Essential Oils Archives - Simply Me DIY

May 21, 2020May 21, 2020

Essential Oil Spray For All Occassions

You can use an essential oil spray for all kinds of things. I have one for me, one for dog babies, one for the curtains/carpet/house…

**NEVER USE ESSENTIAL OILS ON CATS

These kind of sprays are most often used as a deodorant of some kind.

What you want to use them for will determine what oils or carrier you may want to use.

There’s a few things to remember when you’re putting together an essential oil spray.

First – NEVER use essential oils on cats.

If you have a pet other than a dog or cat, please do your research. Some animals just can’t handle essentials oils at all.

Second – Quality Counts

Clove is supposed to be great for a
tooth ache.

Here’s a great place to learn about and find essential oils. There’s information here on what the different oils are good for and if you feel so inclined you can buy them here too.

Wherever you decide to buy your oils, be sure you are buying 100% pure essential oils. You don’t want a fragrance. And just remember, if it’s cheap, it’s probably not good quality oil.

A good quality essential oil will usually cost a little more, but that’s because you usually only need a few drops of it. A quality oil is pretty potent and frankly, it’s worth the money.

Make sure whatever you use with your oils is of just as good a quality, especially if you’re using it on your pet or your own skin.

Third – Essential Oils Are Stout

If you’re going to use it on your canine fur baby, only use a few drops. We have about 6 million smell receptors in our nose but your furry baby has about 300 million. A light smell to us is a giant smell to them and we don’t want to overwhelm them or cause discomfort.

I spray a cloud and walk my pups through it. That way it’s just a very light mist. I usually pet them afterwards to help it soak into their coats.

And I make them their own separate spray with very little essential oils in it. Remember it don’t take much.

Here’s a few things to decide on when you’re putting your spray together.

Essential Oils

Orange and orange oil — Orange smells awesome.

We all know that different essential oils, just like herbs, are used to support all kinds of different things.

Some will help you relax, or maybe invigorate and wake you up. Others may be supportive of a body function, help alleviate an allergy or other condition or just support your general wellness.

Knowing the purpose for your spray will help you choose the essential oil you’ll want to use. Or maybe you just like the smell of a specific oil or oil blend and want to use it as an air freshener.

Whatever your purpose is, your homemade essential oil stray will be much better than what you would buy at a store. You’ll know exactly what’s in it.

Here’s a few oils to look at, some of which you probably already know about (and remember you can always find more here):

Lavender

We all know lavender is great for supporting relaxation and easing a weary mind. Find out more about lavender here.

Citrus (orange or lemon)

A citrus scent is perfect for lifting your spirits. When you smell citrus it just makes you feel good.

*Note: If you spray a citrus spray on your skin, wait a while before you go out into the sun. It can make your skin sensitive to the sunlight.

Peppermint

Peppermint is great in helping to relieve headaches or migraines. It’s also been used to temporarily suppress the appetite.

Sandalwood

This has been used for thousands of years to enhance your mood.

Rosemary

Helps to reduce nervous tension & occasional fatigue.

Cedar

Cedar has a warm homey smell. It’s great for using in your house after work to just sit back and relax (especially on a cold night) and it’ll help ground you.

Bonus: insects hate all those oils with heavy smell like cedar, rosemary, basil, and lavender. All those ones we LOVE to smell.

The carrier spray

This is the liquid you will want to put the oils in. This can be water, witch hazel, or a combination of both. You might want to add a touch of a carrier oil too if you’re using it for a person or a dog. Something like almond or coconut oil, depending on what you’re wanting to do.

Water

Adding your essential oil to water is the easiest way to go. After you spray on yourself or carpet or curtains, the water will evaporate leaving the essential oil to do it’s thing and to smell awesome.

Witch Hazel

Lavender oil and a flower — Lavender is great for relaxing.

This is an astringent, meaning when you use it on your skin, it tones and tightens, (think pores). It’s also an antibacterial. When we sweat it’s the bacteria that creates and puts off a smell. You can use Witch Hazel with a few drops of your favorite scent to kill that bacteria which helps remove the smell and then replace it with whatever essential oil you’re using.

I use this as a deodorant. Pair it with the essential oil of an herb that’s also an antibacterial, say….lavender, and you’ve got a pretty good thing going on.

