Essential Oil Testing
Essential oils are very popular these days. They are believed to do everything from boosting the immune system to reducing anxiety to getting rid of acne. In fact, there is an oil for just about anything you want to do with the possible exception of creating world peace. But how much scientific evidence is there to support these claims? I decided to do some experiments myself. I cannot do experimentsto determine whether or not essential oils really cure the flu or improve blood pressure. However, I can tell you whether or not they really kill bacteria. (I cannot test for viruses.)
*Tests for Thieves and onGuard cleaners can be found on this page.
*Tests for diffusing oils can be found on this page.
DISCLAIMER
My research is not supported or affiliated with ANY of the essential oil companies. In fact, they are all pretty mad that I am doing it. The FDA would like you to all know that Essential Oils are not allowed to claim that they treat or cure any diseases or conditions. I do not use or sell essential oils. I am not a medical doctor and nothing I say should be taken as medical advice. I am not even sure if using and diffusing essential oils is SAFE for you. Just because something is "natural" or "organic" doesn't mean it is safe. Always follow the manufacturers directions when using essential oils, cleaners, hand sanitizers, and any other product in the world. And don't let children play with plastic bags or get near the hot stove. Got it?
Science Fair Projects
Most of these are simple experiments and you can repeat them yourself if your child needs a great science fair project. In fact, there are even child sized disposable latex-free gloves called Glovies
that you can buy so your kids can do most of the work with their science fair project. Those glovies are also super useful for crafts and other messy kid projects as well. You can also buy the same ready-to-use agar plates
that I use on amazon. If you want to do experiments yourself, please read my Materials, Methods, and Science Fair Project Help page for more information.
Understanding Agar Plates
In case you are new at looking at agar plates, let me explain. Agar is a Jello-like substance that bacteria and fungus like to grow on. The whitish/yellowish dots you see are colonies (or piles) of millions of bacteria. Some types of bacteria are not able to grow on these agar plates. Viruses can not grow on these agar plates. So, just because a plate looks clean, doesn't mean that no microorganisms whatsoever were present. We assume that a clean plate means that most bacteria were killed. However, there is the possibility that the cleaning product just stopped the bacteria from growing as opposed to actually killing it. Also, I can't make any determination as to the time it took the product to kill the bacteria since the product was still with the bacteria on the agar plate. (Both the bacteria and the cleaner would be picked up in the sterile swab.) So, I don't know if it took 1 minute to kill the bacteria or hours. These experiments are still very useful when used to compare cleaning products and cleaning methods.
Does Thieves oil kill bacteria?
The first essential oil that I have tested is Thieves Oil made by Young Living. Thieves oil is a blend of clove flower bud oil, lemon rind oil, cinnamon bark oil, eucalyptus radiata leaf oil, and rosemary leaf oil. I purchased the oil from http://www.striveforhealthy.com/. (Do not buy any Young Living Oils on amazon. Young living sellers are not allowed to sell on amazon so some of the Young Living oils on amazon could be counterfeit.) Thieves oil is said to boost the immune system and kill germs. It smells heavenly, like a Christmas potpourri.
The first thing I did was determine whether or not there was any bacteria in the thieves oil or olive oil that I was using. To do this I put some of the oil on a sterile swab and rubbed it all over an agar plate. I purchase all my agar plates from amazon. I let the plates incubate overnight in my 98 degree F incubator. As you can see, nothing grew on the oil plates so there is no bacteria in the oils. In case you don't have experience growing bacteria on agar plates, the agar is like jello that bacteria like to grow on. The tiny whitish spots are piles of millions of bacteria.
For the big experiment, I tested thieves oil with other oils and cleaners to compare. I tested olive oil, coconut oil, smart balance oil, white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, and chlorine bleach. Since thieves is recommended to be used in a 1:4 dilution with a carrier oil, I also tested the mixture of thieves and olive oil. (I put 1 teaspoon of thieves oil in a bottle with 4 teaspoons of olive oil.) First, I thoroughly cleaned my kitchen countertop. Then, I used masking tape to section off squares of my kitchen island. I labeled the squares according to what I would put in each square. (Dirty +control, Clean-control, olive oil, thieves oil, smart balance oil, coconut oil, olive oil and thieves oil mixture, 10% chlorine bleach, 25% white vinegar, pure white vinegar, apple cider vinegar)
Next, I made "germ water". To do this I got a scoop of dirt from outside and put it in a small cup of water. I poured the mixture through paper towel to get rid of chunks. Then I scrapped off some bacteria from the previous days dirty control agar plate and mixed that into the brown water. Here is the picture of the germ water. It is full of dirt and bacteria. I don't know what kind of bacteria is in there. It is most likely a mixture of harmless and a few harmful bacteria. Only a small percentage of bacteria in the world will grow on this type of agar plate and many of the really dangerous bugs won't grow on them. I don't feel comfortable working with anything too dangerous at home anyway. However, most harmful bacteria and viruses are much more difficult to kill than this common bacteria. So, if a product does not even kill this easy-to-kill bacteria, it probably isn't going to kill the dangerous bacteria.
