This page is a guide to passing Level 1 of the Aromatherapy Certification Exam. I will not cover Level 2 separately because its scope is included in Level 1. You can take Level 1 without taking Level 2, so I recommend starting with Level 1. Incidentally, as the title says, I have never taken the Aromatherapy Certification Exam myself. However, I have thoroughly analyzed the textbooks and past questions and created this page in the hope of being of some help to people who love fragrance.
Overview of the Aromatherapy Certification Exam
For both Level 2 and Level 1, a correct-answer rate of at least 80% is the passing threshold. Both levels boast pass rates of at least 90% of all candidates, making this a relatively easy exam. Passing the Aromatherapy Certification Exam is not the goal; what matters is what you will do, and how you will proceed, after passing. After passing Level 1, you can join AEAJ, which organizes the exam, and take much more difficult exams such as the Aromatherapy Instructor exam. The questions are straightforward, with no trick questions, so the amount you study is reflected in your results. In fact, some questions are so straightforward that their wording almost leads you to the answer. Therefore, the key to the Aromatherapy Certification Exam is to read the questions carefully.
Incidentally, perfume lovers reading this website who have read our ingredient dictionary and the books we introduce can reach the passing threshold even without studying. However, I think what matters is having accurate knowledge and being able to enjoy aromatherapy, so I recommend learning properly rather than merely studying to pass. Then try practicing aromatherapy yourself.
| Level 2 | Level 1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Exam Duration | 30 minutes | 35 minutes |
| Number of Questions | 55 questions | 70 questions |
| Passing Standard | 80% = 44 questions | 80% = 56 questions |
| Exam Fee | ¥6,600 | ¥6,600 |
| Exam Format | Online at home | Online at home |
The Aromatherapy Certification Exam is basically divided into two parts: basic knowledge of essential oils (theory) and a scent test (actually smelling and identifying them). The essential oils covered in the theory component number 11 for Level 2 and 30 for Level 1, including the 11 from Level 2. Of these, the scent test covers nine for Level 2 and 17 for Level 1. In other words, at most 30 fragrance materials are covered, so passing should be a matter of course if you have studied the 120 or more materials in this website’s ingredient dictionary. That said, this is a certification exam, so knowledge of essential oils alone will not get you through. (Which is it, then?)
For the Aromatherapy Certification Exam, the official textbook and past questions are sold together with essential oils, so studying with these is my top recommendation. First, attempt the questions without knowing anything → read the textbook, focusing on the parts you got wrong, and understand what was incorrect → read the entire textbook once → try the past questions again. Repeating this should give you a considerable amount of knowledge even in one week.
Taking those textbooks into account, I have tried to put together this website’s content so that you can acquire knowledge more efficiently and even reach a level beyond the exam. I hope it will help with your exam preparation.
- First, use this page to efficiently absorb the knowledge needed for the test.
- Next, read the individual detailed pages to gain deeper information and underpin the knowledge you need for the test.
Tips for Passing Level 1
① Read the entire question. (The wording often practically tells you the answer.) Most questions contain not one but two or more clues, so do not give up.
② Always understand the terms in the Aromatherapy Certification textbook by starting with what the words mean. (Even if you do not know the answer, the meaning of a word will often tell you.)
③ When studying, do not simply memorize: learn the reasons why you should do something. If you do not understand, research it online.
④ Anything that seems strange when considered with common sense is usually wrong.
As these tips suggest, what separates passing from failing is how well you avoid mistakes on questions you cannot answer without studying. Examples include the botanical families and properties of the plants used for essential oils.
The Road to Level 1: Theory
Reading the textbook is the foundation, but learning effectively is important if you want to remember the information and then put it to use. I hope this helps those studying to pass the Aromatherapy Certification Exam. Below, I have gathered areas that appear frequently on the test and require a lot of memorization. I will update them as needed.
