Collections

The first chakra, also known as the root chakra, corresponds to some degree to the symbolic kidney organ in Traditional Chinese Medicine, where our life force is stored and replenished. A healthy and balanced first chakra expresses itself as a feeling of utter safety, security, stability, nurturance, and peace. If we all had perfect childhoods, our first chakras would be incredibly healthy. The essences included in this collection don't always work only on the first chakra, but in part they do. First chakra trees and plants often have a big and strong structure. The gems that address issues of the first chakra are often black or very dark in color, such as hematite and black tourmaline.

The second chakra governs concerns around water, relationships, sexuality, and creative expression coming from deep within ourselves. It corresponds to the kidney yin in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Lilies are usually considered flowers that primarily work on the second chakra, but many other water- or dampness-loving plants belong here as well.

The third chakra, corresponding to the solar plexus, is associated with the sun and the color yellow. The essences included here help with concerns around expressing one's individuality and boosting one's confidence, independence, and sense of personal power and freedom.

The fourth chakra is also known as the heart chakra. It is associated with different shades of green but also with pink, especially more delicate and paler pinks. The green flowers and gems tend to promote a calmer, more peaceful disposition and alleviate irritability, anger, and moodiness, while the pink flowers and stones help us heal emotional wounds and become open to love, affection, and feeling.

The fifth chakra is also known as the throat chakra and is often associated with different shades of turquoise, teal, and blue. The essences in this group work at least partially on the fifth chakra and are helpful for people who must spend a lot of time communicating verbally, whether they are supervisors, actors, speakers, baristas, or parents. They may have a sense of exhaustion in the throat area, or may not want to talk to anyone toward the end of the day. The essences in this group sometimes help shy performers become bolder and more confident, or help with speech impediments.

The sixth chakra is also known as the third eye chakra. Essences here help with insightfulness, drawing conclusions, learning from one's experience, and memory, and some also help enhance clairvoyance and other psychic abilities.

The seventh chakra is also called the crown chakra. It relates to issues of higher vision, spiritual interests and growth, and feelings or conflicts regarding God. A very healthy crown chakra means a person both embraces and happily accepts their earthly body and matters of daily living, and yet is also interested in spiritual growth and in becoming a better human being and citizen of the earth.

We get so many requests for aura mists—people love the almost-instant effect from misting an essence blend in their rooms or above their heads. Aura mists are a great way to use essences if you are avoiding alcohol, or to use them with small children. We have prepared our collection of essence blends in a mist format, and our unscented mists do not contain essential oils or any other fragrances (you will detect only a touch of scent from the high-quality brandy preservative). If you prefer a scented mist, we also offer each of our aura mist blends in a scented format. The scented mists include top-quality organic or wildcrafted essential oils or absolutes, which have been carefully selected to enhance the energetic impact of each blend.

We are thrilled to announce that Pacific Northwest Essences products were honored with 2019 Beauty Shortlist Awards on Friday. The Beauty Shortlist celebrates the best in natural, sustainable beauty and wellness. The Awards were founded in 2012, and are now global for the third year running. This year marks the first-ever global Wellbeing Awards, which were created to celebrate the best natural health products on the market and will be a permanent fixture on the awards calendar going forward. Both awards are sponsor- and ad-free, and are judged by an international panel of experts in the UK, New York, and Sydney who thoroughly test each product.

We are thrilled to announce that Pacific Northwest Essences and our sister brand, Earthwise Beauty, have been honored with 2019 Beauty Shortlist Awards. The Beauty Shortlist celebrates the best in natural, sustainable beauty and wellness. The Awards were founded in 2012, and expanded this year to include the first-ever global Wellbeing Awards. The Wellbeing Awards celebrate the best natural health products on the market, and will be a permanent fixture on the awards calendar going forward. The awards are sponsor- and ad-free, and are judged by an international panel of experts in the UK, New York, and Sydney who thoroughly test each product.

We're so honored that Pacific Northwest Essences had four products recognized in the Wellbeing Awards' inaugural year: Our Strength in Hardship Essence Blend was a finalist in the Best Flower Essence Product category, and our Aura Shield Aura Mist, Grow with Confidence Aura Mist, and Voice of Courage Essence Blend all won Editor's Choice Wellbeing Awards.

We are thrilled to announce that more than a dozen products from Pacific Northwest Essences and our sister brand, Earthwise Beauty, were honored in March with 2020 Beauty Shortlist Awards.

