The Downside of Essential Oils

Why I don’t use essential oils in my witchcraft practice, recipes, spells, potions, or formulations

I have a love/hate relationship with essential oils.

I don’t use them very often in my witchcraft practice when it comes to making magickal items. Especially skin care, body care, candle making, oils, etc.

Let me explain.

Essential oils are amazing and have many great benefits. Aromatherapy being the main use for essential oils due the fact that the volatile oils and chemical compounds that are extracted from a plant contain the essence of the plant’s fragrance. This means they’re at their most powerful and effective when inhaled.

Not to put on our skin.

Even though essential oils are “natural” they’re still chemicals. Very, very concentrated chemicals. Every material on earth, whether living or inorganic is made of chemicals. It’s just science.

So many people get hung up on using all natural items that are “chemical free”. I hate to break it to you, but it’s just not possible to use anything chemical free. Now, we can seek out ingredients that don’t have harmful chemicals but anything used out of its context or usage recommendations can become harmful regardless of what it’s derived from.

I mean if I handed you a cup a tea made of poison hemlock and told you to drink it, you’d tell me I’m nuts if I think you’re going to drink that.

But it’s made from a plant! It’s all natural!

Are you starting to see the point I’m getting at?

Essential oils, when used in ways which they’re not intended, are harmful and even dangerous.

Essential oils are safest when inhaled using proper methods. A few are skin safe undiluted such as lavender. Most are skin safe when diluted properly in a carrier oil.

NEVER, and I mean never take essential oils internally.

Just because they come from plants doesn’t make them safe to consume, ever. They’re extremely concentrated and are toxic when taken internally no matter what MLM is telling you it’s safe. You may not see the damage right away but they can severely impact organs like your liver due to the fact that it has to process the toxins out of our bodies.

Think about drinking alcohol. It may take years to see the effects and damage, but once it’s done, it’s done.

The only time you should ever consider taking an essential oil internally is under the care of a highly qualified and trained aromatherapist. Period. Full Stop.

I know, I know. They’re some of you that are going to come for me for saying you can take them internally because you’ve unfortunately bought into the MLM essential oil kool-aid.

But this is a hill I will die on.

Let’s use critical thinking for a hot second. Essential oil MLM’s are big money. Upwards of a 2 billion dollar industry a year alone.

Since essential oils are very concentrated, you only use small amounts at a time. You don’t use them up very quickly. If you’re a big company depending on sales, you need to make, well sales.

Hmm, how do we get consumers to use the oils up faster so we can sell more? I know! Let’s convince people that they’re safe to consume! That way people will go through the oils much faster. Then more sales! Yay!

But we know essential oils aren’t safe to consume. So how do we avoid lawsuits when someone inevitably takes way too much and poisons themselves or their family? Because if one drop is good, ten must be better! It’s just human nature.

Let’s manufacture the oils in a way that makes sure that if someone takes too much it won’t harm them. We’ll create an in house certification for our oils and we won’t provide any documentation to the public about exactly what’s in our oils. That way we can claim they’re all natural and pure without having to prove anything.

By the way, there’s no such thing as “certification” unless the company makes up their own.

Despite some companies claims, the FDA does not regulate, require, or provide any kind of certification for essential oils. Sorry.

Here’s the deal. These oils are more than likely pure but diluted with another natural oil to offset someone consuming too much and suing. Therefore they can claim to be pure because all of the oils are plant derived. That way saying all pure isn’t an outright lie. 

Now, I have no way of proving this despite all of the research I’ve done. These companies closely guard their “testing results” even though they tout them as proof their oils are pure and safe.

It does make you wonder…

In my opinion, a company with “pure reputable oils” should have no problem sharing their testing results and documents.

Companies like VineVida and New Directions Aromatics provides all of their testing result documentation right on their website for each oil. They have nothing to hide.

Most companies and businesses are sourcing from a lot of the same essential oil manufacturers. That means that there’s absolutely no reason to be paying $30 per half ounce bottle of lavender oil that most MLM’s charge when a reputable company is charging a much more reasonable price on average of about $14 for a full ounce.

I hate to say it, but you’re hung up on essential oil MLM’s, you’re being duped and taken advantage of.

I always say, if somethings seems sus, follow the money.

Ok, enough with the soapbox rant about essential oil MLM’s. Here’s the main reasons I don’t use many essential oils in my recipes or formulations.

It’s because for most of what I create, it’s not their intended use.

I don’t ever use essential oils in candles. I use to have a candle making business back in the day. I’d get some people complaining because I used fragrance oils instead of essential oils in my candles. They weren’t “all natural”. Most waxes aren’t all natural or organic either. Especially if made from soy, but I digress. 

Essential oils are not intended for use in candles.

Why? Because even though essential oils are safe to inhale from a diffuser, they become toxic when burned with flame. There’s only a tiny list of essential oils that are safe for use in candles. And almost all of them aren’t safe to burn in a candle around pets.

Not only that, they’re incredibly cost prohibitive to use in candles. The usual amount of fragrance you put in candles is from 6% to 10%. That adds up to broke real fast.

Since essential oils are mostly volatile oils, they burn off really fast and you’re left with a lackluster candle with little fragrance.

And it’s almost impossible to find safe usage rate percentages for each essential oil because there’s no regulations for essential oils. They don’t fall under the International Fragrance Association’s (IFRA) guidelines which regulates fragrance oils. This is because essential oils aren’t meant to be used to fragrance cosmetics or candles.

I hardly ever use essential oils in my cosmetic, lotions, oils, bath product, and skin care product I create due to the same reasons above. I also have no way of finding the safe usage rates for each oil from each company that produces them.

The last thing I want to do is create a face serum with way too much essential oil and cause skin irritation or a rash.

So, I stick to high quality, phthalate free fragrance oils that are regulated and have safe usage rates that are easy to find because every fragrance oil manufacturer is required to provide that documentation.

Or, I lightly scent my products with natural hydrosols or infused oils that I create myself which are safe.

I love making my own infused oil instead of using essential oils for a few reasons.

I can harvest herbs from my garden to infuse. I grew them, loved them, and imbued them with intention. I know exactly where they came from. I need a tiny, minuscule fraction of plant material to produce 8 ounces of potent herb oil that I know is skin safe and can be used in large quantities without adverse effects.

I can use these oils in everything and even in my witchcraft practice for ritual work, cleansing, spell work, or potions without breaking the bank.

If I can’t grow an herb, I can source it from reputable sellers who provide certified organic products.

Overall, creating your own infused oils is safer, not only for you, but has a smaller effect on the environment. It only takes me 2 ounces of rose petals to create 8 ounces of oil. It takes almost 250 pounds of rose petals to create 1 ounce of essential oil! Hence, why it’s so expensive. 

If you haven’t noticed, I love infused oils.

I do use essential oils. They absoluetly have their purpose when used properly. I always put a drop or two of peppermint and eucalyptus oil in my diffuser at night to help my sinuses.

But I’m not gonna lie. I really don’t like the way most of them smell. It is what it is.

If you love essential oils and want to use them, by all means do. Just make sure you’re using them safely and for their intend use and buy them from a company that values transparency in their oils and testing.

And please, for the love of the Goddess, don’t freaking eat them.

Your liver will thank me.