Spend a little time on Pinterest looking for an essential oil blend to meet your current need and it’s easy to become overwhelmed by elaborate combinations of oils seemingly “required” to get the desired effect. Personally, I prefer more simply essential oil blends.
Truth be told, essential oils are not all that complicated. Most essential oils have multiple therapeutic properties due to the number of chemical families most belong to, and which constituents within those families they contain. For example, lavender essential oil belongs to both the Monoterpenols and the Esters, and is strong in the constituents linalool (a monoterpenol) and linalyl acetate (and ester).
Essential oils containing a significant percentage of monoterpenols are often antibacterial, antifungal, and sometimes antiviral, while essential oils containing a significant percentage of esters are often antispasmodic, sedating, balancing, soothing, anti-inflammatory, and analgesic.
This is why it’s very common to find lavender in blends for both sleep and pain relief. And why you’ll almost always want to have it in your first aid kit to help with minor wounds, bruises, bug bites, allergic reactions, and fungal infections.
As you can see, blending essential oils doesn’t have to be complicated. Once you have an idea which chemical families make up the greatest percentage of an oil, blending them together is as much a preference as anything else. While the scent you end up with isn’t the most important factor, at least not as important of making sure you’re using oils that will be effective, no one wants to diffuse and massage in an oil blend that is not pleasing to the nose. One of my favorite books for learning more about essential oils and how to use them is The Heart of Aromatherapy by Andrea Butje. Andrea is my teacher for the aromatherapy school I am currently enrolled with to become a certified aromatherapist myself.
Because of the complexity of uses with most essential oils, most of the time, it is not necessary to use more than 2-4 oils at one time. For some purposes, a single oil will suffice. Much of the time, I only use two oils at a time in my diffuser or for body sprays, roller bottles, and lotions. I’ve compiled about 30 essential oil duos for you to try and listed them in categories such as sleep, focus, anxiety, etc. Please remember, spend some time learning about the components of the oils you want to use, how they work, and try combining some of your favorites. You can almost always find substitutes in your own collection of oils that will work well for you.
Before we get to some of my favorite essential oil duos, I want to share quickly about how I have been able to amass an amazing collection of essential oils to try over the past couple of years with the Simply Earth Monthly Recipe Box. If you are new to using essential oils and wish to add to your collection in a fun way, while also learning more about how to use essential oils effectively, please take a moment to read more about this service. Or you can scroll on past to find the 30 essential oil duo blends below.
How to Build Your Essential Oil Collection
Because so many essential oils are multi-functional, I recommend that as you begin using them, starting with just a few bottles, and building your collection slowly as you learn more about them and how to use them. Then you can begin experimenting a bit with combining essential oils into a blend that will make you want to use it. You can use something as simple as a cotton ball to test how oils smell in combination with each other.
One way to easily learn about each essential oil is to make sure you are purchasing from a supplier who has a focus on education and safety. Personally, I purchase from several non-MLM companies that sell pure essential oils at a great price, but my favorite company for education is Simply Earth. Simply Earth has the main goal of teaching their customers how to use essential oils to make their homes more natural. And they do an excellent job of this with their monthly recipe box.
When you become a subscriber to their monthly box, you will slowly build your essential oil collection while learning how to use them. Each month, you’ll receive 4 15-ml bottles of oil (a combination of single oils and blends), along with 6 recipes (on cardstock recipe cards), and extra items needed to make the recipes. With your first box, you’ll also receive their “Big Bonus Box” for free ($45 value) that includes carrier oils such as hard coconut oil, liquid fractionated coconut oil, and almond oil, as well as beeswax, roller bottles, and blending bottles. Every 6 months, they send out a fresh Big Bonus Box for free, so you’ll always have what you need to make your recipes.
Each monthly box has a theme, which is always fun! I’ve been receiving these boxes for well over a year and love that I now have a vast collection of essential oils AND recipes to use them. To give you a better picture, the theme for February 2021 is “Mood Detox” and contains these essential oils:
Basil
Geranium
Happy Joy Blend
Lava Blend
With these 4 bottles of oil comes 6 recipes, and few extras for the recipes (2 pretty little bottles, one roll-on and one spray) and some sea clay. With these items (and a few things from your Big Bonus Box and pantry), you’ll get to make two roll-ons, a mud mask, a body spray, a diffuser blend, a detox body scrub.
