Diluting essential oils at home

Dilution involves mixing the essential oils with vegetable oils (coconut, jojoba, almond, olive...), a gel (Aloe, Aloe Vera Jelly, etc.) or a lotion or other neutral odorless base. It is preferable that these ingredients be organic where possible to avoid exposure to insecticides, pesticides or fungicides.

The article \"General precautions for topical application of essential oils\" in the Blog section explains the rules for the safe topical application of essential oils, as well as the percentages for dilutions (depending on age, the oil used and the person using it).

Most clinical studies, but also most of the recipes/protocols available in specialized sources have the values expressed in grams (g) or milliliters (ml), as the \"drop\" is not a very accurate unit of measurement (it depends on the pipette or dropper, the manufacturer and the viscosity of the essential oil). Sometimes the differences are considerable, so where possible it is recommended to use the established units of measurement (g or ml), but for many users it is preferable to use drops for dilutions, especially in an emergency (burns, cuts or scratches, pain, etc.).

Natural products that contain essential oils and are intended for commercialization need precision, consistency of formula and scalability, which is why only units of measurement are used for them. But these will be covered in a future article.

I aim in this article to simplify a complex and also controversial topic, namely the ways in which we can dilute oils at home for personal use.

Tests of several oils from several retailers have shown that 1ml of essential oil contains between 20 and 40 drops. So, to simplify the calculations, we can assume that 1ml of essential oil contains, on average, 30 drops.

• 1 ml ue (essential oil) ~ 30 drops
• 1 mL ue (essential oil) ~ 0.9 g
• 1 g ue (essential oil) ~ 1.1 mL
• 1 g ue (essential oil) ~ 33 drops
• 1 lgt (teaspoon)* =~ 5 mL
• 1 lg (tablespoon)* =~ 15ml

*I recommend using kitchen measuring utensils where possible, not ordinary spoons and teaspoons, as these can vary widely in size.

Dilutions

.5% =~ 1 drop of ue in 10 ml or 2 lg carrier oil or lotion without flavoring
1% =~ 1 drop of ue in 5 ml or 1 lgt carrier oil or lotion without flavoring
2% =~ 2 pic de ue in 5 ml or 1 lgt carrier oil or lotion without fragrance
3% =~ 3 pic de ue in 5 ml or 1 lgt carrier oil or lotion without fragrance
4% =~ 4 pic de ue in 5 ml or 1 lgt carrier oil or lotion without fragrance
5% =~ 5 pic de ue in 5 ml or 1 lgt carrier oil or lotion without fragrance

Example

**To make a mixture of 3 oils at a dilution of 1%: **

1. One of the solutions could be to use a 15ml container and then put 1 drop of each oil. But this is a great waste of resources if you don't need such a large amount of preparation.

2. The ideal solution is to make the essential oil mixture separately in a pipette container and then use the number of drops needed to dilute the essential oils. This is one drop in a 5ml container.
   This method has a tremendous advantage, because it allows us to let the mixture of oils form a possible synergy (i.e. combine into a blend with benefits greater than the sum of the benefits of the individual essential oils).
   Another advantage of this solution is that the excess oil (because we only used 1 drop of a 3 oil blend, i.e. 3 drops), can be saved for another preparation (in case the protocol needs to be continued) or can be used in the diffuser (as such or combined with other oils).

The use of a pipette is also desirable, as dosing a single drop directly from the bottle can be problematic (it depends primarily on the viscosity of the oil, but also on the size of the dropper, and it can even be possible to release 2-3 drops at the same time). We thus run the risk of releasing more droplets than desired/allowed. And while for adults this is not always a major problem (especially when using mild oils), for people at high risk of adverse effects such as babies, children, pregnant or breastfeeding women, people with neurological problems or chronic diseases, or those with sensitive skin, proper dilution is essential. More details on this topic, as well as the studies supporting my conclusions, can be found in the article \"Natural alternative to synthetic cleaning products\" in the Blog section.

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