72: How to Make A Summer First Aid Kit

The raw, unedited transcript is below. For a cleaned up full version of a printable transcript of this episode, go to Patreon.com/AromaticWisdom

The printable transcript is a wonderful tool that you can add to other aromatherapy study materials, a  resource binder, highlighting key points or simply making your own notes in the margin.

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RAW TRANSCRIPT

Liz Fulcher [00:00:00]:
You're listening to the aromatic wisdom podcast episode number 72. In today's show, we're going to look at something fun and very practical. We're going to learn how to put together your own first aid kit. While many of the items you would need year round, I'm going to include a few tools that are very specific to things that can happen in the summer.

Podcast Intro [00:00:23]:
You're listening to the Aromatic Wisdom podcast with your host, Liz Fulcher. If you're interested in learning about essential oils, hearing interviews with industry experts, and discovering ways to grow your own aromatherapy business, this is the podcast for you. For more information and show notes, visit the website at aromaticwisdominstitute.com. Now sit back, relax, take a deep breath, and enjoy as Liz shares a dose of Aromatic Wisdom.

Liz Fulcher [00:00:56]:
Hi, friends. Thank you for joining me for another episode of the Aromatic Wisdom Podcast. I so appreciate you giving me some of your precious time. I have an online school. For years, it was in class, but after COVID, it became online, the aromatic wisdom institute.com, and I have been working with aromatics since 1991. This month is 33 years. May 24, 1991 was the day that aromatics came into my life and came into me and opened a whole new world and actually carved out my life for the next 33 years. You can read more about how I got started.

Liz Fulcher [00:01:36]:
I'll put a blog post down there called my unusual introduction to essential oils. I offer online classes and I'm about to launch an aromatherapy certification program online. If you're interested in hearing when that is launched, please subscribe to my newsletter, aromaticwisdominstitute.comforward/newsletter. Before we get into the meat of the episode, I want to, as always, say thank you so much to my patrons, my subscribers, who generously donate $5 a month to the podcast to keep it going, keep the lights on as they say. And by the way, who will be getting 50% discount off of the aromatherapy certification program I'm about to launch, that's exclusive just for the subscribers. If you wanna learn more about that, patreon.comforward/aromaticwisdom. All this stuff can be found in the show notes for today. And finally, before we get into the meat of the episode, I want to say a warm welcome to a brand new subscriber with the beautiful name of Marushka who hails from the Czech Republic.

Liz Fulcher [00:02:46]:
She's in Prague. And I'll tell you something, Marushka. My son was in Prague a few years ago. He is what I would call a foodie, air quotes here, and really recognizes good restaurants, good food in cities. And whenever he's visiting a new city, he will try to seek out the best restaurants in the area. And he said Prague had some of the best restaurants he'd ever experienced. So now that's on my bucket list. Anyway, thank you for, supporting the podcast.

Liz Fulcher [00:03:15]:
Thank you again to all the patrons who are there every single month supporting the aromatic education that I so happily share with you. Alright. Let's jump into today's podcast episode on creating your own first aid kit with the addition of some tools and elements specifically to address common summertime mishaps. First of all, I love making kits with essential oils. Kits are the best thing to give as gifts. You can compile together a green cleaning kit with essential oils and hydrosols and spray bottles and things for someone who just moved into their home. Or hydrosols and and diapers and things for someone who's just had a baby. I did a blog post.

Liz Fulcher [00:04:03]:
It's one of the most popular blog posts I've written on how to put together a college survival kit, which was actually something I did for my sons when they went to college, and then I wrote a blog post about it. Anyway, kits are just a lot of fun to put together, and really what it is, it's a group of things, put together that have one specific intention. And so today, we're gonna talk about first aid. And what I'm gonna do is start with natural ingredients. So essential oils, carriers, any other things that are in the realm of the natural healing ingredients. And then I'll talk about some conventional items that should really be in every first aid kit. And then lastly, I'll talk about some carriers. Some kind of containers, or things that you can use to put your first aid kit in.

Liz Fulcher [00:04:53]:
Alright, let's go. So I've tried to make your summertime first aid kit as comprehensive as possible, so you can be prepared for everything from scratches to snake bites. If I have forgotten something, which no doubt I will. Feel free to let me know. Liz@aromaticwisdom.com is my email. Alright. Let's start with natural ingredients. These are the essential oils I recommend you include in your first aid kit.

