Jeanne Rose picks up a tiny vial and says: ”Now smell this, . . . oh, no, no, no, no, don`t smell it like that, do it like this.”
She retrieves the vial and, eyes closed, passes it under her nose. ”If you hold it right under your nose, it`s too intense. Do it like this, back and forth, gently. Now, try it again and tell me how you feel.”
Rose is the guru of herbalism. For almost 25 years, she`s been preaching about the benefits of herbs and their oils and what they can do for body and mind. She`s authored eight books on herbs, including ”Jeanne Rose`s Herbal Body Book” and ”Jeanne Rose`s The Modern Herbal,” (both Putnam Publishing, $10.95 and $9.95 respectively).
She`s taught herbalism courses through the University of California extension system since the early `70s, writes a monthly magazine column called ”Ask Jeanne Rose” for ”Health Quarterly,” runs a correspondence herbal study course and writes a monthly newsletter called ”The Herbal Rose Report.”
Even with all this activity, she says she never felt she was in the mainstream. Herbalism has always been considered a little off-center, skewed in many minds toward the world of metaphysics, she says.
But now her time may have come: she`s the spokeswoman for a new line of aromatherapy bath products sold by Bath & Body Works, a national chain of bath products; and a San Francisco hotel, the Donatello, recently had her
”design” a scent to go into its soaps and creams. The idea, of course, is that anytime travelers smell the scent (citrus with deep, sensual undertones), they`ll think of the hotel.
Something for everything
”I`m a happy woman,” she says, about the increased popularity of aromatherapy. ”I`ve been working hard for 25 years and felt like I was walking in the dark. I didn`t think my message was getting out there. But now, maybe, it`s going mainstream.”
Both mind and body benefit from the use of herbs and oils, she says. The bottles from Bath & Body Works spell out just what herbs are contained and their effect. For example, the sleep herb bath ($18) is a combination of hops, lavender, roses and peppermint. Similar to steeping a pot of tea, bath herbs placed into a little pouch are steeped in the tub. Put your body in the tub and ”feel yourself relax . . .,” says Rose. ”It`s the hops that really does it, they make your body very drowsy.”
Or, another example, a muscle soother oil ($18.50), a fragrant combination of geranium, tarragon, lime, peppermint, patchouli and rosemary oils. ”Massage it into your ankle,” she says to a woman complaining of a sore Achilles tendon, ”you`ll like the way it smells but more important, it`ll relax the ankle.”
Then there`s Vim `n Vigor Herbal Bath ($18), with nettle, rosemary, savory, heather and lemon balm, a combination, she says, that will wake up mind and body. Nettles, especially, she says, stimulate skin and improve circulation.
Rose lives, as an herbal guru should, in California but is in Chicago on business for Bath & Body.
There`s something about her that looks exactly right; that yes, this is the way a woman should look who has spent much of her life delving into the mysteries of eucalyptus and spearmint, of ylang-ylang and comfrey.
She`s solid looking, with long black hair pulled away from her face and gathered in a knot at the back of her head. She has large, dark eyes and well- defined bones. She`s wearing a plain, loose-fitting black suit, flat shoes and colorful patterned socks.
Large amber earrings dangle from her ears. ”I wear jewelry for jewelry power rather than for how it looks,” she says. ”Amber is powerful, it`s relaxing. I named my daughter Amber. You know, amber comes from pine resin that 400 million years old.”
Personal experiences
The dozen or so handkerchief-protected vials on the table are Rose`s first-aid kit. She carries them with her wherever she travels.
”Anything that happens, I can take care of with these oils,” she says.
”This is rose geranium, for the skin, and this is spearment, it makes me happy, all you have to do is smell it. Tangerine oil, so relaxing, it can also soothe the stomach. This one is related to the laurel tree, it`s esoteric, it can make flu symptoms vanish, and this rosemary, you can dab a little on cold sores.”
Rose grew up learning about herbs and plants from her parents, but she didn`t approach herbalism as a serious avocation, much less profession, until a 1969 automobile accident left her temporarily paralyzed on the right side. She attributes her complete recovery to the use of herbs and their oils.
”It was a long time before I got back together. Someone gave me a little book about herbs and I started using them . . . it was a lot of information that I`d had up here since childhood,” she says, tapping her head, ”but I hadn`t used it. I`d been a science major in college and I had always thought that someday we wouldn`t even have to eat, we`d just take a pill.
”I`ve gone 180 degrees from that kind of thinking.”
A life`s partnership
Herbalism is part of her lifestyle; she`s got at least 50 different kinds of herbs in her basement.
She describes the foods she eats as mostly ”pure and simple” but confesses to a love of champagne and caviar. ”Moderation, that`s the thing, but not excessiveness,” she says of her vices.
She has two children and describes herself as having been ”happily married and divorced four times.” She misses just the slightest of beats when asked how old she is.
”Fifty-five. I`ve just recently gotten to where I can tell people how old I am. All through my 30s and 40s, I looked younger than I was, but now I notice … well, I don`t enjoy getting older. I am learning to live with it. My hair is coal black naturally, I could lose weight, of course, but I feel good and look healthy.”
Sage advice
She describes hot flashes, a ritual of passage for most women who have turned 55, as ”psychedelic rivulets of heat . . . I would think of myself as being under a warm shower, of waterfalls, green ferns, I really got into them. I would spritz some clary sage on a wooden fan and fan myself, clary calms and centers you, helps even out those hormonal imbalances.”
People need to take more baths, she says. Pour a little oil or some herbs into a bath and come out relaxed, sleepy and ready for bed-or energized and on-the-alert, depending on the oil or herbs.
How would she describe herself?
She hesitates, then speaks very decisively. ”I`m down to earth. I`m a very spiritual person, but that`s a private matter with me. I would never want to be characterized as a new-age freak. But I have beliefs that are good. I know what works for me.”
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Bath & Body Works` aromatherapy line consists of 17 products, including herbal baths, massage oils, bath and body oils, a facial sauna, bath salts and pulse point cream. Prices range from $10 to $25. The glass bottles are recyclable and can be returned for a 25-cent reimbursement. Chicago area stores are in Oakbrook Center, Oak Brook; Ford City Mall, Chicago; and Charlestowne Mall, St. Charles.
