Blending Techniques of Essential Oils

How to create a blend of essential oils

When you create a blend of essential oils for yourself or someone else, you need to lake into account any disease or disorder, the underlying causes of the symptoms, psychological and emotional factors, and an overall aesthetic consideration. Even if you are just blending a perfume, the therapeutic action of the essential oils you select will still be present, so you need to bear this in mind.

There is a strong association between scent and memory, and certain essential oils may summon up elusive memories or quite specific recollections. Avoid any essential oil that conjures up unpleasant memories - or that you simply dislike on first smelling - because scents that you find unpleasant will not have a beneficial effect, and may even cause an adverse emotional reaction.

Blending tips

• When you first start creating your own blends, stick to a maximum of four essential oils in any one blend. Even using just three oils allows you to create blends with a top, middle and base note. If you make a mistake and create a blend that you find unpleasant, it is easy to discover what went wrong if there are only a few oils involved.
• A useful tip is to select the essential oils that you wish to use in your blend, and before mixing them into a base of sweet almond oil, skin lotion or other base, put a drop or two of each essential oil onto a separate cotton wool bud. By holding the three or four buds a little way from your nose and waving them around, you will get a good sense of what the blend will smell like.
• By taking one bud away, or by adding another one with a different essential oil, you can fine-tune your blend before actually making it up into an aromatherapy product. This prevents expensive waste, and is a useful way of helping you learn about the complexity of blending. The blending process has been described as 'learning to listen through your nose', which offers an interesting insight into the art of blending.