Aromatherapy has been around longer than anyone could remember. Since it was first developed, aromatherapy has become more varied, with more fragrances, recipes, and techniques than ever before.

Take full advantage of the benefits that aromatherapy has to offer by learning different aromatherapy recipes. These recipes call for the use of essential oils, which can provide a variety of different benefits and advantages.

We did a side-by-side comparison with two of the world's biggest essential oil brands.

Aromatherapy Recipes

There are different types of aromatherapy. You may have seen photos of people lying facedown on a table in a room filled with lit scented candles while another person massages their backs. However, we won't just be talking about scented candles here.

We’re talking about the kind of aromatherapy where you use essential oils instead. Before anything else, however, there are some things that you might need depending on how you will be using essential oils for aromatherapy.

Using plant oils for aromatherapy dates back to early Egyptian, Greek, and Roman times. Photo Credit: AromaWeb

If you will be using them only for their scent, then you might have to get a diffuser first. If you will be using the oils for massage or cosmetics aromatherapy, then you’ll need carrier oils to dilute them and a glass bowl for mixing. Essential oils are highly concentrated and can cause allergic reactions to some people if they don’t dilute the oils first.

1. Energizing Essential Oil Blend

In today’s lifestyle and environment conditions, we barely have enough time for everything that we want to do. There’s work that you need to finish in the office and there are chores you have to do to maintain your home.

There’s a wide range of stimulants that you can use to help keep you going, but barely any of them have positive health effects in the long run. Stuff like caffeine and cigarettes can give you the quick energy boost you want, but for a price.

If you don’t want to get sick after years of taking stimulants, or if you’re tired of getting sick because of them, we’ve got the solution for you. We have a recipe for an essential oil blend that can boost your energy, focus your mind, and uplift your spirits.

Here are the oils you'll need:

• 3 drops of grapefruit essential oil
• 3 drops of lemon essential oil
• 2 drops of spearmint essential oil

Spearmint essential oil in particular can stimulate your senses and improve your concentration. 

Lemon essential oil is responsible for rejuvenation and is popular for its calming effects. However, the best thing about lemon essential oil is its ability to stimulate your brain to break down body fat. Aside from helping you get your dream bod, it can also reduce tension and relieve exhaustion and mental fatigue.

Grapefruit essential oil boosts your energy levels, but it’s also used to improve your metabolism and reduce bad cholesterol. It can reduce fatigue by stimulating your nervous system to make you feel more alert while it detoxifies your body.

You can use this blend with a diffuser, or adapt it for things like massage oil blends or DIY scented candles.

Learn more about the essential oils that can boost your energy:

• What You Need to Know About Rosemary Essential Oil
• The Ultimate Guide to Lemon Essential Oil: Benefits, Uses and Everything You Should Know
• The Millennial Oil: Your Ultimate Guide to Everything About Grapefruit Essential Oil

2. Spiritual Blend

Plants and aromatics have been used in spiritual practices since time immemorial. Essential oils can also play a role in helping you enhance or embrace your spirituality.

All essential oils are aromatic, but some are more suited for spiritual uses than others. If you're interested in incorporating essential oils into your spiritual practices, you can explore which scents work for you the best.

However, we can also give you a head start by giving you a recipe for a spiritual aromatherapy essential oils blend. Here's a blend that you can start with:

• 2 drops of cedarwood essential oil
• 2 drops of patchouli essential oil
• 2 drops of ylang ylang essential oil
• 1 drop of rosemary essential oil

You can play around with the amounts of each essential oil and adjust them until you get the exact balance of scents that you prefer.

Cedarwood essential oil is one of the oldest essential oils in the world. It is perhaps one of the best essential oils you can use for spiritual practices because of its grounding and purifying properties. It can clear your mind and release negativity.

Patchouli essential oil can help cleanse your space of negative energies. It is regenerative, restorative, and protective, making it an important addition to this aromatherapy blend. Just like cedarwood, the earthy patchouli is perfect for grounding.

Ylang ylang essential oil is known to be healing and relaxing, making it great for meditative purposes. Furthermore, it can bring balance to your mind, body, and spirit. Its lush floral scent is also a great bonus.

