Do you experience unexplained skin reactions after eating certain foods or using cosmetics with ingredients derived from certain plants? If you don’t have any allergies, then salicylates could be the guilty party. This chemical compound occurs naturally in many plants that we eat every day, like strawberries, broccoli, spinach, ginger, honey, and many more. Besides naturally occurring in our food, salicylates are also synthetically manufactured and both the natural and synthetic versions are widely used in medications, skincare products, food, hair care, perfume, and other products. Salicylates are typically used because of the properties that make them a preservative, bactericidal (kills bacteria), and antiseptic.
Most of us have no problem with salicylates. Our bodies can handle the quantities that are in our food perfectly fine. The added salicylates coming through medications and cosmetics are also processed and broken down safely for most of us. However, large doses can cause problems for anyone.
What is salicylate sensitivity?
Some people have a salicylate sensitivity (sometimes referred to as salicylate intolerance) where the body is unable to properly metabolise and excrete salicylates and even a small quantity can be a problem. Salicylate sensitivity is an adverse reaction to the presence of salicylates that manifests in allergy-like symptoms. It’s not known what percentage of people have salicylate sensitivity, but studies have found that rates are more frequent in people who suffer from asthma, food allergies and inflammatory bowel disease (reference). Salicylate sensitivity can also be developed through over-exposure to high quantities of salicylates for long periods of time.
Salicylate sensitivity can be tough to identify since it manifests like a food allergy with responses that can include stomach pain, diarrhoea, swelling, itchy skin, hives, rashes, skin discolouration, breathing difficulty, fatigue, itchy eyes, and more (reference). There are currently no tests for salicylate sensitivity either, so one way of identifying the sensitivity is to rule out other allergies. If you think you might have a salicylate sensitivity it is best to see your doctor.
Salicylates in skincare
Salicylates naturally occur in most, if not all essential oils, and so even skincare products that are 100% organic, made solely from natural ingredients can trigger adverse reactions for people with salicylate sensitivities if they use ingredients that naturally contain salicylates. Totally avoiding salicylates can be nearly impossible, but as a guide, if you have salicylate sensitivity or have reactions to your skincare products look for ingredients marked as salicylic acid (often labelled as beta hydroxy acid or BHA), methyl salicylate, sodium salicylate and calcium salicylate.
You are most likely to find salicylates in products that are marketed as anti-dandruff, anti-acne or exfoliating. This is because salicylates help to lift and remove the outer layer of dead skin. You will also want to look for any fruit extracts and essential oils. The percentage of salicylates in fruit extracts and essential oils is much higher than in the whole food form, so they are more likely to contribute to sensitivity than simply eating the food.
Think of it like fruit juice. It is easy to drink 1 litre of orange juice. It’s a lot harder to eat the number of oranges required to get 1 litre of juice. In having the juice, you are having higher quantities of things like sugar (and salicylates) than you might have had were you to have eaten the whole fruit. Essential oils and fruit extracts are the same.
Continuing with the above metaphor, if you are on a salicylate-free diet, a piece of fruit alone might not trigger a reaction, but a small amount of juice could since it is more concentrated. Essential oils and fruit extracts are concentrated even further.
Salicylate-free ingredients in skincare
Generally, oils from seeds and butters do not contain salicylates or are extremely low in salicylates. Waxes are also usually free from salicylates. Look for ingredients like:
Moisturisation makes a huge difference when you have dry, flaky, itchy, scaly skin that comes with an intolerance to salicylates. Being able to lock that moisture in reduces the itchiness and risk of skin breakage that can make salicylate sensitivity even less tolerable.
Zero Tolerance Cream All Over Moisturiser
At Arianrhod Aromatics, Iamme specifically developed the Zero Tolerance Cream for people who have extremely sensitive skin and who cannot tolerate salicylates or essential oils.
Zero Tolerance Cream is a 100% natural primary moisturiser intended to provide hydration all over the body without any fragrances or other ingredients that may cause irritation. The base ingredients of Zero Tolerance Cream are cocoa butter, cupuaçu butter and rice bran oil, all of which are salicylate-free and will help soothe your irritated skin. Combined with a touch of silk amino acids to lock in the moisture and Zero Tolerance Cream will keep your skin hydrated and itch-free.
Here’s what one of our customers has said about Zero Tolerance Cream:
“Always a winner. I have been buying this for years & now buy for my daughter & sister who love it too.”
A second choice from the Arianrhod Aromatics range is Hemp Cream. As the name suggests, Hemp Cream is based on hemp flower oil combined with rice bran oil and silk amino acids to provide a nutrient-rich moisturiser for use all over your body that is both salicylate-free and histamine-free.
Arianrhod Aromatics Hemp Cream was developed to be an alternative to Zero Tolerance Cream for customers who are looking for the benefits of a completely natural hemp-based moisturiser. Hemp has been used throughout the ages in skincare routines as it is an excellent skin rejuvenator with healing properties that are second to none.
If your skin is already suffering from severe salicylate sensitivity dryness and irritation, Hemp Cream is the best choice to help your skin heal. Our customers rave about how effective our Hemp Cream is, here’s what Tanya told us:
“Quality product! Easily absorbed into the skin. Very soothing, so incredibly healing. I have been struggling with redness & scarring on my face & neck for many years. Noticeable difference within one month, I couldn’t be happier. Thank you Arianrhod Aromatics.”
Do you want to make some money on the side? Have you got an idea for an awesome new deodorant scent that compliments something else you sell? Or do you have an idea of how your business could leverage skincare as a unique value-add for your customers? If so, how do you start your own skincare business? Where do you even begin?
The idea of researching and investing in the equipment to manufacture your own line of skincare products seems like way too much effort and cost for a side hustle, but, it is possible to get started without all that time and investment.
You don’t need to know how to manufacture in order to make and sell a good product that people will love. There are a couple of options available to help you sell without having to know a thing.
But before you get started on selling, you need to make some decisions to help set yourself up for success!
Choose your niche and products
Now comes the fun part! Picking what niche you want to operate in, and subsequently what products you want to sell. Maybe you have already found the products, but you still need to know who is going to buy them (your niche).
Picking your niche
Picking a niche is a lot of fun, but it can be a challenge at the same time. If you aren’t sure where to start, I would suggest that if you’ve come up with a product that meets a need for you, you could look at yourself as the buyer.