Liz Fulcher [00:05:22]:
And also, I recommend small bottles, like little 5 mil bottles, because you they do have a shelf life, and you wanna be mindful about keeping the first aid kit cool, if it has essential oils in it. The usual safety, care for your oils rules that apply, obviously, are gonna apply here. Okay. So, the first essential I recommend is tea tree. Melaleuca alternifolia. It is an antiseptic that can stop stinging, itching of insects, bites and stings, topical wounds, poison ivy, a tick bite. Now, for a tick bite, you want to apply it after the tick is removed. Never before.

Liz Fulcher [00:06:04]:
I don't care what you see on TikTok. Never put anything on a tick when its head is in your body. Because if you put nail polish on it or put tea tree on it or anything while it is attached to you, it will get upset and it could spit. And that's when you can get Lyme disease. So you want to get a very specific type of tick, tweezers. Remove the tick and then put the tea tree on, so that you can avoid infection. Tea tree can be used neat and diluted directly on the affected area. In terms of poison ivy, which tea tree falls in that realm.

Liz Fulcher [00:06:42]:
I did a whole podcast episode just on poison ivy, so you may want to go back and listen to that one. The second essential oil is lavender. This is great for any kind of a burn. Obviously, you're gonna have a lot of sunburn in the summer. That's always a possibility. Another, thing that happens a lot in the summer for people who are motorcyclists, They know this. A hot motorcycle the the pipes on a motorcycle get very hot. And I know people who've had the their thigh, not their thigh, the lower part, the calf burned by a hot motorcycle pipe.

Liz Fulcher [00:07:19]:
If that's the case, put lavender neat directly on the burn. Put lavender neat on any burn. Cooking oil splashes, if, you know, electrical burns. If you are around a campfire, there sometimes can be sparks that fly. Sometimes kids get stupid around campfires, and people just get careless and relaxed, or somebody's had too many beers, and they get too close to the fire. So that is a real reality in the summertime, so you wanna always keep lavender in wet. In that case, you may want a 10 mil bottle. You may wanna have a bigger bottle available.

Liz Fulcher [00:07:56]:
And again, lavender can be used neat for these kinds of emergency situations. What I actually do for sunburn, and I have a blog post about sunburn that I can link to. What I tend to do with sunburns, especially when it covers a large area, is I get aloe vera gel, put it in a spray bottle, add the lavender, and spray the area. It's so cooling and healing, and I'm not using up tons of lavender. It's a beautiful combination. Lavender hydrosol is good too, but I've actually found over the years of the 2 lavender hydrosol versus essential oil and aloe. The essential oil and aloe seems to have a It's stronger. So I think it has a better effect.

Liz Fulcher [00:08:36]:
Kind of depends on who's burned. If it's child, or how bad the burn is. The third essential oil I recommend for your first aid kit is German chamomile. German chamomile is blue, and like all blue oils is highly anti inflammatory. The chamazulene in the oils what makes it blue, and that's also what reduces the swelling. So, natural anti inflammatory for swelling and bruising. German chamomile is fantastic for bruising, although the next oil is better. So you in terms of, if you've got some inflammation or bruising, mix 4 drops of German chamomile, to 1 tablespoon of carrier oil and rub it in the affected area or cream.

Liz Fulcher [00:09:28]:
Cream tends to absorb faster. You can also add lavender and helichrysum, which is the next oil I'm gonna talk about. I know that I'm going through this quickly. So I'm trying to give you an overview of the oils to include without going too deep into what to do with each oil. My hope is that you would If you're including an oil in your kit, you know why. And that you then, maybe do a little research. Or let's just say you put together the kit and okay. Liz says I need helichrysum.

Liz Fulcher [00:10:02]:
I'll put that in there. Please know what to do with it so that when the emergency happens, or the first aid is needed, you know what to do with it. Alright. That was German chamomile. Next is helichrysum. Helichrysum italicum, a very expensive essential oil, but worth every penny. There is nothing else like helichrysum for bruises. It has got unique chemistry that it really that the bruises really respond to.

