Not sure how to use essential oils or what they’re good for? This guide is for you. I was exactly the same when I started—I avoided essential oils for a long time because I didn’t know what to do with them or how they could help.
Quick navigation:
– What are essential oils?
– Benefits of essential oils
– How to use essential oils
– Lavender essential oil
– Properties
– Uses and benefits
– Peppermint essential oil
– Properties
– Uses and benefits
– Eucalyptus essential oil
– Properties
– Uses and benefits
– Tea tree essential oil
– Properties
– Uses and benefits
– Ylang Ylang essential oil
– Properties
– Uses
– Tips for buying essential oils
– Review: Organic essential oils from Sacred Soul Holistics
Over time I learned that essential oils are wonderful — they have many uses and benefits. I think everyone should have at least a few at home since they’re great natural remedies. So far I’ve only tried a handful. My favorites are tea tree and lavender, which I use almost every day. Lately I’ve also tried organic peppermint and eucalyptus from Sacred Soul Holistics.
What are essential oils?
Before we go into benefits and uses, let’s define essential oils. Essential oils are highly concentrated natural oils taken from different parts of plants. They’re what give plants their smell. Oils are extracted by methods like distillation (with water) or expression (mechanical pressing or cold pressing).
An oil is called “essential” because it contains the “essence” of the plant’s fragrance — the plant’s characteristic scent (1).
Benefits of essential oils
I’m still learning what each oil is best used for, but it’s amazing what they can do for health, wellbeing, and beauty. Headache? There’s an oil for that. Itchy skin? There’s an oil for that too. Feeling anxious or having trouble sleeping? You probably already know which oil helps.
With essential oils and aromatherapy you can gently treat minor health issues, soothe skin problems, and calm a busy mind. The benefits are many.
How to use essential oils
Essential oils are highly concentrated and many should not be applied to the skin neat, as they can cause sensitivity. It’s a good idea to dilute stronger oils, especially when trying an oil for the first time. Diluting helps avoid strong reactions, which is important if you have sensitive skin.
A common dilution is one drop of essential oil to three drops of a carrier oil such as almond, jojoba, or olive oil. You can use more carrier oil depending on what you want to do.
Popular ways to use essential oils:
– In a bath: add a few drops to lift your mood
– For a massage: to help you relax
– On the skin, diluted: to soothe and calm
– Steam inhalation: useful for colds and coughs (some oils work better than others)
– Natural cleaning: many oils have antibacterial and antiseptic properties
– As an air freshener: add a few drops to a diffuser or burner (I use a Kinga aroma diffuser; it makes a lovely mist and the scent lasts for hours)
There are hundreds of essential oils. This guide covers some of the most popular ones and common ways to use them.
Lavender essential oil
Lavender is one of the few essential oils that is generally safe to apply neat to larger areas of skin. It’s a great first-aid oil for home and travel (2).
Lavender essential oil properties:
– Analgesic — helps relieve pain
– Antidepressant
– Antispasmodic — relieves muscle spasms and cramps
– Sedative
– Antiseptic — antimicrobial
Lavender essential oil uses and benefits
Lavender is well known for its calming effects. It helps with nervous tension, stress-related headaches, and migraines. It’s excellent for relaxation, anxiety, and improving sleep.
Ways to use lavender essential oil:
– Put a few drops under your pillow to sleep better
– Massage a few drops into your temples for headache relief
– Massage onto herpes or shingles sores and sore joints
– Apply to minor burns, sunburns, cuts, itchy skin, and insect bites to help healing and ease discomfort
– Use to deter moths and insects
– Apply on acne to soothe skin and reduce redness
– Add to shampoo to calm an itchy scalp
– Add to laundry as a rinse to make clothes smell fresh
Peppermint essential oil
Research supports using peppermint oil for irritable bowel syndrome. It works on the colon, easing spasms and reducing nerve sensitivity in the intestinal wall (2).
Peppermint essential oil properties:
– Antiseptic — antimicrobial
– Antispasmodic — relieves muscle spasms and cramps
– Diaphoretic — encourages sweating, which can help reduce fever and remove toxins
– Mild analgesic — mild pain relief
– Mild sedative
– Helps relieve wind
Peppermint essential oil uses and benefits
Peppermint energizes the body and mind and helps ease sore muscles. It also makes a refreshing natural air freshener. Combined with elderflower, it can help with fever, colds, catarrh, and gastric infections.
Ways to use peppermint essential oil:
– For itchy skin: mix 2 drops per teaspoon of carrier oil and apply
– Drink peppermint tea to encourage sweating and cool a fever
– Apply 1–2 drops to the forehead for headache relief
– Add to shampoo to encourage hair growth and reduce dandruff
– Apply to sore joints to ease pain
Eucalyptus essential oil
Eucalyptus is a key traditional remedy in Australia and can be used for colds, chest infections, skin conditions, and fever (2).