The Basics of Essential Oils and Aromatherapy
① AEAJ defines essential oils as follows: “Essential oils are natural materials extracted from the flowers, leaves, fruit peels, fruits, heartwood, roots, seeds, bark, resins and other parts of plants, and are volatile aromatic substances containing high concentrations of active constituents. They have aromas and functions characteristic of each plant and form the foundation of aromatherapy.”
② Essential oils must be stored correctly because their aromatic constituents change through exposure to air, ultraviolet light, temperature and other factors, changing their scent. The key points are to use light-shielding glass containers, keep them in a cool, dark place away from direct sunlight with little seasonal temperature variation, and aim to use them within one year after opening, or somewhat sooner for citrus oils.
③ The four properties of essential oils: 1. Aromaticity (the ability to give off scent); 2. Volatility (the property by which a liquid becomes a gas and its scent spreads); 3. Lipophilicity and fat solubility (dissolving readily in oil but poorly in water); 4. Flammability.
④ When handling essential oils: 1. Dilute them rather than applying them directly to the skin undiluted; 2. Do not drink essential oils, because they are classified as “miscellaneous goods” (however, essential oils listed in the Japanese Pharmacopoeia, such as Japanese mint oil, and essential oils produced as food flavorings are exceptions and are acceptable); 3. Be careful around flames because they are flammable; 4. Keep them out of reach of children and pets; 5. Take care not to get essential oils in your eyes.
⑤ To enjoy aromatherapy: 1. For those who are pregnant or have recently given birth, aroma diffusion should be the basic method, and care should be taken with other methods; 2. For children under three, use aroma diffusion only; for children aged three and older, use less than the adult amount, at most half; 3. Do not use essential oils on pets; 4. Older people and those with a medical history should start with half the standard amount or less; 5. Those with sensitive skin or trying aromatherapy for the first time should begin with a low concentration; 6. Those with illnesses or allergies should consult a doctor.
⑥ Essential oils and aroma oils are different; some aroma oils contain synthetic fragrance materials.
⑦ Essential oils are organic compounds (secondary metabolites) that plants produce from carbohydrates (primary metabolites) created from water and carbon dioxide through photosynthesis.
⑧ Plants of the same species whose essential oils differ in composition are called chemotypes (chemical types). Rosemary is well known for having three chemotypes.
⑨ The three main functions of scent are: 1. Attraction (attracting organisms for pollination); 2. Repellency (keeping organisms away to prevent feeding); 3. Antifungal and antibacterial effects (preventing the occurrence and proliferation of fungi such as molds and yeasts, and bacteria).
⑩ Aromatherapy is a holistic (whole-person) natural therapy that uses essential oils to support the mind and body as a whole while enjoying their aromas. It is an approach that addresses not only illness and discomfort but also lifestyle, stress, the body, the mind, the environment and other factors comprehensively.
⑪ When making treatment oils or aromatherapy cosmetics, I recommend using them up within these approximate periods:
Products containing water: one to two weeks
Oils and creams: one month
Remember to keep them in a cool, dark place, avoiding heat and humidity.
⑫ AEAJ’s guidelines for essential-oil dilution concentrations are:
For the body: 1% or less
For the face: 0.1–0.5%
⑬ Because undiluted essential oils are strongly irritating, they are used mixed with plant oils, ethanol, glycerin, beeswax, clay and other materials. Essential oils have an affinity for oil (lipophilicity) and do not dissolve readily in water (hydrophobicity). See below for details.
(in Japanese)The History of Aromatherapy
Antiquity
Egypt
In ancient Egypt, burning frankincense and myrrh as incense in temples and elsewhere was part of religious ritual. These materials were not produced in Egypt and were precious goods obtained through trade with neighboring countries. Among them, a preparation called “kyphi” was said to be of exceptionally high quality. Also, myrrh is said to be the origin of the Japanese word “miira” for mummy; bodies were disinfected with myrrh, which was placed inside them as a preservative.
