Essential oils are one of my favorite “crunchy hippie mama” items. And with good reason. They are a powerful natural tool to have in your natural mama arsenal, along with a fresh, whole foods diet and a few other quality supplements and natural home remedies. I started using them when my first was just a baby, and our family has used them nearly every day since.

One of the biggest questions I get about essential oils is “but, HOW do I use them?”

While we have been using essential oils in our home for quite some time, I know there are a lot of beginner essential oil users out there who aren’t sure where to start. That’s why I made this FREE online Essential Oils Class! To help answer your questions and start you on your essential oil journey! Click here to take my class…

What are Essential Oils?

If you have ever enjoyed the scent of a rose, you’ve experienced the aromatic qualities of essential oils. These naturally occurring, volatile aromatic compounds are found in the seeds, bark, stems, roots, flowers, and other parts of plants. They can be both beautifully and powerfully fragrant. Essential oils give plants their distinctive smells, essential oils protect plants and play a role in plant pollination.

Essential oils are aromatic, volatile liquids that are found within many shrubs, flowers, trees, roots, bushes and seeds. Sometimes called the “life blood” of the plant, most essential oils are extracted from the plant through steam distillation.

Essential oils have long been used for food preparation, beauty treatment, and health-care practices. Distillation pots have been found dating back about 3,500 BC!

The Three Ways to Use Essential Oils

There are three basic ways to use essential oils.

• Aromatically
• Topically
• Ingesting

Aromatic

The Art of Aromatherapy! The beautiful smells of essential oils is usually what first grabs someones interest.

Scents and emotion are so closely linked. Every time I smell a musty trunk, I think of our summer cabin from childhood. It was my favorite place on earth….

Delicious smells, stinky smells, smells we associate with memories and life experience become associated with specific emotions. Aromatherapy can provide the same physical and emotional responses on cue.

There are many different showing that essential oils are beneficial in supporting physical and emotional health. Smells are processed via input from the olfactory bulb, which is at the base of our brain and connects to a part of the brain brain called the amygdala and the hippopotamus, which is the part of our brain that processes emotion and memory.

Aromatherapy, in nutshell, is inhaling essential oils. The easiest way to do so is by using a good diffuser.

How to use an essential oil diffuser

There are two basic kinds of diffusers. Water based and oscillating. The most common essential oil diffuser is water based. For this type of diffuser,  simply mix 2-8 drops of essential oil with water (either tap or distilled per the diffuser’s instructions) into athediffuser. The diffuser breaks apart the oil into tiny molecules and disperses them through the air. An oscillating diffuser doesn’t use water but also breaks the molecules up and disperses them. I personally like the oscillating kind of diffuser the best, though they tend to be a little pricier.

While I’ve always been sensitive to synthetic perfumes and air fresheners, little did I know how many chemicals they contained and how toxic they can be. An Essential Oil diffuser can be a great alternative to these.

“Researchers found that most types of incense emitted significant amounts of particles, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and oxides of nitrogen, resulting in the inflammatory response.”

Ick! No thank you! Give me my safe essential oils to freshen and cleanse our indoor air any day!

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Topically

Using essential oils topically is one of my favorite ways to reap the benefits of EOs.

Because of their molecular structure, essential oils are rapidly absorbed by the skin. When you apply them topically, it takes about 20 minutes for an oil to affect every cell in the body. And then, it only takes a few hours before the oil is metabolized.

The feet are my go to place for applying essential oils, especially on my kiddos. The feet contain thick, less sensitive skin and are far away from mucous membranes, (think eyes, mouth, etc). The last thing I want is for my little ones to rub their eyes after getting a strong oil on their fingers, so putting the oil on their feet and then immediately putting socks on remedies that problem.

The key to using essential oils is to dilute them properly. Many EOs are too strong to be used directly on the skin without being diluted especially if you have more sensitive skin. Diluting essential oils also helps to them spread over a larger surface area of the skin, which helps the oil penetrate your body better, makes the oil last longer.

When diluting essential oils, a general rule of thumb is:

• Add 1-2 drops of essential oil per 1 TEASPOON of carrier oil for adult
• Add 1-2 drops of essential oil per 1 TABLESPOON of carrier oil for children over 2 years of age. (Always do your research before applying oils on kids as they are more sensitive than us grown-ups. I usually don’t use “hot” oils like cinnamon bark, oregano, wintergreen and even peppermint on my kids unless they are VERY well diluted and applied in a place they aren’t going to get the oil on their fingers and into their eyes.)

What is a carrier oil?

A carrier oil is an oil that is used to dilute the essential oil. My favorite carrier oil is coconut,  any cold-pressed vegetable/fruit oil will work well,  like  olive,  almond, avocado, jojoba or rose hip.

Ingestion

I usually recommend that someone spends some time educating themselves on EO’s before beginning to use them internally. Remember, essential oils are super concentrated. For example, one drop of Peppermint oil is the equivalent to 26 cups of Peppermint tea! There has been a lot of controversy over the past few years about whether essential oils are safe for internal use. Ultimately,  you need to educate yourself and find what works for you. I personally feel extremely comfortable using essential oils internally as long as they are THERAPEUTIC GRADE OILS ONLY. One of the reasons I choose doTERRA Essential Oils is because of the confidence I have in their high quality and third party testing.

Cooking with Essential Oils

I love using essential oils in some of my recipes, like Peppermint Bark or Orange fudge. (recipes coming soon!) My top tip in using essential oils in cooking is DON’T OVERDO IT!  It just takes a few drops-sometimes even half a drop!- to add the flavor or essence to the recipe. I like to dip the end of a toothpick in the bottle then stir it in to add small amounts. I also try to use in only raw/uncooked recipes since heat can change the molecular structure of the oil.

Which Essential Oils to Use?

Truth be told, there are many wonderful companies who sell essential oils. And some not so wonderful. The main thing is to choose a company that create THERAPEUTIC GRADE oils, that have not been cut with filler oils, had synthetic oils added or made from poor quality plants that have been sprayed with pesticides. Most essential oils bought off the shelf don’t meet these requirements.

I use doTERRA essential oils because I feel so comfortable with their quality and standards. Each doTERRA essential oil is carefully and thoroughly tested using the strict CPTG Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade® quality protocol. Experienced essential oil users will immediately recognize the superior quality standard for naturally safe, purely effective therapeutic-grade doTERRA essential oils. I think everyone should make Essential Oils part of their daily life.

If you’d like to learn more about the practical application of oils and their different therapeutic benefits, or how to get oils for your home, a good place to start would be my online class where I show you my favorite ten essential oils for every day use. You can check my online essential oil class here: doTERRA Essential Oils

Don’t hesitate to reach out to me with questions!

How do you like to use essential oils? What is your favorite oil? Share with us in the comments below!

Be sure to check out my ONLINE ESSENTIAL OIL CLASS

Learn to HOW TO USE ESSENTIAL OILS WITH KIDS