Everything Guide to Essential Oils

What are these things and why is everyone talking about them?? That was the question that I was thinking and asking my friends when I first heard of essential oils. Then once I learned a little about them I wanted to know more and more. And I wanted to know where I could get them affordable. So I created this Essential Oils Guide to help others understand Essential Oils and their benefits.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

What are Essential Oils

Essential oils are aromatic compounds that are distilled for health benefits. Essential oils can be found on the leaf, stem, or flower of a plant. Woodsy oils come from the bark of a tree and most citrus oils come from the peel of the fruit.

Essential oils are the vital fluids of a plant, shrub, root, herb, flower, seed or tree. They are a highly concentrated form of the natural oils in a plant. The oil inside of a plant operates as the plants immune system. They help protect the plant against predators and disease and they also aid in plant pollination. The oil is essential to the life and health of the plant.

Essential oils have been used for thousands of years to promote healing and wellness. They’ve also been used to flavor foods and also in beauty and cleaning products and sooo much more! They have enhanced so many lives over the years by offering a variety of benefits. These benefits are not just physical but also spiritual and emotional.

How Are Essential Oils Extracted?

Essential oils are extracted by steam distillation, resin tapping, and cold pressing that involves every part of the plant, including roots, leaves, stems, flowers, and bark, resulting in an oil containing the fragrance and healing properties of the plant. Extracting essential oils is a very careful process that ensures all the important, therapeutic, and health-giving constituents of the oil remain intact.

Extracting just one bottle of essential oil requires an incredibly large amount of plant material. For example, it takes approximately 3 pounds of lavender flowers to distill just 15ml of lavender essential oil. It takes about 242,000 rose petals to distill approximately 5 ml of rose oil. This is why some essential oils can be very pricey.

Grab my free Guide

How to Start a Homestead

6 Inexpensive Ways to Start Homesteading without Land.

Enter your name & email so we can send your our FREE Guide.

How to Use Essential Oils

Essential oils can be used in three different ways: aromatically, topically, and internally.

For aromatic use: Add 4-6 drops of essential oils to a diffuser. Inhale oil straight out of the bottle. I personally love to diffuse them.

For topical use: Apply topically to the area of concern or the pulse points, back of the neck, down the spine, and bottom of feet. Neat oils can be applied without diluting and hot oils need to be diluted in a carrier oil.

For internal use: Add 1-2 drops of essential oils in 4 ounces of water. Drop 1-2 drops under the tongue or make a veggie capsule.

Essential oils can also be used to create DIY beauty and cleaning products. So many of the products we use in our homes and on our bodies on a daily basis are full of nasty toxins. I recommend downloading the Think Dirty app and scanning just a few of your favorite products.

You’ll be shocked to discover how many toxins and carcinogens you’re exposing yourself to and also your family to everyday. It’s quite frightening. Essential oils are a no brainer way to start ditching those nasty products and switching to toxic free, immune boosting, life giving household and beauty products instead.

How Do Essential Oils Work?

Essential oils can be used to balance hormones, boost immunity, support digestion, improve brain function and sooo much more. Any ailment or issue you have I can almost guarantee that there’s an oil for that.

Essential oils contain various natural components that impact the body such as terpins, esters, oxides, alcohols, phenols, ketones and aldehydes. Some essential oils contain as many as 300 components! Their small molecular size means essential oils can be absorbed fast and easily into the bloodstream when applied to the skin, taken internally or inhaled. It only takes 2 minutes for oil molecules to hit the bloodstream, and only 20 minutes to affect every cell in your body!

With all that being said essential oils are very powerful and should be used with great care. Some oils should not be taken internally and some need to be diluted before applying to the skin. So please do your research before using your oils!