Most of the time, we identify potential opportunities based on problems, or gaps in the market, that we have found in our own lives. So, that’s a great place to start.
Who are you? How would you describe people who are like you? Perhaps your niche is men aged between 20 and 40 who have sensitive facial skin and get bad razor burn. Maybe it’s women aged 35-50 who work in a corporate environment and get really dry skin from constant air-conditioner exposure.
Perhaps you are coming at this from left-field and have noticed that throwing in a bottle of skin-sensitive hand sanitiser is a great way to sweeten client deals and help close the sale – plus it means they are carrying your logo around with them all day long!
It’s up to you, and there is a lot of research you can do on this, but the more specific you can be about who your skincare products will help, the more effectively you will be able to develop and market them.
Remember, an awesome, natural hand sanitiser that serves as a great marketing device is going to need different thought put into it than a product aiming at helping a customer solve a problem.
Finding your products
If you aren’t sure what skincare products you want to sell, there are a few great places to look to see what is currently in demand. Have a look at current trends in search and buying behaviours on e-commerce marketplaces like eBay and Amazon.
Here’s some great places to check for buyer trends:
You can also explore trends in search behaviour on the Google Trends website. This can be broken down by country and regions within countries so you can really hone in on trends in the area you want to sell to.
Focus on products to suit your niche
Stay away from broad product categories and generic products. It can be pretty hard to compete for general terms and products that are intended for ‘everyone’. The only exception to this is if you happen to have some celebrity status or following. One crazy example of this is a plain white t-shirt. You can’t really compete with the likes of Kmart that sell these for just a few dollars unless you are Kanye West. Then you can sell a plain white t-shirt for $120 and it will sell out, repeatedly.
If you aren’t Kanye (or Kim), it’s best to create very specific products that meet the needs and desires of your niche, and sometimes this is in the product, other times it’s just in the packaging. For example, instead of a moisturiser that looks like everyone else, you might have more success using branding and labels that feature sayings that people in your niche can relate to at the times they are most likely to use it. Giving someone a laugh can go a long way. There are some great examples of this on RedBubble, like this INTP sarcastic functions t-shirt. I would expect a shirt like this to appeal to most INTP people (like me) who are aware of their Myers-Briggs personality type.
Just be sure though that your product is in line with your brand and that if you are going for quality, your product represents that. Jokes might not be the right choice if you are going for a premium image.
If you aren’t sure what your niche is yet, but you have come up with a product you want to sell, look at what makes that product unique. Think about who is going to want these unique properties. Hone in on the details until you can identify very specific kinds of people. Make them your niche and promote the benefits that they want. If you can’t get that level of detail from your skincare product, it might not be a good choice for starting out. You need to know who it is that will want your product in order to make sure you get your product in front of them.
Think carefully about your product price
High-value items can be harder to sell. Generally speaking, people are less likely to spend $100 on an impulse purchase than they are a $40 item, unless that impulse purchase can solve a serious problem they are having. As a result, more expensive products will also get you more customer scrutiny. The higher the customer risk (the money they are letting go of), the more research they will do into the product, and into your store. They are more likely to check reviews and want to know how trustworthy you and your products are.
Quick sales are great little wins for you, but you need enough margin for the product to be worth selling, especially when you factor in running promos like free shipping. Look at products around the $30-$60 mark that are low-cost to deliver. This is cheap enough to still be an impulse purchase, but should still be high enough to give you a decent margin. Once you start moving your first product, then look at more expensive options you can offer to upsell your customers on.
Reselling or contract manufacturing?
Now you have some idea on your skincare products, should you go with reselling someone else’s products or start manufacturing your own products?
Reselling
Resale is what much of the retail industry is built upon. Reselling products is simply the idea of buying a product someone else has made, usually at a wholesale price, and then reselling it at a retail price.
In this model, you find a supplier for the products you want to sell, this could be direct with a manufacturer like Arianrhod Aromatics, or it may involve a middleman called a distributor.
In either case, you choose the products you want to sell from the supplier’s range, and order from them. Once they receive the order, they ship the product to you, and you then sell it. The products will always have the manufacturer’s branding on them and you will have no options to customise any products. You are buying products off the shelf.
This is a great model for getting started in retail as it gives you access to the reputation of a larger brand, typically the brand that makes the skincare products you are selling. Customers often already have a relationship with that brand and know whether they trust the product or not, so you don’t need to do any convincing on that front, you just have to convince buyers to trust your store to deliver the product.
Resale is also a great option for getting started since you have low investment costs. Typically, suppliers will require minimum order quantities in order to offer you wholesale pricing, but otherwise, there is nil cost.
The big trade-off though is that everyone else is probably also selling the same product from the same brand and so you are competing with them to get in front of customers and make the sale. Some big chain retailers have very deep pockets so it can be difficult to compete with them on the same product.
On the other hand, if you can find a boutique skincare brand that has products that fit the niche you are looking for, but is not sold in major chains, like Arianrhod Aromatics, you can get a little bit of both worlds: an established brand to leverage with much less competition.
Pros of reselling
Only upfront costs are the costs of buying the product to sell
Access to an established brand reputation
No product development time
Products are typically available to ship immediately
Cons of reselling
You have no control over the products
No ability to customise products
You are competing with everyone else that is selling the same product from the same brand
Contract manufacturing
Contract manufacturing combines the knowledge, experience and equipment of a quality skincare manufacturer (like Arianrhod Aromatics) with the ability to order and manufacture products on-demand without even needing to leave your lounge.
In other words, you discuss the type of skincare product you would like to manufacture with the experienced manufacturing company, and they do the hard yards. They come up with the appropriate ingredients, manufacturing techniques and even packaging to meet your requirements. Of course, you can have a hand in the process too, but you don’t have to if you don’t want to.
Once your product has been developed, you simply place an order based on the minimum quantity that can be manufactured at a time (usually low when you choose a boutique manufacturer like Arianrhod Aromatics that handles small batches). The contract manufacturer will go ahead and produce your skincare products for you. Before you know it, your skincare order will be at your fingertips, made to your specifications and with your own branding, ready to sell.
Awesome, right? Here are the pros and cons of contract manufacturing.