Liz Fulcher [00:10:30]:
So, again, if you are riding your bike, camping, hiking, just running around the backyard, and you fall or anything happens and you get a bruise. Grab that helichrysum. Inflammation and sprains. Helichrysum and the previous oil, German chamomile, are beautiful together. They really can address just about any kind of trauma to the, to us to the site. So like a blow to the body where you would get inflammation and a bruise. Either one is fantastic. Together is a powerhouse.

Liz Fulcher [00:11:05]:
I've told this story. I don't know if I've told on the podcast. I have definitely written a blog post about it, that I smashed my finger in the door of a car and and applied helichrysum. Two drops neat in the first 5 minutes, and that reduced the swelling and the bruising exponentially. You could also add a little, arnica oil as a carrier with helichrysum for bruises, inflammations, sprains. There's another kind of thing that people happen. It happens frequently in the summertime as people are very active. The next essential oil, believe it or not, is peppermint.

Liz Fulcher [00:11:45]:
Peppermint is my go to for motion sickness, Also, for driving fatigue. So for motion sickness, really, you can sniff it right from the bottle. If you are taking a trip and someone is prone to motion sickness, you can definitely make a nasal inhaler ahead of time. Let them carry it and sniff it whenever they start to feel nauseous. That can be for anything. If you're an airplane, a boat, car, motion. Motion sickness. For driving fatigue, listen carefully to my warning about this.

Liz Fulcher [00:12:15]:
For driving fatigue, listen carefully to my warning about this. I I love to drive, and I drive a lot, and I love road trips, and driving fatigue is real. You know, after 6 hours or so driving, you start to lose your focus and get sleepy, but we keep going. One of the things I have found really helpful is I take a tissue, stuff it in the vent of the car. Do not put the oil on yet. The part that is sticking out, that is where you want to apply a little bit of a central oil. Do not apply a central oil, and then stick the tissue in the vent. Because vents are made of plastic.

Liz Fulcher [00:12:52]:
I promise you the peppermint will corrode the plastic. It will make it sticky. It might make it bumpy. You know, essential oils can be corrosive to plastic. So put the tissue in first, and then go ahead and put your drop of of peppermint on the outside. And then we'll come through the vent, and it's great. You can also buy those fancy it's funny. I don't even think about these things because I'm so frugal.

Liz Fulcher [00:13:16]:
You can buy on Etsy, on Amazon. Car diffusers, where you put the essential oil on a patch, and they're very pretty, and you can stick that right in the vent. So, certainly, that could be a little treat you by yourself before you take a long road trip. For sinus congestion, sniff directly from the bottle or the tissue. It's also great for headaches. Put one drop of peppermint essential oil, into a bit of carrier oil, and rub it on your forehead, the back of your neck. Be very careful to stay away from your eyes. I have had peppermint in my eye, and I can tell you it's nothing I wish to repeat.

Liz Fulcher [00:13:51]:
You know what to do if that happens. If you do get any essential oil in your eye, get a clean tissue, put carrier oil on it, and wipe it through your eye, and the oil will adhere. The essential oil will will adhere to the carrier. The other thing with peppermint is the menthol makes it terrific to stop itching. Again, with anything. If if a bug bite is itchy, a mosquito bite, if you have poison ivy that's itchy, peppermint is a great anti pruritic, which means it helps to stop itching. The next essential oil on my list, as I look at it, I'm wondering why I put it in first aid, but I'll let you be the judge. Lemongrass essential oil, citronella essential oil, and catnip essential oils are all very effective mosquito repellents.

Liz Fulcher [00:14:41]:
So let's look at it from a safety point of view that, you know, you get mosquito bites and they scratch. I Hey, I'll tell you a little story here. One that I haven't told yet on the podcast. I had a mosquito bite on my leg. It was in my oh, I know where it was. It was on my shin. We're talking this was in the eighties, but I remember this really well. This was before essential oils came into my life.

Liz Fulcher [00:15:03]:
I had a mosquito bite on my shin of my left leg, and it itched and it itched and it itched, and I scratched and scratched. Unconsciously, I was in a working in an office, and I sort of reached down and scratch and scratch. And I noticed it started to get quite red. It was about as big as a quarter, and then a 50¢ piece, and then as big as an orange, and it just kept getting more and more red, and the red started creeping up toward my knee. At this point, I I called the doctors to come in immediately. I honestly don't remember the diagnosis, if it was cellulitis, but what had happened was by my scratching the mosquito bite, I created an infection, and had to immediately start taking antibiotics. I stayed home for 2 days with my leg elevated taking antibiotics. So mosquito bites are not anything to really be taken lightly.

