Most essential oils are multitasking marvels. For as many therapeutic benefits as an oil has, there are almost as many ways to apply it—and all of them are easy to use. This chapter covers the variety of application methods available to you as well as how to dilute oils to use them properly.
Aromatherapy techniques vary depending on the condition you want to treat. For example, diffused in the air, lemon essential oil is uplifting and helps to prevent the spread of viruses. Massaging onto the stomach changes the focus of this same oil to stimulating digestion. The application methods for essential oils give you that many more ways to maximize their healing power.
For the purposes of this book, the name given to a basic method of essential oil application will be simple application. It involves diluting 1 or 2 drops of essential oil in a carrier oil and applying the mixture directly to the affected area using your fingers or a cotton swab. This method works well with any condition or topical use of essential oils. Remember, you are still getting the benefit of inhalation with topical use.
One of the most common ways to use essential oils is to diffuse them, dispersing them into your environment. This method includes room sprays, oil burners, and electric or battery-operated diffusers, most of which typically require just essential oils and water. Diffusion works well for balancing mood and emotions, alleviating cold and flu symptoms, and promoting overall health and well-being.
This quick and easy method involves inhaling essential oils directly from the bottle or from tools like diffuser jewelry, a rollerball bottle, or an inhaler stick. With diffuser jewelry, you infuse a stone or cotton piece on a bracelet or necklace with essential oils and inhale the aromas. With an inhaler stick, you apply your oils to a cotton wick that sits inside a metal casing, then hold the stick up to your nose to inhale the aromas. Inhaling certain essential oils can relieve stress, help you focus, reduce appetite, burn fat, and fend off respiratory illness.
Tissue Inhalation
In a pinch, you can use this simple inhalation method: Apply 1 or 2 drops of essential oil to a tissue, and inhale. This can work well on the go, for example, using lavender to help you fall asleep when traveling or to quickly relieve stress or provide some focus.
Massage is one of the easiest ways to apply essential oils. You can make a small blend for a single application or make a larger batch and store it in a dark-glass bottle for use over several days or weeks. This method is a good choice for almost any reason you use essential oils—including skin moisturizing and conditioning, muscle aches, joint pain, stomach upset, and headaches.
Similar to massage oil, you’ll create salves and balms by diluting essential oils in a carrier oil for single application or for storage. But you’ll use a more dense or solid carrier, such as coconut oil or shea butter, and add ingredients that provide the salve-like texture, such as beeswax and cocoa butter. These blends work well for sensitive skin, irritated skin conditions, and open wounds to encourage healing.
Some recipes—especially for salves and balms—call for use of a double boiler. This just means bringing a few inches of water to a simmer in a saucepan and then placing your large glass mixing bowl on top. Steam will heat the bottom of your bowl to gently melt your ingredients.
Compresses are washcloths soaked in oil-infused water and then wrung out and applied to the body. Depending on the complaint, the water can be cool, cold, warm, or hot. It’s not necessary to dilute oils in a carrier oil when using a compress, though irritation may result if you are not diluting potentially irritating oils or have sensitive skin. Combine 3 to 6 drops of essential oil with 1 tablespoon of carrier oil, and stir the mixture into the water. This method can work well for a number of complaints, including aches and pains, digestive upset, bruises, and skin irritation.
Adding essential oil to a bath or foot soak allows it to enter your bloodstream at all points while you benefit from the effects of inhaling it. Mixing with a carrier such as coconut oil will disperse essential oils somewhat throughout the water, but mostly the oils will float on top. This is best when you want to get more from an inhalation. Using vodka or an unscented soap, like castile, will disperse the oil throughout the water, allowing more contact with the whole body and better penetration through the skin, and the soap will decrease potential irritation. Combine 2 tablespoons of carrier with up to 20 drops of essential oil to help relieve aches and pains, soothe skin, prevent or reduce the length of colds and flu, provide emotional benefits, and remedy sleeplessness.
You can add essential oils to your unscented skin creams, lotions, or other beauty products instead of a carrier oil for easy application during your daily routine. You can customize each application by adding a drop of a selected essential oil or blend for a one-time application of cream or lotion. This method works well if you want to use a different oil or blend each day according your mood: rosemary to uplift and focus, lavender to ease tension, or cedarwood for emotional strength, for example.
Prebath Application
Before hopping in a bath, treat your skin with a blend of essential oils and carrier oil. This enhances the desired effect and creates more potential for absorption into the blood. As you soak, the mixture will also vaporize, allowing you to inhale the aroma.
Essential oils are a very concentrated form of the plant. The carrier dilutes the essential oil to a level that is safer, avoiding sensitization, while still retaining the potency required. Using essential oils undiluted is a waste of this precious resource.
Here’s a simple process that takes the math out of blending and dilution. If it seems tricky, no worries, you really can’t get it wrong and it will eventually become a breeze to figure out.
The average blend is around 1 to 3 percent essential oil. You can dilute oils to as little as 0.5 percent and as much as 20 percent, depending on your needs. Here are some examples:
• Face products: 0.2 to 1.5 percent
• Body massage: 1.5 to 3 percent
• Bath and body products: 1 to 4 percent
• Emotions and mood: 1 to 3 percent
• Virus and illness: 4 to 10 percent
• Pain and minor wounds: 5 to 20 percent
If you have sensitive skin or are using potentially irritating oils, try the lower percentages. If you are using gentler oils or the condition you’re treating is more serious, try the higher end of the spectrum. The chart will show you how much essential oil and carrier oil you need to get the percentage you desire. (Children have different dilution needs. See here.)
The Dilution Guidelines show you how many drops of essential oil you should use per total amount of carrier oil you’re using. A guide for dilution: if the condition is more physical (muscle ache, colds or flu), use a higher dilution. Emotions, skincare, or sensitive conditions would require lower dilution of 2 percent or less. Adjust potentially irritating essential oils to how they feel on the skin (see here for patch testing).
As an example: You want to make a massage blend to treat sore muscles. You’ll make 2 ounces of massage oil so that you have enough for a few applications. You decide to use a 4 percent dilution based on the oils you are using and the reason for using them. You drag your finger along the chart from 4 percent all the way over to 2 ounces of carrier oil, and land on 72 drops of essential oil. You can use as many different essential oils as you like, as long as the drops add up to 72.