The Power Of Scent: How To Safely Add Essential Oils Into Your Everyday Products

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Fragranced consumer products such as personal care products, air fresheners, and home cleaning supplies emit air pollutants that affect indoor air quality as well as personal health and wellbeing. Studies have proven that fragranced products have been associated with a number of health effects including asthma attacks, migraine headaches, neurological problems, and contact dermatitis. This is because the term “fragrance” listed on a product ingredient list can hide a complex mixture of chemicals that brands do not have to disclose.

For this reason, we suggest buying fragrance free products and adding in your favorite organic essential oils and blends so you know that they are completely safe and non-toxic for you and your family. When adding essential oils to your home and personal care products it is important to always follow the rules of dilution. Adding in too many drops of any essential oil can lead to skin irritation when applying topically. That’s why diluting essential oils is always a must. The best part is you can still experience the therapeutic benefits even if you cannot perceive a strong aroma. In fact, studies have proven that adding carrier oils can even reduce essential oil cytotoxicity and in some cases enhance antimicrobial activity.

So don’t give into the temptation to ignore safe diluting practices! Instead, give your nose time to adapt to the clean scent of essential oils. Making the switch from synthetic fragrances to organic essential oils will take some time to get used to and early on the scent of essential oils may seem weak. That’s because our day to day lives are surrounded by a variety of heavily fragranced commercial products. These products overwhelm our olfactory systems, affecting our sense of smell. Over time your sense of smell will adapt and you will prefer the scent of essential oils over the scent of chemical laden fragrances.

Here are some of the products we love to buy unscented and add in our favorite essential oil blends. We’ve also included a list of our essential oil blends that are great options. Not only will you get to enjoy their lovely scents, but you will also benefit from their many aromatherapy properties.

EVERYDAY PRODUCTS:

SOAPS – 10 drops for every 3 Tbs liquid hand soap

BODY WASH – 6 drops for every 1 oz of body wash

MOISTURIZERS – 10 drops for every 2 ounces

HOUSEHOLD CLEANERS – 5 drops for every 2-3 cups of cleaning solution

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LAUNDRY – 3 drops on a damp rag and add into load in wash

DISHWASHING SOAP – 20 drops for every 2 cups of dish soap

SHAMPOO – 20 drops for every 8 ounces of shampoo

CONDITIONER – 20 drops for every 8 ounces of conditioner

SCHOLARLY ARTICLES

Orchard, Ané et al. “The Influence of Carrier Oils on the Antimicrobial Activity and Cytotoxicity of Essential Oils.” Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM vol. 2019 6981305. 14 Jan. 2019, https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/6981305

Steinemann, Anne. “Fragranced consumer products: exposures and effects from emissions.” Air quality, atmosphere, & health vol. 9,8 (2016): 861-866. doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2Fs11869-016-0442-z