Liz Fulcher [00:15:51]:
They are annoying as anything. It's an open wound where anything can get in there. Going back to the purpose of these oils, lemongrass, symbipogancitratus, citronella, symbipogan nardis, and catnip essential oil, nepetocateria. They're all very effective mosquito repellents. You could add 10 drops of essential oil to an ounce of water in a spray bottle, and spray your clothing, and spray around you. You do wanna be really careful about having it directly on your skin. If you want to do that, I'd recommend adding it to a lotion or something, because the lemongrass and citronella are very high in aldehydes, and essential oils in the aldehyde chemical family can be very irritating to the skin. So you wanna make sure that if you do apply them to the skin, you have a good carrier to protect your tissue.

Liz Fulcher [00:16:44]:
In terms of efficacy against mosquitoes, catnip wins hand down. But I'll tell you, it smells like death. It is just the worst smelling oil, but it is just so effective against mosquitoes. So what I would recommend is you add another essential oil to it that smells better. I like to use uranium with it. Even lemongrass would be good with it, but something that's sort of strong smelling that kinda help cover up the the smell of the catnip. Again, if you're using any of these directly on your skin, add a carrier. The next essential oil on our list is thyme.

Liz Fulcher [00:17:23]:
Timeless vulgaris, chemotype, Linolol. There are several types of, thyme. In fact, there are loads of different varieties, but there are also several chemotypes. A chemotype means that the plant produces a lot of one specific type of, chemical. And chemotype linalool tends be the one that's the most gentle on the skin. Thyme essential oil can be pretty hot, and burning, and irritating. Thymosulgaris, chemotype, Linolol tends to be a little more gentle. So that is the one I recommend.

Liz Fulcher [00:18:00]:
In terms of why do we want this in our kit, because time is such a great tick repellent. I live in a part of the world. I live in Pennsylvania, the northeast of the United States, actually a lot of the United States, but in particular where I am in the Northeast, is very, heavy in ticks, especially in the summertime. So So we have to be very careful. Those of us who go camping, even just actually playing in your yard, with your kids, they can get ticks. I have had massage clients that in fact, in my massage career, I've had to reduce reduce. I've had to remove 4 ticks off of my clients. I keep a very specific tick tweezers.

Liz Fulcher [00:18:42]:
It's super super, skinny and pointy, and it's really easy to remove the tic. Here we are talking about tics again. Because at but none of these people knew that they had tics, because it was always on the back of their body. So I have seen plenty of tics, and I've also had tics on me, and so has my husband because we can't. How would you use it? I would drop thyme oil all around the cuff of your pants, directly on your socks. Generally, they tell you, and this is what I do, wear white socks all the way up to the knee. So that if they are on your lower leg, you can see them. They also also say wear long sleeves, which seems so counterintuitive when it's hot.

Liz Fulcher [00:19:21]:
I basically just continually check myself, then at the end of the day, I strip down and I check from top to bottom. My husband would say to Nico, my grandson, when he was little, check up as far as possible, check down as far as possible, and then check possible. Because they love nooks and crannies. So, ticks, you know, they don't care. They have no pride. They go wherever they want. I can't guarantee that time will keep you tick free. However, it is a very good deterrent.

Liz Fulcher [00:19:54]:
So use it on your clothing. You can also use it in a roll on, and that's a great way. You take essential oil of thyme and add it into a carrier oil. I would recommend fractionated coconut oil because it has a really good shelf life. In the show notes, I'll put a link to how to make your own rollerball applicator. I'm gonna have a lot of links for you today in the podcast. Aromaticwisdompodcast.comforward/72. That's where you'll find all the show notes.

Liz Fulcher [00:20:25]:
Okay. I have 3 more essential oils for your kit. The next one is lemon, citrus lemon. Lemon is a natural hemostatic that stops bleeding. 1 or 2 drops neat directly on the bleeding wound will stop the bleeding pretty fast. And this, I've had an experience where I had a woman that was cleaning my home actually and cut her hand. The back of her hand was bleeding. And we washed it, and I put a little bit of lemon essential oil right on it.