A few drops of carrier oil

This can be any kind of oil really. Olive oil, coconut oil, almond oil, just to name a few. In 8 oz of water or witch hazel, you’d only need about 1/8 of a tsp. This oil will help hold the moisture in and it also gives the essential oils something to spread in when you rub it on your skin.

This isn’t really necessary, but it’s a nice luxury that doesn’t cost much to add. You’ll want to make sure you don’t spray this on any cloth or it’ll show and won’t be real easy to wash out.

Mixing Your Essential Oil Spray

Ingredients for a spray for a person — What you need for a spray for a person. Change the witch hazel to
regular water for a room spray.

I found out the hard way, that if you mix too much and leave it in your spray bottle, you’ll be using that same essential oil in that bottle forever.

I don’t remember what I originally mixed it for, but I mixed water and lavender oil. Then didn’t use it all. I left some in an 8 ouch spray bottle.

At some point I decided I wanted to use a citrus spray for something and tried washing that bottle out. Yeah, that wasn’t happening. So I bought another bottle.

Tip– Make small batches and use them. Then rinse out your container. If you do that you should be able to use different scents in the same bottle.

So, that means I would say use an 8 oz bottle for a room/carpet/home deoderizer. You might start out with 5-7 drops of essential oil and if you feel you want more, add more. But, remember it doesn’t take much.

Bergamot — A very relaxing floral scent.

If you’re spraying it on curtains or carpet, remember that oil will attach itself to the fabric and it will stay there after the water evaporates. Even if you don’t continue to smell it in the air the next day. Stick your nose to the curtains or carpet, it’s there.

If you’re using it for your dog, I’d use about a 2 oz bottle. I have 5 dogs, so I still use an 8 oz bottle. So that kind of depends on what you have.

Using your spray

For my personal use, I have a 2 oz spray bottle. It’s out of one of those little airline carry packet things you can pick up at the store. It’s a perfect size and has a lid. I use about 3 drops in that.

One thing you need to remember every time you use your spray is to shake it.

Oil and water don’t mix, so every time you use it, you’ll need to mix it together so you get a good mix each time you spray.

Remember to experiment. As you use more oils, look for blend recipes. They’re everywhere. You may find a blend that you really enjoy better than any single oil.

And if you find one, let us know. Maybe we’d like it too.

Hope you all enjoyed this one. I love using my various sprays. Share what you with come up with everyone in the comments.

Until next time…

Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey

August 6, 2019June 14, 2021

The Virtues of Lemon Balm

Lemon Balm is one of the easiest plants you’ll ever grow with a bonus of the awesome lemony smell. It’s the Balm! (Yeah, that was a bad one I know, but I couldn’t resist).

Lemon balm tea blend. — Lemon balm and lavender tea blend.

The plant itself and the essential oil have many uses and all of them are enjoyable.

Lemon balm tea has a soothing, mild taste that I love. Because of this, I add lemon balm to a lot of my tea blends. Don’t miss my article on making your own homemade herbal teas here.

Another good way to enjoy the taste of lemon balm is to crush the leaves up, which releases the essential oils, then add them to your ice water. This gives the water an ever so slight lemon flavor that’s really good, plus you get the benefits of the herb too.

A little Lemon Balm history.

This herb dates back to the ancient Romans and Greeks, with one of its first recorded uses being a wine infused liniment.

The Swiss physician and alchemist Paracelsus (1493-1541) believed that Lemon Balm was the “Elixir of Life” and that it would increase strength and lengthen life.

The botanical name for Lemon Balm is Melissa Officinalis.

The word Melissa comes from the Greek word for honeybee. Lemon balm was given this name because bees love this plant.

“Melissai” was the name for a group of nymphs in ancient times, known as the nymphs of honey bees. They were credited with the discovery and use of honey and were believed to be able to morph into bees.

Lemon balm was traditionally used to uplift the spirits and used in spells to heal broken hearts and attract romantic love. It was said to balance feelings and emotions.

Ancient texts recount folk medicine practices using lemon balm tea as a support for heart health, and to promote healthy skin. It was common practice to use lemon balm externally or internally for it’s relaxing effects.

Today, many of its uses are the same.

Just running your hands through the plant and inhaling that scent will make any day more relaxing.

If you’re just looking at it, it looks like any mint plant. But run your hand through it and you’ll know the difference immediately.

Some of Lemon Balm’s relaxing qualities.