On the Simply Earth website, you’ll find all the information you need about the singles and blends they sell – GC/MS sheets, safety information, constituents, common uses, and more recipes. Also, they have active social media accounts where they share even more tips and recipes. The recipes are all developed by certified aromatherapists so you can be sure they are safe and effective. Should you decide to try this lovely essential oils recipe box to build your collection of essential oils, the code: MARCYFREE will get you a $40 gift certificate at the time you subscribe. You can apply it to your 2nd box or use it to purchase anything in their store.
30 Simple Essential Oil Blends
Now that I’ve shared all of that, I want to give you some of my favorite simple blends of essential oils that I use all the time. Each of these blends only contains two essential oils – I call them essential oil duos – and all are effective blends that also smell delicious. Of course, smell can be subjective, so grab a few cotton balls and do a little test before mixing up your blend.
Some of these are blends I use in my room diffuser or in a personal diffuser, some I use to make a room or linen spray, some I make a body spray or roll-on with, and some I make a cream, lotion, or salve from. It all depends on the purpose of the blend. Sometimes, I make cleaning solutions as well. But know that most any essential oil can be used in any of these forms – for diffusers, sprays, roll-ons, lotions, etc. There are a few that I make more than one way. Note that I don’t tell you how many drops of each oil to use. This is purposeful, because truthfully, as far as effectiveness goes, it doesn’t matter how many drops of each oil you use. It’s more a personal preference. So play around with that and find a combination you love. But as a guideline, the total amount of drops used should look something like this:
Diffuser: 5-6 drops total
10 ml roller bottle: 3% dilution = 6 drops total mixed in 10 ml carrier oil
1 oz of a lotion, cream, or salve = 18 drops total for 3% dilution
2 oz spray = 36 drops for a 3% dilution
If you’ll be using any of these on children, you’ll want to lower the dilution to 1% (2 drops in a 10ml roller botter, 6 drops in 1 oz of lotion, cream, or salve, 12 drops in a 2 oz spray)
As you can see, I generally blend at a 3% dilution. If you find that’s too much, you can always dilute further, and definitely should for children, pregnant women, or the elderly.
Sleep Blends
Lavender + Vetiver
Cedarwood + Orange
Sandalwood + Bergamot
Focus Blends
Peppermint + Rosemary
Ravintsara + Sweet Orange
Juniper Berry + Lime
Cold & Allergy Blends
Lavender + Black Spruce
Fir Needle + Lemon
Cedarwood + Eucalyptus
Calming Blends
Lavender + Frankincense
Cedarwood + Bergamot
Geranium + Sandalwood
Blends for a Happy Mood
Bergamot + Cypress
Sweet Orange + Neroli
Lemon + Ylang Ylang
Anxiety Blends
Geranium + Orange
Basil + Clary Sage
Bergamot + Lavender
Blends for Energy
Lime + Peppermint
Rosemary + Tangerine
Grapefruit + Sandalwood
Upset Tummy Blends
Ginger + Spearmint
Turmeric + Peppermint
Cleaning Blends
Lemon + Tea Tree
Lime + Eucalyptus
Cinnamon + Sweet Orange
Muscle Soreness
Peppermint + Lavender
Basil + Frankincense
Black Pepper + Rosemary
First Aid
Lavender + Tea Tree
Helichrysum + Frankincense
I hope you find this list of essential oil blends helpful. If you try any of them, please come back to tell me your favorites! And if you discover an essential oil duo you can’t live without, please share that, too! If you need more ideas, take a peek at my 10 Simple Essential Oil Diffuser Blends. These recipes all contain between 3-4 oils.
Precautions
Never use essential oils undiluted, in the eyes or mucous membranes. Do not ingest unless working with a qualified practitioner. Keep essential oils away from children. If applying an essential oil to your skin always perform a small patch test to an insensitive part of the body (after you have properly diluted the oil in an appropriate carrier oil).
For educational purposes only. This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