I put 1.25 milliliters of "germ water" onto each square and spread it around to cover the entire square using my gloved hand. Then I let the squares dry for about 2 hours.
Once the squares were dry, I put 1/4 teaspoon of each test product onto its respective square and used a clean gloved finger to spread them around to completely cover the square. Of course, I put on a new glove for each test product.
I intended to let each "cleaner" sit for 5 minutes on its square. However, I did so many different ones at once that it took too long. Each cleaner sat for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, I used sterile swabs to collect bacteria from each square and rubbed the swabs all around on the appropriately labeled agar plate. I let the plates incubate for 36 hours in my warm incubator (about 98 degrees F).
RESULTS
This picture shows tons of bacteria growing on the dirty control plate. You also see the clean control plate which should have no bacteria. The 10% bleach plate should also have no bacteria. The apple cider vinegar, 25% white vinegar, and pure white vinegar did not have as much bacteria as the dirty control plate but still have too much bacteria for me to think they are an adequate germ-killing cleaning product. (I do always use white vinegar to clean my fake wood floors, though. It is certainly good enough for that.)
Since the Apple Cider Vinegar contains the "mother", I wanted to make sure that the apple cider vinegar itself did not contain a lot of bacteria that grew on the agar plate. So, I just tested some apple cider vinegar by itself. There was only one colony on the plate, so no significant amounts of bacteria came from the apple cider vinegar.
This picture shows that the smart balance oil, olive oil, and coconut oil all have less bacteria than the dirty control plate and probably have some bacteria killing ability. Look at the Thieves oil plate! Not one colony of bacteria!
This picture shows the Thieves oil compared to the Thieves oil/ olive oil 1:4 mixture. The diluted thieves oil is not as good at killing bacteria as the pure thieves but it does some killing.
I have repeated this experiment several times already and have gotten the same results. Here are some results from another day. The thieves still did great as did the 3% hydrogen peroxide and Zylast Antiseptic hand sanitizer
. Zylast is one of my 3 favorite hand sanitizers for killing norovirus. For a complete list, see the hand sanitizer page.
At first I wondered if the oils were really KILLING the bacteria. What if they were just coating the bacteria so that they couldn't multiply on an agar plate? What if when you swallowed one, your stomach acid would free the bacteria from its oily prison and it could still make you sick? How do I know that it is really dead? This goes for any of the products that produce a clean plate in my experiments. I can't be certain if the product is actually killing the bacteria or if it has just somehow stopped the bacteria from growing. I also can't tell how long it takes to kill the bacteria since the product is picked up on the swab and remains with the bacteria on the agar plate during the entire incubation time. I wouldn't be surprised if Olive Oil was killing some bacteria too. Here is an article about olive oil killing cancer cells. Here is a link to the 3% hydrogen peroxide
that I use for these experiments.
Which Essential Oil kills bacteria the best?
Next I wanted to compare other similar Essential Oils from different companies. I tested Thieves by Young Living, On Guard by doTERRA, Proshield by Ameo, Germ Fighter by Plant Therapy, and Kidsafe Germ Destroyer by Plant Therapy. There are even more oils similar to Thieves that I did not test, but you can read about them in this Essential Oil Blog.
These experiments are very similar to the previous experiments, so I did not take pictures of every step. I sectioned off squares on my kitchen countertop using masking tape. I made “germ water” using a scoop of dirt from outside, and I filtered it through paper towel to remove chunks. Then I scraped off bacteria from a “dirty hand control” from the day before and added all that bacteria to the germ water. I don't know what kinds of bacteria are in the germ water. It is most likely a mixture of harmless and a few harmful bacteria. (Only a small percentage of bacteria in the world will grow on this type of agar plate and many of the really dangerous bugs won't grow on them. I don't feel comfortable working with anything too dangerous at home anyway. However, most harmful bacteria and viruses are much more difficult to kill than this common bacteria. So, if a product does not even kill this easy-to-kill bacteria, it probably isn't going to kill the dangerous bacteria. That is my reasoning for doing these experiments.) I added 1mL of germ water onto each square and spread it around with my clean gloved hand. I let the germ water dry completely which took about 2 hours. When it was dry, I added .5mL of each Essential Oil to its respective square and spread it around with my clean gloved hand. I let the oils sit on the square for 5 minutes. Then I used a sterile swab to take samples from each square. I “scribbled” all over the agar plates with the swab. The plates incubated in my warm incubator for 24-36 hours.