Greece
In the 400s BCE, the physician Hippocrates approached disease scientifically, wrote the Hippocratic Corpus and came to be known as the father of medicine. One of his treatments was fumigation by burning fresh or dried aromatic plants.
The philosopher Theophrastus, known as the father of botany, scientifically classified plants and described at least 500 plants, as well as the blending, production and use of fragrances, in his Enquiry into Plants.
Rome
The physician Dioscorides served as a military doctor under Emperor Nero and compiled his knowledge in De Materia Medica, describing the habitats, effects and other characteristics of 600 plants. The work was copied for a millennium and several centuries, with the Vienna manuscript of 512 being the most famous.
The soldier and scholar Pliny wrote Natural History in 77, discussing plants and herbal medicines extensively.
The physician Galen established medicine as a systematic discipline based on Hippocratic medicine. The medicinal formulas Galen made using plants came to be called Galenical preparations.
India
At least 3,000 years ago, the philosophy of Ayurveda emerged, teaching the use of plants and views of the universe and nature. It is still known as a traditional system of healing.
China
The most famous work on medicinal substances compiled during the Han period in the second to third centuries is the Shennong Bencao Jing. At the end of the fifth century, the scholar Tao Hongjing recompiled it as the Bencao Jing Jizhu, a collected commentary on the Shennong Bencao Jing.
The Middle Ages
Arabia and the Islamic World
Ibn Sina, active as a physician and philosopher during the Islamic Empire in the tenth century, used aromatic distilled waters such as rose water in treatment and wrote The Canon of Medicine.
Europe
In medieval Europe, monasteries used medicinal herbs for treatment and established medical schools. Salerno in Italy and Montpellier in France were particularly famous. The Crusades also brought distillation technology from Islamic countries. The nun Hildegard wrote books on treatments using herbs such as lavender. Hungarian Water became fashionable in the middle of the fourteenth century.
When plague spread, pomanders made by filling fruit with cloves and drying it were used to ward off evil, and vinegar infused with herbs became popular. It was also called thieves’ vinegar because thieves avoided the plague by using it.
Japan
Asuka period: The Nihon Shoki, the oldest written source containing descriptions of fragrance, mentions agarwood.
Heian period: Incense was enjoyed among the aristocracy and appears in The Tale of Genji. Customs included burning incense indoors, scenting clothing and other items with incense, and blending aromatic materials and judging their merits.
The Early Modern and Modern Periods
The Renaissance influenced not only art but medicine, and specialists in medicinal plants known as herbalists emerged. Herbalism was particularly active in England, where John Gerard wrote The Herball. Nicholas Culpeper, who linked medicinal plants with astrology, wrote The English Physician and argued that herbs were governed by the sun, moon and planets.
The Swedish-born Carl von Linné proposed a system for naming plants that formed the basis of the binomial nomenclature still used today.
During the Age of Exploration, botanists accompanied voyages and became known as plant hunters, bringing unusual plants back to their home countries. Joseph Banks, who sailed with James Cook, is famous for introducing eucalyptus, mimosa and other plants to Europe.
Around the sixteenth century, essential oils began to be extracted from plants, and scent came to be used for fragrance and treatment. At the end of the seventeenth century, Giovanni Paolo Feminis sold an aromatic water in Cologne, Germany, that had been popular in Italy under the name Aqua Mirabilis (“wonderful water”). Giovanni Maria Farina, also known as Jean-Marie Farina, took it over, and it became famous as “water of Cologne,” or Eau de Cologne.
In France, leather gloves were originally a more prominent industry than fragrance materials, but scented leather gloves helped the fragrance industry flourish, until Grasse became known as the city of perfume.
In the nineteenth century, advances in science and technology gave rise to synthetic fragrance materials.
