Author: mysmallstore

While many alternative health therapy practitioners swear by essentials oils, you might be prone to severe allergic reactions while using Essential Oils. 

These potent extracts from plants serve medicinal benefits, but most often, the risk of using them is far more damaging. 

From naturopathy to aromatherapy, people have been using essential oils in home remedies and to cure ailments that western medicine has failed to correct. From mild to severe dermatitis, inflammation, allergic reactions, blisters to even complete skin pigmentation loss are the horrifying side effects of using these oils wrong. 

Before discussing the potential risks and dangers of using essential oils, let’s see what they are. 

What are essential oils?

From peppermint essential oil to soothe your cold and lavender essential oil to cure your insomnia, we all have had some experience with essential oils. But if we have to look at the definition of essential oils, it is a liquid extract from plants with useful compounds. 

The essential oils are very potent in smell and active ingredients from the plant they are sourced from. Manufacturers of essential oils use two methods to extract the goodness from plants. The two types of techniques are steam or water distillation and cold pressing. 

Many manufacturers sell the essential oils as they are in the pure form or mix it with a carrier oil like coconut, sunflower, or castor oil to make more quantity of the same oil. 

Essential oils have garnered popularity in the beauty and wellness industry for being a naturally-sourced, often considered ‘vegan’ product. However, many people blindly turn to use essential oils without understanding the dangers and risks. 

Essential oils promise relief, but at what risk.

With the popularity of essential oils and their benefits, people swear these for all small and big ailments. Essential oils have a very high concentration of compounds, and they can be equally harmful to your body. People overlook these dangers and risks while using Essential Oils in the quest for better health, which is doing more harm than good. 

That is why before you use essential oils, it’s best to know the possible side effects that you will have to endure. 

Side effects of essential oils

Although essential oils are natural products, they are known to cause allergic reactions. While some people may never experience any side effects even after prolonged use, it’s best to see what you’re getting yourself into. Some of the possible side effects while using Essential Oils include:

• Skin Irritation and Blisters
• Skin Inflammation and Burning 
• Asthma Attacks 
• Headaches 

How to manage the side effects of essential oils

Now that you know the possible side effects, you need to know how you can prepare if they do happen. Most side effect reactions are minor and can be controlled at home; however, if you are having a severe reaction to using essential oils, it’s best to seek medical professionals’ help. 

If you get skin irritation from using an essential oil, use heavy cream or oil to wipe away the remaining essential oil from your skin. If you accidentally ingest too much of the essential oil, then contact your nearest poison control center. After that, proceed to drink full-fat milk and avoid vomiting while you seek help. 

Are essential oils safe for pets?

The research in this area is very scarce and has not shown improved results. If you have cats, dogs, or birds, it’s best not to have essential oil diffusers in the room or administer oil directly to the pets. 

How to safely use essential oils 

Precaution and safety while using essential oils are vital. You might use essential oils on the excellent suggestion of your friends, but it might not work the same way for you. We have rounded up some safety guidelines you should follow when using essential oils: 

Always Dilute 

Essential oils are powerful and can have toxic effects on your skin that might even be permanent. That is why it’s recommended to dilute the essential oil in appropriate carrier oils like avocado, coconut, or jojoba oil.  

Do a Patch Test 

If you’re already on medications, then using essential oils will cause all kinds of drug interactions. That is why we recommend a small patch test before using the essential oil in the affected area. 

Wash Your Hands after Using Essential Oils

The remaining essential oil from your fingers can cause adverse reactions with your eye and ear. You should thoroughly wash your hands after application of essential oil to prevent any complications. 

Avoid Ingesting Essential Oils 

Avoid ingesting essential oils unless an expert recommends it. It is best to stick to external use as the high concentration of compounds from the oil may damage your esophageal tract.

Endnotes

Act responsibly and weigh the risks and advantages of using essential oils. Avoid blindly following trends and not seeking medical attention for your problems, and self-diagnosing with essential oils.

