5 Useful Tips to Use Essential Oils

Q: What are the categories of essential oils?

A: There are three types: Singles, Blends and Carrier Oils

Singles essential oil is an essence extracted from the whole plant or a certain part of a plant. It has extremely high purity and can only be used on the skin after being fully diluted. Singles essential oils are usually named after the plant, such as rose essential oil, lavender essential oil, tea tree essential oil,etc. Generally speaking, Singles essential oils are expensive due to the large amount of plant material that need to be extracted, so the price will not be that cheap.

Blends essential oil is prepared by mixing two or more Singles essential oils in a certain ratio. Each Blends oil has its own targeted effects, such as Relaxing, hydrating, anti-wrinkle, etc., which are suitable for essential oil enthusiasts who are just getting started or like to be “lazy”.

Carrier oil is a non-volatile oil extracted from the seeds, flowers, rhizomes or fruits of plants. It can lubricate the skin and can be used directly for skin massage. It is also the carrier base oil for diluting essential oils. Common are jojoba oil, sweet almond oil, grape seed oil

Q: I have a bottle of essential oil in hand. How should I use it?

A: The use of essential oils can be roughly divided into the following categories:

1. Smell directly: When people see flowers, they will unconsciously smell them and be intoxicated by the fragrance of flowers. Essential oils are the essence of plants. After the aromatic molecules are captured by the olfactory villi, they will be converted into electronic signals and touch the nervous system to achieve the effect of boosting or relaxing the spirit. For example, roses can bring happiness to women; sandalwood can quickly calm down; and sweet orange can instantly relieve tension and bring relaxation and joy to stressed women.
2. Skin care: We recommend that you add essential oils to the commonly used plant-based skin care products, because the molecules of the essential oils are extremely small and can quickly penetrate into the epidermal layer and enter the body circulation. With the addition of essential oils, skincare products are more easily absorbed. For example, after adding rose essential oil, even ordinary whitening products can quickly see obvious results. Essential oils also have amazing effects in hydrating, anti-wrinkle and firming skin.
3. Diffuse: Diffuse refers to an essential oil application method in which essential oil is dripped onto a diffuser tool, and the fragrance of the essential oil is diffused to each corner to achieve sterilization and air purification effects. At the same time, essential oil molecules can also clean and purify the respiratory system and relieve lung discomfort.
4. Fumigation: Take a large porcelain bowl, boil water, drip 4 drops of essential oil, cover the head with the porcelain bowl with a large bath towel, and breathe the hot air of the essential oil. This method can clear the respiratory tract and has a good effect on dry cough and runny nose.
5. Bathing: For hundreds of years, royal nobles have loved to sprinkle flower petals in the bathtub to make the bath full of spirituality. The easier way now is to dilute 8 drops of essential oil with a spoonful of milk or honey, and add it to the bath water and stir well. The dispersed essential oil molecules can contact every inch of skin throughout the body, which greatly improves the body’s absorption efficiency of essential oils.
6. Massage: Massage can promote the essential oil to be absorbed by the skin in the shortest time, which has an excellent maintenance effect on the skin, and can accelerate blood circulation to relax the muscles and soothe the mood. It should be noted that, because of the purity of the unilateral essential oil, it is necessary to formulate a compound oil with the base oil before performing massage.

Facial massage: The oil adjustment ratio is 1%, that is, 2-3 drops of unilateral essential oil are added to 10 ml of base oil.

Body massage: The oil adjustment ratio is 2.5%, that is, 5-8 drops of unilateral essential oil are added to 10 ml of base oil.

Note: Sensitive skin requires skin test before use.

7. Wet compresses: Wet compresses of essential oils are a common method of using essential oils: soaking cotton gauze in cold or hot water containing essential oils, and applying it to the affected area can help deep penetration of the essential oils and improve various body problems

Q: Under what circumstances is it appropriate to use essential oils to hot compress and cold compress?

Benefits of hot compresses: Promote microvascular dilatation, improve local blood circulation and lymph circulation, and help relieve muscle spasms. Essential oil hot compress is suitable for old injuries, such as dysmenorrhea, rheumatism, abdominal pain, back pain and so on.

The main effect of cold compresses of essential oils is to reduce body temperature, help to constrict blood vessels, reduce local congestion and edema; and reduce the sensitivity of nerve endings, inhibit sensory nerves, and reduce pain. Cold compresses are suitable for newly occurring injuries, such as acne, burns, muscle aches and so on.

Q: I don’t know any aromatherapy, but I just think that the essential oil smells good. As an ordinary lover, is there any other way to use the essential oil?

A: Actually, there are many “non-mainstream uses” of essential oils. In many cases, their applicability exceeds even the traditional uses introduced earlier. E.g:

Dripping inside the collar of dark clothes. This method allows you to be immersed in a wonderful aroma for yourself and others within hours.

Drops on the skirt. The “fragrance floats” when walking, so that colleagues in the same office, even if they are working down, know that “beautiful scenery” is moving around.

Wash your baby’s clothes (or adult underwear). It is necessary to sterilize and fear that the disinfection water cannot be thoroughly cleaned. At this time, as long as a few drops of tea tree or eucalyptus are added in the final rinse stage, it can be easily solved.

Comfortable sleep. Take a shower before going to bed, add a few drops of lavender to your body milk, and you don’t need to order electric mosquito coils at night (field travel is a must). Just two drops of sandalwood in the inner corner of the pillow towel when you fall asleep, can give you a night of aromatic sleep.

Car disinfection. Drivers should always have two bottles of essential oil in the car: a bottle of peppermint and a bottle of eucalyptus. Each drop of 2 drops of essential oil is placed on a cotton pad, and the cotton pad is covered in the air outlet of the air conditioner. Peppermint is used to fight drowsiness, and Eucalyptus prevents bacteria from breeding in the space inside the car.

Q: How to distinguish a good bottle of essential oil?

At present, there are three main methods for identifying the quality of essential oils: origin analysis, sensory testing and scientific analysis.

Origin: Natural conditions are very important for the growth of aromatic plants. The best essential oils can only be obtained by selecting the flower of the year of the best origin. For example, best lavender from Provence, France, growing on 800 to 1200 meters high, has a high content of esters and has a good effect on soothing and sleeping; if there is no origin, even professional aroma therapists can hardly distinguish the two; in other words, only the origin is presented to customers, Can the essential oil brands prove their quality and be truly responsible to consumers in terms of efficacy.

Sensory test: The quality of the essential oil is comprehensively identified by observing the liquid color and fluid state of the essential oil, and smelling the odor of the essential oil. This detection method can only be mastered after systematic aromatherapy training, and is not suitable for ordinary consumers.

Scientific analysis: The most scientific and convenient method for identifying essential oil quality. That is, the essential oil chromatogram (GC-MS chromatographic analysis) is used to judge the quality of the essential oil. In the analysis process, the gas chromatography instrument first separates the sample and determines the content of the sample; then, the mass and intensity of the separated ions are determined by mass spectrometry to characterize the component. The results obtained by chromatographic analysis are like the DNA data of essential oils-through these data, the content of each essential oil component can be clearly obtained, and the quality of essential oils can be judged scientifically and effectively.

When purchasing essential oils, we should use the above three methods to comprehensively consider, especially the chromatogram of the essential oils and the certificate of origin-only in this way can we choose the high-quality essential oils that truly suit us.