Pros of contract manufacturing
Low cost way of starting your own skincare business
You don’t have to invest in equipment
You don’t need to learn any skills
You don’t need to purchase ingredients or packaging
You can have as much or as little involvement in the product creation process as you like
Your product gets developed with knowledge and experience that takes decades to gain
Your brand is on the products, keeping you front of mind
Products appear at your door, ready to sell
Cons of contract manufacturing
You are relying on another business to supply your product
If anything happens to the manufacturer, you may not be able to reproduce your product
Minimum order quantities may be higher than if you made it yourself (can be negated by choosing a boutique manufacturer that specialises in small quantity manufacturing)
Brand yourself
Ok, you have a product. You know your niche. Now who are you?
It’s time to think about how you are going to brand your business.
Choose a name
You can spend lots of time brainstorming ideas, running them by friends and family, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. Some of the best names are made up, like Google, and other great ones are multiple words mixed into one word, like WordPress. In any case, your name should in some way represent your brand and appeal to your niche.
At Arianrhod Aromatics, our name comes from the Celtic stellar and lunar goddess of time and space, higher love and wisdom. It’s a name that we believe was written for us through destiny as essential elements within our product compositions have a strong connection with the lunar cycle and our products are handcrafted with love and wisdom. You can learn more about our name here.
If you can identify your product and the problem you are solving in your brand name, that can make it easier for customers to identify why they might be interested in what you are selling. Some examples for a brand that is exclusively selling deodorants might be: “Daring Deodorants”, “BO Busters”, or “Deodorant Central”. At Global Hemp Movement, you know from their name that they are all about hemp products.
You can see in the examples above that each name conjures up different images of what kind of deodorants might be sold, and BO Busters is the only one that suggests the store might sell other things besides deodorant, so make sure that, as random as your name might seem, that it does fit with your product and niche.
Also, be sure you aren’t infringing on any trademarks or you could get yourself into a lot of strife. Governments in most countries have trademark searches available. Just search for “trademark search ”, eg “trademark search Australia”, which will bring you to this site. Be aware, there are sites that will charge you to do trademark searches. Never pay for this. Trademarks can be freely searched in the official registries of each country.
Register your brand
Before you start selling, you will need to register your business. In Australia, you can start out by registering for a free Australian Business Number (ABN) as a sole trader. This means you are trading as yourself and any income is considered personal income for taxation purposes. Alternatively, you could incorporate a company. There are costs involved in registering and maintaining a company, and there is a lot more work involved from an accounting and corporate governance perspective, but a company does afford protections that sole trading doesn’t.
You will have to decide on the best approach for you. When I started my business, I started out as a sole trader and then transitioned to an incorporated company once my revenue was high enough to warrant it.
Where will you sell your products?
Are you starting a new business? If so, where are you going to sell your products? Should you open a store? Should you start a market stall? Start a website? Sell on an online marketplace?
All good questions!
Open a store
Opening a store can be a very expensive exercise, and commercial leases are often for many years. Often those leases also have rent increases built into them. Then there is the cost of a shop fit out. Right now, opening a store is potentially even more challenging with Coronavirus restrictions in place. I wouldn’t recommend this option as a starting point. There is a lot of cost involved meaning either a lot of capital or loans. If you do decide to open a store, make sure you know your products are going to move off the shelves quickly and that you have a solid plan! Some experience in retail management is also a very good idea.
Start a market stall
Market stalls are a cheaper way to get started with a physical store. There are still costs involved, such as your stall setup, but the cost of having a stall is typically much less than a store. Most markets are also on weekends, so you can run your stall while also holding down your day job!
At Arianrhod Aromatics, Iamme started with a market stall and grew to stalls at many markets and eventually opened our factory/shop in Murwillumbah.
A market stall is a relatively low-cost way to validate your products and see if people are interested in them. It also presents a way to test your branding. The downside is that there can be a lot of work involved in setting up stalls and then packing them up again each day.
Launch a website
Selling online can be both low and high cost. It’s possible to build your own website very cheaply, but it can be tough if you aren’t familiar with web design concepts. There are a lot of site builders around that do try and make the process easier, but I find that the overall user experience on these platforms does suffer with inconsistent appearance between pages that ultimately becomes quite costly to fix.
If you are looking to get started on the cheap, WordPress and WooCommerce often come up since they are free. However, there are a lot of costs involved with running a WordPress and WooCommerce store. The platforms are also complex to setup without a web design background. If you have just a few products, the best online store building platform, in my opinion, is Ecwid. I wrote an article here comparing WooCommerce and Ecwid for small businesses that goes into a lot of detail on why I recommend it, but the short version is that it works out much cheaper than running a WooCommerce store if you are just starting out, only have a few products, and just want to get up and running without any technical background.
At Arianrhod Aromatics, we are using WordPress and WooCommerce that run a lot of advanced functionality.
Once you choose a platform, you can get started with selling online. You will need to promote your website in some way to help people find it though. This could be via your social media, or you could invest in paid advertising. Hopefully people will find you in Google searches as well, but don’t expect this to happen overnight. Search engine optimisation is a very long, ongoing process that never ends.
Sell through online marketplaces
Online marketplaces like eBay and Amazon are extremely popular and very low cost to get started. You can start selling for free on eBay and just pay a percentage of your product sales, or you can pay for a low-cost store subscription to make your listings more prominent and give you access to better promotional and market research tools that can boost your sales efforts. Amazon is similar, but both have increasingly stringent requirements on what you can sell, and what information you must include, especially Amazon.
Besides low cost to entry, one of the biggest benefits of marketplace selling is that you have access to their existing audience immediately. We’re talking millions of people shopping on each marketplace all around the world. Of course, those people do have to be looking for what you are selling, but as long as your prices are reasonable, there is a good chance that you will start to sell things without doing anything besides entering accurate product information that is relevant to what people are searching for.
One other benefit of marketplaces is that they are doing a lot of marketing, all the time. eBay often runs discount promotions that enable buyers to receive discounts on their orders. Some of these promotions require sellers to participate and offer a discount, other promotions are funded entirely by eBay, so you as the seller still receive the full sale amount even though your customer got a discount. Nice.
The downside is that you may have to wait a while for sales and that you are competing against many, many other sellers who might be selling the same or similar products. Selling a new product can also take a lot of time. Don’t expect to sell things immediately unless you have a well-known product at a fantastic price. Like any sales channel, it takes time to build up consistent sales and you should be promoting it as much as possible.
