“Nothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains; another, a moonlit beach; a third, a family dinner of pot roast and sweet potatoes during a myrtle-mad August in a Midwestern town.” Diane Ackerman

From those Drakkar Noir-inspired teenage nights to the creosote bush after a desert rain., a waft of somethin’ special is a sensory wormhole. Take Patchouli, for instance, It will forever remind me of the pre-show butterflies I sensed while trolling the parking lot at Grateful Dead concerts hoping to find veggie burritos, or best of all, a Miracle ticket. But the single most beautiful scent I’ve ever experienced is a gorgeous, potent handmade lavender oil that I’ve been using in my yoga workshops for the better part of the past decade.

Each year Wisdom of the Earth founder and master medicinal aromatherapist Barry Kapp travels with fellow Medicinal Aromatherapist & Partner. Audre Gutierrez,and life partner Cynthia Olivera to the French Alps. They journey to pick lavender from varying elevations ranging from the rarest growth at1800 meters to the highlands at 1200 meters. They make their own, pure, loving oil whose scent has to be experienced in order to be understood. In every single Savasana of every single Yoga + Chocolate, Yoga + Wine, and Yoga for Foodies event I’ve ever taught, I rub a few drops of this special lavender on the participants. It’s less the comments than the audible sighs and visible expressions of true and total surrender. If such a thing was possible as putting an exotic European vacation, epic Savasana, and soothing head message into a tiny bottle…

To pick up a bottle: