The Beginners Guide to Blending and Mixing Essential Oils

October 31, 2018

It’s official - my scented candle collection has started gathering dust.

I used to love candles so much, but lately it has collected some dust since my first diffuser arrived. If you are new to essential oils, you'll get to know them better through the use of a diffuser. If you've been an essential oil fan for some time now, your choice of blends might be influenced by other people's recommendations.

 

What are Essential Oils?

Essential oils are plant extracts that are being used for aromatherapy. They have a wide range of uses – for healing, relaxation, triggering of emotions and memories, addressing hormonal imbalances, and many others.

There are several oil blends out there, but many people choose to create a blend of their own. If that’s you, then you’re going to want to read on.

Blending essential oils is an equal mix (pun intended!) of science and art. In this article, you will learn that there is an actual system and structure to it –it’s not all guesswork. As you go through this article, you will learn which oils should be used when blending, which oils go together and which ones don’t, what effect does certain combined oils have, and which oils have a complementary effect on each other.

Ready?

 

Understanding Blending

Creating your very own essential oil blend will require you to have a good understanding of the following concepts:

• Chemistry – That’s right, chemistry – see I told you there’s a science to essential oil blending! But I promise this isn’t as complicated as your college chemistry.
  When it comes to essential oil blends, you simply need to know about volatility and viscosity. Volatility just talks about the oil’s tendency and readiness to evaporate. The process of evaporation is what releases that aroma of the oil. Viscosity on the other hand, pertains to the oil’s thickness or fluidity.
• Action – Oils can have an emotive effect (meaning it is able to trigger certain emotions), a relaxing effect, or even an anti-bacterial effect – and this is just to name a few. Given the many actions of essential oils, you will need to know the action of each oil, and how mixing certain oils together can increase (or even negate) their individual actions, and thus arrive at your intended effect.
• Sequence – This pertains to the order that the oil is blended. The sequence can actually change the oil’s properties, and ultimately, its fragrance.

Now that I’ve given you a bit of a run-through with the important concepts, let’s take it a step further. Here are some important principles that you will need to be familiar with:

• Viscous oils have bigger and heavier molecules, making them thick oils. Less viscous oils have smaller and lighter molecules, making them thin oils. Thinner oils (low viscosity) are more volatile, which means that they are more aromatic.
• The body tends to absorb oils with heavier and larger molecules much slower, while oils with lighter and smaller molecules are absorbed faster. In other words, the more viscous the oil, the slower it is absorbed by the body. On the other hand, the less viscous the oil, the faster it is absorbed by the body.

Why It Matters

Now, how do all of these things we’ve talked about so far piece together when it comes to blending essential oils?

When blending oils, it is best to mix light-moleculed oils with heavy-moleculed ones. This is because doing so can produce a synergistic effect (AKA allows the oil to build on each other), making the oil last longer, as opposed to mixing oils that are all light-moleculed or oils that are all heavy-moleculed.

This is the number one principle also applied to creating perfumes. Call it as the ultimate rule of thumb – it’s been ruling in the industry of perfumes and essential oil blending for years.

 

How Are Essential Oils Classified?

Here’s a bit of essential oil blending jargon: lighter oils are called “top notes”; heavier oils are referred to as “base notes”. Anything in between would be “middle notes”.

As you’ve noticed, the word “notes” is being used – yes, notes just like the notes in a music sheet. Perfumers and aromatherapists liken oils with musical notes because just like these musical notes we find on a music sheet or we hear from a musical instrument, oils also have a unique, individual scent, but when mixed with other oils, it blends and creates a “chord” or another unique scent of its own. 

 

How Should Oils Be Mixed?

Simply put, the best essential oil blend would be composed of one base note, one top note, and one middle note. In other words, it wouldn’t do well to blend oils that are all base notes or all top notes.

• Top Note: An oil that is considered as a top note is the one responsible for giving off the characteristic feature for any oil blend. It is usually the most immediate aroma, sharp in nature, and doesn’t last very long.
• Middle Note: The middle note, also known as a body, lasts much longer than top note oils. Usually, scents of a middle note can last for about one or two hours. Because of this, the middle note is regarded as the “heart” of the aroma.
• Base Note: If the middle note is the body, the base note is the fixative. The base note appears a while later than the top note and the middle note. Known as the “fixative”, this note is what gives any oil blend its “staying power”. The base note lasts for several hours, or even an entire day.

 

What Else Should I Consider?

When mixing essential oils, you also need to think about your think about purpose.
It will be worthwhile to ask the following questions prior to blending oils:

• Who is it for?
• What effect do I want it to achieve?
• Why is this blend needed?
• When will it be used?
• Where will it be used?
• How will this blend be applied?

 

YEOUTH’s 100% Pure Essential Oil Blends

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Purify. Calm. Sleep. Renew. Introducing YEOUTH’s new blend of Aromatherapy Oils.

With YEOUTH’s new blend of Aromatherapy Oils, you can now enjoy a wide variety of natural essences perfect for any mood. The oils used in YEOUTH’s Essential Oil Blends have been chosen no less by our expert aromatherapists, who all have high standards for elegance, taste, and precision.

The scents in the YEOUTH Essential Oil Blends complement each other perfectly, thus able to suit your any mood. If you’re looking for a scent-sational experience, let this collection of essential oil blends soothe you and help you breathe only the best and beautiful things in life, thus giving you the sanctuary that you desire and deserve in the midst of a toxic, chaotic world – whether it is to give you an energy boost, restore your inner peace, or give you the focus and mental clarity.

• Soothe (lavender, sweet orange, bergamot, ylang ylang, geranium) - formulated to help calm tension, stress, and anxiousness and bring harmony to the mind and body
• Nature's Shield (orange, clove bud, cinnamon leaf, eucalyptus, rosemary) - packed with essential oils that can help boost the immune system
• Dream Weaver (lavender, cedarwood himalayn, geranium) - promotes effortless sleep so you can wake up refreshed and ready to tackle the day
• Refresh (eucalyptus, rosemary, peppermint, naiouli) - can be used for a clearing, refreshing aroma.
• Muscle Mender - (lavender, birch, peppermint, rosemary, ginger) - helps soothe body and mind from aches, pain and discomfort
• Muscle Aid (birch, clary sage, lavender, black pepper, marjoram, cypress, peppermint, rosemary) -  has a warm floral and minty aroma can help reduce and soothe pain
• Motivate (orange, lavender, spearmint, ylang ylang) - you’ll love how this encouraging blend of citrus and mint essential oils can perk you up!
• Cheer (orange, cassia, clove bud, nutmeg) - with an uplifting scent, this blend can combat negative feelings and give a boost of happiness and positivity when you have the case of the blues

 

Which essential oil are you excited to try? Do you recommend any essential oil blends? Share us your thoughts and comment down below!

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