Our own eBay store gets very little promotion at the moment (I need to work on that) and as a result, sells much lower volumes than our website does. It still sells things, but it’s definitely not a set and forget sales channel if you really want to grow your side hustle into something big.
That’s it!
Of course, there is more nitty gritty that goes into it. Starting a business takes a lot of work and dedication, but it is possible to start your own skincare business on the side with low investment costs.
So, what will you sell? What model will you choose? What will you call your business? And where will you sell?
It seems like only yesterday that I was coming up to the end of year 12 and was preparing for my own HSC exams. I don’t stress easily, in fact, I’ve been accused of being too nonchalant about things. However, there was so much pressure on my HSC exams, it was perhaps one of the most stressful times that I recall, and I was on remote Scottish islands in mid-March 2020 when borders began closing and we had to find our way back to Australia, so that’s saying something! Those same border closures lead to lockdowns and severe disruptions for students this year. I can only imagine how much more stressful it will be with Coronavirus disrupting usual learning routines, creating disconnects in social environments, and putting even more anxiety on students.
Since finishing my HSC exams back in 2006 and (fortunately) beating out my UAI requirements, I’ve gone to complete two bachelor’s degrees, a master’s degree and various industry certification exams. In that time, I’ve learned a few things about preparing for exams. The thing is, they never get any less stressful. However, there are things you can do to reduce that stress and to improve your exam performance.
To help, I’ve put together this guide, based on my own experience and research on natural habits that will help to calm your nerves before exams and improve your results.
HEALTHY HABIT 1
Study in advance rather than cramming
Exams and studying are stressful, it’s tempting to cram the night before, in all honesty, that’s what I used to do. But, if you get organised it makes a massive difference! Do plenty of study in advance so you can get proper sleep while you are studying and especially avoid that late night/all night cram before each exam. I’ll be the first to admit, cramming was my go-to study method for years, and honestly, there is value to having everything you need stuffed into your short-term memory, but it isn’t the best way.
Being organised in advance will help reduce your stress and anxiety simply due to the mental knowledge you have. You know how much preparation you have done. You know how much you know about the subjects being tested, and you know you are prepared. That goes a long way to reducing stress and anxiety. Not to mention, knowing what you know means you can relax before an exam. You might still choose to review your notes while you wait to start the exam, but it’s not a last-ditch effort to make sure you know it, because you already know you know it.
HEALTHY HABIT 2:
avoiding alcohol and sugary beverages
For many students, the last year of school becomes a time of parties and alcohol, but excessive consumption of alcohol has been shown to damage memory recall of both short and long term memory (reference). Ongoing excessive consumption of alcohol can damage the part of the brain that is vital for memory function, the hippocampus (reference). While finishing off your HSC is a time of celebration, maybe save the alcohol until after your exams, and definitely not the night before an exam! No one wants to go into an exam hungover.
It isn’t just alcohol though.
Excessive sugar consumption has been shown to lead to poor memory and reduced brain volume (reference). This isn’t just soft drink’s though, it’s also energy drinks. Energy drinks tend to be chock full of sugars, so while they might give you a boost of energy, the sugar is damaging your memory. Instead of relying on these drinks to get you through exams, use other methods of improving your energy, like sleep, exercise, and aromatherapy.
Reducing your sugar intake is also good for your overall health and wellbeing, which in turn can actually improve your energy and general mental state too.
Instead, drink lots of water and if you want to change it up, flavour it naturally with a slice of lemon, orange, or some berries.
HEALTHY HABIT 3:
regular sleep
Getting good quality, regular sleep is important, both during your study time and in the nights leading up to each exam.
Our brains consolidate memories during our sleep, and in doing so, they are strengthening our synapses, making it easier to remember the things we learn each day (reference). If we don’t get enough sleep each night, then we are missing out on that memory consolidation.
It’s also important to remember to sleep well the night before an exam. Yes, I know, you want to get in every last little bit of cramming, but if you don’t sleep much, or at all, it can leave you feeling rotten on the day of the exam. This won’t help you to remember things and won’t help your confidence either.
Another side effect of missing out on sleep is increased anxiety and irritability which is not great in an exam. This is exacerbated with energy drinks and caffeine. The best solution is to get plenty of sleep.
A number of studies have been conducted into the effects of exercise on cognitive function and memory. The results show that even just 15 minutes worth of exercise on a stationary bike is enough to improve your cognitive ability and recall (reference).
I am terrible at exercising. In all honesty, I would probably be a hermit that disappears into my own little virtual world, if I could. However, I can’t, and regular exercise has been shown to improve the growth and development of neurons in your brain (reference).
At the same time as improving your mental capability, exercise is also helping to improve your physical fitness. Two birds, one stone, even if you do have to do something you don’t like.
I’ll admit, even though I struggle to get motivated to exercise, I do feel much better afterwards and most of my best ideas happen when I go out for a walk!
HEALTHY HABIT 5:
regular, short breaks
While it can be tempting to cram in as much ‘learning’ as possible for as long as possible, it’s important to stop and take regular short breaks where you’re not actually taking in or processing any information. This gives your mind and body an opportunity to rest and rejuvenate, and it gives your brain a chance to process everything you’ve just taken in.
First identified over 100 years ago, subsequent research has found that taking 10-15 minute breaks between topics of study can help with memory retention. Just make sure you spend that time either thinking about what you learned, going for a walk, or meditating, and not things that will occupy your mind with other thoughts, like TV, games, or chores.
Where possible, I like to break my study time into 15-20 minute chunks with a 10-minute break in between.
HEALTHY HABIT 6:
AROMATHERAPY
Aromatherapy is the use of aromas and natural compounds found in essential oils for health and wellbeing. Certain essential oils have been found to improve focus and memory retention while others can reduce tension and anxiety.
Choose an essential oil or blend of essential oils to use while you study that will help you to focus and retain what you are learning, and then use one that will help you to relax in your downtime. If you have trouble sleeping, consider using a blend of oils that will help you to sleep, either in a diffuser or in the form of a pillow mist, sprayed on your pillow before you go to bed.
