Blending essential oils has been a major part in soap and cosmetic making. Not only can blending essential oils take years to learn adequately, it often remains a trial and error process, which, for some, means a little frustration. Major companies usually spend millions on their scents, developing and improving them, usually involving many different people with expert knowledge of these oils and their properties. While this has made these companies a lot of money, it is not necessary to be an expert to blend essential oils. It is important that you use caution and follow all safety and dosage requirements.
Safety is critical when using essential oils, as many can cause unwanted side effects if used incorrectly. A list of best practices when using each type of oil is usually readily available from your manufacturer when you request, or buy a product from them, and much of this information is now available on the manufacturer’s websites as well. It is important that you read all these instructions for each oil and follow them correctly.
While the above may scare you off from essential oils at first, once you start using these oils you will find it’s not hard, and can be quite fun to make unique blends of your own to use in any of your natural beauty products.
The process of blending essential oils can be broken down for beginners by using different categories for each oil. These categories consist of resin, earthy, spicy, medicinal, floral, and herbaceous. Each oil will fall into one of these categories and by using general rules you can easily start blending your natural beauty concoctions. For instance, floral oils are typically the easiest to start with because they usually blend well together and with many of the other categories, in particular citrus, woodsy, and spicy essential oils. Woodsy oils are also easy to work with, and blend well with most categories. Citrus and Earthy essential oils are also good to blend with. Medicinal oils shouldn’t be mixed into any concoction too heavily, as they are pretty strong. In addition, using too much spicy oils and citrus oils together will not result in very favorable scents either.
In addition to these aroma categories, essential oils can be put into 3 different “note” categories. Top, Middle, Bottom/Base Notes. When using these notes you can start by using them in ratios. 1/3 for the Top Notes, about 1/2 for the Middle Notes, and 1/4 for the Bottom or Base Notes.
The last thing you should know before starting to blend essential oils is that you will always needs to use a carrier oil. The desired ratio of each essential oil can vary, but a general rule of thumb is 2 to 5 drops of essential oil for each tablespoon of carrier oil.
You should know have the resources you need to start blending. Just remember to be patient, and blend using small amounts to avoid waste. It also may be helpful to take detailed notes while blending so you can remember what you have done and how each blend worked (or didn’t work).
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