How to Test and Blend Essential Oils Effectively 

A great question came in from a customer this week:

Hi, Renee! My family and I are going to be getting together for a sweet little brunch on February 15th. I was thinking that it would be really nice to give them a thoughtful, yet simple "I love you" gift as it is Valentine's weekend and I thought "Obviously, I'm going to give them homemade Beesilk sticks!" But here's my problem and this is why I am reaching out to you for help: what blend do I put in the sticks that can be used for lips and body that is Valentine's Day themed? These are the oils I have on hand: Lavendar, Lemon, Sweet Orange, Peppermint, Eucalyptus, Rosemary, Tea Tree, Atlas Cedarwood, Geranium, Citronella, Pine, and Patchouli. I was sure you would have some great suggestions! Thanks ever so much! Gabrielle

When it comes to essential oil scent blends, I usually go straight to my customers to ask... they have scent preferences and great ideas as to what works with which essential oil. It's a fast way to get feedback.

Then I go to my trusted resources for finding out what works.

First, you need to understand a little bit about essential oils.

Essential Oil Scent Notes:

You'll quickly learn in the essential oil world that blending oils involves "notes" of scent: top, middle and base. The top notes evaporate the fastest and the base notes tend to last the longest and evaporate the slowest. You might even find that the scent blend you applied to your skin in the morning has a different smell later in the day.

Essential Oil Scent Categories:

You have woodsy, floral, minty, to name a few. It's best to work within the categories when making your choices.

Florals blend well with spicy, citrusy and woodsy oils. Woody oils generally blend well with all categories.

Spicy oils blend well with florals and citrus oils.

Be careful not to overpower the blend with the spicy oils.

Minty oils blend well with citrus, woodsy, herbaceous and earthy oils. (get more ideas here)

Use Cotton Balls when Testing Essential Oil Blends

This is what we do when we're testing scent blends. Drop a few drops of two scents on the cotton ball (record how many drops of each!). Decide if you like it as is, or see what happens when you add a third scent. If what you smell is overpowered by one particular scent, start over with a new cotton ball and lessen the number of drops of the overpowering scent.

Essential Oil Safety for Lips

Some essential oils have the potential for photosensitivity so just be aware of that. This tends to be some of the citrus eo's (but not all, and it depends on how they're extracted... sweet orange is not phototoxic and neither are steam-distilled citrus oils like lemon and lime... just make sure they're steam-distilled).

Essential Oil Blend ideas for Gabrielle:

Some of our customers' suggestions:

• lavender, lemon and rosemary
• lemon and peppermint
• just sweet orange or lemon
• just lavender
• lavender and lemon (2 votes)
• and one customer, Priscilla, advised to just go without scent.

DIY Downloadable Labels and more:

We have put a fabulous resource together for you on your DIY Valentine's Day journey. We include everything from recipes for lip balm and lotion bars, to downloadable lip balm labels, to ideas to make your own Valentine's Day labels for lip balms and lotion sticks ("Stick with Me, Valentine!"). Find it here.