'Aroma-therapy can work wonders for your skin'

Chennai: Dr Blossom Kochhar is the chairperson of Blossom Kochhar group of companies and is also one of the first few people to introduce aromatherapy in India in 1992. She also runs a chain of educational institutions to educate men and women about beauty and aromatherapy — Blossom Kochhar College of Creative Arts And Design. Her love for nature and time spent in the hills of Nilgiris inspired her to start with aromatherapy. In a casual conversation over coffee, she tells us how she began with her experiments. She shares a few anecdotes about aromatherapy and some natural skin care solutions for summer.

Her husband was in the army and was posted in Wellington 37 years ago and that is when it all started for Blossom. “There was no creams at that time, the only ones available were Charms and Ponds, the ladies in Wellington wanted something different for facials. I used natural ingredients and the outcome was excellent. I then started research about aromatherapy in Vedas and scriptures like Rasayana Veda — the science of rejuvenation and Vajikarana — the study of aphrodisiacs. I got to know more about essential oils and how they are used, also I travelled to a lot of places like America, Europe and China and realised that there was a science to aromatherapy. Until then, people thought about it only as a way to make someone fall in love! It however works for any stress related ailment, aches, pains and depression,” she says.

Aromatherapy apparently started in Egypt with Cleopatra using it to look gorgeous. In fact, Blossom says, she attracted Caesar and Mark Anthony by using aromatherapy.

“She filled the barges and sails with essential oils and the intoxicating scent attracted Mark Anthony,” she adds. Blossom, points out that they do not use parabil, mineral oils or lichen benzoine in sunscreens and the perfumes are all natural and the colours are natural as well. “Aromatherapy, as I practise it, is a very environment-friendly and people-friendly concept.” Blossom also feels that there is a lot of space for us to delve deeper into this industry. “There used to be a lot of women, in the college chain I own, but now there are 90 per cent men in the industry,” she says.

People should know that beauty is all about how you see yourself and carry yourself. Being healthy is also very important to being beautiful and going under the knife is not the right way to attain beauty, “I have seen people who have gone for nose jobs and come out with an even worse look, so changing something drastic like that is not always the right solution and I feel that if you do see some fault somewhere, you can use makeup to highlight the beauty and hide the flaws.”

Summer is here and Blossom suggests a lot of aromatherapy this season. “You have to clean your face at least thrice a day, deep cleanse is very important as there is a lot of pollution in the city. You must choose sunscreen according to your skin type. A natural face pack made with papaya, watermelon, banana and honey is very good during summers. Use geraniums on the skin to keep mosquitoes away.”