An open door of wellness—with something new to make.
Tea & Recovery is a relaxed, come-as-you-are space for the body care we all know we “should” be doing, but often put off. There is no late: come and go as you please, get cozy, and shine up.
This month, Winter Witch will guide a hands-on make-and-take workshop where you can explore aromatic materials and build a small custom topical oil blend.
What you’ll learn
- How to smell and compare essential oils using test strips
- The roles of top, middle, and base notes
- How to test combinations before filling your bottle
- How to create a conservative topical dilution in carrier oil
- How to label and care for your finished blend
The recovery hang
- Winter Witch’s herbal tea blends
- Gentle stretching, body tools, and room to rest
- Relaxed conversation about stress, self-care, and feeling better
- Space to bring a refueling dinner or substantial snack
Aromatic curiosities
Scent has shaped memory, ritual, beauty, and care for thousands of years. Here are a few stories to carry into your blending experience.
🧠 Scent and memory are close companions
Our sense of smell has unusually close connections with the brain’s emotion and memory networks. A familiar aroma can awaken a vivid place, person, or feeling—and the same scent may tell a completely different story to someone else.
🎼 A fragrance unfolds like music
Top notes make the bright first impression. Heart notes emerge as the blend settles, and base notes provide depth and staying power. Smell a blend again after thirty minutes—or even the next day—and you may discover an entirely new side of it.
🌹 Cleopatra’s roses offer a lesson in restraint
Ancient accounts describe Cleopatra welcoming Mark Antony to a banquet with rose petals carpeting the floor to an extraordinary depth. Later retellings say the perfume became overwhelming for some guests. Whether every detail is history or theatrical legend, the lesson is useful: more aroma is not always more beautiful. A balanced blend should invite you closer—not chase you from the room.
💜 A laboratory accident helped inspire modern aromatherapy
After suffering severe burns in a 1910 laboratory explosion, French chemist René-Maurice Gattefossé used lavender oil during his recovery. The experience deepened his interest in aromatic materials, and his later research and writing helped popularize modern aromatherapy.
🩹 Aromatic care has a wartime history
Gattefossé developed an aromatic preparation called Salvol that was trialed in French hospitals during World War I. Decades later, physician Jean Valnet explored essential oils while caring for wounded soldiers—helping carry aromatic practice into modern French medicine.
Scent & safety
This is an aromatic event and will not be scent-free. Contact the host before participating if you have fragrance sensitivities, asthma, ingredient allergies, are pregnant, take medications that may affect essential-oil use, or have another relevant concern.
Blends are for external use only. Avoid eyes and mucous membranes and stop use if irritation occurs. The workshop is educational and recreational, not medical treatment. A brief patch test cannot guarantee that irritation or sensitization will never occur.