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Take a big whiff … what do you feel? That’s the question to ask yourself when you walk into Halsa, an aromatherapy shop in Geneva. You know you’re in for a pleasant olfactory experience by the scents that waft through the air of the shop. The shelves, reminiscent of an old apothecary shop, are lined with dark blue bottles containing 100 different essential oils.
           

The shop also offers aromatherapy massages. If you take the “Royal Treatment,” you will receive a rose face massage, mint scalp massage and aromatherapy body massage followed by a salt scrub and shower. The “Hot Thai Bundle Massage” gives you 90 minutes of warm, steamed herbal bundles massaged into the muscles and joints. Any massage, from a 15-minute chair massage to an hour-long therapeutic massage, can have aromatherapy added to it for an additional $7.

Aromatherapy uses the pure essence of plant oils to trigger a reaction in the body. By inhaling the oil or putting it on the surface of the skin, you can calm the body or energize it. A whiff of an essential oil can have an immediate effect. Putting it on a pulse point releases the scent more slowly.

“When you inhale, the scent goes into the brain and changes the synopses in the body,” said Halsa owner and certified aromatherapist Marja-Liisa Neylon. “The plants have different components that are energizing or calming. They have a variety of purposes.”

Lavender is known as a calming agent. It can help you sleep and can heal cuts and bruises. Neylon said the effects are not psychosomatic. She was able to prove her case when visiting a friend in Florida.

“Fragrance oils are not the same as essential oils. With fragrance oil, it works only if you believe it will work. If you think you’re going to relax, you will,” Neylon said.
            Not so with essential oils.

“One night the kids were running around at bedtime, so I put lavender on their ear lobes. Soon they were in their pajamas and ready for bed.” Neylon said. “The next night, my friend put lavender fragrance oil on their ears, and they started screaming. It was the alcohol in the fragrance.”

Neylon explained that the kids didn’t know the difference between the two substances. They didn’t know how they were supposed to react; they just did.

Many medicines are based on essential oils from plants. Aspirin comes from willowbark.

“They figure out the active ingredients and produce them artificially,” Neylon said.

The essential oils can be combined for the desired effect. Neylon said lavender and tangerine are calming; rosemary and peppermint have the opposite effect: They stimulate the brain and help with concentration. When you inhale a mixture of sandalwood and cedarwood, the effect is felt deeper down in the body and is grounding, Neylon said. In her massage therapy/ bodywork practice, she custom blends oils for clients depending on their needs.

“We ask the client, ‘What is it you want from this session?’ The therapist then figures out what blend to use,” Neylon said.
 

If you’re interested in learning more about aromatherapy, Hals offers special event parties for small groups. She has had baby showers held at the shop where she taught the group what to use for colds, flu, stomach aches-anything associated with having a newborn. She also teaches a class on how to use essential oils offered in the fall and spring.
 
Halsa The Aromatherapy Shop & Spa