Once known as an herbal cure all, Lemon Balm supports the body in several different ways.

It’s most known for it’s relaxing properties. It’s used to help reduce stress, anxiety and depression because of its uplifting, yet calming tendencies.

Lemon balm and lavender tea. — A cup of lemon balm and lavender tea.

It’ll help reduce anxiety and promote sleep when insomnia is an issue.

Of course, this virtue is also going to help the support the body in reducing all the effects of anxiety and stress like headaches and nervous stomach issues.

The vasodilating properties, properties that allow the relaxing of blood vessels, allows for good blood flow. Another reason it’s good for headaches and migraines. Constricted blood vessels are usually the root cause for throbbing headaches.

Some of Lemon Balm’s “anti” properties.

Lemon Balm has a lot of “anti” properties.

It’s known as a mild anti-spasmodic helping to reduce muscle spasms. This includes things like leg or stomach muscles as well as bronchial tubes where asthma is an issue.

It’s anti-viral properties are good for helping to heal or prevent cold sores, among other things. And it’s considered an anti-oxidant, helping to prevent free-radicals from floating around in your body.

Now, this isn’t to say that Lemon Balm is going to cure any of these issues. But what it does say is that it may lessen the affect of these issues in duration and intensity.

A few unusual uses I ran across.

One thing I found, that I HAVE to try is making jelly. I’m not sure why, but this is something I wouldn’t have thought of.

It sounds awesome. And after trying dandelion jelly, this is something I have to try. I also read you could use it as a substitute for lemon in jams and jellies. This would be for the flavor only as there is no citrus acid in Lemon Balm. I haven’t done this either, but I’m sure I will now.

It was used to polish furniture in Europe. I’m sure this was a long time ago. But, can you just imagine how good your house would smell? Not sure how they did that, but it might be worth a try just because it would smell so good. I can see making a tea from it and using it as an ingredient in a cleaner or freshener.

It was also tossed on the floors, in the old days, to help freshen rooms. Can’t say I blame them. I’m guessing you needed a lot of smell good to cover all the other everyday odors of yesteryear.

Pollination is another thing lemon balm is good for.

A bunch of lemon balm. — A bunch of lemon balm

We read earlier how bees are really attracted to it. So plant it near where you need lots of pollinators, like a veggie garden or a flower garden.

BUT BEWARE–It is part of the mint family, so make sure you plant it in a container. As great as it is, it literally grows like a weed. So unless you have plenty of space for this plant to grow, you’ll want to contain it or it’ll take over everything.

I hope you found something useful and enjoyable here. Let me know if you’ve used lemon balm before. If you have, how did you use it? What did you think? Did you like it?

If you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe. There will be more herbal information coming in the future. Information for learning about the herbs and how to use them and to build your own personalized tea blends.

Thanks for stopping by.

Until next time –

Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey

Disclaimer

The article above is written using my research and how I’ve seen this herb work for me. It is for informational purposes only.
As I said above, every person is different. So just like anything else, herbs will react differently from person to person. What works for one, will not necessarily work for another, or it will work to different degrees. So don’t relay just on what one person says. Try each herb in small amounts and give it time to work or give your body time to react. Make sure it’s doing what you want it to do. Also remember that herbs are not like modern medicine. It’s not an instant result. Some times it just takes time and for other herbs it takes several doses (or several cups of tea) before you will notice anything.
If you have any medical conditions, always check with your doctor before using herbs as a medicine.
Drinking herbal tea for the enjoyment of it, is generally no big deal, unless you have an allergy. But if you are attempting to get some kind of bodily reaction from it, you should do your own research. The FDA hasn’t approved any of these statements regarding the use of herbs as medicine. So it’s up to you as to how and when you use an herb(s) for a specific purpose.

June 11, 2019June 11, 2019

Homemade Bug Spray

Homemade bug spray is easy to make. Your homemade bug spray can be as organic as you want it to be, there are no chemicals and best of all it works.

Homemade bug spray is not going to be near as long lasting as the store bought stuff. I don’t know what they use to make it stick to you so long, but this homemade bug spray doesn’t have it.

My batch of bug spray. Sorry for that crooked picture.

What we buy in the stores has so many ingredients in it we can’t pronounce that I’m just not willing to use on me and mine, if I can at all help it. And like so many things we buy these days we just don’t know where that stuff came from or how it was made.