Essential oils are taking over the world by storm as centuries-old western medicine fails to provide relief. Let’s discuss the benefits of Essential Oils.

As many people try to avoid opioid dependence, essential oils offer a natural and non-addictive path to cope with their chronic ailments. Despite their popularity, essential oils are not regulated by the FDA, making their use riskier.

Frequent users of essential oils claim to have seen improved health and better mood. Using essentials oils is safer and is backed by alternative health practitioners such as aromatherapy. While there is still a lot of controversy surrounding the use and side effects of essential oils, they are widely popular.  

How do essential oils work?

Essential oils are vital in aromatherapy. Aromatherapy is a centuries-old Egyptian tradition of using burnt incense made from herbs, spices, and aromatic wood. The essential oils in aromatherapy help with innumerable problems like insomnia, restlessness, anxiety, pain, nausea, and allergies. 

Since the FDA has not regulated the use of essential oils, there is hardly any research that stands behind the effects of using them. Essential oils are wholesome because they have pharmacological, physiological, and psychological benefits. You can use essential oils by inhalation or by applying them on it on skin. 

The chemicals and compounds in the essential oils can react with your body in countless ways. Breathing in the essential oils can invoke your limbic system associated with emotions, long-term memory, and sense of smell. Certain smells have different effects on people because of their history. 

When applied topically, oils are absorbed by the skin and move into the bloodstream from there; it is carried to the affected areas and liver to metabolize. Topical use of essential oils is often linked to cosmetic use or to treat chronic pain. 

Benefits of essential oils

Even though essential oil has widespread use, its effects on health conditions are not proven. Let’s delve into some health conditions that essential oils have had considerable positive developments.

Anxiety and Stress

Aromatherapy, along with clinical therapy, can help to alleviate stress and anxiety further. Many people also report that the smell of essential oil during massages helps relax the mind even more. While there is no documented proof that essential oils help anxiety, many people seemed to have calming effects. 

Chronic Migraines and Headaches 

A Persian headache remedy involves using sesame and chamomile essential oil to temples. You can also use a combination of lavender and peppermint oil to treat headaches. While some studies have shown relief, there needs to be more extensive research in this area. 

Insomnia

The lavender essential oil has marvelous effects on people who struggle to sleep. It has positive effects on your body and makes you relax better and fall asleep. 

Antimicrobial and Antibiotic 

Tea tree essential oil and peppermint essential oil has shown exceptional antimicrobial properties. These essential oils are used widely in cosmetic treatments and lotions because of their ability to fight bacterial infections and treat inflamed skin. 

How to choose the correct essential oils

Being a $12 billion industry, essential oil manufacture is not regulated. That makes it especially hard to look for quality products that have good composition. With so many companies in the market, look for the following things very closely before you settle for essential oils:

The purity of the essential oils

Look for essential oils that have aromatic compounds. Avoid the ones who have synthetic oils and artificial additives. Look for pure oils which mention the botanical name of the plant it is derived from. 

Quality of Manufacture

The best quality essential oils are the ones that will change the least during the extraction process. Look for essential oils that are chemical-free and have been extracted by cold pressing or steam distillation. 

Reputation of Brand  

A brand’s reputation never lies. Look for brands that are known for producing high-quality products. Do proper research and read customer reviews of essential oils before you buy from any brand.  

Benefits of Essential Oils Their Uses

• Bergamot: promotes skin healing and relieves anxiety.
• Chamomile: alleviates symptoms of cold, nausea, and fever 
• Clove: helps to relieve dental issues and pain.
• Eucalyptus: decongestant and topical pain-reliever
• Frankincense: enhances mood and reduces stress 
• Lavender: calms the nerves and helps with insomnia 
• Lemon: disinfectant 
• Oregano: heals inflamed skin
• Peppermint: boosts energy and helps relieve symptoms of cold and flu. 
• Rosemary: boosts hair and skin health and helps with joint pain.

