Who doesn’t have an essential oil diffuser these days? Essential oils are mega popular for keeping your home smelling fresh (and covering up the fact that your dog is way overdue for a bath). But what makes these oils so…essential? High-quality essential oils actually contain the essence of medicinal herbs, and include the natural benefits drawn from them. While not as powerful as a prescribed herbal treatment from a TCM practitioner, there are tons of therapeutic results you can get from essential oils. 

Spreading the scent across your home can keep you feeling peaceful and positive, but you can actually take it a step further by using essential oils in your beauty routine. You’ll not only be better able to keep your cool (read: be less likely to erupt into a string of curse words next time you’re stuck in traffic), but your skin will thank you! We’re breaking down everything you need to know about using essential oils in your beauty routine. 

Picking the Best Essential Oils for Your Skin 

In many cases, essential oils are divided into groups based on what they’re best used for. Some oils are best for cleaning your skin, while others are mostly used for helping you crush the anxiety of the day. The best part? You can pick more than one. Select a few of the qualities you need more of in your life from the natural essential oils listed in our breakdown below to whip up your own personal blend!

Emotional Balance 

Life is stressful, but unfortunately we can’t bring our essential oil diffusers with us everywhere we go (although there are some mega cute car and mini USB versions you can plug into your laptop!). To get those anxiety-relieving vibes even on the go, you can add essential oils to your face creams and oils, sunscreen, or certain foundations. The most popular essential oils to balance moods include lavender, bergamot, cedarwood, geranium, lemon, orange, and valerian. Whether you tend to go for floral, citrus, or natural scents, there’s something for everyone in this category. 

Energy Boost

Not enough coffee in the world to keep you awake today? We feel you, girl, we’re all on our fourth cup, too! Let essential oils help you with the heavy lifting. Certain oils have been proven to boost energy and improve your mental focus. Adding lemon, rosemary or peppermint to your beauty routine can give you the energy you need to power through the day. 

Acne Fighters

One of our personal favorite uses for essential oils is showing acne who’s boss. If your normal skincare routine just isn’t cutting it when it comes to blemishes, using essential oils could be the game changer you’re looking for. The two most popular acne fighting oils are lavender and tea tree. Lavender is the perfect choice if your skin gets easily inflamed or irritated. The calming, hydrating, and healing qualities help soothe and rebalance and is perfect for sensitive and dry skin.

Tea tree essential oil is both antibacterial and antiviral making it a powerful element to break down the dirt and grime that causes those bad breakouts. While a strong anti-acne solution, it’s known to also dry out the skin. Make sure you pair this oil with plenty of moisturizers to find the right balance. Other oils known to treat acne include rose, frankincense, carrot seed, ylang-ylang, and patchouli.

Immune Strengthening

What’s the point of having flawless skin if you keep getting sick all the time and can’t show it off on that cool new rooftop bar with your friends? Health and beauty go hand-in-hand. Using certain essential oils can help keep your skin looking flawless while also supporting your immune system. If you’re holistically health conscious, try to add one or more of these oils into your day; lemon, cinnamon, eucalyptus, lavender, tea tree, oregano, thyme, or orange.

Skin Restorative 

Wrinkles, sunspots, and scars, oh my! If you’ve put your skin through the wringer lately, you might be looking to restore a more youthful glow. Essential oils known to help gloss over wear and tear include geranium and frankincense. Geranium is believed to actually signal your body to speed up the skin cell regeneration process. This means the old layers will shed and fresh, glowing skin can appear more quickly. Frankincense is said to have innate tightening and elasticity triggers, making it a natural anti-aging product. Say bye Felicia, wrinkles! 

Detox & Cleansing 

If your skin and your energy are just feeling blah today, what you might need is a good, deep detox. Certain essential oils are rooted in deep cleaning of the spirit and your innate vivaciousness. Sound like you? Try adding rosemary, cinnamon, cedarwood, pine, or lemon balm to your beauty routine today. (Fun fact: these oils also make fresh-smelling additions to your household cleaning products, too!). 

How to Use Essential Oils on the Skin 

Got your personalized magic blend of essential oils picked out? Now that you know the essential oils that are right for you, let’s sort out the right way to use them on your skin. The number one important rule of using essential oils in your beauty routine is that you should never put the raw oil directly on your skin. When we say never, we mean it, sister. Even though they’re filled with positive qualities, the oils are very concentrated and might cause a skin reaction or irritation. To prevent overdoing it, you simply need to dilute the essential oil in another substance. 

When it comes to beauty routines, you should have plenty of options. Depending on what you’re looking for, you can dilute your essential oil in your face wash, toner, brightening oils, moisturizers, sunscreen, lotions, or body wash. If you’re particularly concerned about how your skin might react to the essential oil, try testing your combined mixture on a small patch of skin before committing to it (same rules as in dating). The more you dilute the oil into another product, the lower your chances of a reaction will be. 

If you don’t want to add your essential oil into one of the products already in your beauty routine, you can add it to what’s called a “carrier oil”. These are neutral, skin-safe oils that can dilute your essential oils, carrying the benefits to your body. Common carrier oils you can try include coconut oil, argan oil, olive oil, palm oil, and almond oil. Once you create your mixture of carrier and essential oils, you can apply it as part of your beauty routine. We’d suggest doing so after you clean, and apply toner but before adding a moisturizer.