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Essential Wellness is like no other shop you’ve (probably) ever seen. Opened a month ago on East Main Street by Bloomsbury Books, where The Hemporium used to be, it offers everything — food, drinks, supplements, cookies, books — that could possibly contain essential oils. It even has a room full of massage tables where you can lay down, cover the upper half of your body with a tent-like "AromaDome" and get a wide choice of essential oils sprayed over you so you breathe them for half an hour, expediting changes in mind and health. “Essential oils are the lifeblood of the plant and the most potent part,” says owner and creator Julie Chertow, an Ashlander for 15 years. “Until our grandparents’ generation, we had no pharma drugs and these essential oils, herbs and acupuncture were what they had to fight disease and stay well.” The AromaDrome was invented by Chertow a decade ago. She estimates she’s sold 4,000 of them, while a like amount sold by Gary Young through his multi-level marketing firm Young Living, based in Utah. The treatment is $45. Many oils are blends with names like "En-R-Gee," "Hope" and "Magnify Your Purpose." Some of the treatments are: "Sleep Ease," (lavender, chamomile), "Awake & Alert" (peppermint), and "Memory Enhance" (basil, rosemary, lavender, peppermint, cardamom, lemon). Essential Wellness is an essential oil mecca. And what are essential oils? They’re natural oils made by distilling them from a plant or other substance. They have a typical aroma and are used in perfumes, soaps and cosmetics, but also attract a wide devotion for their supposed health-inducing qualities. Chertow's café features such goodies as juices, smoothies, salads, soups and frittatas. All items have essential oils and are organic (gluten-free versions are availabl). We asked what Chertow’s vision of the shop is. Julie Chertow – The shop has several factions, with a purpose of being organized around the AromaDome, which I invented. They are a small wellness room, where oils get turned into a mist. They contain the oil in a space where you can breathe it in. My motto for it is “changing lives one breath at a time.” Tidings – Has this ever been done before, a shop like this? Julie Chertow – No one has ever opened a restaurant based on essential oils, that I know of. It’s probably unique. I wanted to be on the main drag for the foot traffic and it’s worked. If I were way out in a strip mall, I don’t think many would hear of me. Tidings – What’s upstairs in this shop? Julie Chertow – The Magic Loft, as we call it, is a classroom space. We’ve had kirtan (chanting and music) and it was packed. I teach Aroma Yoga there. We’re having a class with doctors who want to work with essential oils that are of medical interest. Tidings – Why is it important to atomize the oils? Julie Chertow – It makes the oil molecules small, so they pass through the blood-brain barrier into the limbic brain. You breathe them through your nose for emotional and brain issues and through your mouth for respiration issues.  Chertow’s AromaDome is $199 in her shop. Her website is www.aromadome.com. She is author of “AromaDome: Changing Lives One Breath at a Time.” Her Facebook page is at AromaDome. John Darling is an Ashland freelance writer. Reach him at [email protected].