Liz Fulcher [00:20:55]:
Yes. It is one of the few times you can use it neat. Put a band aid over it, and within no time it'll stop bleeding. The next essential oil, it's another hot oil, and I know it's weird that I'm giving you all these irritating oils, but they all have they're they're very powerful oils. And when you're putting together a first aid kit, you do not want, wussy medicine. You want some some essential oils that are gonna address your issue. Clove essential oil, Eugenia carafilata, is one that is great for mouth pain, specifically for a toothache. So if someone has a toothache in the middle of the night, or you're, say, camping or traveling and you can't get to the dentist, if you put one drop of clove oil on a q tip and rub it around the sore tooth, around the gum, yes, be very careful you don't get around the sides of your mouth, like the corners of your mouth, because it is a very hot oil.

Liz Fulcher [00:21:47]:
But I tell you, the benefits outweigh the risks when you've got a toothache. So if somebody if there's probably no chance that anyone's gonna get a toothache, you don't necessarily have to travel with it or anything like that. But you may wanna keep it in your home first aid kit. Again, be very careful of mucus membranes, you wanna stay away from nose, the corners of your mouth, even on your lips. Just try to rub it right around the the area where the toothache is, and then of course immediately see a dentist as soon as you can. This is just a stop gap measure. While we're on the topic of clove, I'm gonna throw this bit of information in there as well. Since you've already got it in your first aid kit, it is another thing to consider for pain.

Liz Fulcher [00:22:33]:
Always dilute clove, because again it can be very irritating, but it can give such relief. So if you've got a boo boo, bruise, and you've knocked your elbow or something like that, and maybe you're getting out your German chamomile, your helichrysum for inflammation and bruising, you can throw a little clove in there as well. And by throw a little in, I mean, 1 or 2 drops because the component eugenol is really good for numbing pain. And actually, peppermint can do that as well, but I find clove to be more effective. The final essential oil I'm gonna recommend for your first aid kit is frankincense, Boswellia carteri. Frankincense is also good for pain. It's great for wound care, for adding a little bit to if you do have a topical wound, tea tree is terrific, and you can add a little frankincense to that as well. In fact, it's so good for wound care that I have a friend who's a a registered nurse.

Liz Fulcher [00:23:27]:
And in the hospital, they have a blend that they make with tea tree and frankincense. Honestly, I don't know what the carrier is. I'm pretty sure the carrier is a salve, and they use that on bed sores to heal them quickly. The other reason why I love frankincense is it is great to open up the breathing pathways. In other words, it's great for an asthma attack. I had a massage client have an asthma attack on the table. When I first started my massage practice way back in the nineties, I I started in a gym. So I was the it was actually I was an independent practitioner.

Liz Fulcher [00:24:05]:
I rented a room and it was in a gym. So most of my clients were people who came off the floor after working out. And I had a woman who had exercise induced asthma. I didn't even know at the time that it was a thing. And on the massage table, she started to have an asthma attack. So I did 2 things. The first was I did Shiatsu on her arm on the the the, lung meridian. And then I got out frankincense essential oil, and I had her breathe it.

Liz Fulcher [00:24:34]:
I actually put it on my hand. I put it sort of over her nose and mouth and had her breathe it in. So first of all, taking those deep breaths kinda helped calm her, and I rubbed some in her chest. After about 5 to 7 minutes, she was able to take a full deep breath. With the wisdom of years and as someone who has adult onset asthma, the first thing I would have asked is do you have an inhaler? That probably would have been smart, but when you know better, you do better. Those are the essential oils I'm recommending today. There are many, many more that you may prefer to put into your kit. There may be some you don't agree with.

Liz Fulcher [00:25:12]:
It's a very personal thing to put together a first aid kit. You know your family. You know yourself. You know the situations that are likely to occur. If you have a bunch of little boys, you're gonna want a lot of tea tree. And if you have a lot of older people who maybe just can't sleep, you want a lot of lavender. You don't have to create the first aid kit to accommodate your specific needs. Alright.

Liz Fulcher [00:25:37]:
Let's move in. Alright. Let's move into the next aspect of our first aid kit, which is carriers to include, that you want to mix with your essential oils. So you're going to wanna have a couple of small bottles of carriers to use as a base to mix essential oils in before applying. Of course, as always, that's for the protection of our skin. We do not use essential oils neat except in certain special circumstances. And quite honestly, first aid is often when that happens. Using tea tree neat on a wound.