The Contemporary Period
Europe
The chemist René-Maurice Gattefossé was burned in a laboratory accident and used lavender essential oil to treat the burns. This led to research into the healing effects of essential oils, and in 1937 Gattefossé wrote Aromathérapie, coining the term “aromatherapy” from “aroma,” meaning fragrance, and “therapy,” meaning treatment. During wartime, the French military physician Jean Valnet used preparations made from essential oils to treat the wounded.
In Britain, Marguerite Maury developed a beauty and health practice aimed at balancing the mind and body through essential oils. This later became known as holistic aromatherapy.
In 2004, Richard Axel and Linda Buck received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their research on the sense of smell.
Japan
When soap and perfume were imported from the West during the Meiji period, cultivation of Japanese mint and lavender began for essential-oil production. Aromatherapy began spreading in the late 1980s, and in 1996 the Aromatherapy Association of Japan (AAJ) was established to promote its healthy development and public understanding. It became AEAJ in 2012.
Essential-Oil Study Charts
The images below summarize the essential facts to remember about essential oils. Memorizing these alone will let you answer 99% of questions about the individual oils. I have arranged them into several groups to make them easier to learn, so memorize them together while checking the differences. (Click an image to enlarge it.)
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(in Japanese)Essential-Oil Extraction Methods
| Extraction Method | Plants Covered by the Exam | Features of the Extraction Method |
|---|---|---|
| Steam Distillation (in Japanese) | Lavender (flowers), clary sage (flowers), neroli (flowers), German chamomile (flowers), Roman chamomile (flowers), ylang-ylang (flowers), rose otto (flowers) Peppermint (leaves), rosemary (leaves), sweet marjoram (leaves), patchouli (leaves), melissa (leaves), lemongrass (leaves), tea tree (leaves), eucalyptus (leaves), cypress (leaves), geranium (leaves) Vetiver (roots) Frankincense (resin), myrrh (resin), juniper berry (cones), sandalwood (heartwood), black pepper (fruit) | This method takes advantage of essential oils’ low solubility in water. The heat of steam volatilizes the plant’s aromatic constituents, and cooling the vapor in a condenser separates the water and essential oil for extraction. The water also contains fragrance and is called aromatic distilled water (flower water or herbal water). A disadvantage is that heat may damage the scent or constituents. |
| Expression (in Japanese) | Sweet orange (peel) Lemon (peel) Grapefruit (peel) Bergamot (peel) | Primarily used to extract citrus essential oils. In the past, the fruit was pressed by hand; today, machines extract the oil by pressing without applying heat. This is also called cold pressing. The advantage is obtaining a scent close to its natural state. The disadvantages are the inclusion of impurities and susceptibility to deterioration. |
| Volatile Organic Solvent Extraction (in Japanese) | Benzoin (resin) Rose absolute (flowers) Jasmine (flowers) | An extraction method that obtains delicate floral scents using organic solvents such as petroleum ether or hexane. The floral waxes dissolve in the solvent along with the aromatic constituents. When the solvent evaporates, a semisolid material called a concrete remains. Ethanol is added to this, and removing the aromatic constituents and waxes produces an absolute. The product obtained from resins is called a resinoid. |
| Fat Absorption (in Japanese) | An old, traditional method of extracting fragrance by allowing animal fat or olive oil to absorb the aromatic constituents of flowers. There are cold enfleurage, performed at room temperature, and warm maceration, in which flowers are steeped in fat heated to 60–70°C: two types in all. The resulting scented fat is called a pomade. This is steeped in ethanol to obtain an absolute. | |
| Supercritical Fluid Extraction (in Japanese) | A method that uses the supercritical state of carbon dioxide: the carbon dioxide fluid penetrates the plant and extracts the aromatic constituents. Because this can be done at a low temperature, it can yield a scent close to that of the plant itself. The disadvantage is that expensive equipment is required. |
Learning Beyond the Exam
Honestly, if all you want is to pass the exam, knowing the key points above should be enough. But passing does not, in itself, mean you have increased your knowledge of essential oils or acquired real ability. You merely hold a qualification. Therefore, to put that knowledge to use and move closer to being a professional, you should also study things outside the exam’s scope. Moreover, doing so will help with the exam itself.