I repeated these experiment several times and as you can see, all of the Essential Oils performed admirably.
From my results, all of these Essential Oils appear to kill bacteria. I tested On Guard, Proshield, and Thieves many times. If one of those is better than the rest, my experiments are not sensitive enough to detect the difference. I only tested the Plant Therapy Oils twice (because I got them later than the rest). Both times, the Kidsafe Germ Destroyer left a few colonies of bacteria. I think it absolutely kills bacteria, it just might not be quite as strong as the others. I can’t tell you if these Essential Oils would kill every single kind of bacteria, and I can’t tell you if they would kill viruses. As I mentioned before, it is possible that the oils are preventing the bacteria from multiplying by some means but are not actually killing them. However, since the Essential Oils do even better than olive oil, I think they are really killing bacteria. I also can't tell you if the oils will cure all of the assorted ailments that they are recommended for. If you would like more info about what the health benefits of essentials oils might be, you can contact this educated Young Living Representative or this Essential Oil Blogger.
Most of these oils were donated to me for testing. Here are links to the companies who donated them along with a list of the particular oils in each product so you can compare. If you have questions about these oils or would like to purchase some, please contact these companies. (I am still not an oil expert. I don't sell oils. I do not receive any kickbacks from these companies. All I got was the donated product.)
Clove Flower Bud Oil
Lemon Rind Oil
Cinnamon Bark OIl
Eucalyptus Radiata leaf oil
Rosemary Leaf Oil
OnGuard by doTERRA
Wild Orange Peel
Clove Bud
Cinnamon Bark
Eucalyptus leaf
Rosemary leaf/flower
Ameo by Proshield
Clove Bud
Cinnamon Bark
Lemongrass leaf
Orange Peel
Lemon Peel
Rosemary Leaf
Eucalyptus Radiata leaf/twig
Germ Fighter and Germ Destroyer by PLANT THERAPY
Therapy
Lemon
Clove
eucalyptus
Cinnamon
Rosemary
Kidsafe Germ Destroyer by Plant Therapy
Spruce
Marjoram
Lavender
Rosalina
Lemon
Do Oregano Oil and Clove Oil kill bacteria?
4/20/2015
Many website viewers have asked me to test oregano oil and clove oils for antibacterial activity. Oregano Oil has been shown to kill norovirus so I was immediately interested. Clove oil is a component of the Thieves oil so I had high hopes for that too. I did the experiment the same way that I always do. I sectioned off squares of my countertop with masking tape. I put 1mL of "germ juice" on each square, rubbed the dirty water around to completely cover the square, and let it completely dry. Once dry, I put .5mL of each oil onto its respective square and gently spread the oil around using my clean gloved finger to completely cover the square. I let the oil sit on the square for 5 minutes and then used a sterile swab to collect germs. I rubbed the swabs onto the agar plates and incubated them for 24 hours in my warm incubator. I did this experiment 3 times and tested Young Living Oregano oil, doTerra Oregano oil, Young Living Thieves oil, Young Living Clove oil, and 3% hydrogen peroxide. Here is a link to the 3% hydrogen peroxide that I used in these experiments. (I use it to spray off my countertops, sinks, and toilets every day since it kills bacteria so well in my experiments. The brown spray bottles can be hard to find in stores but it needs to be kept in its own brown bottle. I refill the brown spray bottles with the 88 cent refill bottles readily available in any pharmacy aisle. )
My results show that Thieves and clove oil did an excellent job killing bacteria. The oregano did not do quite as well which I am very surprised about.
Do Lemon, Peppermint, Cinnamon, Tea Tree, and Arborvitae oils kill bacteria?
5-5-2015
Next I decided to test some other essential oils. I tested Young Living brand peppermint, lemon, cinnamon bark, and tea tree oil (Melaleuca Alternifolia). I also tested doTERRA brand Arborvitae.