Liz Fulcher [00:26:11]:
Using lavender neat on a burn. Using lemon, neat on a cut to stop the bleeding. There are certainly times when it's appropriate to use them neat. You just don't wanna do it all the time because then you can get essential oil sensitization. I wrote a really popular blog post called essential oil blending guidelines and dilutions. I'll put that in there, so you know how much to mix. And I'll also share with you a blog post I wrote, maybe it's a podcast, about sensitization. Sensitization is a very scary phenomenon, and it will really hinder your love and use of essential oils.

Liz Fulcher [00:26:49]:
So please be very mindful about not using them randomly, undiluted on the skin. I feel like a broken record, and yet I will continue to to repeat that in my podcast, in my classroom. You always wanna put your carriers in a clean, empty 1 ounce or 2 ounce PET, flip top plastic bottles. And I'll put some links where you can get those on Amazon. Maybe you have a source, but some people don't. So I'll put that in there for you in the show notes. Alright. The vegetable oils that I recommend are cold pressed, hexane free organic jojoba oil and or organic fractionated coconut oil.

Liz Fulcher [00:27:29]:
I don't feel strongly about the fractionated coconut oil being organic. If you have the choice and the money isn't that big of an issue, you always wanna go organic. The reason why I recommend these 2 vegetable oils, as a carrier is because they're very stable. They have a really long shelf life. They won't become rancid if they're stored in your first aid kit all year or all summer. If you use any sort of a vegetable oil that is a nut, they will oxidize, and they'll go rancid, and they stink. But especially in hot weather. So that would be almond oil, avocado oil, things like that.

Liz Fulcher [00:28:07]:
If you imagine the source of the oil, if you left that out on the countertop, it would eventually become oxidized and go bad. So, peanut oil, all of those I would not use. So that's the first vegetable. Those are the first two vegetable oils I recommend. Next is, I would always make sure you have aloe vera gel. Now, be careful here. There is a lot of garbage out there calling itself aloe vera gel. Again, I have a blog post and a podcast episode I wrote on this topic.

Liz Fulcher [00:28:43]:
I will put both of those links in the show notes. But this is an important one if you're unfamiliar with aloe vera gel. A lot of people listening to this podcast already have sources that they love. Mountain Rose Herbs has an incredible aloe vera gel that I love. A lot of people have their sources. However, if you're new to aloe vera gel or if you're new to, for example, if you just go down to the drugstore to buy aloe vera gel when you're burned, it's probably green or blue. It should be clear or transparent. It should I'm gonna say it.

Liz Fulcher [00:29:17]:
It should be like, kinda like snot. It's sort of slimy and translucent and sort of milky. That is when it is organic, bottled without preservatives and freshly made. There's another one I really like that I use by 7 Minerals, and I get that on Amazon, if I don't get it from my other sources. So the reason I recommend Aloe Vera gel in your first aid kit, is because it is cooling, soothing and in particular for burns. So naturally, aloe vera gel and lavender are best buds when it comes to burns. So you wanna put those 2 together, and honestly you will be amazed how little pain there is with a bad burn. Honestly, if you are eating a and I know that those of you, especially Americans, who have marshmallows, toasted marshmallows around the fire.

Liz Fulcher [00:30:11]:
They'll get this. Have you ever burned your mouth on a hot marshmallow hiding in your s'more? Or even if you put it in your mouth and it kinda gets stuck on the roof of your mouth and you can't get it out fast enough and then the inside of your mouth is burned. Gosh. How would I possibly know about that experience? I've had my share of marshmallows and burns. So if that happens, you can swish Well, I would probably use lavender hydrosol first, and swish and swish and swish. However, you can also take aloe vera gel and swish that around in your mouth, and it will help soothe the burn in your, it would most likely be on the roof of your mouth. But honestly, hot coffee, hot soup, I know it's we're talking summertime, but you know, we still eat hot things even in the summer. Pizza and so forth.

