Essential Oil Basics for Beginners

Today, we’re covering essential oil basics for beginners. With essential oil use comes a duty of care. But don’t worry, it’s not a heavy-duty or scary one. Here’s some groundwork to set you up for a great initial experience.

Putting essential oils in a diffuser is easy and highly recommended as a way for the whole household to enjoy them without much knowledge up your sleeve. The label will usually indicate if there’s a maximum recommended time for diffusing. When you’re starting out, 15 to 30 minutes a day is a good starting point while everyone gets acclimatised, working up to one to two hours a day if desired. In previous posts, you can learn why diffusing is important and how to diffuse so if you’re still burning oils please digress for a moment and discover why it’s imperative to make the switch.

Diffusing is just one way to enjoy using essential oils. Applying them topically through a number of methods is another. But before you crack open the lids and start slathering them on anyone and everyone, please read on.

While genuine, authentic essential oils are 100% natural products, they are highly potent extractions with a complex array of constituents and natural chemical compounds. So this is why respect for their potency ensures the best possible experience you can have with them to tap into their benefits, which range from enjoyably relaxing to energising and even in some cases, somewhat gobsmacking.

Step one: Use Genuine Essential Oils and Buy a Good Reference Guide

Top quality essential oils are not cheap. You can save some experimentation by investing in a reliable oils usage book written by a credible authority on essential oils. I can’t recommend this highly enough.

Understand that essential oil effects and benefits are based on the assumption that the essential oils being used have been distilled or expressed from raw plant material in the optimal fashion and without adulteration or additives. So if you want a genuine essential oils experience, you need a genuine product. Quality varies immensely, so please ensure you are choosing a brand with complete transparency from seed to seal, such as Young Living. Discover why we love them so much in this short video.

Step Two : Follow Guidelines for Safe Use

Before using oils, please familiarise yourself with the standard recommendations and guidelines for safe use of essential oils. Here’s a good starting point.

Step Three : Understand Possible Reactions

If you’ve been living in a pristine environment your entire life, free of toxins, pollution, modern technology, pesticides, herbicides, GMO, synthetic ingredients, fragrances, and the list goes on – can I come and live with you?

For the rest of us, odds are high at least some of this chemical junk has been absorbed through the skin, which is our largest organ and permeable. Once absorbed, the junk can become trapped in our fatty subdermal skin layers. Essential oils can stir up or react with trapped toxic compounds and if it happens faster than your system can move it all along and eliminate it, on the odd occasion the reaction can present itself as skin irritations, nausea, headaches – the kinds of symptoms we can also experience if we undergo a detox.

You can do a few simple things to minimise this if it happens:

• staying very well hydrated
• reducing new exposure to toxins as much as you can through choosing wisely the personal care products, cleaners and foods you buy. There are enough around that we can’t control without voluntarily taking them on board
• following the ‘less is more’ adage so your system has time to adjust. If you suspect you’re having a reaction, dilute the oils more, ease off or discontinue use of them until things settle then resume gradually. Continue to reduce your chemical load, drink plenty of fresh water and consider adding some alkalising foods. Young Living AlkaLime™ is a powdered alkaline mineral complex that I enjoy regularly for maintenance
• as with anything outside the norm, there’s a chance the symptoms are a coincidence. If you’re concerned or symptoms worsen, please check with your health practitioner

Step Four : Find Your Feet With Your Feet

When applying essential oils, your feet are a great place to start. The skin is least sensitive there and the oils are smart enough to travel wherever they are needed. For adults, dilution is rarely needed when applying oils to the feet.

And when you’re ready to take it a step further, this video is an easy way to start and get extra brownie points with your family for your pampering abilities.

Enjoy the good oil daily.

The information on this site does not constitute advice. Please consult with your health practitioner. When using any of the products mentioned throughout this site, please be sure to read the labels and follow their suggestions for safe use. We make commissions from sales via many of the products we recommend but we only suggest products we genuinely enjoy and want you to benefit from.