Endnotes

If used correctly and safely, essential oils can provide an extra kick to your already ongoing treatments, great benefits of Essential Oils. Essentials oils react differently with different bodies, so what works for someone might not be effective at all for you. Seek help from a professional aromatherapist to use essential oils for the treatment of chronic ailments. Use essential oils responsibly and see for yourself the therapeutic benefits.

Essential oils are used for multiple purposes such as aromatherapy, hair growth, skin care, etc. Still, you may have heard about both the positive and negative effects of essential oils. So, how to choose the best essential oil for your specific need?

In this article, you will learn everything you need to know about essential oils. Starting with the basics, what are essential oils?

What Are Essential Oils?

Essential oils are basically the chemicals extracted from various parts of plants such as leaves, flowers, etc. It is done through varying methods such as distillation, cold press, and more. The extracted compound (oils) carries the goodness of the plant they have been taken from.

Why Are Essential Oils Important?

Essential oils have been playing a significant role in aromatherapy as well as hair and skincare. When you smell the scent of these oils, it stimulates a sense of relief and relaxation in your body. Apart from that, several types of essential oils are also used for medicinal purposes.

These oils are blended with fragrance-free light oils such as coconut, jojoba, etc., to be fit for use. So, which essential oil is best for your body? You cannot use just any of the essential oils available. Moreover, all of them may not even prove to be effective enough.

What Is the Best Essential Oil?

The benefit of essential oil depends upon the source it has been extracted from. Here are a few top selections for the best essential oil.

• Lavender: It is one of the universal essential oils that have a plethora of benefits and uses. From relieving stress and headaches through aromatherapy to reducing itching and other skin ailments, it is an all-rounder. With a herbaceous yet sweet and floral fragrance, it is indeed the best essential oil.
• Rose: From skin treatment to mood upliftment, rose is indeed a beneficial essential oil. The sweet and floral aroma of rose helps reduce anxiety and instantly cheer you up. Furthermore, it is an excellent remedy for acne and gives clear skin when applied in small quantities.
• Sandalwood: From stimulating hair growth and helping with indigestion and diarrhea to treating anxiety and fatigue, sandalwood has a multitude of benefits. It is an excellent essential oil for reducing oil, dark spots, and acne, resulting in brighter skin.
• Peppermint: If you are looking forward to freshen-up your mood, peppermint is the best essential oil for you. The herbal and minty scent of this oil will instantly enrich your mind and body. It can also help alleviate muscle pain and provide relief from itchiness and sunburn.
• Ylang-Ylang: The strong and spicy aroma of ylang-ylang is an excellent aid for relaxation. When used topically, it is the best essential oil for hair growth, wound healing, and reducing scars. The oil is also an excellent insect repellent.
• Jasmine: Another all-rounder, jasmine essential oil has multiple mental and physical benefits. When used in aromatherapy, it helps to reduce stress and improve your sleep. You can also use this oil to nourish your hair and moisturize your skin.

We carry hundreds of essential oils – check them out.

Are Essential Oils Dangerous?

Despite the excellent benefits of essential oils, they may be harmful when used excessively. Also, if you do not use the essential oil in the appropriate manner, it may be dangerous for your health. Furthermore, pregnant women must consult the doctor before using any of these.

Several manufactures add artificial chemicals to the oils and sell them as pure ones. As a result, using essential oils can end badly, causing burns, blisters, and more. So, how to use essential oils? Here are a few tips for using the best essential oil.

My Small Store essential oils are 100% pure, we provide an official certificate upon request.

Tips to Use the Best Essential Oil

Do’s

• Thoroughly check the essential oil before purchasing. It must be pure, chemical-free, and from a reputable company – like My small Store 🙂
• Your essential oil must be tested by a 3rd party and a Certificates of Analysis, Country of Origin of the plant(s) used, and a Safety Data Sheet should be available.
  Careful, we have seen “cheap” oils sold online on a large marketplace with mentions “FDA approved” – but essential oils are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration thus no FDA approved.
• Ensure that you are not allergic to any of the ingredients. Use on a small patch before applying to a larger area of the body.