Liz Fulcher [00:30:57]:
If you burn your mouth, you can use lavender hydrosol, you can use nice cool aloe vera gel, which I always keep in the fridge. Because my family's outside a lot when the weather's warm, I always make sure I have a couple of premade 4 ounce bottles of aloe lavender essential oil blended. So I take 4 ounces of aloe, and I use I make it at a 3% dilution, and I keep that in my fridge. That is so I just grab it, and sometimes I'll even use it when I come out of the sun, just in case, or even just to kind of heal my skin from sun damage. Aloe does not have a long shelf life, and I'm by not along, I'm gonna say maybe a year, if it's refrigerated. It's one of those fragile products that you want to keep cool and buy, frequently. Don't don't hoard it or save it up, because you'll have something that smells like sour milk. If you are camping, for example, if you are, let's see, at the beach.

Liz Fulcher [00:32:02]:
Any situation where you are temporarily outside and you have a cooler with ice for your drinks, put your aloe in there as well. Another carrier that I would keep in the first aid kit is Arnica salve. Arnica montana. The Arnica plant is really amazing. It has a ton of therapeutic properties that you really want when, you know, the unexpected happens. Especially if you're far from a doctor. Arnica salve can really help with muscle pain. So if you've walked too much that day, you're at Disney, if you've been hiking, it is great for, healing bruises especially when it's blended with helichrysum.

Liz Fulcher [00:32:44]:
Arnica salve is it's just an amazing product, so you gotta throw that in there, and you can again use it as a on its own or as a base with essential oils. I would also recommend you put in a little bit of trauma oil, that's almost a given. I love trauma oil and I always have it at home. I have it for my massage practice. I have it for my family because we're very active. I have it, sometimes just to give to people. If somebody is my neighbor, has had an accident, I'll give them a little bit. It's an incredible oil.

Liz Fulcher [00:33:22]:
It is an infusion, which means it's a blend of 3 organic flowers that have been soaked in organic olive oil. And those three flowers are calendula, calendula. Saint John's wort, hyperchium perforatum, and arnica. Here we go again. Arnica montana. Trauma oil can be used for pain, bruising, wound care, muscle soreness, arthritis. It can bring down swelling. It can reduce inflammation.

Liz Fulcher [00:33:52]:
It helps to increase the healing process. It is like a little first aid kit. All it's like a first aid kit in a bottle, and that is one I reach for either to use on its own, or to add my essential oils to. In particular, that's the one that I grab to use with helichrysum for a really serious bruise. I've done both a podcast and a blog post on that, and I'll put the links in the show notes. The final carrier that I'm going to recommend is called calamine lotion. That's what we call it here in the United States. I honestly don't know what it's called country to country, but it is a pink liquid that you can buy over the counter, and it is great for mild itchiness, for pruritus.

Liz Fulcher [00:34:40]:
It's used topically for itchiness, for chicken pox, poison ivy, bug bites, and because it's a liquid, you can actually use it as a carrier. You can put your essential oils directly in the lotion and rub it on the skin. It's a weird product because it's liquid, but when it dries on the skin, it's chalky. And so you've got these big white chalky blotches on your skin. But when you're suffering especially from poison ivy, you don't care. Now, I'll tell you. Years ago, I developed a recipe for a calamine lotion that I make and it is really good. I have had such luck with myself on I have had poison ivy, and I've know people who've had very serious cases of poison ivy that have used this and gotten tremendous relief.

Liz Fulcher [00:35:27]:
Of course, I've written a blog post about it. I'll put the link to that in the show notes, but involves clays, and hydrosol, and baking soda, and a little essential oils. And of course, peppermint because peppermint is great for itches. Okay. And now, let's talk about some other items you want to include in your first aid kit. Not necessarily natural or essential oils, just things that you should have. Gauze, medical tape, moleskin patches for blisters. Also, they're good for blister prevention.

Liz Fulcher [00:36:05]:
Band aids in assorted sizes. Also, you get waterproof band aids. You want a tourniquet. Wow. You can definitely that's a life saving accoutrement to your first aid kit. Small scissors, a tick removal tool. You can find those all over Amazon. I'm going to put links to as many of these things as I can.

Liz Fulcher [00:36:25]:
Otherwise, honestly, just look in your local, big box store like Walmart, First oh, there's no Kmart, Target, whatever the or Boots, whatever your country has is is their big box store, or of course, Amazon. Let's see. Small ziplock bags for keeping any ticks you remove. They can be taken tested for Lyme's disease. Mercury free old fashioned thermometer and case. That no batteries are required, that's why I recommend that. Children and adults electrolyte powder. A bottle of water.