Aromatherapy for concentration and memory retention
Rosemary and lavender essential oils have been found to help with the retention of image memory, however, while rosemary has also been found to help with number memory, lavender is detrimental to it (reference). This could perhaps in part be a side effect of the calming properties of lavender compared to the stimulating properties of rosemary (reference). Using lavender during your break time, though, can help to release stress and improve concentration when you go back to your studies (reference).
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Peppermint essential oil, like lavender, can serve multiple purposes. You see, peppermint stimulates and relaxes at the same time. Peppermint essential oil has been found to help calm nerves, reduce fatigue and improve oxygen delivery to the brain (reference), all great things while you are studying! By the way, peppermint tea can help with this too!
Lemon essential oil has been shown to improve cognitive function (reference) and improve memory (reference). While the studies into lemon essential oils are largely around patients suffering from illnesses that affect memory, the demonstrated positive effects make it a worthwhile inclusion in your study arsenal!
Then there is basil. Basil essential oil contains a compound called linalool which has been found to reduce memory loss, particularly during times of insufficient sleep (reference). You wouldn’t be missing out on sleep during exam periods by any chance, would you? I know you are making sure to get lots of sleep as we talked about earlier, but regardless, choosing an essential oil blend that has basil in it, or simply using basil essential oil on its own, can be helpful during exam time to reduce memory loss, especially if you are short on sleep.
Our 100% pure essential oil blend, Wakey Wakey is designed to help perk you up, either at the start of a day, or when you are feeling tired partway through the day. Wakey Wakey is also a great choice for exam time. This special blend of basil, cypress (increases concentration), lime, peppermint, and rosemary has been designed specifically to help improve your focus, boost your energy and improve your memory retention, exactly what you need while you are studying.
To help you relax in between studying and in your downtime between exams choose essential oils that are known for their calming and relaxing properties. We mentioned lavender earlier, as it is known to help calm the nerves and reduce stress, but there are other essential oils you can choose. Consider chamomile, patchouli, frankincense (linked to improved spatial memory and reduced anxiety), ylang-ylang (a natural relaxant that helps improve focus), vetiver (reduces stress), and sandalwood (promotes mental clarity) too.
We have two blends that are specifically focused on helping you relax, and you will find ingredients in both of these that are designed to help bring calm and harmony to the mind and body.
Peace Essential Oil Blend: Peace isn’t a ‘restful’ aroma, but rather a spicy blend of lavender, bergamot, cypress, sweet orange and vetiver. Peace helps to clear your mind and bring it to a state of calm. I personally like to have this one diffusing while I work, especially when I have a lot going on.
After Hours Essential Oil Blend: Like Peace, After Hours has a spicy note to it and has been crafted to soothe and uplift after a long day. The tantalising blend of bergamot, cinnamon leaf, clover, lavender, lemon, and rose geranium will help you to unwind after a study session.
Unwind Essential Oil Blend:Designed to help your body to relax and unwind after a stressful day. This can be a good choice to use earlier in the evening. Note, Unwind does not have lavender in it if you are specifically looking for a blend with lavender.
When it comes to sleep, lavender is a great choice, in fact, we have a pillow mist specifically crafted around lavender to help you sleep, Lavender Dreams, but there are other options too. Our Sweet Dreams essential oil blend is formulated specifically to help you drift off to sleep, and our Calm Mind pillow mist will help to settle the restless mind so you can sleep easier.
Sweet Dreams Essential Oil Blend: This essential oil blend is formulated precisely for the purpose of helping you to relax into the warm embrace of sleep. This is one of my personal favourite essential oil blends! Also available as a pillow mist.
Aromatherapy for concentration and memory retention
Rosemary and lavender essential oils have been found to help with the retention of image memory, however, while rosemary has also been found to help with number memory, lavender is detrimental to it (reference). This could perhaps in part be a side effect of the calming properties of lavender compared to the stimulating properties of rosemary (reference). Using lavender during your break time, though, can help to release stress and improve concentration when you go back to your studies (reference).
What you put into your body goes a long way towards what you get out of it. Choosing healthy food makes a big difference. A diet rich in foods that are anti-inflammatory can help improve your memory! This means lots of fruit, vegetables and teas, particularly herbal teas. This kind of diet has been found to lower the risk of cognitive decline (reference) and studies on the intake of foods like blueberries and strawberries that are particularly high in antioxidants like flavonoids and anthocyanins makes a big difference to memory retention (reference)!
Curcumin, a natural compound found in turmeric, has a powerful anti-inflammatory effect on the brain. Curcumin reduces inflammation to the brain and lowers the amount of amyloid plaque accumulating on your brain neurons (reference). Why is this important? These plaques lead to cell and tissue death that cause memory loss. Maybe not such a big deal while you are younger, but every little bit helps, especially as you prepare to enter the next stage of your life, be it tertiary education or the workforce.
Now, I know, sometimes you just need some comfort food during stressful times, I’ve been there (frequently), but eating well doesn’t mean you have to miss out. Chocolate can also be rich in flavonoids! The darker the chocolate (and the lower the sugar), the better!
Studies have shown that people who consume dark chocolate, which is rich in flavonoids, have better memory recall than people who consume white chocolate, which has no flavonoids (reference). Look for 70% cacao mass or higher!
I love chocolate!
HEALTHY HABIT 8:
Listening to classical music while studying
Many studies have been conducted into the effects of music on learning, and while the debate continues, one thing is clear: Classical music helps you learn.
Labelled the Mozart effect, classical music won’t make you smarter as some have suggested, but, like everything else on this list, it can help you to focus and recall what you learn.
Personally, I find it makes a huge difference to my focus when I am studying, and I definitely remember things better. I’ll be completely honest with you, for a long time, I wasn’t convinced, I thought all music was distracting. However, as my master’s degree was nearing completion, I found I had increasing difficulty staying focused while studying.
I decided to try listening to classical music and soon discovered that it did help. Initially, I thought it was just because it reduced the prominence of distractions. I am easily distracted anyway, but let’s be honest, distractions are extremely easy to come by while you are studying. Even a car driving past or a bird singing can be a study distraction! Classical music reduced that. Soon I realised that classical music was not only reducing the distractions, but my mind was wandering less and I was remembering things better too.
I highly recommend giving it a try!
Bringing it all together
There are so many ways that you can calm your nerves before an exam and improve your overall performance during stressful exam periods. However, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Some things are going to work for you and some things won’t. The only way to know for sure is to give them a try.
For me, I spent a long time convinced that cramming the day before and the morning of an exam worked the best. It wasn’t until I started researching and experimenting with different techniques and longer-term habits that I discovered that planning my study out in advance, listening to classical music, using aromatherapy, exercising regularly, and eating better actually made a big difference.
During my HSC and my first bachelor’s degree, I drank a lot of energy drinks (especially my first degree), but I’ve since discovered that eating right, sleeping, and exercising give me more energy and are better choices for my health and overall mental state. There is honestly nothing better than going into an exam with mental clarity and virtually no anxiety, except for finishing an exam and knowing that you knew the answers to every question!
Sleep can be frustratingly elusive at times. That bedtime friend. Peaceful, relaxing, calm, soothing sleep. Sometimes you can spend hours trying to sleep with no luck, your mind is just wide awake, running a mile-a-minute. Other times, you have aches, pains and other potential problems keeping you up. Yet, you know if you could just get to sleep, some of those aches might be relieved. Headaches anyone?
Perhaps it’s not even that. Maybe it’s the noises. You can hear creaking, dripping, or the wildlife outside in the dark. You are almost asleep, but you hear movement somewhere. Footsteps on the roof maybe? What was that sound?
Familiar?
Fortunately, there is a lot that you can do to help improve your sleep naturally and ease your body off to the land of nod.
Environmental factors
Environmental factors are the things around you. The things you see, feel, hear and smell. You can make changes here that help you to sleep better.
Make time for the sunset
The sun plays a big part in our sleep cycles. According to the Sleep Foundation, sunlight regulates our sleeping patterns. Melatonin is a hormone that is produced naturally in our bodies in sync with levels of light. More light = less melatonin. Less light = more melatonin.
Lights can confuse our body clocks, and even simple things like changes in light levels in summer when the days are longer (particularly in places further away from the Equator like Victoria and Tasmania) can throw off our internal clocks.
In Winter, when days are shorter, all the lights we use inside our houses can trick our body clocks. The sun goes down in the evening, but inside your home, does it get darker? Do you see the sun fall off the edge of the world? At some point, the sunlight gets dim enough that you have to turn the lights on, but that might well be before the sun has gone down. In which case, the light levels remain reasonably constant.
Perhaps you are at work in Winter, and the sun goes down before you leave. When I lived in Sydney, I’d leave work in Winter, and it was dark already. I missed the sunset entirely. When I arrived home, the house lights would be on, and that was that.
If you don’t have a lot of windows in your home, or workplace, you might find that you miss the slow fall of the sun over the horizon.
To try and keep your body clock in tune, especially as days get longer and shorter, make time to catch the sunset. Research by GE in developing LED lights to assist with sleep found that the orange and yellow hues we are used to seeing in sunsets help to stimulate melatonin production. If you can see the sunset from where you usually spend the evenings inside your house, that’s awesome! If not try and put yourself somewhere that has windows, or even better, outside.
Other ideas to see the natural change in light (depending on your situation) might include:
Sit on the patio
Move your dinner table to a part of the house that has lots of windows.
Go for an evening walk, ride, or some other form of outdoor activity.
Read a book in a comfy chair where the sunset is visible
If you wanted to put yourself out there, you could find a good seat and take 20 minutes to watch the sun go to sleep for the day. If you can get a good view of it, even better. Sunsets can be absolutely gorgeous, and so often we miss them with our busy schedules!
Seek out the darkness
Continuing with melatonin production and the effects of light on your body, make sure that your bedroom is as dark as possible – close the block out curtains tightly before you go to bed (if you have them). If you don’t have block out curtains, make sure as little light gets in as possible.
If you have a street light outside like I used to, you might want to come up with a solution to ensure it doesn’t disturb you. My bedroom is, unfortunately, located at the front of the house directly opposite a street light. The window only had Venetian blinds on it, so this left a few centimetres around each side of the window that let light in. To add misery to misfortune, the only place in the room that worked for our bed to be located (it’s a really small master bedroom), meant that the street light was glittering through those couple of centimetres straight across my pillow all night long. Not good. I ended up installing block out curtains, I couldn’t handle it.
Tangent aside, next, ensure all the lights are off (obvious right?) and cover any lights that you can’t turn off. One example is the peephole in the door if applicable (eg when you are staying in a hotel). These let in a remarkable amount of light.
Another example that I find particularly annoying when I stay at hotels is the television power LED. Especially when they are directly in front of the bed. The red LED’s don’t bother me as much, but pretty much any other colour can be bothersome and blue is the worst. Blue light is known to disrupt sleep, so try to get rid of or block these if you can. This includes the little LEDs in chargers.
I, personally, am a fan of reducing light throughout the house at least an hour prior to bed, but this isn’t always possible, especially if you have children about. I have one of these Philips Hue systems that let me dim the lights and switch the colours to deep oranges. There is actually a flickering candle mode that I quite like before bed. Switching your lights to these sunset-esque colours can help to signal to your body that you are going to bed soon. Melatonin station here I come!
What if you need to get up in the night? Well…if you can manage in the dark that is awesome – I always try to as much as possible, but it isn’t always safe or practical. Middle of the night cat crazy time anyone (if you’ve ever had a pet cat in the house, you’ll know what I’m talking about)?
If you need to use some light, I would suggest the screen of a smartphone with night mode turned on and the brightness down. This keeps the light to a minimum and reduces the amount of blue light, so it should be the least disruptive to your sleep. I have seen some people go as far as putting red cellophane over their lights so that they are always red light only, meaning they can turn their lights on at night with minimal impact. I’m not a fan of going this far, personally.
If you have smart bulbs like the Philips Hue, you can also set them to emit a dim red light, giving you more visibility with less impact on your melatonin levels. This, in turn, should help to ensure the lights don’t disturb your ability to get back to sleep.
Immerse yourself in aromas that help you to sleep
Aromatherapy isn’t new. It’s a practice that evidence suggests has been in use for at least 6000 years. There are a number of naturally occurring scents that will help you to sleep, and Iamme has formulated a blend called Sweet Dreams that is specifically designed to relax your mind and help you drift off to sleep.
