Our Top 5 Essential Oils + Recipes
September 7, 2021
In this Healthy Insight:
Can’t find cleaning products you like? Concerned about inhaling harmful toxins? There’s a wonderful safe alternative – essential oils. Derived from blossoms, fruits, trees, and grasses, essential oils combat odor, tackle grime and boost laundry naturally.
Essential oils are extremely concentrated fragrant extracts from blossoms, fruits, trees, grasses, seeds, leaves or roots. They are used for aromatherapy to enhance mood, relax the mind, lift spirits and support general health. Here’s the scoop on how they work.
Essential Oils Rundown
If you’ve walked by a lavender-scented candle and felt calmer or smelled roses and thought of your wedding day, you’ve experienced aromatherapy first-hand.
Due to its close proximity to your brain, your olfactory nerve sends messages immediately and directly to your brain. It’s about 10,000 times more sensitive than your other senses, and your brain can store up to 100,000 different scents.
The first time you encounter certain aromas, it’s committed to memory and attached to an emotion. Each subsequent time you run across this scent the same feelings are triggered.
There’s also a physical response. When you’re recalling pleasant memories, you’re feeling less anxious, neck and back muscles relax, mood lifts and even digestion runs more smoothly. That’s the power of aromatherapy.
Health benefits of aromatherapy
- Energizes
- Boosts mood
- Stimulates digestion
- Supports immune system
- Eases stress
- Encourages sleep
- Boosts alertness and concentration
- Fosters sleep
- Eases respiratory tract
Our top 5 essential oils
No home should be without our most popular essential oils.
Tangy Orange
What it is: Cold pressed Orange Oil from the fruit peel.
How to use it: Orange naturally calms and eases anxiety with its perky, lively aroma. A great addition to potpourri or sachet, orange oil is also commonly added to cleaning and polishing products due to its natural cleansing properties. For eco-friendly cleaning, simply add it to your water and enjoy its pleasant scent throughout your house.
Zesty Lemon
What it is: Cold expressed Lemon Oil from the fruit peel, not to be confused with Lemongrass.
How to use it: Add to a diffuser to liven up a room and lift spirits. Place a few drops into a vaporizer to ease respiratory concerns.
Peppy Peppermint
What it is: Steam distilled Peppermint Oil from the leaves.
How to use it: One of the most recognizable scents in the world, peppermint’s use traces back to ancient Egypt, Greece, and Asia. Today it is a common ingredient for everything from tea, gum, and toothpaste to lotions, bath salts, and candles. It makes a perfect room freshener.
Soothing Lavender
What it is: Steam distilled Bulgarian Lavender Oil from the flower or synthetically manufactured Lavender Oil.
How to use it: A timeless favorite for relaxation, lavender is widely used in soaps, perfumes and bath products. Add to a steamed pot, diffuser, potpourri, or room spray for a good night’s sleep.
Cooling Eucalyptus
What it is: Steam distilled Eucalyptus Oil from the leaves.
How to use it: Eucalyptus is included in muscle rubs, creams and mouthwashes. It’s also popular for its soothing effect on the sinuses and respiratory system. Just place a few drops of Eucalyptus Oil in a bowl of steaming hot water and inhale the invigorating, comforting scent.
Our other popular essential oils include patchouli, frankincense, rosemary, cedarwood and clove.
10 more tips, tricks, and uses for essential oils
- Create a room spray with Lemon Oil mixed with water.
- Spray pillows and sheets with Lavender Oil for a restful night’s sleep.
- Put a few drops of Orange or Lemon Oil in your cleaning water.
- Use a vaporizer or steamed pot of water with Eucalyptus or Peppermint Oil to clear sinus and respiratory tract.
- Place reed diffusers into your bottle of essential oil and enjoy the aroma for months.
- Add to your dryer cycle by dabbing a cloth towel with your favorite oil. For best results, place in the dryer at the end of the cycle on “no heat.”
- Add Peppermint or Lavender Oil to a foot bath to ease tired, achy feet and muscles.
- Cut greasy dishes with a drop or two of Lemon Oil in your dish water.
- Put a few drops of Lemon Oil on a cotton ball and place in your vacuum cleaner bag to scent while you sweep.
- Add a few drops of an essential oil to your steamy shower and enjoy a spa-like experience.
If you haven’t tried essential oils, now’s the time to discover them. Look for 100% pure and natural essential oils. Because they are highly concentrated, you only need a drop or two, and they stay fresh for months or even years. Remember, there’s no right or wrong way to combine oils or aromas. They’re as unique as you are. So have fun and experience the life-enhancing benefits of aromatherapy for yourself.
Essential oils are highly concentrated, so don’t go overboard. With that in mind, here are the top 10 essential oil recipes to safely clean and deodorize your home.
All-purpose cleaner
Natural air freshener
- Fill a spray bottle with filtered water.
- Add 8-10 drops of the essential oil of choice.
- Spray and enjoy. Keep in mind different essential oils evoke different moods. Lavender relaxes, cedarwood calms the mind, rosemary energizes and patchouli lifts spirits.
Floor cleaner
- Mix ¼ cup white vinegar to a bucket of water. Add 5 to 10 drops of your favorite essential oil. Most people like pine needle, tea tree or eucalyptus.
- For extremely dirty or greasy floors, add several drops of natural dishwashing liquid.
- Apply to the floor with a mop then rinse with fresh water.
Vacuum air freshener
- Soak a small cotton ball with lemon or spearmint oil.
- Allow the vacuum to suck up the cotton ball. Aroma will circulate throughout the room as you vacuum.
Window cleaner
- Measure 1 cup of distilled vinegar into a spray bottle.
- Add water until bottle is ¾ full and shake to mix.
- Add 10 drops of lemon, lemongrass or lavender oil and shake.
- Spray onto windows and wipe with a clean cloth.
Laundry deodorizer
- Wet a clean washcloth with water.
- Add 10 drops of an essential oil of your choice. Favorites include Bulgarian lavender, orange blossom, tea tree, eucalyptus, patchouly, rose floral, or violet.
- Place inside the dryer and it will scent the entire load. For best results place in dryer at the end of the cycle on “no heat.”
Comb & brush cleaner
- Fill a jar or container with 1 ½ cups of water and- ½ cup white vinegar.
- Add 20 drops of tea tree, lavender or eucalyptus oil.
- Soak combs and brushes for 20 minutes.
- Rinse and air dry.
Closet/drawer freshener
- Place a few drops of pine or patchouly oil on a cotton ball.
- Place in closet or drawer and enjoy fresh fragrance every time it’s opened.
Gum remover
- Add orange oil to a cotton ball.
- Apply cotton ball to material and launder immediately.
Shoe Deodorizer
- Dab a few drops of rose geranium oil onto a cotton ball.
- Insert a cotton ball into each shoe.
Because they are so concentrated, always handle essential oils carefully, especially if pregnant. Like any cleaning product or air freshener, keep away from children, pets or open flames. Used appropriately, essential oils can make your living space healthier and safer and make you happier too!
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Individual results may vary.
