Easy Aromatherapy: Making Your Own Essential Oil Mists
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Using essential oils is a fantastic and effective method of supporting your family’s health, and one of the most simple, cost-effective means is by making your own natural aroma-mists. The making of aromatherapy sprays and mists is great opportunity to nurture your family: Essential oils are well-known for their positive health benefits, and many scientific studies have demonstrated their effects. Simple aromatic usage has been shown to reduce stress, improve sleep and even sharpen mental acuity. Making essential oil sprays is something that you can do alone or with your children as a project that is both fun to do, and can open a whole new world of natural health and wellness for your loved ones.
Making your own aroma-mists is a great summertime activity to do on your own, or with friends and family. Allowing each person that will use the mists to choose their own scents maximizes the therapeutic benefits of their creations. Generally, the aromas that most appeal to an individual produce the most profound result, be it uplifting, calming or otherwise. If one doesn’t like the scent, one is not likely to use the mist, or may be put off, rather than supported by its aromatic actions. Also, getting others involved will bring them a new awareness of natural health and healing in a fun way that doesn’t appear like they’re taking medicine. As a parent, this can be especially appealing as it may even draw your children into a lifestyle of natural health from an early age.
To get started, you’ll only need a few simple items: One or more spray bottles – dark blue or amber glass bottles with pump tops are best, as the dark glass is the best container for natural oils and blends. A measuring pipette is useful, or a plastic eye-dropper. Next, for the spray base, you can use simply distilled or spring water, plus a little witch hazel (an optional natural preservative). If you’d like to emulsify your oils in the water, meaning you won’t have to shake the bottle so vigorously every time you use it to combine the oils and water once again, there’s an inexpensive, naturally derived product called “tween80″ you can find on the Internet.
Then of course you’ll need some essential oils. There is a huge difference in aromatic quality between oils available today – the finest ones will have very brilliant and alive aromas. They may cost a little more, but you’ll be using only drops at a time, and the difference in the scents will have a significant impact on you and your family’s enjoyment of your sprays. Oils of marginal quality will often make one smile a little and say “huh, that smells nice”, whereas exceptional oils usually get “WOW”, accompanied by a really big grin. Blends that smell spectacular will certainly get used more, and will likely have greater psychological and emotional therapeutic effects.
While the most of the commonly used essential oils will be very safe in this application, if children will be handling the pure essential oils, safety should be considered. The “flowery” oils like lavender and chamomile are quite safe, as are more exotic scents such as Bulgarian rose and Indian sandalwood. Citrus oils and the “needle” oils from evergreen trees can be sensitizing; direct application to the skin is not recommended – and if you select very pungent oils, particularly cinnamon, clove or peppermint, application to the skin should be avoided altogether, and generally kept away from the younger ones. For everyone’s safety, just instruct your formulators to not get any oil on them, and to never spray the mists on their bodies, nor near anyone else’s eyes or face. If you have any questions or concerns about a particular oil, there are many resources available on the internet or in books about aromatherapy.
On to making the sprays! Creating aromatherapy sprays is very simple – just fill your bottles up most of the way with water or your Witch Hazel extract and water (1 part Witch Hazel to 4 parts water), then add your essential oils by counting the drops. If you’re using “tween”, use 8 drops per every ounce total spray you’re making. Put the cap on and shake vigorously for several seconds. Without the tween, the oil and water will naturally tend to separate, somewhat like a salad dressing — shaking a lot when first made will help keep the oils and water mixed. For the simplest formulas, you can use 4 to 16 drops total amount of essential oil in each ounce of water.
For a therapeutic synergy for calming children and helping them sleep, lavender and chamomile blend very well together. A simple formula of two drops of each essential oil per ounce of spray is perfect. Misting a child’s room as the lights go out for the night can really make a difference for many children (and their parents, too!).
Citrus oils are especially well-liked during the warmer months. They also blend together very easily (whereas it can be harder to create nice aromas from scents of different families). You can mix sweet and tart oils for a wonderful effect. Suggested oils are bergamot, sweet orange, grapefruit, lemon, lime and mandarin. In France, mandarin is known as “the children’s remedy” as it has a natural constituent not found in the other citrus oils that is especially soothing to the young ones.
Some people absolutely love the aromas of the needle oils, like pine, spruce and fir. Others aren’t so sure, as they’re so used to synthetic “pine” aroma, they don’t know how wonderful the real thing can be! But these aromas are considered calming, stimulating and grounding all at the same time. As an added bonus, these are thought to be among the most potent antiviral essential oils as well.
Really, any essential oil will work in an aroma-mist. Experiment to your heart’s content; you can easily create a blend for every room, or every time of day. This is a wonderful way to bring the healing effects of nature into your home, and support your family’s health and well-being with essential oils.
For more on the therapeutic value of pure essential oil, and one of many important oils individually such as patchouli essential oil, visit The Ananda Apothecary online.
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