I use this homemade spray on my grandkids, my furbabies, and myself so I want it to be as natural and safe as it can be.

Like most homemade stuff, it doesn’t have the staying power the industrial stuff you buy from a store does. You have to remember to reapply it every few hours especially if you are sweating badly or getting wet. But that’s okay because it smells good and it’s all natural so it can’t hurt you.

What Attracts Mosquitoes

There are several things that attract mosquitoes to the human body. Here’s a short list of the primary ones.

Carbon dioxide. This is the gas that we expel when we breath. This is what lets them know there is a food supply nearby.
Body Odor. If you sweat, make sure you wash off regularly to help prevent the growth of bacteria. The bacteria that grows from sweating is what creates the odor that attracts mosquitoes to you.
Secretors. Sounds terrible doesn’t it? Apparently about 80% of the human population are what’s considered to be “secretors”. These people secrete saccarides (a sugar based chemical) and antigens. These antigens indicate your blood type and mosquitoes like type “O” blood most and type “A” blood least. Who knew?
Lactic acid. We emit lactic acid through our skin through activity and by eating certain foods. So the more activity, the more lactic acid you will emit. Foods like soured milks, kefir, yogurt and some cottage cheeses contain the lactic acid your body emits.

The above items are all related to scent which is the primary attraction for mosquitoes. Some other things that attract them are heat, moisture, movement and color.

I found out that pregnant women are shown to exhale 21% more carbon dioxide and tend to be warmer in the belly area. So any pregnant ladies may want to wear light weight long sleeves and pants to avoid as much exposure as possible.

I also found out they like dark colors. I’m kind of fond of wearing dark colors too, so that’s a problem for me. I might have to change up what I wear when I’m home in the evening.

Most things you buy for any kind of bug control either contains or at least smells like citronella. And there’s a good reason for that.

Citronella

From what I read in researching for this post citronella works because it helps mask the carbon dioxide from our breathing and the lactic acid that we emit through our skin.

Lavender

I use lavender because I like the smell and for all the other reasons I mentioned in my previous post here. But I also found out that mosquitoes just flat don’t like the smell. I actually read they they will avoid it “at all costs”.

From what I’ve read, mosquitoes don’t like several of the heavily scented plants and herbs like geraniums, basil, several types of mints, and rosemary, just to name a few. You know, all those herbs that you can run your hands through and then smell the oils on them.

I like the smell of citronella and lavender, so that’s the mixture I’ve gone with. You can use the mix that you like best using the essential oils mentioned above. You can research other herbs too to find those that you might like that I haven’t named.

Homemade Bug Spray Recipe

This recipe is so easy. It consist of water and essential oils. The only caveat is that you use real essential oils, not the synthetic equivalents. They won’t have the same potency that the real essential oils have.

You can choose the potency you like best, but this is how I mix it.

About 1-1/2 to 2 Cups of water in a spray bottle.

I added about 100 drops of essential oils. 50 of Citronella and 50 of lavender.

Remember you’ll have to shake your spray bottle every time you use it. Oil and water don’t mix, so you need to help that along every time you use it.

There are several places you can get your essential oils. Most of the organic stores in your area will sell essential oils. I get my oils from doTERRA. I actually became a doTERRA consultant for the discounts because I found I used essential oils for so many things. You can see what all they have here, if you like.

Several different essential oils you can use.

There are several places to get your spray bottles. Depending on what was in it, you could reuse an old spray bottle. You’d want to make sure it never any anything kind of toxic or harmful liquids in it previously. Make sure you clean it thoroughly before using, including the sprayer nozzle.

I hope you enjoy this recipe. Experiment with different scents to find the one you like best. You could actually make specific scents for specific people. Play with it and have fun. Let me know what you come up with by leaving a comment below. I really would like to know.

Until next time –

Health, Wealth & Blessing ~ Tracey

December 25, 2018August 7, 2019

7 Tips To Help You Learn To Relax

Do you ever feel like you need to work at relaxation? Sounds like an oxy-moron, doesn’t it? But nonetheless, it’s true. For most of us relaxation actually is close to impossible. In our day in age, relaxation has become an art…a hard earned art and then, only if you practice it.

I have to remind myself several times a day to relax. It’s not something I remember to do naturally. If I don’t my shoulders and neck start to hurt and I can get a headache before I even realize it’s starting.

