How To Use Essential Oils

They smell amazing and they can have amazing health benefits: this we all know. But when it comes to actually using essential oils, where do we start? How do we get the right blends? And, most importantly, how do we use them safely?

The truth is, there are literally hundreds of ways to use essential oils in your everyday routine. But let’s take a closer look at some of our personal favourite uses for essential oils.

Making creams and lotions

Using beautifully scented creams and lotions is a great way to unwind and pamper yourself. But, rather than spending tonnes of cash on high-end, branded products, what if you could create a scent at home that’s completely unique to you?

You have two choices here:

1. You can buy ready-made lotions that come unscented and add your own choice of essential oils to them or…
2. You can learn how to build your own creams and lotions from the ground up.

Either way, you’ll quickly be able to find a blend which ticks all the boxes for you. Try dipping toothpicks into five or six different essential oils and hold various combinations under your nose. This is a great way to find a scent which works for you, with minimal wastage. Plus you can store them in a tupperware box and revisit a few days later to see if you still like the scent.

Scented steam

If you’ve been feeling a bit under the weather, using essential oils to create sweetly scented steam is a great way to kick your health into touch. You can either create a mini steam bath-in-a-bowl, holding your head over it and placing a towel over your head and shoulders to create a little haven of steam. Or you can add a few drops of your favourite essential oils to a hot bath.

For creating health-boosting steam, you could use eucalyptus essential oil (particularly great if you’re feeling bunged up) or a citrus essential oil like lemon or orange.

Making your own candles

Create a delightfully scented haven filled with flickering candlelight: nothing’s more relaxing at the end of a stressful day. And nothing’s more satisfying than knowing the candles were formed by your own hand.

Candle making is an art in itself, but the technique of balancing a scented melody is the first step to perfecting your art. There are top notes, middle notes and base notes to any well-rounded scent, and this is particularly important in candle making. Your top notes should be light and fleeting, middle notes (or ‘heart notes’) come to the fore when the top notes have dispersed, and base notes bring the depth and solidity of the scent. You can experiment with a range of combinations to find the right scents for you.

These are just a few ways in which you can enjoy using essential oils. They can be used for cleaning, deodorising, keeping flies away, curing skin conditions and much, much more.