I used the same procedure that I have been using. I used masking tape to section off squares on my countertop. I put 1mL of dirty germ water onto each square. In the photo, you just see the dirty water in one drop, but I spread it all around the square with my gloved hand. I let the germ water dry completely. Then I put .5mL of each oil on its respective square and rub it all around with my clean gloved finger. I let the oil sit for 5 minutes, swab the square, and rub the swab all over an agar plate. The plates are incubated for 24 hours. I also tested regular 3% Hydrogen Peroxide
(which I always use and love for cleaning), olive oil, coconut oil, Thieves oil, and fresh lemon juice. I actually squeezed a lemon to get the lemon juice. I used .5mL of each test product.
RESULTS
As you can see, the lemon oil and lemon juice were a bit disappointing but still seemed to kill some bacteria. The cinnamon oil, tea tree, and arborvitae did great killing the bacteria. The peppermint oil certainly killed some bacteria but not as well as others. As I have said before, I can't say that these oils will kill EVERY kind of bacteria. I can't make any statements regarding viruses. However, some of the oils clearly stop some bacteria from growing (most likely by killing it). Also, these experiments have a lot of actual DIRT present. Some of these oils might do better killing bacteria if there isn't DIRT present. For example, alcohol can't penetrate dirt and does not do well killing bacteria in these experiments. It is just hard for me to get a bunch of bacteria present on the countertop to test WITHOUT having dirt involved.
After testing all of these oils, my favorite single oil is cinnamon. Sometimes, I leave old plates sitting around for a few days before I get around to properly disposing of them. Often colonies of bacteria pop up on plates that were originally clean. However, nothing ever grows on that cinnamon plate. That is potent stuff and it smells great. If you are interested in ordering some Young Living Oils, please visit www.striveforhealthy.com and support them because they kindly donated the oils for these experiments.
Does Lavender oil kill bacteria?
I've received many requests to test lavender essential oil to see if it kills bacteria. I borrowed some Young Living Lavender oil from a friend (which is why it is in a tiny bottle in this photo). I compared it to olive oil, Plant Therapy coconut oil, and Young Living Thieves oil.
I made germ water containing dirt from the back yard and extra bacteria from an agar plate where my daughter rubbed her dirty hand after school.
I put 1mL of germ water onto each square on my countertop and rubbed it around with my gloved finger. I let the germ water completely dry which took about 2 hours.
Then I did the experiment like I always do. I added .5mL of each product onto the square and spread it around with a gloved finger to fully cover the square. I let it sit for 5 minutes and then swabbed the area and rubbed it on an agar plate. The plates were incubated for 24 hours in my warm incubator.
RESULTS
As you can see, the plate with the lavender oil had no bacterial growth. As usual, the Thieves and hydrogen peroxide did a good job inhibiting bacterial growth.
I did the experiment another day and it also showed no bacterial growth on the lavender plate. I also happened to be testing Purell advanced, Zylast hand sanitizer, and Scrubbing bubbles that day. Zylast kicks butt for a hand sanitizer. If you would like to try Zylast antiseptic, you can order Zylast Antiseptic on Amazon
. Scrubbing bubbles appears to kill a significant amount of germs but not quite all.
From these results, I really think that Lavender oil really does kill germs. It smells great, too! As I have said before, I can't be sure that the oil is really KILLING the bacteria. It could just be stopping the bacteria from growing. However, not all oils work this well so I personally think the lavender and thieves are killing the bacteria.
Does Thieves oil work as a hand sanitizer?
A lot of people are diluting thieves oil and are using it as a hand sanitizer. The suggested dilution is 1 drop of thieves oil and 4 drops of a carrier oil. So, I used my thieves oil/olive oil mixture that is in a spray bottle, and I used my 10 year old son's hands. I used these amber spray bottles
from amazon. I was so surprised that they could spray thick oil nicely without clogging. I did the experiments after school before my son washed hands. It would have been nice if he had 4 hands because I wanted to test 4 things. Since he didn't, I divided up the fingers. I rubbed his thumbs on the dirty control plate. I put olive oil on the first 3 fingers of his right hand. I put the thieves/olive oil combo on the first 3 fingers of his left hand. I put Clorox Hand Sanitizer on both pinkie fingers. I let the sanitizer/oil sit on his fingers for 1 minute, and then rubbed those fingers on the appropriate agar plate. A hand sanitizer needs to work fast because you don't have much time between putting it on your hands and picking up your sandwich. As you can see, the oils do really seem to kill some germs. However, it doesn't compare in bacteria killing to the Clorox Hand Sanitizer. I like Clorox Hand Sanitizer because it is one of the few hand sanitizers that actually kill norovirus. (For a list of all my favorite hand sanitizers that kill norovirus, please read this page of my website. If you aren't going to kill stomach viruses, I see no reason to use a hand sanitizer at all. Clorox hand sanitizer is not available in stores but is available here on amazon
.