Rosemary essential oil is protective and purifying, making it a great oil to use if you want to cleanse your space. It can help release psychic and spiritual blocks, as well as rejuvenate and sharpen your mind. In addition, it's also believed to provide good fortune. 

Learn more about the essential oils for spiritual practices:

• Delving into Cedarwood Essential Oil: Woodsy Facts, Benefits, and Uses
• 13 Patchouli Essential Oil Benefits for the Free-Spirited
• Ylang Ylang Essential Oil: Health Benefits & Invigorating Recipes

4. Anti-Anxiety Blend

If you’re battling anxiety, we give you a natural way to fight back. You can use this recipe any time of the day, unlike anti-anxiety medicines that can have adverse long-term effects on your brain.

However, it's important to note that essential oils are not cures for anxiety. Instead, they can give you a way to reduce the effects of your anxiety and allow you to deal with the symptoms better.

In fact, there is a study about the effects of using essential oils to improve depression and anxiety management among research subjects. The essential oils were diluted with sweet almond oil then topically applied as a hand massaging oil. The subjects were then interviewed, and they reported experiencing less pain with the aromatherapy massage.

Here is an essential oil blend you can try:

• 4 drops of tangerine essential oil
• 2 drops of ylang ylang essential oil
• 2 drops of bergamot essential oil

Tangerine essential oil has calming and sedative properties. If you're prone to anxiety and nervousness, this oil can help you calm down and keep a clear head. It can also help you release tension, making it easier for you to relax.

Ylang ylang essential oil is one of the best-known calming essential oils. It has a floral aroma that can help induce calmness and optimism. Furthermore, it's versatile and can be used in perfumes, massage oils, and more.

Bergamot essential oil can lower heart pressure and reduce the production of the hormone called corticosterone that induces stress responses. Additionally, it can help reduce heart rate, which can in turn help you feel more calm physically and mentally.

Learn more about anti-anxiety essential oils:

• Living the Healthy Dream with Tangerine Essential Oil: Top Benefits, Blends, & More
• 12 Bergamot Essential Oil Benefits & Uses for a Healthy Lifestyle

5. Brain Boost Blend

Have you been feeling a bit out of focus lately? We all have our ups and downs, especially in the creativity department. However, if your work involves a lot of thinking, then you'll need all the focus that you can get.

There are a lot of things you can do to keep you away from distractions. You can stay off your phone, keep your desk clear, or work in a quiet environment, to name a few. However, there are times when even these measures may not be enough.

You can thus try this essential oil blend that can help you boost your memory, improve your focus, and enhance your concentration. Here are the oils you'll need:

8 drops of rosemary essential oil

4 drops of sage essential oil

3 drops of basil essential oil

3 drops of lemon essential oil 

Rosemary essential oil improves memory and alertness. It also has properties that improve your brain’s ability to retain information. A whiff of this amazing oil can enhance your cognitive performance and prevent neurodegeneration.

Sage essential oil, like rosemary, can also help improve memory and recall. It can be a particularly helpful oil if you're preparing for a test, a presentation, or anything else that requires the memorization of details. 

Basil is another stimulating essential oil that helps your mental strength and gives you clarity. It can reduce anxiety, nervousness, and fatigue. In fact, it’s used to improve focus and fight chronic stress, which can help you keep calm while staying focused.

Lemon essential oil has been found to be able to not just help improve memory, but improve efficiency as well. This is especially helpful for time-sensitive tasks, or if you'd just like to get more things done in a shorter period of time.

Learn more about essential oils that can boost brain function:

How does aromatherapy affect your health?

Aromatherapy has been around since ancient times – longer than anyone can remember, even. This is why in the early 1900s, researchers became curious and studied them for evidence of their benefits. They were able to find proof of the various health benefits that each kind of aromatherapy essential oil possesses.

Experts believe that aromatherapy works like this: your smell receptors receive the scent of the essential oils used in aromatherapy. The receptors then send this information to your brain. These particular scents activate areas of your brain, creating hormones or chemicals like dopamine and serotonin.

