Aromatherapy and Amu'in, courtesy of Askmewhats

Around a month ago, I won some goodies from Askmewhats.com. That was during the aftermath of typhoon Ketsana/Ondoy, which was quite a depressing period for me, so it was perfect timing to find out that I won a giveaway, since that cheered me up nicely! Nikki of Askmewhats (thank you!)was prompt in sending the items, and I was surprised that Xend (the courier used) resumed their services so soon after the storm and floods!


*Photo from the askmewhats website. I'm too lazy to take my own photos right now, hehe.

The giveaway was for an Amu'in gift pack. I'd read about Amu'in before and wanted to try their products so this was just wonderful. I'm into ethnic stuff and love the name- Amui'n is a tagalog word which means (from their website) 'to caress, to tame'. Lovely.

They follow the principles of Aromatherapy, which, before I read more about it, to me simply meant putting any fragrant oil on a burner. It was after I had my baby that I started to get more interested in Aromatherapy. I realized two things, one of which was that it's important to ensure that you use high-grade essential oils (which don't come very cheap), and this (an excerpt from the Amu'in website. In a really lazy mood at the moment):

'although most people have heard of or experienced aromatherapy they do not seem to realise that for aromatherapy to work the essential oils have to pass through the lungs or skin and into the blood stream i.e. they are entering the body.'

I tried pure Lavender essential oil first, which I tried to relax my then colicky newborn baby with. I would put a drop of it on my shirt, and though I'm not sure if it calmed my baby, it sure did relax this frazzled, panicking newbie mom.

So it's no suprise that my favorite item among the Amu'in goodies is from their Hulay (which means Relax) line, which uses a blend of lavender and ylang-ylang. I love the Hulay Body Mist. I don't think it's like most body sprays in the sense that it's not used primarily to smell good, but to feel good! It's not that the scent doesn't smell good, on the contrary, it's very good--clean, sweetish, mild, and does not smell exactly like lavender--but the scent isn't as long lasting as as typical body mists. There are instructions on the bottle to spray the mist on your face and body, then inhale the scent deeply to feel the relaxing effect. I use it as room and linen spray too. Even hubby likes this wonderful product.

I don't like the Sigla (Energy) Body Mist as much because the scent is stronger, and smells very citrusy, but the smell really does wake me up a bit and it freshens up the air nicely after one of baby's diaper changes. The Alaga (Soothe) Hand Sanitizer and Alaga Insect Repellant we both use regularly and they work well. They smell similar to the Sigla Body Mist, but slightly milder.

The pouch that came with these items is very plush and soft- great to know that it was made with through a traditional Ilocano process of weaving. My mom is an Ilocana! There was also a reusable small tote in the package, which isn't included in the photo.

I think these items will be great as stocking stuffers. I'd love to try their other products and their Gayuma (Romance) line of items! You can visit the Amu'in website here, and thank you again to Askmewhats for giving me an opportunity to try these!