Benefits of Essential Oil Remedies
Hi there! I’m a mom and want to share some benefits of essential oil remedies for your family.
Sometimes you just have to go for the serious stuff when you have a terrible cough and congestion. I get it. Been there. But now that I know about essential oils, I have even more tools in my toolkit. These tips don’t mean you should skip a doctor’s visit if you need serious medical attention. I am not a medical professional, I just have an interest in using more natural solutions in my home.
Tools in my Toolkit
We’ve all wandered the drug store and pharmacy aisles for products relieve our sniffles and sore muscles and many other minor ailments. I remember one night as a preschool age mom, rushing to Walmart in the dead of the night to get something to help my son breathe during a particularly bad cold. I think I ended up with some sort of menthol for the humidifier and nose strips. 🙂 And honestly, I usually pace the aisles for too long, not knowing what product will work…confused over so many choices…and scratching my head over the prices and ingredients.
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Natural Remedies
When you are really feeling bad, essential oils are an excellent complementary treatment for helping you get back to feeling your best! Essential oils support wellness, but this information is not meant to take the place of a doctor’s visit if you are not well.
15 Essential Oil Home Remedy Recipes you can try for those miscellaneous family ailments like stinky feet, dry skin, cramps, etc. As you will see, once you have collected a few oils, there are TONS of ways to use them for different things: remedies, cleaning, yoga, aromatherapy, to make your house smell fresh and clean…
Acne
Make your own blemish treatment.
- Tea Tree will shrink pimples.
- Peppermint oil helps with clogged pores.
- Lemongrass and Rosemary for controlling oily skin.
- Frankincense for dry skin.
- Heal popped pimples with Lavender.
- Spot treat a pimple with Oregano.
- *Lavender and Frankincense can be used directly, but other oils listed here you will need to mix with a carrier oil like jojoba.
doTERRA does offer a blend called HD Clear for acne. The ingredients are Black Cumin Seed Oil, Ho Wood Leaf, Melaleuca Leaf, Litsea Berry, Eucalyptus Leaf, and Geranium Plant essential oils.
You can also try one of these easy recipes from doTERRA:
Stinky Feet
Healthline.com recommends numerous methods for fighting stinky feet using hydrogen peroxide, rubbing alcohol, corn starch, sea salt soaks, Neem oil, garlic and the essential oils of Tea Tree and Eucalyptus.
Try this: Mix a few drops of Tea Tree (Melaleuca) and Eucalyptus with neem oil and massage it into your feet and toenails morning and night. Make sure your feet are dry after by lightly dusting with talcum powder or cornstarch afterward. Added benefits of Neem – bugs don’t like it, good for deep conditioning hair treatment, you can apply it to your eyebrows to thicken brows.
Bath Soaks
OurOilyHouse.com recommends these bath salt recipes to Clear Sinuses, Soothe Muscles, Clear the Mind and Relieve Stress. There are also some great tips here for calming bath salt recipes for your kids too.
*Remember to avoid adding essential oils directly to bath water, it is more effective to add them to salts or mix them with other bath oils.
doTERRA recommends this (printable) recipe for Lavender Eucalyptus Bath Salts.
1 cup Epsom Salt, ¼ cup coconut oil, 5 drops Lavender essential oil and 6 drops Eucalyptus essential oil combined in a container of your choice… Ahhhh, sounds relaxing…
Easing Tummy Discomfort
Ginger, Fennel, Peppermint, Rosemary or Lemon, combined with a carrier oil and massaged into the abdomen will help with getting your digestive system moving. Healthline explains how each oil can work to alleviate bloating and constipation.
doTERRA offers a premade blend called DigestZen. It is made from Anise Seed, Peppermint Plant, Ginger Rhizome/Root, Caraway Seed, Coriander Seed, Tarragon Plant Fennel Seed essential oils and smells spicy, sweet, minty and of licorice. It comes in an oil blend, an oil roller which is mixed with a coconut carrier oil and in soft gel capsules. They also offer a Peppermint softgel for digestive relief. Buy DigestZen or Peppermint.
Dry Skin
Recipe from BREA Getting Fit (Oatmeal, honey, buttermilk, essential oils)
Have you tried any of these oils for your dry skin?
- Sweet almond oil – all skin types especially dry skin, soothing for sunburn
- apricot kernel oil – facilitates faster healing without greasy residue
- sunflower – vitamin E is great for your skin and hair
- grapeseed – rich in polyunsaturated fats and antioxidants
- olive oil – excellent for extra dry patches like heels and removing eye makeup
- jojoba – anti-imflammatory properties ease eczema and rosacea
- rosehip – easily absorbed, lots of good fatty acids, high in vitamins A & C, boosts collagen formation
Try this: Use with Lavender essential oil for soothing, healing properties or with Clary Sage for moisturizing. Add some Tea Tree oil to your apricot kernel oil for an acne moisturizing blend. True Botanicals, a plant based brand sold at Target uses these natural ingredients – rosehip, willowbark, hibiscus, Clary Sage, ginko and purple orchid.
Read more about these oils: 6 Natural Beauty Oils for Skin
Foot Soaks
Above we mentioned the benefits of soaking in essential oil bath salts. This is also true for soaking your tired, dry, calloused feet.
Try This: You can make your own foot scrub by diluting two tablespoons of sea salt into equal amounts of baby oil and lemon juice. -or- Mix aspirin and lemon to make an amazing peel (recipe below). Add essential oil of your choice.
There are tons of great foot recipes to be found at Best Life Online.
- Rosemary and Peppermint essential oil foot scrub
- A lemon and aspirin mixture that softens and peels calluses off
- Essential oil and shea butter foot scrub
- Black tea foot soak and several more…
Indigestion
Fennel and Ginger essential oils can help alleviate indigestion. These oils are both found in DigestZen by doTERRA.