While not formulated as sleep aids, two of Arianrhod’s other blends can also assist and I personally use all three in rotation depending on the time that I turn the diffuser on and how I’m feeling.
Sweet Dreams Essential Oil Blend: This essential oil blend is formulated precisely for the purpose of helping you to relax into the warm embrace of sleep. This is one of my personal favourite essential oil blends in the Arianrhod Aromatics range.
Unwind Essential Oil Blend: Designed to help your body to relax and unwind after a stressful day. This can be a good one to use earlier in the evening, but it is still a great option at bedtime.
Peace Essential Oil Blend: This one isn’t exactly a ‘restful’ aroma, Iamme calls it ‘spicy’, and I’d agree with that. Peace helps to clear your mind and bring it to a state of calm. I actually quite like to have this one diffusing while I work.
If you prefer a simpler aroma, lavender is known to provide a calming, soothing effect making it the perfect choice to use around your home. A couple of drops of Arianrhod Aromatics Lavender Essential Oil in your diffuser will help you relax before bed.
There are multiple approaches to aromatic immersion, including essential oil diffusers, candles and pillow mists.
A pillow mist, as the name might suggest, is a fragrant blend designed to be sprayed on your pillow. However, they can also be used on other linens around your home to immerse yourself in aromatic delights. Spray them on your curtains, bedsheets, fabric lounges and armchairs or anywhere else that you spend a lot of time to help soothe your mind. Many pillow mists include essential oils that have antibacterial properties so this can also help to remove odour-causing bacteria at the same time.
Arianrhod Aromatics has three pillow mists that have been carefully mixed to help you drift off to sleep.
Sweet Dreams Pillow Mist: A slight variation on the Sweet Dreams Essential Oil Blend, the Arianrhod Aromatics Sweet Dreams Pillow Mist is formulated to create a relaxing, calming environment.
Calm Mind Pillow Mist: Has been blended to create an atmosphere of relaxation, helping your mind to slow down, ready for sleep.
Lavender Dream Pillow Mist: A delicate blend of lavender and sandalwood that will have you feeling like you are in a luxurious day spa, pampered and ready for a relaxing sleep. This one is my wife’s favourite.
There are other ways you can leverage essential oils to immerse yourself in aromas that will help you to sleep, including on potpourri and choosing moisturisers that have been formulated with sleep-friendly essential oils. Another alternative is to choose a fragrance-free moisturiser and mix in a few drops of your chosen essential oil blends.
In the real world, also known as outside where there is no heating or air-conditioning to maintain stable temperatures, there are natural fluctuations throughout the day and night. I’m sure you’ve noticed that even on a scorching summer’s day, it won’t be as hot in the morning when you first get up. The temperature will increase throughout the day to around 1 pm.
Once the sun starts to make its descent in the afternoon, the temperature slowly begins to drop. After the sun dips below the horizon altogether, the temperature falls further and continues throughout the night until dawn. Most of the time. Sometimes the weather is crazy and it stays hot all night, but that is the exception.
At dawn, as the sun pokes it’s cheery cheeks over the horizon again, the process repeats with a gradual increase in temperature.
With this in mind:
If you are using climate control devices in your house, turn the temperature up after you get out of bed in the morning. Even just a small amount can help. Turn it down before you go to bed.
You will sleep better when the temperature is a few degrees lower than it was while you were awake. So turning down the thermostat helps mimic that natural change and also reduces the chances of waking up hot and sweaty during the night.
I try to avoid running climate control too much, but when it’s one of those freezing cold nights, you don’t have much choice. Sometimes I find small temperature tweaks are all that is required, and other times I find more significant changes work better. Just experiment and see what works best for you.
Behavioural factors
Cut the caffeine early
I understand, caffeine is the well of life and you simply cannot exist without it. You know what though? That’s only because so many of us have built up such a high tolerance to it (or because your heart medication puts you to sleep anyway, there’s also a few other potential reasons, but the most common is tolerance).
Just because you can drink a cup of coffee or an energy drink before bed and then go to sleep doesn’t mean you should.
Cut out caffeinated drinks as early as practical (and food, yes tiramisu, I’m talking about you – I once had tiramisu at a restaurant on the Gold Coast that was unexpectedly soaked in their strongest blend. I was up all night). I’m talking really early, somewhere around 2 pm early. Healthline indicates that the half-life of caffeine in your body is five hours. So if you have a cup of coffee at 2 pm, half of it will be gone by 7 pm. Most of the effects will be worn off by this time, but it takes another 5 hours for half of what is left to be gone. So at midnight, your body still has 25% of that caffeine cruising around.
For me, caffeine disrupts my sleep for approximately 8 hours after ingestion.
On a somewhat related note, caffeine is also a diuretic. That means that you will need to visit the lavatory more frequently. Who needs that in the middle of the night, potentially more than once, to relieve that pressure? Not me! I have not seen any studies to confirm my hypothesis, but I suspect there are a lot of people up through the night because of caffeine-related movements. There are more than enough possible disturbances without extra toilet stops on the sleep highway.
Remember, most black teas have caffeine in them too, as do energy drinks and a number of soft drinks. If you need the hot drink experience before bed, consider a hot chocolate or herbal tea instead. There are a couple of excellent herbal tea options that can cause drowsiness which we’ll talk about in the next section on natural sleep aids. Even if you don’t go with one that causes drowsiness, herbal tea is an excellent alternative to caffeine.
Use natural sleep aids
Herbal teas really are amazing! There is a wide range of choice from many different brands that have herbal ingredients to help soothe your mind and body before bed. However, both peppermint and chamomile tea are known to help to soothe the mind and cause drowsiness. Kind of ironic considering peppermint can also be energising! Look for teas that include one of those ingredients. You can also get herbal teas that are solely peppermint or chamomile and these are excellent choices too. Regardless of your choice, herbal teas are a great way to have a hot drink in the evening that is actually going to help you sleep rather than risk keeping you awake.
MagHemp Sleep Lotion is a carefully crafted blend of well known natural sleep aids, magnesium and hemp in the form of a gentle moisturising lotion infused with essential oils that assist with sleep. If you are having trouble sleeping and want a simple solution, MagHemp Sleep Lotion combines aromatherapy with magnesium into a lotion that you simply massage into your feet before bed.