Just because it’s the holidays doesn’t mean we all can’t learn to relax and enjoy the season just that much more. Here are a number of different ways I’ve learned, depending on where I am and what I’m doing.

Here are 7 tips to help you learn to relax for both work and home.

If I’m at work, I have to be able to use a quick method and it has to be pretty low-key as to what I’m doing.

I . I sit at a desk all day and in some cases I can sit there for several hours at a time using a computer, so I try to stop every hour or so. I’ll put my hands in my lap, sit up straight, feet flat on the floor and take several deep breaths with my eyes closed. While doing this I visualize a white/yellow light above my head and as I exhale, that light rains down on and through my head and body. With each breath my shoulders and/or neck will feel just a little more relaxed. After about 4 or 5 breaths, I’m ready again.

2. Or, I’ll take a deep breath and lift and tighten my shoulders, hold both for a count of 4 or 5 and then release my breath and relax and roll my shoulders slowly, again to a count of 4 or 5. Repeating this for 4 or 5 times.

While I’m at home I can use longer methods that are a bit more involved and more fun.

3. Sometimes a hot bath with Epsom salts, or maybe some bubble bath always with essential oils and of course candles.

A hot bath with candles. — Sitting in a hot bath makes all the difference

4. A bit of music maybe a mask made of crushed oats, yogurt and honey.

5. Listening to music and just watching the flame dance on the candle can be magic.

A lit candle. — Candles are always helpful

6. Maybe take a walk and enjoy nature.

A nature walk. — Taking a walk in nature is a perfect way to relax

7. As the saying goes, stop and smell the roses, enjoy the view, listen to the birds and even the wind blowing through the trees.

A pond with ducks. — Enjoy the wild life too.

The End Game

The point is instead of thinking of all the things that need done, just listen to what’s around you, enjoy what you see. Look for the simple things and fill your head with paying attention to those things.

Whatever works for you, use it. We don’t do it enough and it makes all the difference in dealing with stress and strain in our full everyday lives.

If you know someone who needs to learn to relax be sure and share this post with them.

Be sure to subscribe and receive at least one new DIY every week.

Health, Wealth & Blessings~ Tracey

December 11, 2018August 10, 2019

Essential Oils

Do you have any idea how awesome essential oils really are?

I know it took me a long time before I really understood the potential of real, high quality essential oils.

Bottles of essential oil. — Essential oils

Since our grand-daughter was born our lifestyle has moved to a more and more organic and natural one, making most of our household products and using less and less store bought cleaning supplies and personal products.

The use of essential oils just fit with that perfectly.

I began seeing DoTerra Oils a lot. I’d used a few and knew their scents were top notch.

I did some of my own research and found they were of high quality.

I really liked that they are delivered through the mail because I really hate shopping. Then I found out how to get discounted oils.

DoTerra allows you to pay a fee (kind of like Costco) and you get wholesale pricing.

Nothing minimum to buy, just buy what you use, if you want. You can go on to sell them if you want, but it’s not necessary.

There are several of the blends I’m really happy with. And for what I use and how much I use them, that fee was minimal.

If I go on to sell some, that’s a bonus.

I continue to learn more and more. I’m really happy with what I’ve learned and experienced so far and I can’t wait to try new and different things.

Essential oils are the easiest “help yourself” I’ve ever run across. They can work miracles just as the actual herbs can.

They can change a mood, change an appetite, they can help you focus or help you sleep. The range of the uses of essential oils is almost endless.

I’ve used them in baths, in body sprays, in puppy sprays, room and upholstery sprays and personal care products like lotions, shampoos and body oils. You just can’t go wrong because, they smell awesome, and make the house smell great.

The scent of the actual herb is generally the same scent of the essential oils. The strength of the essential oils makes the herb so much more diverse.

In some of my other posts, you can read the different uses of different scents from various herbs. Whatever an her does in a tea, you will generally get the same affect in a scent.

There are a ton of choices for whatever you may be looking for. Try them each separately to determine what you truly like and then mix and match and create your own favorite blends.

If you’d like to look at more information, you can visit here. There’s a ton of information on this site for whatever you’re looking for.

A diffuser and essential oils. — Oils, a diffuser and candle.

I’d love to know what you’ve discovered about essential oils from your experiences. Leave me a note and let me know how you use them.

Until next time-

Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey