed to assist people with their health, Palmer said.
A licensed aromatherapist who has made essential oil blends for more than 20 years, and the only aromatherapist registered with the Aromatherapy Registration Council in Ohio, Palmer said she is ready to share her passion with her beloved Yellow Springs community.
Growing up in the Miami Valley, Palmer has long maintained a “spiritual connection” to Yellow Springs, she said. With its progressive ethos and conscientious community, Yellow Springs is a perfect fit for both Awaken Essential Oils and her family, she added. Although she lives in Xenia, two of her four children attend Yellow Springs Schools.
“People make different choices in Yellow Springs,” she said. “They seem to make decisions with their health and the environment in mind, and this approach to decision-making aligns with the ways in which I conduct my business.”
Palmer said that all of her oils are organic and sustainably sourced. In addition, most of the bottles and packaging she uses are recyclable and may be repurposed.
Palmer began the business out of her home in 2012. She sold her products on Etsy, an online e-commerce website focused on handmade items. As her clientele grew, she joined forces with Goddess Provisions, a company that offers a monthly subscription box brimming with crystals, aromatherapy products and other spiritual growth tools.
Palmer said Goddess Provisions bought bottles of her Throat Chakra Oil by the thousands. Beyond giving Palmer a mass market for her oil blends, Goddess Provisions also gave her the idea to create her own monthly subscription service: Chakra Box.
Opening the lid on a Chakra Box, subscribers find a trove of aromatherapy items curated for a particular chakra, such as chakra-balancing tea blends, gemstones, crystals, pyramids, pendulums, smudges, incense, jewelry and instructions for guided meditation and yoga poses. It’s delivered to subscribers monthly.
It didn’t take long for Chakra Box to go international, Palmer said. She has subscribers in Australia, Singapore, the U.K., the United Arab Emirates, Canada, New Zealand and more. As a result, the enterprise quickly outgrew Palmer’s home.
“Eventually, I just ran out of room,” she said.
Then, through a chance conversation with a longtime friend, Colette Palamar, her space problem was resolved. Palamar, who runs Urban Baby Bonnet, a homegrown Yellow Springs company producing fun and funky baby bonnets, caps and hats, had more room than she needed in her downtown suite. So, for the past year, Awaken Essential Oils has shared space with Urban Baby Bonnet for storage and production. Palmer said she’s been able to comfortably spread out: all her Chakra Box materials, aromatherapy products and spiritual merchandise are handsomely displayed throughout the store, ready for her opening.
And now, after a year of shipping out Chakra Boxes by the hundreds, Palmer said she’s ready to bring Awaken Essential Oils into an era of storefront service.
In addition to her aromatherapy products and various spiritual tools, Awaken Essential Oils will offer in-person consultations and an ongoing workshop series. According to Palmer, yoga instructors, reiki masters and aromatherapists will lead participants in the workshop series.
“Our overall goal for the series will be to assist people in balancing their chakras,” she said. “We want to inspire our clients and add value to their lives, but above all, we want to provide people with the opportunity to turn inward.”
When asked what will set her boutique apart from other essential oil stores, Palmer smiled and said, “experience.”
“You can get essential oils from plenty of other places, but more than likely, they will not be hand-blended by a fully licensed and registered aromatherapist,” she said.
This is crucial, according to Palmer. As essential oils have skyrocketed in popularity over the recent years, so has their misuse. Some oils are more photosensitive than others, some are not safe for internal use and others may negatively affect a pregnancy if improperly used. The list goes on.
“What I offer are safe and ready-to-use products,” she said.
Awaken Essential Oils is located at 213 Xenia Ave., Suite 3. Palmer can be reached at awakenessentialoils@gmail.com, and you can browse her products online at
http://awakenessentials.com.
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