Never use undiluted essential oil on your skin
First things first - ALWAYS dilute essential oils when applying them to your skin or scalp.
Undiluted essential oil on the skin can potentially cause sensitisation and severe skin reactions in susceptible people.
I have known of clients who have splashed lavender essential oil around like it was a cologne only to find that at some point in time their skin starts to react, becoming sensitized or developing eczema like rashes.
I have a personal theory that we all have a lifetime limit or threshold for different substances in our lives. Once that limit has been reached then sensitisation occurs on every subsequent exposure.
So why are essential oils so powerful?
Each essential oil drop is produced from many times its weight in botanical material
Essential oils are extracted from botanical material using various methods - including cold press, steam distillation, CO2 and solvent extraction. Each plant will 'yield' different amount of essential oil.
For example Western Australia's wonderful native Boronia (Boronia megastigma) produces as little as ) 0.3% essential oil from the harvested flowers. i.e.. it would take over 300kg of the rare flowers to make 1 kg of absolute. .No wonder Boronia is so expensive.
Where as with Lavender (Lavendula angustifolia) you only need just over 70 kgs of flower and stems to make 1 kg of essential oil.
Essential Oils are powerful - a little goes a long long way
With each drop of essential oil representing many times its own weight in plant material you an understand that you really don't need a lot of oil to evoke the scent and effect of the essential oil. A drop or two is often all you need at any one time.
In fact essential oils are so concentrated that it is best that you don't apply them undiluted to your skin. Unless instructed otherwise by a qualified aromatherapist or medical practitioner - always dilute your oils prior to applying to your skin.
What should I use to dilute my essential oils?
Suitable dilution mediums include moisture creams, base/carrier oils like Coconut, almond, olive, sunflower, avocado, jojoba.etc or mix with a solubiliser and then water . (Oils and water don't mix so we recommend using a solubiliser like this one so that they can!)
Download our Essential Oil Dilutions for Use Skin
We have written a simple essential oil dilution guide for skin applications.