I have repeated this experiment several times and am very confident in the results. Here are the results from another day. This time, I just put the thieves/olive oil combo on the left hand and the Clorox Hand Sanitizer on the right. There were only 2 colonies of bacteria on the Clorox hand and significantly more on the thieves/olive oil hand. Clorox Hand Sanitizer does not contain chlorine bleach, by the way.
Please see my hand sanitizer testing page for experiments with Thieves hand purifier.
Thieves Spray by Young Living
5-5-2015
Thieves spray smells wonderful and is supposed to kill germs. It's primary ingredient is ethanol (like most hand sanitizers), and it also contains a little bit of the thieves oils (clove, lemon, cinnamon, eucalyptus, and rosemary). According to its label, it can be used on surfaces such as countertops. It does not specifically say to use on hands. It does say "Do not use on SENSITIVE areas of the body". So, I'm not even sure if it is supposed to be used on hands at all. I tested it on the countertop. I received the thieves spray from a Young Living salesperson at www.striveforhealthy.com.
I test the Thieves spray while I was doing bunches of other oil experiments on the countertop. I used the same procedure that I always do. First I sectioned off squares on the countertop using masking tape. Then I put 1mL of dirty germ-water onto each square. I rubbed the dirty water all around the square with my gloved finger. Then I let the germ-water dry completely. After it was dry, I put .5mL of Thieves spray onto the square. I rubbed the Thieves spray completely around to cover the entire square with my clean gloved hand. I let the Thieves spray sit for 5 minutes. Then I swabbed the square and rubbed the swab onto an agar plate. The plate was incubated for 24 hours. I also tested Thieves oil, regular 3% hydrogen peroxide, and Zylast antiseptic hand sanitizer to compare.
RESULTS
These first 2 experiments used dirty water where I added EXTRA bacteria from a previous days plate. So, there was a lot of bacteria in these experiments.
This next experiment used dirty water with NO ADDITIONAL bacteria added. So, this is equivalent to someone tracking dirty water onto your floor and you spraying Thieves Spray onto it and waiting 5 minutes.
As you can see, the Thieves spray does not do as well as the 3% hydrogen peroxide or the Zylast antiseptic hand sanitizer. However, I am not surprised since the Thieves spray is mostly ethanol. Look at the 70% isopropyl alcohol results. 70% isopropyl alcohol does not appear to be killing much either. Most alcohol based cleaners/disinfectants do NOT do well in the presence of dirt. In previous experiments, I have already shown that most ethanol based hand sanitizers do not do well on dirty hands. So, this does not mean that the Thieves Spray doesn't kill germs. It just doesn't kill a significant amount of germs if DIRT is present. It may kill germs in an experiment with less dirt and less bacteria present. I tested the Thieves Spray in an experiment with just bacteria and no dirt is present. Those results are on the page where I test cleaning products.
In the meantime, I'm sticking using Zylast hand sanitizer (I recommend the Zylast antiseptic and NOT the Zylast lotion). You can order Zylast from http://www.zylastdirect.com/catalog.php. If you use the coupon code "StopNorovirus" you will get 10% off your order.
Thieves and doTerra On Guard Cleaners
12/20/2016
These experiments have been moved to their own page. Thieves and On Guard Cleaner Experiments
4/5/2017
Can I dilute Thieves and On Guard oils with water to clean?
I have already shown that both concentrated Thieves oil and concentrated On Guard oil kill bacteria very well. However, no one could clean their house with a tiny $80 bottle of oil. Many people have asked me to try diluting the oils with water and see if they are still effective. I was always concerned about this because oil and water don't mix. It just creates tiny balls of concentrated oil (when you shake it up). However, I gave it a shot because so many people asked. I did one of my countertop experiments comparing full strength Young Living Thieves oil and full strength DoTerra On Guard oil with the oils diluted with water or oil.