The Beauty Shortlist, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, recognizes the best in natural, sustainable wellness and beauty. In recent years these global awards were expanded to include the International Wellbeing Awards, which honor the best natural health products on the market. In addition to recognizing the most effective natural, organic, eco-friendly products, the Beauty Shortlist is also committed to highlighting companies that source ingredients with integrity and make a significant effort to use environmentally sustainable packaging solutions. The Awards are sponsor-, ad-, and partnership-free to ensure completely unbiased results, and are judged by an international panel of experts in the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States who thoroughly test each and every product.

We are so honored to have been included among this impressive list of the best-of-best in natural health and wellness. Pacific Northwest Essences was recognized with three Editor's Choice Awards in the Wellbeing category, for our Pollen Allergies Scented Aura Mist, Stinging Nettle Flower Essence, and Rainbow Moonstone Gem Essence.

We are thrilled to announce that more than a dozen products from Pacific Northwest Essences and our sister brand, Earthwise Beauty, were honored in March with 2020 Beauty Shortlist Awards.

The Beauty Shortlist, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, recognizes the best in natural, sustainable wellness and beauty. In recent years these global awards were expanded to include the International Wellbeing Awards, which honor the best natural health products on the market. In addition to recognizing the most effective natural, organic, eco-friendly products, the Beauty Shortlist is also committed to highlighting companies that source ingredients with integrity and make a significant effort to use environmentally sustainable packaging solutions. The Awards are sponsor-, ad-, and partnership-free to ensure completely unbiased results, and are judged by an international panel of experts in the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States who thoroughly test each and every product.

We are so honored to have been included among this impressive list of the best-of-best in natural health and wellness. Pacific Northwest Essences was recognized with three Editor's Choice Awards in the Wellbeing category, for our Pollen Allergies Scented Aura Mist, Stinging Nettle Flower Essence, and Rainbow Moonstone Gem Essence.

We are thrilled to announce that two of our products were honored with Beauty Shortlist Awards for 2021:

Like an Arrow Essence Blend was selected as the Best Flower Essence Blend for Focus.

Pillow of Flowers Essence Blend received an Editor's Choice Award.

The Beauty Shortlist has been celebrating the best in natural, sustainable beauty and wellness for more than a decade, and the awards have been global since 2017. The awards include The Beauty Shortlist and The Wellbeing Awards, both of which celebrate "planet positive" products in natural beauty and wellness. In addition to recognizing the most effective natural, organic, eco-friendly products on the market, the Beauty Shortlist is also committed to highlighting companies that source ingredients with integrity and make a significant effort to use environmentally sustainable packaging solutions. The Awards are sponsor-, ad-, and partnership-free to ensure completely unbiased results, and are judged by an international panel of experts in the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States who thoroughly test each and every product.

The full list of 2021 winners can be viewed at thebeautyshortlist.com. 

Our collection associated with the color black includes several gem essences and no flowers at this time. Black stones are linked to the first chakra and are about grounding and detoxifying.

Each of the essences in this set is a little different. Celestite is called for when we need to work on forgiving ourselves or others, and is a beautiful essence for feeling loved, safe, and protected. Borage is a classic for gaining or regaining courage, and some practitioners will include borage in almost all blends to help their clients persevere with a positive attitude on the path toward healing and illumination.

The enormous healing power of flower, gem, and environmental essences is not limited to humans—they can also be life-changing for our beloved animal companions. Scheduling a consultation or series of consultations with our herbalist Ava Zhan is the best way to address your pet's physical, behavioral, and emotional needs. After your animal's consultation(s), Ava will create a unique essence blend or series of blends just for them, drawing on the wisdom she has gained over more than two decades of careful study in herbalism.

Ava's herbal education began over 25 years ago with an interest in the traditional herbalism of her native Eastern Europe. After moving to the U.S. at age 21, she began expanding her expertise, learning about Native American and Western herbalism. She has studied with top experts in herbalism and essence healing including Ian White, Steve Johnson, Judith Poelarends, and David Dalton, among others. Ava began studying classical homeopathy around 2006 with a focus on the heritage of Samuel Hahnemann, the father of modern homeopathic methodology, and has been mentored by homeopath Samuel Flagler since 2011. Her other living masters include Rajan Sankaran, George Vithoulkas, and Massimo Mangialavori. 