“I’ve been using it [MagHemp Sleep Lotion] for the past few months and found it so effective at eliminating calf twitches and helping get back to sleep quickly after waking during the night that I just placed an order for the 250ml size. Thanks.”
-Grant
Don’t eat just before bed
Your digestion doesn’t stop while you sleep, but it does slow down. What this means is if your stomach is full right before bed, you may not finish digesting this food until morning. The problem with eating right before bed that can be a potentially bigger issue is that it disrupts your stomach’s regular healing process.
So, if your stomach is unable to heal itself efficiently, it can leave you feeling unpleasant in the morning and potentially wake you up throughout the night.
If you go to bed on a full stomach, this means you are also going to be doing your digestion horizontally instead of vertically. Depending on how you sleep, you could be putting pressure on your stomach and esophagus. Full of food, that pressure can cause discomfort, and regardless of position, you are more likely to experience symptoms like indigestion, heartburn and acid reflux.
It won’t work for everyone, but I find starting my dinner around 5-6 pm and going to bed around 10:30 pm works well for me. This timeframe gives my body a reasonable window to digest the food I’ve put into it before I go to sleep and my digestion slows. I’m not perfect, mind you (I know, who would have guessed?), and sometimes a late-night snack is required. Keep it as minimal as possible.
Here’s an excellent video from Nutrition Facts about the benefits of eating early.
Don’t overeat in the evening (or at all)
Overeating in the evening can also contribute to an unwell tummy during the night simply because you still have food in your stomach when you go to bed.
The closer your bedtime is to your dinner time, the less you should eat. Less food in your stomach means less for your body to digest before you sleep. This logic stands true even if you eat dinner around 5-6 pm. A massive meal may not get digested before bed, regardless of whether you are going to bed at 10 pm or 2 am.
Also of note regarding overeating and digestion: Studies have found that your body needs more time to fully digest low-fibre foods like meat than it does for high-fibre foods like vegetables. So making sure to have lots of fibre at dinner (and your other meals) will assist your body to digest your food promptly.
Make sure you have enough food
In contrast to overeating food, you also need to make sure you have enough. If you don’t have enough energy reserves when you go to bed, then your sleep can be disrupted.
If your brain runs out of fuel while you are asleep, it will wake you up. This is called nocturnal hypoglycemia. I first learned of this phenomenon listening to a Tim Ferris podcast on a completely unrelated topic. Apparently it happens more often than you might think. I’ve definitely experienced it myself.
So, what does the brain need to get you through the night?
Basically, glucose. Overnight, your brain has to oversee the daily maintenance and repair operations in your body. If it doesn’t have enough glucose to do that, then you are going to have a problem.
If you find yourself inextricably waking up during the night, try having a tablespoon of honey 30-minutes before bed or when you wake up in the night. This small amount won’t be enough to make you feel ill, but it will give your brain the glucose it needs to function while you sleep.
If honey isn’t practical (or you don’t eat it), have an apple, banana or other fruit before bed. A couple of grapes or berries if you wake up in the night should also do the trick. Keep the quantity minimal, so it doesn’t sit in your tummy all night. Again, try to have the fruit at least half an hour before you go to bed so your body has time to do some work on it before you are horizontal.
I like to throw a 30-minute brisk walk into my evenings (when I can). About half an hour after dinner is sufficient for me to wait to avoid getting a stitch. Leave it an hour though if you need to. It doesn’t have to be high-intensity, but the brisker, the better. Alternatively, go cycling or do some other form of exercise in the evening, preferably outside where you can see the light change.
To increase your metabolism. A higher metabolic rate will help burn off any extra food that you might have consumed throughout the day, including at dinner time.
To expend energy before bed. Exercise helps to burn off some of the excess energy you might have and tire your body out before bed.
See the sunset. Kill two figurative birds with one politically correct stone, see the light change and exercise at the same time.
If you live in an apartment building, try climbing stairs. Call me crazy, but I’m quite a fan of this (when I’m somewhere that has stairs). If I climb 12, 24, or perhaps even 36 flights of stairs before bed, I’m going to be pretty tired.
Sleep Apps & Wearables
Wearable devices have been around for a few years now and they are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Wearables like Fitbits, Apple Watches and other smart watches are able to track and record data about your sleep. Combined with recommendations to help improve the quality of your sleep, they are great tools but can be a bit pricey.
Apps like Sleep Cycle have gotten so smart that they no longer require any wearable technology at all. Instead, Sleep Cycle runs on your smartphone and listens to your breathing. Doing so, it is able to identify when you are asleep and how deep your sleep is. While the concept of an app being able to not only listen to and understand my breathing but also separate it from the other sounds in the room (including another person asleep beside you) is mind boggling and a little bit creepy, the data it provides is remarkable.
Many of these kinds of apps, including Sleep Cycle, are free with paid upgrades. Even the free versions usually provide plenty of insights to help you learn about your sleep and what you might be able to do to improve it. Paid versions include extra features like ambient sounds designed to help you sleep.
And if all else fails…
If all else fails, count your breathing – It’s kind of like counting sheep. I find if I’m laying there awake, consciously breathing in and out while counting each inward breath puts me to sleep. If my thoughts drift off to other things, I just bring them back to counting breaths and focus on that. Before long I’m watching eyelid movies. It’s a pretty basic concept, but it really does help, especially combined with aromatherapy.
Why not just do this to start with? Well, I find it usually doesn’t work as the first port of call. That might be different for you. Give it a try and see. Everyone is different, and to be honest, every time you have trouble sleeping is probably going to be different. For me, I find that this works best when I’ve already been laying in bed for a while, wide awake, and to be honest, I’m probably stewing over something. Chances are I haven’t even realised I’m stewing until I’ve been awake for hours.
Aromatherapy helps to calm the mind, and then giving myself something basic to focus on in place of whatever it is that has my mind doing somersaults can help to let go of whatever that is for long enough that my brain can actually relax for long-enough to let me go to sleep.
That’s it!
These are all things that my wife and I do to make sure we always get the best sleep we can. We aren’t perfect though. Sometimes things happen that throw our sleep cycles out for days. Using the concepts I’ve outlined above though, we are able to get back into good sleep habits quickly. Good quality sleep makes a world of difference to my day, and I bet it will to yours too.
Let us know your favourite sleep tips in the comments box below.
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