5 Terms You Need to Know About Essential Oils

Essential oils can seem very overwhelming, but today we are going to highlight 5 terms you need to know about essential oils.

To effectively use essential oils for their wide range of health benefits, it makes sense that you need to understand the terminology used. The 5 words and phrases listed below can be considered “essential” – pun intended.

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Carrier Oil –

A carrier oil is an oil that is used to blend or mix with essential oil. These carrier oils usually have little to no odor and are colorless.

Essential oils are extremely powerful, even in a very tiny quantity. So, carrier oils are used to “stretch” or “dilute” essential oils so that you receive the maximum health benefits. Skin irritations and other problems may sometimes arise from using an undiluted version.

Basic 10 Oils Kit –

While they are more than 90 essential oils, a Basic 10 Oils Kit can be used to treat a wide variety of purposes. The contents of a Basic 10 Oils Kit may vary depending on the individual user.
If you want to start with the basics, the following oils will go a long way for most aromatherapy and essential oils applications.
• lavender
• tea tree
• peppermint
• chamomile
• eucalyptus
• geranium
• rosemary
• ylang-ylang
• lemon
• ginger oils

Diffuser –

Frequently, essential oils are combined with water and placed in a diffuser. There are dozens of different types of diffusers available which essentially do the same thing. Diffusers spray essential oils into the air in a mist form, effectively treating the atmosphere of an entire room with aromatherapeutic benefits.
If you are thinking about purchasing a diffuser, you may be interested in this post.
Essential oils can also be applied directly to your skin. In some cases, they are also ingested to produce a health benefit.

Aromatherapy –

Essential oils can be used in a number of ways, as we just discussed. However, aromatherapy is the most common application of essential oils.

This practice can be defined as using plant materials and compounds, natural substances, and essential oils for an aromatic treatment of some mental or physical health condition. It has been found that specific aromas can effectively treat, heal and prevent a long list of mental and physical health problems.

Infusion –

This is the most common method for extracting essential oils from plants. A plant is soaked in vegetable oil or water. The essential oil chemically affects the water or vegetable oil, giving it the healing properties it possesses. This is a very natural and unobtrusive way of extracting essential oils from plants.

So there you have it, 5 basic essential oils terms to help you get started using essential oils properly. With dozens of essential oils, hundreds of health applications and tens of thousands of aromatherapy products, a complete glossary of essential oil terms is needed for an inclusive understanding of this therapeutic practice.