Most recently, Ava has expanded her practice to include work with a variety of animal species, inspired in part by her great success in using essences and other homeopathic remedies to treat her own horse. Ava's special areas of interest and expertise when working with animals include:

• Mood support
• Behavioral concerns
• Emotional wellbeing
• Skin/coat concerns
• Bone and joint health
• Digestive health
• Eye health
• Issues related to aging

Scheduling a consultation—or a series of consultations—with our herbalist Ava Zhan is the best way to truly benefit from the healing power of our flower, gem, and environmental essences. During your consultation, Ava will draw on the wisdom she has gained over more than two decades of careful study in herbalism to guide you on your healing journey, and will create a unique essence blend or series of blends completely customized to target your own emotional, spiritual, and physical needs.

Ava's herbal education began over 25 years ago with an interest in the traditional herbalism of her native Eastern Europe. After moving to the U.S. at age 21, she began expanding her expertise, learning about Native American and Western herbalism. She has studied with top experts in herbalism and essence healing including Ian White, Steve Johnson, Judith Poelarends, and David Dalton, among others. Ava began studying classical homeopathy around 2006 with a focus on the heritage of Samuel Hahnemann, the father of modern homeopathic methodology, and has been mentored by homeopath Samuel Flagler since 2011. Her other living masters include Rajan Sankaran, George Vithoulkas, and Massimo Mangialavori. 

Ava has a wide breadth of knowledge in herbal healing and homeopathy, and works regularly with adults, children, families, and animals. When working with human clients, her special areas of interest and expertise include: 

• Children's emotional wellbeing
• Mood support
• Personal and spiritual growth
• Focus, concentration, and memory
• Issues related to aging
• Skin health
• Digestive concerns
• Joint problems
• Inflammation

Our core set includes essences that we suggest as a priority for the essence practitioner who is gradually adding to his or her library. These essences address a range of symptoms or complaints that most essence practitioners find themselves working on with their clients, such as issues around loneliness, family discord, irritability or other mood discomforts, sleep problems, skin concerns, and psychic protection.

This is a group of essences where an environment was invited into a bottle. Rather than placing flowers or stones in spring water, we display a glass bowl with spring water in the chosen environment for several hours. Occasionally, plants that are representative of that environment are floated on the water. The resulting mother essence carries an impact of the energy from that special setting and that specific moment in time. It is then preserved with brandy and stored carefully in a quiet and dark space.

Ava has created a few blends of flower and gem essences based on her work with private clients. Based on her experience, many people suddenly or almost urgently seek out flower essences during particular times in their lives, such as times of change or turbulence, or while experiencing emotional and spiritual "growth spurts." This set of essence blends was created based on these recurring requests. A few blends address physical concerns that Ava has had a lot of experience with, including helping children to gain or regain a healthy appetite, alleviating environmental allergies, and getting a dose of the sun's energy during winter or other times of darkness, when we may crave extra sun rays.

Our flower essences are all made attentively by hand in the Spokane area in Washington State. We use the general Bach method, where plants that are radiant, in bloom, grow in abundance, and are calling to have an essence made of them are placed to float on water (we use spring water as much as possible) in a quartz crystal shaped like a bowl or in a wide glass bowl or jar. The vessel is placed near the plants where the flowers were gathered or in another serene natural spot nearby, then the flowers are infused in this way for several hours under the sun. 

If a flower is rare, rather than picking it to infuse we often use an alternate method, where we place the bowl of water under the blooms and infuse the flowers in this way for a longer period of time, sometimes all day.

Most of our flowers are local wildflowers, but a few are organically grown plants that we have chosen to include for their healing properties. And we sometimes infuse lichen or mosses and other plants, even though they do not produce blooms; a practice that is now customary in flower essence circles. These plants are infused during a time when their energy vibrations are particularly high (usually the plants' reproductive time).

The infused essence is called the mother, and it is blended half and half with brandy, which anchors the essence's energy and serves as a preservative. We store the mother essences in a quiet and peaceful room in closed wooden cabinets. From the mother essences, we make the blends and single essences that we offer for sale, and these dilutions are called "stock potency." Customers may take essences straight from the purchased bottles to effectively use the stock potency, while practitioners will often use drops from the stock bottles to make dosage bottles for their clients. 

Our gem essences start, of course, with the gems. We search for very special pieces of gems for healing: raw, usually not even tumbled, and definitely not man-made or treated with any chemicals. We seek out gems of the highest grade with strong energy, and we expand our collection slowly, gathering the crystals over a long period of time. Our purchased gems are first cleansed in natural, unrefined sea salt for 12 hours or longer, then stored carefully in cardboard boxes, never in plastic.

When it is time to make an essence, the gem is placed in its own quartz bowl or in a glass vessel and submerged in clean water (spring water as often as possible). Certain gems are not submerged in water, but are instead placed above the water on a little platform for safety reasons (stones and crystals that have a chance of containing heavy metals are infused in this way).