Rubbing or putting oil on your skin can also have soothing effects on your joints and muscles. Some essential oils have anti-inflammatory abilities which help ease soreness and relieve allergies. Additionally, using massage oil blends is the most popular type of aromatherapy used in spas and some chiropractic clinics.

You can also diffuse essential oils to freshen the air in your home. It doesn’t work like those canned air fresheners you spray. Instead, it literally cleans the air and leaves its scent in the process.

Essential oils have antibacterial properties that allow them to kill bacteria and allergens that linger in the air. It can help prevent allergies which can lead to other respiratory ailments and, well, the need for medicines.

Aromatherapy is also used as an alternative medicine to improve sleep, relieve allergies, manage pain, reduce the symptoms of anxiety and depression, and more. Some experts believe that it can do all these things because of its numerous medicinal capabilities. Many essential oils have been found to be antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antibacterial, antimicrobial, antibioform.

Essential oils owe their capabilities to the naturally-occurring chemicals in the plants that produce them. These chemicals protect the plant from predators and act as their support system against bacteria. The essential oils extracted from these plants are therefore highly concentrated liquids that still contain these natural chemicals and compounds.

This high concentration is also the reason why they need to be diluted with other natural oils like coconut and olive oil, also called carrier oils. There are also different ways in which these oils can be used without using carrier oils. These include diffusion, direct inhalation, and bath infusion.

Some of the conditions that aromatherapy can help you with include:

• Insomnia
• Chronic stress
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Fatigue
• Muscle and joint pain
• Digestive issues
• Respiratory issues
• Skin disorders

So how do you know if you can benefit from aromatherapy?

Simple. Anyone can benefit from aromatherapy. It may be able to help treat a lot of ailments, but that doesn’t mean you have to be sick before you use them.

Note that aromatherapy and essential oils aren’t substitutes or alternatives for medication and prescribed treatment. Instead, they serve as a support system to help your body recover from different ailments.

Safety Precautions

Your medical history can determine whether or not you can use essential oils, and which ones are safe for you to use. You may be sensitive to some essential oils, or some may work on you just fine. Thus, if you have a medical condition, it's important to make sure to consult your physician before using essential oils.

We also don’t recommend using essential oils for pregnant and breastfeeding women. Some oils may have adverse effects on your developing baby. Their premature bodies may not be able to handle the concentration of the oils, which is why you must also consult with your doctor before trying any essential oil.

We also do not recommend ingesting essential oils unless they are explicitly and clearly labeled to be food-grade.

Some essential oils can damage your nervous system, liver, and kidneys because of the toxins that they produce when taken internally. The effects may be fatal, which is why we never recommend taking them orally.

Furthermore, if you have sensitive skin, we don’t recommend that you use or apply them to your skin. Again, because of the high concentration and the microscopic molecules of the essential oils, they can easily enter your pores and cause an allergic reaction. Make sure to dilute essential oils in carrier oils and always perform a patch test before applying essential oil topically.

Some people may have allergic reactions to the essential oils, depending on the amount used, which is why it's highly recommended to conduct some tests before using essential oils. Photo Credit: iStock

Simply put three drops of the oil onto the gauze part of a band-aid and place it on your forearm. If you experience a burning sensation and itchiness within 30 minutes, immediately remove the band-aid and wipe your skin with a clean cloth. Dousing it with water can make the oil spread all over your arm.

We also recommend that you read or research more about the different essential oils you’ll use. Each essential oil has its share of benefits and precautions. Some of them may be perfect for you, and some of them may not.

Finally, we always emphasize purchasing only 100% pure and natural essential oils. Some essential oils contain alcohol, which is used only for fragrance purposes, and not for aromatherapy.

Summary

Aromatherapy will not have lasted this long if it didn’t do well in helping people. Just don’t forget to pay attention to the precautions and you should be able to take advantage of its benefits with ease.

However, if you’re still a little hesitant, then we recommend that you read more about aromatherapy recipes and essential oils. We’re confident that the pros will outweigh the cons, and you’ll be able to fully enjoy all that aromatherapy has to offer.

Are you wondering where you can get all the essential oils that we mentioned? Well, wonder no more, because we have all of them here at Aroma Foundry. Check out our wide selection of essential oils! You can also check out our essential oil combo packs for extra savings.