Clicking the name of an essential oil takes you to more detailed information about the plant that produces it. Since this is a perfume website, most of the content relates to perfume, but it should still be of some use.
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The Road to Level 1: The Scent Test
Here, I will proceed on the assumption that you already have essential oils. If you do not, I recommend buying a set bundled with the official textbook.
The test in which you smell essential oils and identify the fragrance materials covers nine oils for Level 2 and 17 for Level 1, including the nine from Level 2. Here, I introduce my impressions of each of the 17 scents and suggest how you might remember them. My recommended method is to apply a scent to a mouillette, a long, narrow strip of paper also called a scent-testing strip, note your first impression, meaning what you thought it smelled like, and try all the scents. Then apply all the scents to mouillettes, write each essential oil’s name on the back, turn them over and identify the scents blind. Repeating this will help you grasp the characteristics of each essential oil.
Precautions When Smelling Essential Oils
- Try no more than ten fragrance materials in a single session. Because your nose can become desensitized or you can develop a headache, I recommend starting with three to five, especially at first.
- Do not smell essential oils directly from the bottle. They are undiluted and therefore extremely intense. Smelling them directly is highly irritating, so never do it. Apply them to a mouillette, also called a blotter or scent-testing strip, and bend it before setting it down so that the part with the oil does not touch the surface.
- When using a dropper to take out essential oil, always wash and clean it between different oils. Otherwise, the oils will mix and produce a different scent.
- When smelling a mouillette, keep your nose about 5–10 cm away. Rather than waving the strip, move it up, down, left, right, forward and back to try the scent. You can smell it adequately without bringing your nose close.
- Always store essential oils in a cool, dark place. I recommend inside a cupboard.
Reference Table of Impressions of Essential-Oil Scents
Before consulting the table below, be sure to write down your own impressions. Without introducing unnecessary preconceptions, look at the table and compare impressions, working toward describing each essential oil in words that make sense to you. This is the key to remembering scents.
| Lavender | A scent like a combination of sweetness reminiscent of orange flesh and aromatic herbs. |
| Clary Sage | A bitter, astringent scent, as though smelling tea leaves directly or crushing leaves. |
| Peppermint | Not only the cooling freshness of mint chewing gum, but also a sweetness. |
| Rosemary | Suggests a cold, hospital-like scent, like a disinfectant used to treat wounds. |
| Sweet Marjoram | Not the sweetness its name might suggest, but a green, refreshing herbal scent reminiscent of leaves. |
| Sweet Orange | A distinctively sweet scent of orange peel. |
| Lemon | Its characteristic acidity and bitterness come through, and it is very juicy. |
| Grapefruit | Slightly more bitter than sweet orange, with a little more refreshing coolness. The liquid is also slightly paler. |
| Bergamot | Unlike other citrus fruits, it suggests a green fruit, in other words, an unripe one. There is also a lime-like bitterness. |
| Lemongrass | Sweet like limoncello or candied lemon. |
| Tea Tree | A refreshing scent like concentrated swimming-pool chlorine mixed with mint. |
| Eucalyptus | A cold, herbal scent with a slightly animalic quality. |
| Frankincense | Spicy, with a citrus-like coolness. There is also a refreshing quality like medicine or toothpaste. |
| Juniper Berry | A combination of green bitterness reminiscent of conifers and an aromatic quality. There is none of the sweetness that the word “berry” might suggest. |
| Roman Chamomile | A refreshing, aromatic scent that also suggests apple astringency and a sticky sweetness, a little reminiscent of calvados. |
| Ylang-Ylang | A warm scent suggesting both fully ripe bananas and floral nectar with a pollen-like quality. |
| Geranium | An astringent greenness like crushed leaves, with a suggestion of saltiness. Deep within it is an impression of crimson roses. |