Don’ts

• We do not recommend ingesting essential oils – unless it’s specified for consumption like Cinnamon Bark, Clove, Marjoram, Thyme, Lime, Helichrysum, Black Pepper, Fennel, etc. Remember that oils are very concentrated and can burn your mouth, esophagus, gut lining, and beyond in the digestive tract. The best is to consult with a Medical Doctor before adding essential oils to your favorite beverage or food.
• Use oils on babies and children.
• Apply too much undiluted essential oil on the skin – it may burn.
• Use oils during pregnancy.
• Use essential oils with synthetic ingredients.
• Put these oils in the eyes, ears, genitals, or open wounds.
  

Wrap Up

Essential oils are known to have more benefits than you can count. From reducing stress and anxiety to promoting the health of skin and hair, they have significant uses. Most importantly, essential oils have proven beneficial to uplift mood.

That said, these oils can also prove to be dangerous for your skin. You must always consider a few things, such as diluting before use and thoroughly checking its ingredients. To avoid any medical emergencies, make sure you study enough about the oil before using it.

You can only determine the best essential oil for you by checking its qualities as well as your health condition. Choose wisely, and enjoy the ultimate scent of essential oils!

That a question that comes back often “do aromatherapy and essential oils really work?”

To be honest, 10 years ago I had no idea until my wife started using essential oils at night in a diffuser – she called it aromatherapy and I was clueless – it does happen when you don’t know.

Aromatherapy and essential oils stimulate smell receptors in the nose thus the name derived from the word aroma. Those receptors send messages to the limbic system, part of the brain that controls emotions and memories. The oil molecules also go through our lungs and end up in our bloodstream.

Good examples are smelling freshly baked cookies brings back childhood memories and calm down anxieties or popcorn smell makes us want to watch a movie – weird but true, I’m sure you experienced it.

Don’t go bake cookies yet 🙂 Modern aromatherapy uses essential oils which are also used during massages to help relax tight muscles.

How do you use aromatherapy and essential oils?

Essential oils used in aromatherapy are concentrated extracts from plants – it can be from flowers, leaves, or even stems. To extract oils it’s “easy”:

• Steam Distillation – Steam breaks the oil’s cells of the plant which is later collected through a condenser – about the same process as alcohol stills.
• Expression – an old word that means squeezing – oils are squeezed out of the plant then collected.
• Enfleurage – another old and long process that involves fat to absorb oils then alcohol to dissolve the oils. Not used industrially but I visited a few labs that manufacture essential oils this way.
• Maceration – used to make diluted oils by macerating pant in vegetable oil – very slow process and mostly for massage and also very long.
• Solvent Extraction – not my favorite as it’s a chemical process that produces”absolutes” that are then used to manufacture essential oils – this process extracts up to the last drop of oil and is mostly used for jasmine, tuberose, etc. These flowers are pricey to produce.
• Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Extraction – this modern way is the best as CO2 is completely inert and is used at a low temperature (33 °C or about 91°F) and high pressure some 200 times the normal atmospheric pressure – in these conditions the liquid CO2 becomes a solvent. To harvest the oils, the pressure is released and the CO2 evaporates.

The latest, more industrial provides the best and purest oils as they are not heated or dissolved. Expression is a great process but it takes many more plants for the same result.

Now that we saw how to make essential oils, let’s see how to use them. A common way, if not the most common is to inhale these oils, open one, and sniff deeply. We also use essential oils in diffusers and humidifiers, as well as diluted with a carrier oil and applied to the skin.

One I did and it was a mistake was to add drops at the entrance of my nostrils… these oils are very strong and it burned. I put one or two essential oil drops to the palm of my hands and deeply breathe in them.

The idea is not to use too many drops… 🙂

Aromatherapy and essential oils have a large spectrum of medicinal and healing properties. They are antifungal, antibacterial, antiviral making essentials oils a must-have in our medicine cabinets.

Do aromatherapy and essential oils really work?

Yes, but they do not work for everything and if issues persist, check with a qualified medical doctor or an aromatherapist.

