Essential Oils Made Easy: Useful Infographic Simplifies
I love using essential oils, and over the last decade or so, I’ve come to rely on them for a number of physical (and mental) issues.
When I’m stressed out at night, for instance, I do a facial steam with lavender, by simply dropping a couple drops of high-quality essential oil on a dark washcloth (it can stain lighter-colored ones), running it under the hot water, and then tenting it over my face, breathing in the steam and lavender scent. With my eyes closed, I block everything out and focus on breathing and the wonderful smell of the oil. Five minutes of that and I can fall asleep almost immediately (this works well for traveling across time zones, too).
Of course, there are plenty of other things you can do with essential oils, as the chart below, from Essential Oils US, reminds us. If you have evening cravings, a couple drops of grapefruit can help stem them, and mixing a bit of peppermint oil with any other good quality oil (olive, sunflower, jojoba), makes a tense muscle-relieving shoulder or foot rub on the cheap—and totally naturally.
If you need a reminder to use essential oils, or a bit of a primer about what each is useful for, print this useful chart out and put it on your fridge!
Main image by Flickr user John Morgan.
Starre Vartan
Starre Vartan is founder and editor-in-chief of Eco-Chick.com and the author of the Eco-Chick Guide to Life. She's also a freelance science and environment writer who has published in National Geographic, CNN, Scientific American, Mental Floss, Pacific Standard, the NRDC, and many more. She lives on an island in Puget Sound with her partner and black cat. She was a geologist in her first career, and still picks up rocks wherever she goes.