Eucalyptus essential oil properties:
– Antiseptic — antimicrobial
– Expectorant — helps loosen mucus
– Anti-inflammatory
– Antibacterial
Eucalyptus essential oil uses and benefits
Eucalyptus is mainly used for cold symptoms, nasal and sinus congestion, sore throats, and phlegmy coughs. It’s also useful for insect bites and some fungal skin conditions.
Ways to use eucalyptus essential oil:
– Apply diluted to insect bites
– Make a steam bath to decongest: pour a cup of boiling water into a bowl, add 10 drops of eucalyptus oil, cover your head with a towel, and inhale for five to ten minutes (3)
– Use in a diffuser to freshen the air and help keep mold away (works well with tea tree oil)
– Use as an insect repellent (4)
– Apply diluted to a cold sore to reduce pain and speed healing
Tea tree essential oil
Tea tree is a must-have for a home herbal first-aid kit. It helps treat many minor fungal and bacterial skin problems and has been used in Australia for more than 100 years. Studies show it can kill many strains of bacteria, viruses, and fungi.
Tea tree essential oil properties:
– Antifungal
– Antiseptic
Tea tree essential oil uses and benefits
Tea tree is the oil I use most. I use it on spots and acne and for natural cleaning. It’s a strong disinfectant and works well against mold and fungal skin infections.
Ways to use tea tree essential oil:
– Diffuse to kill mold spores in the air
– Spray directly onto mold to remove it
– Apply to an infected toenail twice daily for fungal infections
– For an ear infection: put 1–2 drops on cotton wool and place in the affected ear overnight
– Put directly on spots to dry them out (dilute with water to avoid overly dry skin)
– Add to shampoo to fight dandruff
Ylang Ylang essential oil
Ylang ylang has a rich, sweet scent and is often thought to have aphrodisiac effects. I don’t use it often; mainly for massage. But it has other helpful uses too.
Ylang Ylang essential oil properties:
– Antidepressant
– Antiseborrheic — useful for dandruff and seborrheic dermatitis
– Antiseptic
– Aphrodisiac
– Hypotensive — may lower blood pressure
– Nervine — calms the nerves
Ylang Ylang essential oil uses:
– Add to a bath for relaxation
– Put in massage oil for its aphrodisiac effect
– Mix one drop with a carrier oil and massage over the heart daily to help control blood pressure and prevent arrhythmia (9)
– Use in a diffuser to lift your mood; research shows it can help release negative emotions, including anger (9)
– To help prevent signs of ageing: mix one or two drops with jojoba oil and massage into the face once or twice daily
Tips for buying essential oils
When buying essential oils, choose pure oils with nothing added. Organic oils are even better because they reduce the risk of pesticide residues and are often higher quality. Don’t choose the cheapest oils — you can’t be sure how pure they are.
Low-quality oils can harm your skin and may not give the therapeutic benefits you want.
Organic essential oils from Sacred Soul Holistics — Review
If you want organic essential oils, consider Sacred Soul Holistics. They currently offer five oils and I’ve tested them all over the past few weeks: tea tree, lavender, ylang ylang, eucalyptus, and peppermint.
The price of organic oils isn’t much different from non-organic, so they’re worth buying. Although Sacred Soul Holistics is a British company, their oils are certified organic by ACO, an Australian body. This came about because the co-founder moved to Australia and sourced his first oil there.
I like that this company is open about purity — their website shows test results proving 100% purity. The oils I tried have a strong, natural aroma that clearly shows their quality.
The oils come in glass bottles and include a small leaflet with basic instructions and uses. I haven’t seen that with many other brands, which often assume you already know how to use essential oils.
Overall I couldn’t find any faults with Sacred Soul Holistics’ oils and I’m happy to recommend them.
I hope this guide helps you understand essential oils, their benefits, and how to use them.
References
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_oil
(2) Chevallier, A. (2007). Herbal Remedies. London: Dorling Kindersley Limited.
(3) https://draxe.com/eucalyptus-oil-uses-benefits/
(4) http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/266580.php
(5) http://www.homepharmacy.com.au/healthcontent/AilmentsandDiseases/cold_sores.htm
(6) https://draxe.com/tea-tree-oil-uses-benefits/
(7) https://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-8017/10-ways-to-use-tea-tree-essential-oil-for-health-beauty-cleaning.html
(8) https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/essential-oils/health-benefits-of-ylang-ylang-essential-oil.html
(9) https://draxe.com/ylang-ylang/