Choosing Your Essential Oils

Several people have asked me lately about selecting essential oils - particularly when you want the same benefit, but a different aroma profile.

Following is the text of the presentation I made today.

I'm Mary from Blue Ice Essentials. And I hope that you are having a really great week. 

So the reason that I came on today is I've had people ask me a couple of different ways and a couple of different times in the last few weeks about substituting essential oils. 

What if there is a blend that you love to diffuse, but the people around you are not so fond of the smells? 

Or what if there's a blend that you would like to use for a specific purpose, you know, stress relief or whatever, but one of the oils within that blend isn't one that you love?

So here's a way that doTERRA has provided for you to look at the oils in families so that you can choose another oil to substitute for the one that you're not so fond of. So I'm just going to share my screen so that you can see what's going on here. 

So on the essential oil wheel, which is part of the doTERRA Oil Chemistry Handbook, which you can get from their website and which I have links for in my membership. They've broken the different essential oils into groups. 

Now the wheel goes over multiple pages. So we'll go through it all. And I'll show you how it works. 

So around the outside edge of the wheel, we’ve got the names of all the different oils, and we've got them broken into categories. So we have Uplifting, Restoring and Energizing on this particular category. 

And these are all monoterpene oils, which means a certain type of oil chemistry, which you don't have to understand for this particular purpose. But which if you read the oil chemistry Handbook, they explain all of that. 

So within the Restoring ones, you've got Lemongrass, Melissa, Cinnamon, Cassio, Cumin, Cilantro, Clove, Oregano, and Thyme. So those are all oils that they can be categorized as Restoring. And so that's for emotional and physical support. Sorry, I'm just reading this off. They're meant to help revive, strengthen and rejuvenate the body and the senses. That's a really good way of saying that they're going to make you feel better when you're feeling meh. 

All right. So in the more inner parts, it breaks down which ones are sharing the actual chemistry together. So, if you're looking for something with geraniol, both Lemongrass and Melissa have geraniol and nerol. 

Cinnamon and Cassio have cinnamaldehyde so if you've been keeping track of me for a while, you'll know that I really enjoy Cassia and that I use it quite often in my cooking in place of Cinnamon, because first of all, it's a slightly less expensive oil. And secondly, if you're going to add Cinnamon to your coffee, which is one of my dear loves, then Cinnamon is a very, very potent oil, Cassia a little bit less so and it's a bit like comparing Peppermint to Spearmint. They're both mints but the Spearmint may be a little bit less than your face. So if you find that Cinnamon is too strong when you put it in your coffee, which I do, and you don't want to fool around with, you know, swirling toothpicks and all that you can simply use Cassia which is a slightly less potent version. And so a little bit still goes a long way, but maybe not quite as far as the Cinnamon does. 

Then you've got your Uplifting and your Energizing oils, and of course, Uplifting they've added all the citruses in there, there's no big surprise. And you'll notice that Celery Seed also falls in with all the citruses as being a really great source of limonene so if you were looking for something that's not citrusy, but still has limonene in it, then you've got Celery Seed that is going to give you a similar return. 

And of course Pink Pepper is also on the other end of this. And again, it's really bright, an uplifting one and it also has that alpha-phellandrene. (I can't say that word today.) But it is another one that has got a really really good chemistry for boosting and lifting you and I actually enjoy using Pink Pepper with other things quite often because I find that it takes whatever the chemistry is of the essential oil you're pairing with it and it kind of boosts that. So it's one of those ones that the two together make more than the two separately so that that's really good. And then of course for the fir - Douglas Fir has beta-penine in it, and Blue Tansy is another one that we really enjoy the uplifting scent of and of course that chamazulene in. Blue Tansy is super good for you as well. 

Then we have the Energizing ones. So these ones are taking Uplifting and moving it to another level. So it actually makes you feel more awake, more alive. And we've got Peppermint, Dill, Spearmint and Fennel, and you'll notice that even though they're not showing it, Spearmint still does have some menthol, it's just more to the carvone side than the menthol. 

So then you go to your second page of the wheel and we're talking now still about monoterpenes but we're looking at the woods which are the brown ones. And they've also included our Frankincense in there because it's got alpha- penine in it, which again is really great. 

We've got the 1,8 cineole in Rosemary, Eucalyptus and Cardamom, we've got methyl salicylate in Birch and in Wintergreen, I was I was really surprised to find Birch and Wintergreen have very, very similar scent profiles as well as having similar chemistry, which surprised me but I guess maybe not. 

And then there's all the other ones - Arborvitae, which I've mentioned before, I find is a really good, soothing one. Helichrysum, Black Spruce, Siberian Fir, Jasmine Absolute - which is one of my absolute favourites, and I wear it all the time and so it's Restoring. And again, it's gonna make you feel really good physically, emotionally, so on. 

So, Clarifying oils, these are ones that are going to help you with focus that makes things clearer and brighter. So we've got Lemon Eucalyptus, Citronella, Rose, Geranium, Marjoram and Melaleuca or Tea Tree. So those are all really great essential oils if you're looking for something that is helping with a little bit of focus, and clarifying. 

