Taylor-ed aromatherapy

Octogenerian Eve Taylor is regarded the pioneer of modern aromatherapy.

BRITISH aromatherapy brand founder Eve Taylor is not your regular 80-year-old.

She has a liveliness and wit about her that is infectious, and is incredibly articulate.

In fact, you have to keep up if you want to take in everything she has to say. Taylor is still involved in the business she created 44 years ago, and regularly invited as a guest speaker around the world – all while she juggles grandmother duties, and inspires people everywhere.

Based in Peterborough in Britain, Taylor is the founder of the Institute of Clinical Aromatherapy and regarded as the pioneer of modern aromatherapy by professional skincare therapists worldwide.

In 1968, Taylor, at 34, created her own brand of essential oil aromatherapy.

Today, Eve Taylor is a leading professional aromatherapy brand in the world.

She also has professional skin and body care products which are only available through salons, spas and professional therapists.

“I became fascinated with aromatherapy after attending a lecture on aromatherapy at a conference by Marguerite Maury. She presented a talk on The Secret Of Life and Youth based on the same titled book she had written,” said Taylor who was in Kuala Lumpur recently on a South-East Asia visit to her distributors.

When she first started her business of manufacturing aromatherapy essential oils, it was a fairly new concept those days.

“Today, aromatherapy is considered a holistic tool, but back then, it was seen as weird. People probably thought I was a ‘witch’ since we use plant extracts and they didn’t understand its effects!” Taylor said with a laugh.

Initially, she would drive to clients’ homes to promote her business, which later grew by word of mouth.

After she opened her first salon in southeast London in 1968, another one opened at Sevenoaks three years later.

At that time, one would go to a jeweller to get her ears pierced but Taylor saw a niche market for people who were knowledgeable to do ear-piercing at beauty salons, so she started the trend, she claimed. It was the Sevenoaks salon that gave Taylor her claim to fame, but it was not until years later that she learnt of her bragging rights.

It was through a book written about the late Princess Diana that she serendipitously discovered that the late Princess had her ears pierced at the salon, when she was still a student and known as Lady Diana Spencer.

Near Taylor’s salon was a school where daughters – such as Lady Diana – of socially good-standing parents were educated, so many of these privileged young women went to Taylor’s salon to get their ears pierced.

Unfortunately, she has no recollection of attending to Lady Diana as she was not famous yet and Taylor has attended to so many clients since.

She said cheekily that if she had daughters she probably wouldn’t have gone into this business.

“Being around men, I wanted to do something ‘feminine’, so getting involved in aromatherapy was perfect!” said Taylor, who now has six grandsons and a granddaughter.

Having five sons has been a blessing for Taylor as they have become involved in her business. With the exception of her second son who is a physician, each of them handle a specific area such as marketing, packaging, research and manufacturing.

Why isn’t Eve Taylor sold in pharmacies or department stores?

“I don’t want my products to be picked up, sniffed and bought this way. Customers may end up buying the wrong product because they are not aware of what their skin needs,” Taylor explained.

She added that only qualified therapists who have studied about skin can advise customers correctly, and they should be the ones selling her products.

“It’s not only about smell when you buy a product. Every mark and line on a person’s face tells a story, and what’s wrong with that person’s skin or health. We believe in treating the face and influencing the body to be healthier.”

The brand’s essential oils was introduced to Malaysia over 30 years ago, while its skincare range arrived three years ago.

Eve Taylor aromatherapy skin and body care products – which contain natural herbal extracts, organic essential oils and is paraben-free – are solely distributed in Malaysia by Frontline Cosmeceutical. Its latest offering, the Advanced Skin Therapy range of skincare, is a combination of pharmaceutical grade ingredients with active therapeutic essential oil blends.

Happy Face located at The Weld in Kuala Lumpur – one of the 50 exclusive Eve Taylor Professional Aromatherapy Skin and Body care beauty salons around the country – has been recognised as one of the top Eve Taylor representatives in Malaysia.

Its partners, Carol Pheh and Sannie Wong, started Happy Face last year and chose to use Eve Taylor exclusively, after learning about the brand while working with their previous employer.

“Eve Taylor is known for its pure essential oil and for being natural. I’ve been using Eve Taylor Face Oil since I was 14 and it has worked well for me,” said Pheh, who suffered from acne and skin congestions during her youth.

These days, Taylor points out that many people are selling “smelling oils” and calling it aromatherapy, hence the essential oil business has become fragmented as there are questionable oils in the market.

“We never use ‘nature identicals’ or man-made stuff, only what nature produced. Also, we don’t use anything from the petroleum industry,” she said.

Essential oils are not just about smells and there is a technique for understanding smell.

“You breathe in and hold your breathe for a couple of seconds. Evaluate the smell and then breathe out,” she advised.

“Thirty percent of people over the age of 70 who lose their sense of smell tend to be clinically depressed and that is why your sense of smell is so crucial to your well-being.”

Of all the scents she has come across over the years, Taylor said her favourites were Damiana and Jasmine.

“While the wildly passionate aroma of Damiana cannot be described as a pleasant smell, it has a very sexy effect. We recommend this for couples and are not responsible for their actions as it acts like an aphrodisiac!” she said with a teasing wink.

A bottle of Eve Taylor essential oil comes in 10ml and one drop into a diffuser is sufficient, or it can be put into your bath water.

Taylor still blends her oils today and it is this uniqueness that sets her products apart from others.

It is also why her oils cannot be mass-produced otherwise the quality will deteriorate.

“Even though my sense of smell is still good and I don’t get odour fatigue, I don’t blend oils when I am not well or stressed out,” she said.

Taylor developed the System of Analysis for the face and body, which is a method of analysing the whole person systematically from details of body, face, ears, feet and posture.

This multi-dimensional analysis allows therapists to fully evaluate their clients, resulting in a more accurate and comprehensive treatment plan.

“Every line and mark on your face tells a story. We can look at someone and can tell if they were unhappy during foetal growth,” she said.

Taylor, who gives lectures to women prisoners in Peterborough, said that people who inflict self-harm suggest an unhappy state during foetal growth. Everything a mother experiences have some effect on her unborn child, and determines whether the child will go on a constructive or destructive path.

Someone with eczema or scaly skin may have an underlying issue such as distress or worries that manifest in the skin disorder.

Also, she advised women against trying a new skincare product if they have had dental injections or during the first three days of their menstruation as the skin could become hypersensitive, resulting in a poor reaction to the products.

Eve Taylor is available in the United States, Canada, China, Japan, Mongolia and South-East Asia, and Taylor still travels a lot for store visits and to give talks.

Her determination and success earned her an OBE in 2007 for her contribution to “aromatherapy and to the beauty industry”.

“People should continue learning, keep an eye on what is happening in the world, show an interest in everything, be interested in your children and grandchildren, and have an enthusiasm for life,” she concluded.