Let’s see the major essential oils and their effects – but first let’s check if you are allergic to that specific oil… I am allergic to Eucalyptus oil and tea tree oil which both have many similar compounds. They make me sneeze like there is no tomorrow.

The best is to put a drop of the essential oil mixed with vegetal oil and apply it to an area the size of a quarter on the inside of the forearm. Wait for 24 to 48 hours to see if any reactions occur. In my case, Eucalyptus oil shows a nice pinkish circle where the mixture was applied.

Did you know that essential oils are mostly used for their fragrances? To make soap, perfumes, deodorants, and anything with a great smell.

A very short list of essential oils – I know about 338 between organic, CO2 extracts, blends, etc.

• Lavender oil: Many find lavender smell relaxing. We used it to relieve stress and anxiety thus promote good sleep (it works for us in a night diffuser quite well).
• Tea tree oil: This essential oil is used for acne, athlete’s foot, and insect bites – I’m allergic to it, the smell makes me sneeze.
• Peppermint oil: I sniff it when my nose is clogged, works like a charm. Some use it topically for headaches.
• Lemon oil: Some find the scent of lemon oil a spirit booster. When I lived in Africa, we used it as an insect repellent and it does work very well.
• Neroli Oil: oil from the flower of the bitter orange tree. It’s quite rare and the essential version is a bit expensive (Organic Egyptian Oil $344 for 1oz) and is mostly used for depression, anxiety, etc.
  Careful, many sell “Neroli Essential Oil” for less than $15/oz but it’s an absolute with much less potency than the real essential oil.
• Agarwood Oil: Used for mental relaxation and focus. Agarwood is an extraordinary oil for meditation. Also appreciated purely for its fragrance. Many use it in a personal inhaler. Originally from Southeast Asia (Vietnam), Agarwood is at the center of the Arabian perfume called Oud. quite expensive at $711 for 1 oz.
• Helichrysum Italicum Oil: is the golden sun of Italy – used for perfumes and skincare, many call it the super arnica of aromatherapy. But it comes with a price tag of around $200/oz 🙁
• Jasmine Oil: THE feel-good oil which is used in 80% of the perfumes in the world… thus the “real” essential oil comes with a price tag of around $250/oz while cheaper versions sold on Amazon are at $5.5/oz…
• Yuzu oil: citrus with origins in Tibet and Central China but mostly cultivated in Japan and Korea. The oil has soothing effects and can help reduce tension and anxiety. Not a cheap one @ $82/oz

Many types of oil to choose from some are inexpensive, some are extremely expensive. In any case, avoid oils too cheap to be real, often they are vegetable oils mixed with essential oils at 1 or 2% dilution.

How to use aromatherapy and essential oils?

Three main ways:

• Aromatically – this is the most well common way by using a diffuser, that fills the air with the essential oil. It lets it into your lungs through your nose and finally, it ends in your blood.
  A water-based diffuser works well in the bedroom, just be mindful of the oil to water ratio. A bowl of hot water, a few drops of oil, and a towel works fantastically for nose congestion and sinus infections – see picture
  During the day, I like putting a few drops into the palm of my hands. Cup them around my mouth and nose and take deep breaths in. Works like a charm for cold, allergies, etc.
  We will bring back the plastic pocket inhaler.
• Topically – this is becoming a very popular way to enjoy essential oils benefits. Place drops of oils on your forehead, behind your ears, wrists, etc.
  If the smell is too strong, dilute the oil with an unscented carrier, such as coconut oil, grape seed, etc.
  I use topical oils at night and they works well when I had a tough day 🙂
• Internally – this option is getting some buzz even though I am not confident it’s 100% safe. Some ingest essential oils by adding drops as ingredients – a few brands got the FDA approval to use their oils in recipes. Ingestion provides more benefits for the oils at the fastest rate. We do not sell these oils but I’m sure, It will be coming soon.

I would recommend using aromatherapy and essential oils at first then using skin application and why not adding a few drops of FDA approved oils in your favorite recipe. A warning though, what works for me might not work for you!