Know About Using Essential Oils
Know About Using Essential Oils. An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile aroma compounds from plants. Essential oils are plant extracted oil such as oil of clove. An oil is “essential” in the sense that it contains the “essence of” the plant’s fragrance–the characteristic fragrance of the plant from which it is derived. Essential oils do not form a distinctive category for any medical, pharmacological, or culinary purpose. They are not essential for health.
Things You Should Know About Essential Oils:
Essential oils are not really oils. They do not contain the fatty acids that constitute what we would consider an actual oil. Valerie Gennari Cooksley, author of Aromatherapy: Soothing Remedies to Restore, Rejuvenate and Heal defines essential oils as “highly concentrated plant constituents possessing potent medicinal and cosmetic qualities.” However, I think Stephanie Tourles nailed it in Organic Body Care recipes when she said, “I consider essential oils the life force or the soul of the plant.”
High in antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral
Most essential oils are high in antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral properties: This makes them an excellent addition to your homemade cleaning preparations. Oils that are best for cleaning are: Lemon, grapefruit, eucalyptus, peppermint, tea tree, lavender, and rosemary.
Helps your brain to perform
Scientific studies have shown that rosemary essential oil helps your brain perform. Specifically, smelling rosemary essential oil helps memory recall and performance on tests. Interestingly, this study also showed that groups that inhaled either rosemary or lavender essential oil felt much more relaxed than those who inhaled no odor at all.
Fragrance oils and essential oils are NOT the same thing. As a rule of thumb, if you see the word “fragrance” or “fragrance oil” or even “perfume” on anything, you can assume this is synthetic and NOT natural. (Even if it says natural fragrance.)
Wholly Natural Oils
Essential oils are wholly natural and cannot be patented; which means that you’ll never see an essential oil in a pharmaceutical drug. As such, you can expect that the vast majority of mainstream healthcare practitioners will never recommend essential oils as therapeutic alternatives to drugs.
plants are needed to produce essential oil
In fact, on the extreme end, it takes 4000 pounds of Bulgarian roses to produce 1 pound of essential oil. Other plants like lavender only take 100 pounds of plant material to produce a pound of essential oil.
There are a few essential oils that are generally recognized as safe to use undiluted. Of course, there has to be a few exceptions to the rule.
Never use an undiluted essential oil on a baby or child
Children have much thinner, more delicate skin than adults have, and tend to be very sensitive to the potency of essential oils. In fact, even if you do use essential oil in a recipe for children, only use half of the essential oil recommended in the recipe. That’s all they’ll need, anyway.
Avoid the following essential oils while pregnant or nursing (and skip EOs completely in your first trimester): Aniseed, cedarwood, chamomile, cinnamon, clary sage, clove, ginger, jasmine, lemon, nutmeg, rosemary, sage etc.
To test if you’re sensitive to an essential oil (which is probably best to do before using it in a skincare preparation): Combine one drop of essential oil with 1/2 tsp carrier oil (like olive, jojoba, or sweet almond). Rub this on the inside, upper portion of your arm and wait a few hours. If no redness or itching develops, you’re most likely not sensitive to that essential oil.
Not for internal uses
Do not take essential oils internally, especially oils like wintergreen and eucalyptus.
There are certain brands I will use in a less therapeutic fashion (like for cleaning), because they’re far less expensive than their counterparts. When you see a wide fluctuation in price between, say, lavender essential oils, you can bet that the far less expensive one is likely lower in quality.
Price differences
However, a small variation in price differences on the higher end will NOT mean a better essential oil. It will just mean a higher price. What I’m saying here is: Understand that you DO have to pay for quality, but that if you’re just using essential oils in non-therapeutic fashions, it’s okay to use less expensive oils. But if you want high quality, I suggest using Mountain Rose Herbs or another ethical supplier that offers organic essential oils (grown without pesticides or toxic fertilizers).
Test your essential oil
To test your essential oil to see how “pure” it is, put a single drop of it on a piece of construction paper. If it evaporates quickly and leaves no noticeable ring, it is pure. If a ring left, then it is likely diluted with an oil of some sort.
Essential oils will last for at least 5 years. Hopefully that thought will help mitigate the cost involved in purchasing some essential oils. The only exception to this rule is citrus oils, which will see a reduction in potency after a year or two.
Store essential oils at dark place
Store your essential oils in dark glass bottles and out of direct sunlight. This is simply to help preserve their potency.
Remember that what you’re allergic to in food, you will be allergic to in essential oils. So if, for some reason, you can’t eat sage without breaking out in a rash, steer clear of sage essential oil (or any product containing it).
Mood elevators
Use Essential Oils to help your mood. Lavender, peppermint, grapefruit, chamomile, lemon, ylang-ylang all help produce happy, joyous moods. Clary sage helps with PMS (although there have been reports that overuse of clary sage can lead to intoxication). Rosemary increases focus and concentration. Don’t forget the mood benefits of essential oils.
Do NOT be afraid of essential oils. Just use them with care and respect, and all will be fine.
