Diffusing Wisdom video series: All about diffusing essential oils

Part 3: Safety When Diffusing Essential Oils, and Which Essential Oils Are Best to Use

In this 6:34 minute video you’ll learn:

• Which essential oils work best in a diffuser

• How to use your diffuser safety and effectively

• Important tips for using essential oil diffusers around babies and animals

I welcome questions! Put them in comments below and I’ll cover them in future installments!

Transcription of video: “Part 3: Safety When Diffusing Essential Oils, and Which Essential Oils Are Best to Use”

Hi, Dori Bell here, aromatherapist from The Blossom Bar with the third installment of my three-part series on using essential oil diffusers.

The first video was about the two most common types of diffusers, there's nebulizing and ultrasonic. Most people have ultrasonic diffusers, the kind that use water. The second one was about the when and why of diffusing. And the third one today is about safety and also about which essential oils tend to work best in diffusers.

How often to run your diffuser

So when it comes down to using diffusers safely, we want to keep in mind that first of all, when you run a diffuser constantly, there can be a risk of developing sensitivity or even desensitizing ourselves to the essential oil. It can also have an opposite effect depending on what else is going on with the person. For example, if you're using something for relaxation, clary sage, lavender, if you're using it too often for somebody who's already not feeling well, they could actually have an opposite effect, you make them agitated. And there's also fact that we covered this in the second video about habituation where the brain turns off repeated stimuli so you're not getting the psychological benefits if you run it all the time as well.

The best way to do it is to run your diffuser for 10 to 15 minutes, maybe 20 minutes, and then each hour. So run it for 10, 15, 20 minutes in an hour and then turn it off and then run it again. If you have an intermittent diffuser, you can actually set them on to cycle. A good cycle is 10 to 15 minutes on, 10 to 15 minutes off, that way the body has time to metabolize everything, you get the psychological benefits, there's less risk sensitizing yourself to it.

Using a diffuser around pets and babies

When it comes to using diffusers around pets and babies. First, let's talk about animals. You want to make sure the animal has a way out of the room if you're using a diffuser. If you have an animal in a cage, do not use the diffuser in that room, because they won't be able to leave when they've had enough. Animals, particularly cats, aren't able to metabolize the essential oils the way we are, they just don't have the enzymes, so they're dangerous to use, especially for extended periods. So as long as you've got a door open and the animal can remove itself, you're fine to use the diffuser. You'll notice a lot of times with dogs, they want don't want anything to do with essential oils. You've got essential oils, if you're using a massage blend on yourself, your dog might not even want to be around you because they're so sensitive to begin with with their sense of smell.

With babies, you want to use very gentle amounts of the essential oil, one or two drops maximum at a time. I would stay away from peppermint. Peppermint actually can overstimulate the breathing in newborns and infants. You don't want that. Most everything else is fine to diffuse a baby as long as it's a very gentle, one to two drops at a time. Again, not all the time. 10 to 15 minutes on and then every hour kind of thing.

Essentials oils to use in a diffuser

As far as which essential oils work best in diffuser, you want to use essential oils that move around really easily in the bottle, so ones that are a little thinner. Citruses, the herbal, the florals, things like that. When you get into some of the woods like sandalwood, or if you get into the thick ones like myrrh and vetiver and ylang ylang, those could just be really kind of a pain to clean up out of your diffuser. It's possible to do it, but it's just harder to do. I prefer to use the lighter ones just because of ease of use.

You also want to avoid using your really expensive, precious essential oils. I wouldn't use my rose. I wouldn't use my jasmine, things like that that are very special and expensive. There's other things you can use in the diffuser. I would consider it almost a waste of the therapeutic value of the essential oil when you're not using on something intimate when they're that expensive.

One thing you want to make sure too is you can use single, pure essential oils in your diffuser, just lavender or just sweet orange. You can combine two essential oils into the diffuser. What you want to make sure is if you have a blend of essential oils, make sure that there's no vegetable oil or carrier oil in that blend because you don't want that in your diffuser. That will just make a huge mess and who wants that?

The other thing you can use in your diffuser are hydrosols which is the water byproduct of distillation. A lot of essential oils are created through distillation so there's a water that comes off of that process that's called a hydrosol, has all of the healing benefits of the essential oil, but it's not quite as fragrant and very gentle, great to use around babies. If you have a newborn and you want to diffuse lavender around the newborn, use a hydrosol in there instead of the water or use hydrosol as well as the water instead of the essential oil as an option.

 Recap on essential oil diffuser safety

All right. Actually, so when you're around babies, small children, small animals, maybe one to two drops total. If a average adult can handle about five to 10 drops total of either one essential oil or a combination of several, I personally wouldn't use more than two or three essential oils at a time, because you start getting into them competing, it's not as great therapeutically often.

So if you have any questions, about that specifically about anything that I've talked about here, don't be shy, leave it in the comments, DM me. I don't want you to be confused in any way about using your diffuser. It's such a valuable tool for your wellness and your self care.

I hope you've enjoyed the series. Make sure if you found this valuable, share it with your friends, save it, whatever you need to do to make sure you have this information on hand. I'm always available to you. Thank you, and have a great day!