Liz Fulcher [00:37:01]:
If your first aid kit's gonna be sitting for a long time though, put it in a BPA free water bottle or what I use actually is a stainless bottle. A venom extraction kit for insects, spiders and snakes. If there's any risk of an allergic reaction to plants, bites, or stings, you are gonna get a couple of EpiPen's. EpiPen's and asthma inhaler. You know, put those in red pouches so they're easy to find in an emergency. I'm sure I'm missing something, but, oh, things like q tips, but that's that's basically it. And then in terms of the containers, that's kind of fun. I love to go to thrift stores, yard sales, and buy and make my own things, DIY as much as possible.

Liz Fulcher [00:37:52]:
I love to find a new purpose for an old thing, so you can use to create a first aid kit. You can certainly use a box. You can use an old purse, a tote bag. I personally love to use, and I've got this at a thrift store, a travel pouch that unfolds and it's all clear, so I can see everything that's inside. And then you can label everything so that if somebody, you know try to put yourself in the shoes of the person who's going to be using the kit in time of emergency, and open it up and put yourself in that situation. Would I be able to find things easily? What would be the things that would be the most urgent? Things like a tourniquet, the asthma inhaler, the EpiPen. Those things, make sure that they are front and center, and also, make sure there's a reference sheet inside the first aid kit. Include a list of what each essential oil does, why it's in the first aid kit.

Liz Fulcher [00:38:54]:
This is a great reminder, for someone who needs to use the kit, but doesn't really have any experience with essential oils, or even for yourself, if in a moment of panic you don't remember why you put that essential oil in there. And then a truly complete first aid kit will have some conventional products like, Acetaphetamine. I can never say that word. Acetaminophen. I always call it Acetaminimini minimini. Acetaminipin or Ibuprofen, Water free hand sanitizer. Any prescription medications in addition to all the items I've already said. So I'm curious what I have forgotten.

Liz Fulcher [00:39:34]:
It feels comprehensive, but someone out there is listening saying, but Liz, you forgot something really important. Well, then please tell me and I will mention it in another podcast episode. Wow. This episode has gotten long. I did share an awful lot of information, and if you're still listening, thank you so much. And you know what I will give you as a reward? I'm gonna let you smell my life. If you're new to the podcast, the little segment called smell my life is where I share some aromatic experience I had recently. And this week, I'm going to tell you about something I did with lemongrass.

Liz Fulcher [00:40:20]:
This is a very short, very unsexy segment of smell my life, but it's real life. I had a bottle of lemongrass essential oil, and I knew it was getting close to the end of its shelf life. It was a 1 ounce bottle and it was probably about a quarter left. Now normally I don't like to do that, have so much headspace in a bottle because it tends to, deteriorate the oil faster. But whatever, that's what I did. So I had it and I didn't want to use it anymore therapeutically, so I knew I would use it in cleaning. So what I did was, I do a lot of dishes by hand. I actually enjoy washing dishes by hand.

Liz Fulcher [00:41:02]:
I know I'm a weirdo. Right? And I also enjoy pulling weeds. They're both very meditative. And I take my time and I experience the feel of the water and the feel of the dirt. Blah blah blah. So I tend to wash, and it's also just my husband and I, so we don't have a lot, and I do dishes by hand. Therefore, I have a pump bottle with dish soap right next to the sink. I unscrewed the lid, poured all the lemongrass essential oil into the dish soap.

Liz Fulcher [00:41:32]:
And honestly, was a commercial dish of method. I think one of those, all natural commercial ones. And I screwed it back on and I shook, and I shook, and I shook. Now, I feel comfortable using the lemongrass essential oil on my hands for the dishes because it's in a carrier, so to speak, which is the dish soap. So, I used it up in that way. And every time I do the dishes, it smells really nice. Smells like lemongrass. It's got some antiseptic properties.

Liz Fulcher [00:42:00]:
Very often I will wear gloves, so I don't worry too much about sensitization. That is this week's smell my life. Thank you again for listening to the Aromatic Wisdom podcast. It warms my heart. Every email that I receive from you, all the the patrons, I just am in awe of you guys. And thank you so much for giving me a purpose to talk. Otherwise, I would have to speak to my cats all day. And like this, I know somebody's actually listening.

Liz Fulcher [00:42:32]:
Okay. Until next time, my friends. Be happy. Be well.