Creating an Herbal First Aid Kit with 10 Must Take Herbal Remedies for Travel and Camping
How the Course Works
Essential Supplies List

Herbal Medicine Making Skill: Using Essential Oils

Essential oils are concentrated plant essences. They are different than infused oils because they contain only the volatile oil portion of the plant. When purchasing essential oils choose certified organic essential oils. The name brand isn’t as important as the organic certification. Because essential oils are so concentrated, any pesticides used on the plant will be concentrated in the essential oils. You don’t want pesticides in your medicine cabinet.

Essential oil concentration is important. Once you have your essential oils you want to dilute them like we do in this roller stick recipe. You don’t want to use the essential oil without diluting it first. Don’t just apply a drop of essential oil to the inside of your wrist for perfume. You can end up burning your skin. They are that concentrated.

Dried lavender herb and essential aromatherapy oil

For most applications you will dilute your essential oils to 1% to 3% concentration. That’s 1 drop to 3 drops per teaspoon of carrier oil. For perspective, the average 5 ml bottle of essential oil contains 100 drops of essential oil. A small bottle of essential oil goes a long way.

In this recipe the olive oil is the carrier oil that dilutes the essential oil. This recipe has a 3% dilution of essential oil to carrier oil. This is the dilution of essential oil to use for an adult or teenager. For a child 5 and under reduce the essential oils by half — using 3 drops total for this recipe. For a child of that age I’d use 2 drops of lavender and just 1 drop of tea tree essential oil. Lavender is the gentler one in the blend.

It’s best not to use essential oils in topical or internal applications on children under 1 year of age. However you can use them in an essential oil diffuser around young children provided that you avoid essential oils that are high in camphorous volatile oils. Essential oil safety is a study all by itself. So use this only as a preliminary guideline as you begin to explore alternatives to pharmaceuticals and chemicals.

Don’t use any herbal ingredients that you know you are allergic to. In the case of serious bites like poisonous spiders, ticks, etc, talk to your doctor. If the boo boo becomes infected talk to your doctor.