Gem essences are made in all kinds of weather depending on when they are calling the loudest; sometimes on hot and sunny days, sometimes on windy and overcast days. While springtime is traditionally the time of year when gem essences are made, as suggested in the famous books by Gurudas, some of our essences were made in late fall during a meteor shower, when their energy was particularly strong. Most of our gem essences are sun (daytime) infusions, but a few as indicated are full-moon infusions.

The infused essence is called the mother, and it is blended half and half with brandy, which anchors the essence's energy and serves as a preservative. We store the mother essences in a quiet and peaceful room in closed wooden cabinets. From the mother essences, we make blends and single essences for sale, and these dilutions are called "stock potency." Customers may take essences straight from the purchased bottles to effectively use the stock potency, while practitioners will often use drops from the stock bottles to make dosage bottles for their clients. 

Green flowers and gems in general correspond to the heart (fourth) chakra, but they also often enhance our attunement with nature and nature spirits. The green-yellow euphorbia (also called leafy spurge) is an unusual wildflower that we recommend for issues in group dynamics, especially sibling rivalry, difficulty with authority, trouble flowing with a team, and excessive or unwanted feelings of competitiveness.

After a few years of studying different systems of flower essence healing by some of the most regarded practitioners around the world and in the United States, our flower and gem essence practitioner Ava Zhan is now offering in-depth consultations for adults, children, families, and pets for a wide range of emotional, personal growth, and spiritual needs or imbalances. The consultation, usually via video or phone, helps Ava gain an understanding about your goals and top priorities you would like to achieve through the essence modality, and she will then prepare a custom essence blend for you to take internally, or use as an aura mist, for a month or two. Also check Ava's more comprehensive consultation option that covers herbs and homeopathics as well as an essence blend.

For more information about how essences work, see Flower and Gem Essence FAQ.

Pink flowers and gems usually deal with matters of the heart: breakups, losses, sadness, emotional dependency, and emotional wounds and hurts. In this collection, motherwort is an interesting essence that for some brings great relief from PMS anxiety, anger, irritability, and mood swings, and for others is a savior in helping them feel more assertive in the world and better able to say no.

There are some essences, often flower essences even more so than gem essences, that are very appealing to use on their own, as a single essence. It is not so much that they are stronger or more forceful than other essences, as that they are capable of creating movement, causing a shift, or achieving a specific desired outcome single-handedly. Their action often feels more complete, or somehow more satisfying. Essences from our line that have not been included in this set are definitely just as effective and powerful, but they tend to be most effective—or to have effects that are easiest to perceive—when they are used alongside another essence or two, or in a custom blend.

With concerns ranging from karma to creativity to memory to clairvoyance, purple flowers and gems elude classification, but look here if you are inexplicably drawn to purple flowers or crystals. Comfrey is a classic essence to have on hand, whether it is used to retrieve a buried or lost memory, or to aid tissue healing after a surgery or an accident.

Red or burgundy flowers and gems often correspond to the blood and our life force, and sometimes to the first chakra (safety, groundedness, stability, rootedness). Fiery red flowers and gems can be energizing essences in times of exhaustion, lethargy, or lack of spark, and sometimes they symbolize a fire that burns the old and invites space for the new. The deep burgundy pearls of Hound's tongue are a deep mystery, and it is an essence Ava recommends during times when we want to look deep within ourselves to better understand something or to find answers to difficult questions within ourselves. It can also help one to go through all the stages of grief in a healthy way.

White flowers and gems are traditionally associated with purity, mental or emotional clarity, spaciousness, innocence, forgiveness, light, and yin qualities (softness, flexibility, patience, grace, sleep, moon, water). The essences in this set adhere to this general notion, and there are essences here that also facilitate healthy sleep (white morning glory), bounce off negative or unwanted energies (white yarrow), and ease stress by promoting relaxation (black locust). The white violet essence symbolizes the pinnacle of purity and innocence, and is often employed when dealing with deep emotional wounds, emotional trauma, self-hatred, and PTSD.

While the color yellow is the symbol of the sun, summertime, and joy, and corresponds strongly to the solar plexus, which is the center of our individual expression, these flower and gem essences cover a surprisingly wide range of needs and concerns. Yellow primrose is the classic essence for helping one to overcome guilt and shame. Sunflower enhances yang aspects and boosts one's self-assurance. St. John's wort is a beloved essence to use during dark, cold seasons to ease winter blues.