For these experiments, I made germ water with water, a tiny bit of dirt from outside, raw chicken juice, and come colonies scraped off a previous days "dirty sink" agar plate. I put 1mL of this germ water onto each countertop square. I rubbed the germ water around and let it dry. Then I put .5mL of product onto each square, spread it around with my clean gloved hand, and let it sit for 5 minutes. Then I swabbed the squares and rubbed them onto clean agar plates. The plates were incubated for 24 hours in my warm incubator. I tested pure concentrated, Thieves and On Guard oils. I tested Thieves and On Guard oils diluted with water or Coconut oil Plant Therapy Coconut Oil
to 25%. I also tested the pure coconut oil.
RESULTS
As you can see, diluting the oils in water really ruins their germ-killing ability. I mixed the oil/water combo immediately before I sucked it into the syringe to make sure I didn't get all water. The oils mixed with coconut did much better killing germs, but not as well as the pure oils. Keep reading to see how the oil/water combo did killing germs in the kitchen sink.
Can I mix OnGuard oil with water to clean the kitchen sink?
Because my countertop experiments have so much dirt and bacteria, I like to test products in a real life situation where we expect them to work, the kitchen sink. I use my neighbors' sinks for these experiments because they rarely disinfect them. I put 1mL of the concentrated ON Guard oil into 2 cups of water and put it into a spray bottle. The sinks were visibly clean with no debris. First, I swabbed each side of the dirty sink. Next, I shook the ON Guard water mixture up and sprayed 30 sprays all around one side of the sink. Then I sprayed 30 sprays of 3% hydrogen peroxide on the other side of the sink. I let the cleaners sit on the sink for 5 minutes and then swabbed again. I rubbed the swabs on agar plates and incubated the plates for 48 hours in my warm incubator.
RESULTS
As you can see from the results, the On Guard mixed with water did not kill any noticeable amount of bacteria. I am certain that Thieves oil would generate the same results mixed with water and used to clean the sink. I am almost out of Thieves oil so I did not repeat this sink experiment with Thieves. From this result and the countertop results, I conclude there seems like it is not a good idea to mix essential oils with plain water for cleaning. I also noticed that Thieves and ON Guard do NOT mix with vinegar or hydrogen peroxide. They do dissolve in alcohol. I know that there are many other cleaning combinations people are using with essential oils. I would be happy to test more. So, email me you suggestions. phd.annie@gmail.com
Does Diffusing Thieves Oil Kill Germs?
9/24/2017
These essential oil diffuser experiments have moved to their own page. Does diffusing essential oils kill germs?
Viewer Comments
Annie, thank you for your awesome research here!
Over at Aroma Outfitters, we’re very involved with essential oils on a daily basis. We mainly focus on essential oil accessories, like our (really gorgeous!) wooden storage boxes, but our family uses essential oils on a regular basis for everything ranging from homemade cleaning products to soaps and shampoos… basically, if it’s possible to replace a store bought product with an organic alternative, we’ve probably tried it.
Your research was so fascinating because we’ve found that using DIY cleaning recipes that involve essential oils have been very successful for us. However, as much as we love essential oils, we agree that in order to do a total disinfection of a room something stronger is probably going to be necessary.
Essential oils are great, but if one of us had to have surgery, I think we’d prefer the scalpel was cleaned off with more than castile soap and lemon essential oil. :)
Having said that… we very rarely get stomach bugs or colds. The difference between our pre-essential-oil days and now is definitely noticeable. You’re the scientist here, but we suspect this is thanks to making the effort to enjoy cleaner living in general while using essential oils to improve our overall well being.
Certain essential oils are proven immune boosters. We sleep better thanks to essential oils, and as you no doubt know, sleep is an integral component to good health. We soothe minor cuts and scrapes with essential oils. After switching to as many all natural, essential oil based products as possible, we’re quite sure that our exposure to potentially harmful (and immune damaging?) chemicals has been reduced.
The best thing about making alternative household products yourself with essential oils is that you at least know exactly what’s in them. If you look at the ingredient list for even a bottle of simple shampoo, there might be dozens of ingredients with names that you could hardly pronounce—whereas with DIY products, there might be five ingredients, all of which you know are safe for your body, your children, your pets, etc.
Research like yours is important so that people have a clear understanding of what essential oils can and cannot do. We sometimes see websites promoting essential oils as magical cure-alls, which they aren’t. They can do some really amazing things though. Just like with anything you choose to inhale, put on your skin, ingest, and so on, nothing should be viewed in black and white terms.
What we’d love to see more of are people who have a realistic understanding of essential oils and their benefits, rather than those who think they’re somehow magical or those who dismiss them completely. Work like yours promotes a healthy, balanced understanding of these awesome oils from nature, and we thank you for it!