Then you've got Coriander, Cilantro, Basil, Magnolia Lavender, Petitgrain, Clary Sage, Bergamot, and Chamomille in the Calming section, and I think it kind of speaks for itself. I don't think calming needs to be explained. But you'll notice that all of these ones have linalool in them. These ones have linalool and linalyl acetate, which is you know what Lavender is famous for. 

But you can see that there's quite a few different essential oils that you could reach for if Lavender is not your favourite smell. There is quite a lot of variety in aroma profiles and scent profiles that you can use that's going to give you a similar response. 

So you know the Coriander, Cilantro and Basil, you're looking at something that's more of a herbal side. 

Magnolia is a different kind of floral than Lavender is, a much sweeter smell. Roman Chamomile again saying it's got a much sweeter smell. Bergamot is more of a citrus smell. Petitgrain, I told you that was made from the leaves of oranges. So it's kind of got that grassy thing going for it. 

And Clary Sage, I think it's sort of somewhere between a floral and a grassy herbal scent from my perspective. 

So you know, you've got some real options, if you're looking for something that is going to replace Lavender in your blend. 

And then of course, the final page of the oil chemistry wheel that has actual oils on it is the sesquiterpene backbone. So again, this is talking about the chemistry of the oils, which you don't totally have to understand if you don't want to go there, but it's just a way of breaking things up so that you understand. 

So the sesquiterpenes are ones that you're going to find either are split into the Soothing or the Stabilizing /Balancing kind of thing. So in the Stabilizing Balancing part, you've got Spikenard, Turmeric, Patchouli, Cedarwood, Vetiver and Sandalwood. 

And I really love all of the ones on the sesquiterpene wheel, just saying they're all real big favourites of mine, but I find that these Stabilizing ones are really, really nice. They are relaxing and calming.  

Now you'll notice that Cedarwood is appearing in multiple places along here. And that's because each of these essential oils frequently has multiple characteristics. So Cedarwood has cedrol, which is an alcohol and falls into the Stabilizing things. It also has alpha-sandrine and, and cedrol that falls into the part of Soothing so I find Cedarwood is more relaxing to me than almost anything there is. So if I'm in a situation where I'm super stressed, and I want something to reach for, I'm going to reach for Cedarwood quite often. 

I also really like to reach for (oops. Let me go back here.) I really like to reach for the ones on the second page. Okay, so I like to reach for these ones in the Restoring part here which is Frankincense, Juniper, Cypress, Rosemary. I find those are really really good for building a blend because I like that walk in the woods sensation. So they make a really good base for a blend. 

So when you're looking at your blends, you can certainly use a recipe that you found on the internet and just go for it if they are oils that you really love. 

Or you can pick an individual oil and just diffuse it for its own qualities and hope that you get to know and love that smell a little bit so that you get a bit more of a feeling of how to live with that oil and how to use it in your life. 

Or you can try and use that perfume idea that I had, where you take a number of different essential oils and bring it up to your nose and smell them together before you put it into your diffuser. And you can, you know, move one further away and one up close if you want to see, you know whether I should put six drops of this and three drops of that into your blend. 

Usually what I do is I look for something that's a low note to anchor it. So you know you're going to look at your woods and things that have a very low and carrying power. Cedar is really good, Myrrh is really good. 

Or you can get your high notes and they have something - a top note that sort of makes that blend sing - so I do love Cedarwood and Juniper and Black fir and that sort of thing together but If I just had all low notes and nothing else in it as well it kind of is... I don’t know, it's missing a little something. So you might add a little Ginger for a little zing. Or you might add a little Ylang Ylang for the floral. It's up to you. 

So this is a great way to look at essential oils and how you can substitute out one for another either because they have, as these ones have caryophelene in them so you have  Ylang Ylang and Yarrow, Black Pepper Copaiba and Melissa all have that caryophelene. So if you are looking for that particular chemistry, then you can substitute one of those. 

I know Melissa is used quite a lot in different blends that you buy that are pre blended. But it's not necessarily one that everybody has in their essential oils. 

What I did for me to get Melissa is I waited for it to go on sale, which it did last month, or the month before, can't remember which and then I used my points. So I didn't have to spend money because it's one of those very expensive, very precious oils, but it is absolutely gorgeous. 

Or you can reach for one, like Copaiba which is much more pocketbook friendly and has a similar chemistry. So you know, it's not going to have the same aroma, but it will have a similar effect. So if what you're doing with your essential oil blend is something that you're building for a specific purpose. This is a really good way to look for the oils that are going to match. 

So I hope that was really helpful. And I hope that using the essential oil wheel is something that you can reach for in the future. 

If you are wanting to get more information, you can go to my Facebook page and just type in a question, send me a message in Messenger or go over to my website, www.BlueIceEssentials.com and reach out to me and I will talk to you, you can make an appointment, or you can join my members group.  

I have a thing called the Blue Ice Essentials Library. And it's a collection of all the very best information that I've got. It's already sorted and organized, pre curated, so to speak. It's got some of my best recipes, some of my best tips in there and organized in a way that you can find it and find it useful. 

So I hope that this is finding you having a really great day and that you're going to have a perfect rest of the week and enjoy your weekend. I'll talk to you later and enjoy. 

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