Natural Healing with Essential Oils (and a giveaway!)

Our friends at Green Living Ideas are hosting a giveaway for an Essential Oil Starter Kit from Plant Therapy. The giveaway features a set of six essential oils or blends, a carrier oil of your choice, and a how-to book to help you on your essential oil journey. If you have never used essential oils before, this is a great opportunity to experiment; if you are an aromatherapy enthusiast this set can be a great addition to your collection.

If you’ve not yet experienced essential oils, here is a quick primer. Essential oils are fragrant compounds derived from plants that contain beneficial properties and concentrated fragrance that can help our bodies in multiple ways. Essential oils can be made from many parts of plants including:

greens and leaves (basil, peppermint and eucalyptus)
skins (lemons, limes, bergamot)
roots (ginger)
seeds (anise seed, black pepper, vanilla and juniper)
flowers (chamomile, rose, neroli and lavender)
woody parts (cinnamon, cedarwood and patchouli)

peppermint2 — peppermint oil is good for body, mind and spirit!

These concentrated, potent plant extracts can be used for aromatherapeutic healing and for other natural solutions for home and body care. Essential oils are most often used topically (with a proper carrier oil), in diffusers for scenting a room, or internally (but please note that not all oils are edible!). Oils can be used singularly or in blends to create a synergistic healing effect. Some oils work best alone (like patchouli, one of my favorite earthy, awesome scents), but others (like lavender) pair well with sweet, woody and citrus scents. Carrier oils are important to both dilute the essential oils and ensure the longevity of the scent. Carrier oils are generally made from other plants, like almond, coconut, jojoba, and more.

Essential oils can be used for so many aspects of natural healing and can help bring calm and balance to our super busy world. Check out the following links for some great uses of essential oils:

Essential oils can also be used throughout the house for natural, healthful cleaning. The list below includes 10 awesome tips from Plant Therapy about how to use essential oils throughout your home.

To make your towels smell fresh & lovely, add 1 cup of vinegar, ½ cup of baking soda and 10 drops of Tea Tree essential oil to washing machine. Wash towels in warm water.
Stop a headache before it gets too bad: Rub Peppermint essential oil into your temples, back of the neck or onto the forehead (do be careful not to get it into your eyes!)
To quickly heal minor burns and scrapes, add 20 drops of Lavender or Tea Tree Essential Oil into a 4 oz spray bottle with purified water and spray directly on wound.
To mitigate the pain of canker sores saturate a cotton pad with your choice of carrier oil and 5-10 drops of Tea Tree oil or Helichrysum. Apply to the sore.
To make your own natural pest repellent saturate a cotton pad with Peppermint or Citronella essential oil and place where needed.
Shoes getting smelly? Add Lemon, Geranium, or Orange Sweet to some baking soda and sprinkle in shoe. Also, can add to a cotton pad and put cotton pad in shoe.
For babies with a bit of diaper rash add 1-3 drops of Lavender to a palm full of your favorite carrier oil. Mix before applying.
To naturally clean and deodorize your carpet, add a few drops of Lavender, Lemon, Peppermint, or your favorite essential oil to a box of baking soda. Then sprinkle onto the carpet. Let sit for about an hour and vacuum.
To keep your car smelling fresh add a drop of your favorite Essential Oil to Plant Therapy’s Car Scenter Auto Diffuser.
To create a natural all-purpose cleaning solution, add 2 cups of white vinegar and 2 tablespoons baking soda to 2 cups of purified water. Then add 6 drops of each of the following: Tea Tree, Lemon and Lavender Essential oils.

What’s your favorite way to use essential oils? Enter your comment over at Green Living Ideas to get in the running for the Essential Oil Starter Kit. Good luck!