There is a lot of confusion around essential oils, fragrance oils, and those nice smelly liquids that you may pop in an oil burner to make your house smell good, or that you used as a teenager and thought were really cool. I was that kid, I had an oil burner and my little bottles of brightly coloured, something, that I would add to water, and thought that I was so adult and grown-up using these “oils”. Now I know what I am doing, my goodness, they smelled like feet!
I have been into holistic therapies for some time now. Homeopathy, reflexology, massage, and around five years ago, when I was a fully-fledged Mummy Blogger, I was invited to an event all about working with essential oils. The premise of the event was a pyramid selling scheme disguised as a fancy MLM, but I did LOVE the products – how they helped both myself, my family, and friends. For non-emergant medical issues, it’s a case of “I have an oil for that” now rather than reaching for the paracetamol. I also did appreciate the ethics in their company standards, I just didn’t want to be sucked into the MLM side of things to do the recruitment, with the likes of the magic three, the cascading teams and groups, the roles of trying to get X many people enrolled under me, and chasing them all to spend at least the minimum of £125 per month to be able to be awarded different ranks, with various kickbacks. I did not believe that people should have to join an MLM company to be able to have access to these fantastic products. There are three big names in the Essential Oil world and the MLM world with very similar products and very similar claims. Young Living, Niels Yard, and Doterra. There is rivalry and lots of competition between these companies online, and between whose product does what best. But there are also other companies out there who have very similar products too and with not being under an MLM, they are so much cheaper but just as good in regards to the quality.
Is there a difference between essential oils and fragrance oils?
YES! A huge difference. Essential oils come directly from the plant, flower, stem, or fruit. The bottle will normally tell you also by what
method, steam distillation, cold press, or one of the many others. Those bottles will also have a batch number on, which you will be able to use online to find out where and when it was made, bottled, and from what country the flora or fauna used originated from. If you are in the UK, some of these bottles will also be marked as “Food Flavouring” or in the USA, FSA Approved. This does mean that some and I must stress that SOME oils are safe to take one or two drops of per day, under the tongue, to help with some health issues, but this only should be done under the supervision of a qualified aromatherapist who feels comfortable advising on such, as many do not. Essential oils can be used safely by diffusing in the air, we would advise a cold water plug-in diffuser and not an oil burner for this, by applying with a carrier oil like coconut oil directly to the skin, by placing one or two drops in your hands, rubbing together and cupping your hands to your face to breathe in the aroma, and of course, the oral method which is controversial.
Fragrance oils on the other hand are completely synthetic and man-made. These are not made by plant, by any distillation process, but in fact, are made in a lab. These are the fragrances added to products like Lush, Yankee Candle, Sentcey, and the hundreds of candles, bath bombs, soaps, and luxury toiletries you see on the mass market. They have inviting scents that you will recognise, like Snow Fairy, Fresh Cut Grass, Coffee and Cream, but those smells, you can not actually go and get the item that captures that aroma and reduce it to an oil. Coffee and Cream for example, yes, you can get oil from a coffee bean, but it smells nothing like roasted coffee, the smell you are capturing at that moment is the coffee shop environment. These oils are perfect to use in an oil burner, in a cold water diffuser or for making your own products at home, however, they should not be directly added to the skin, and if being used as oils in bath bombs or soap making, you should always check first that they are safe to use for this method and stick to the required number of drops required.
I purchased an essential lavender oil at a high street store, but it does not smell right?
Essential oils are very much like any high-end product, the more money you feed into that product, the better quality you are going to come out with at the end. A 5ml bottle of lavender from a UK high street retailer would normally cost somewhere in the region of £5, but if you look at the packaging, is it telling you anything about the product itself? Is it English, Bulgarian, French, what altitude is it from? All these questions will matter and make a big difference in the quality of the product and the way it smells. It is also highly unlikely that the high street product is 100% lavender too, it will have already been diluted with a carrier oil and you may only be buying 2% lavender which is why it can smell so different in comparison to some of the sample products I may send to you or you may have tried elsewhere. If in doubt you should always ask someone who is qualified in aromatherapy to help you with what your needs are.
Is there really an oil for everything?
As far as I know, and what I have come across so far, yes. My partner was extremely dubious about my oils when we first got together, he now trusts the oils and would rather I treat any of his issues holistically first with oils, massage, and reflexology than going to the GP. If you are looking to get a small collection of essential oils together for the family as an Oil First Aid Kit, I would recommend the ones below to start off with and build from there;
Peppermint is great for bringing down temperatures, headaches, joint aches, digestive issues, add to water and a spray bottle to make a cooling spritz for the summer, apply with lavender to take the heat out of burns.
Lavender, is great for sleep issues, spots and skin issues, anxiety, antifungal, PMS, depression, pain, hay fever, burns, inflammation.
Lemon, is great for anxiety, regulating blood pressure, detoxing, digestive issues, colds, kidney stones, relaxation, purifying water, toning the skin, throat infections.
Melaleuca (Tea Tree), is great for allergies, infections, cleansing, coughs colds and flu, eczema, ear infections, rashes, ringworm, chicken pox, ulcers, headlice, MRSA.
Oregano is great for any form of infection, stimulates the immune system, helps reduce inflammation, creates warming on the muscles and joints in the body, helps with pneumonia, can reduce warts and athletes foot.
Can I book a consultation with you to find out what oils would be best for me?
Yes of course. I give free 15 minute consultations over Discord on our CraftyVixenUK sever that everyone is welcome to join. Longer sessions are billed at £30 per hour.
I do not like certain smells, can you make sure that these smells do not go in my box?
We will do our very best to try and accommodate your needs, some of our packs are already pre-made so it is easy to ship them out, however, if it is an allergy, then we will, by all means, swap a product out. The ingredients list will be posted for each product when they go live.