Try This: To help prepare for better digestion try sipping a glass of warm water with a drop of doTERRA Lemon essential oil in it 30 minutes before eating. Inhaling the essence of a Peppermint essential oil may help ease indigestion, upset stomach, and nausea. Massage the diluted oil on your chest, belly or back can help relax the overactive digestive system.
doTERRA Peppermint Soft Gels are good for indigestion. The Peppermint Softgel is enteric-coated, a coating which prevents irritation in the stomach lining and allows it to survive the entire digestive system until it is released in the lower bowel. Try Peppermint in a spoonful of Manuka honey, some warm water, and about a half a spoonful of apple cider vinegar.
Menstrual Cramps
Clary Calm is a topical doTERRA blend of Clary Sage, Lavender, Bergamot, Roman Chamomile, Cedarwood, Ylang Ylang, Geranium, Fennel, Carrot Seed, Palmarosa, and Vitex. It is cooling and calming and used for menstrual cramps. Palmarosa is good for balancing the physical symptoms of PMS such as bloating and hormonal imbalances. Rose, Jasmine, Geranium, Lavender, Neroli, and Clary Sage all offer benefits during perimenopause and menopause. Don’t just take my word for it because I love doTERRA. Check it out on Bustle.
Try inhaling Eucalyptus. It can help clear the sinuses. Apply Peppermint with a carrier oil to the back of your neck and temples. Increase relaxation with a bit of Lavender or Rosemary essential oil.
Another Tip? ComposedNutrition.com recommends 8 herbal teas for easing menstrual cramps. They are ginger, lemon balm, fenugreek, fennel, peppermint, cinnamon, dandelion and cramp bark tea.
Muscular Aches
Try This: For a simple muscular rub you can make at home with essential oils combine Eucalyptus, Peppermint and Lavender combined with coconut oil and beeswax. Here’s the recipe from SixDollarFamily.com.
Peppermint is the mentholated cooling ingredient in this recipe. Eucalyptus is known for its anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, decongestant, deodorant, and antiseptic properties. Lavender is soothing, relieves pain and inflammation. These three oils together create an effective muscular rub.
My personal favorite is the blend Deep Blue made by doTERRA. It’s ingredients are: Wintergreen, Camphor, Peppermint, Ylang Ylang, Helichrysum, Blue Tansy, Blue Chamomile, and Osmanthus. It smells amazing and feels great on sore muscles. 2,000 positive reviews on Amazon can’t be wrong. Just be careful and buy this from doTERRA so you are certain you are getting the real product.
Minor Burns
You can safely use essential oils on minor burns, but never apply them on a burn without using carrier oils. Always consult a doctor for serious burns. A good way to make a compress is described here by HealthLine.com.
The oils they suggest for burns include:
- Chamomile
- Eucalyptus
- Juniper
- Lavender
The list goes on to include Oregano, Peppermint, Pine, Sage, St. John’s Wort, Tea Tree and Thyme. Some salves also incorporate honey for antioxidant properties and olive oil for its healthy fats and Vitamin E.
SeekingJoyfulSimplicity.com recommends Yarrow as their first choice for first aid for cuts and scrapes. doTERRA recognizes the value of Yarrow and came out with a new product last year called Yarrow Pom which has revitalizing and skin-protecting benefits.
Snoring
doTERRA Breathe can be applied topically to the chest, back, or bottom of feet, or diffused at nighttime to calm the senses and promote a restful sleep. The oils in this refreshing blend are Laurel Leaf, Peppermint, Eucalyptus, Melaleuca, Lemon, Cardamom, Ravintsara, and Ravensara. Breathe promotes better sleep, so it might help with snoring.
Some aromatherapists suggest rubbing Thyme essential oil on your big toe to help with snoring. Biosource Naturals recommends Blue Chamomile, Rose, Rose Geranium, Holy Basil, Anise, Lemongrass, and Allspice in their No Snoring Essential Oil Blend in a roller.
As you can see, there are many options to experiment with. It is recommended to diffuse intermittently and not continuously for more than an hour or two and make sure not to lock pets in with you. They should be able to leave the room if they don’t like the scent.
Soothing Throat
Lozenges are not my favorite. I always feel like I’m going to fall asleep with one in my mouth and choke on it. Also, it’s mostly sugar and not that helpful in my opinion. However, OneEssentialCommunity.com suggests a recipe for No Cook Cough Drops and it looks pretty good and simple. I’m going to have to try it.
It calls for coconut oil and raw honey, both of which antioxidant/anti-viral properties and coat the throat. Plus it’s kept in the freezer, so when you put it in your mouth it is extra soothing. Win!
This recipe calls for: 4 drops ginger, 3 drops cinnamon bark, 5 drops lemon and 8 drops of frankincense essential oils. You will also need a silicone candy mold and a jar to store these in the freezer.
Skin Irritations
Does doTERRA offer a blend for soothing skin irritations? You bet. It’s called Correct X Ointment and it contains Frankincense, Helichrysum, Melaleuca, Cedarwood and Lavender and Jojoba oil.
Vapor Rub & Diffusing
Eucalyptus, Frankincense and Rosemary is a good combination to add to your diffuser when you are feeling crummy. As I mentioned above, Breathe and a carrier oil is also great to rub on your chest and the bottoms of your feet when you are trying to get a good night’s sleep while under the weather.
Adding moisture to the air in and of itself is good for your breathing when you are feeling unwell. It is extra enjoyable with all of the different combinations of essential oils you can use.
I hope you’ve found this synopsis helpful. You can find the oils I’ve discussed on my personal doTERRA Shop. Peace, Love and Oils…
