I first discovered the power of essential oils in the year 2000.

A new year and a new decade – and another year of full-on stress and pressure in my career. I was considering a career change for the future – which I did eventually move into [and my life changed forever!].

I had been working part time in gyms and trained as a personal trainer in the mid 90s – outside of my full time job in corporate marketing. I love marketing, but the pressure is relentless. Deadlines, creative thinking, logical thinking, budgeting, forecasting, selling, presenting, travelling – the pace is incredible. I was considering a new path which involved personal training and massage therapy. That’s not quite what happened, but that was the plan.

Step One was to train in massage technique – and I loved it. I became skilled in sports massage, swedish relaxation massage. lomi lomi massage and – my best and absolutely favourite – aromatherapy massage.

I signed up for aromatherapy massage – not expecting to fall in love with essential oils.

The effect of the oils on the mind and the body was utterly profound. It became quite easy to assess what the ‘patient’ needed within the first few minutes of them arriving, and the difference in their energy when they departed was incredible. I became very interested in this and started collecting a few oils.

My little oil box expanded and people gifted me books on aromatherapy – which I loved and most of which I still have.

Ironically, the business that I eventually started to ‘escape’ the corporate world pulled me away from essential oils – then drew me back to them. Yes I know that sounds ridiculous, but anyone who has ever managed a startup business will agree that it takes EVERYTHING you’ve got! Full focus and then one – sleep fully optional. Well, we started a business in a full on competitive beauty arena, with a 5 year old and a 1 year old.

U T T E R   M A D N E S S  S E T  I N.

It was possibly 3 or 4 years after startup when I returned to my aromatherapy box (only to find it had been raided by one of my massage therapists equally enthusiastic as I) that I set about dinging some natural based scents for my then two salons – and the Baliba story began.

Thus – while not expert or medically qualified, I have a tone of information and decades of learning to pass forward. Stay tuned!