Essential oils are highly concentrated, and they can be harmful if not used carefully. Implementing aromatherapy into your lifestyle shouldn’t cause paranoia or undue worry, but it is important to learn about and heed essential oil safety. By treating essential oils with respect and learning about essential oil safety, you will be well on your way to safely enjoying the many benefits that essential oils can offer.
Diluting Essential Oils into Carrier Oil
These safety guidelines are intended as a helpful introduction, but they should not be considered a complete safety reference for the proper use of essential oils.
It is safest to consult with a qualified medical or aromatherapy practitioner before implementing essential oils into your lifestyle.
Essential oils should never be used undiluted on the skin. Lavender and tea tree are listed by a large number of aromatherapy sources as being oils that can be used undiluted. Undiluted use of lavender and tea tree, however, should be discouraged as severe sensitivity still could occur in some individuals. Again, the safest rule of thumb is to never use any essential oil undiluted and to be sure to dilute all essential oils adequately.
Within Essential Oils and Aromatics, she shares her personal experiences and her unfortunate long term consequences for having used undiluted lavender essential oil:
“One of my mentors reminds me ‘sensitization is forever.’ And I know she is right. Years ago I read the books saying that lavender oil could be used neat (undiluted). I very unwisely used undiluted lavender on broken skin, and consequently set up a sensitivity reaction. Today, almost two decades later, if I come in contact with lavender in any form, I will immediately start a new round of contact dermatitis that can take months to heal.
Some oils can cause irritation, sensitization or allergic reactions in some individuals. When using a new oil topically for the first time, do a skin patch test on a small area of skin (it’s easy). The How to Perform a Skin Patch Test page provides details.
Some essential oils are phototoxic and can cause irritation, inflammation, blistering, redness and/or burning when exposed to UVA rays. For more information, learn about phototoxicity and phototoxic essential oils.
Discontinue using an essential oil or essential oil blend immediately if you encounter any irritation, redness or reaction.
Using essential oils in the bath requires special care. Never add essential oils directly to bathwater, and pay close attention to the points mentioned within the Adding Essential Oils and Bath Oils to the Bath section of the article.
Some essential oils should be avoided during pregnancy or by those with asthma, epilepsy, or with other health conditions.
Be sure to research/review the safety precautions associated with each essential oil that you use.
Less IS More. When using essential oils, use the smallest amount of essential oil that will get the job done. If 1-2 drops are called for, for example, don’t use more than that. Essential oils are very concentrated. (As a sidenote, some companies or their representatives may suggest that you use as much as you want — it’s in their best interest that you go through your oils faster so you then need to reorder more frequently. Generally speaking, it takes a lot of plant material (i.e. flower petals, leaves, needles, bark, wood, root, etc.) to obtain the botanical’s essential oil by steam distillation. It’s wasteful to use more essential oil than is needed for your particular application.)
Not all essential oils are suitable for use in aromatherapy. Wormwood, pennyroyal, onion, camphor, horseradish, wintergreen, rue, bitter almond and sassafras are examples of some of the essential oils that should only be used by qualified aromatherapy practitioners, if ever at all.
Avoid using essential oils near the genitals, mouth, nose, eyes and ears.
Essential oils do not stay mixed with water and should never be added to bathwater without first being diluted/solubilized. Essential oils that are at higher risk of causing irritation and sensitization should be avoided in the bath, even if you solubilize them.
Use extreme caution when using oils with children or the elderly. Be sure to first read the recommended dilution ratios for children.
Never let children use essential oils without the presence of an adult knowledgeable about their use. Most essential oils smell wonderful and many essential oils such as citrus oils can smell like they are “yummy” and safe to drink. ALWAYS keep your essential oils away from children. Treat the oils like medicines that are poison in unknowing hands.