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Lab Aroma is a “a chemistry based, clinical aromatherapy focused, software tool that formulates the chemistry behind essential oil blending while presenting a detailed chemical breakdown and physical effect visual.” I had a chance to try it out recently thanks to founder Colleen Harte and was very impressed with the tool. They say the best products are the result of solving a problem, and that is what Lab Aroma simply and elegantly does. First, lets get aesthetics out of the way: the design is simple, the user interface is intuitive, and there is nothing there that does not serve a purpose. Even the colour scheme makes me happy. Now, on to function…
Lab Aroma is blending software. The basic version includes a database of 198 different oils, including variations based on geography. You also can add your own oils to the database. Each oil profile has some brief information including country of origin, part of the plant, aroma family, and what it can be used for. Then, there is a chemical breakdown of each oils constituents grouped by chemical family (e.g. aldehydes, monoterpenes, etc). Using Lab Aroma is a breeze, simply drag and drop the oils you want in your blend, tell Lab Aroma what percentage of your blend each oil should be, and press “calculate.” Lab Aroma gives you a breakdown of what percentage of each constituent is in your final blend as well as which body systems would be most affected. The more professional version, Lab Aroma+ will also let you know if your blend will violate regulations in your region. Other, more advanced features include a Search by Component feature. If I had to find one complaint, it would be that it asked you to give your formula in percentages instead of by drops or ml.
For any professional aromatherapist or formulator who works with blending on a regular basis, this software is wonderful. For the lay aromatherapy enthusiast, the pricing may be a little out of reach but Colleen tells me she has considered creating a lay version. Let’s keep our fingers crossed!
Lab Aroma