Using essential oils to support health is far from simple — especially in family aromatherapy, when the user is not a healthcare professional. A lot of questions naturally arise when you want a gesture that is effective, appropriate, and safe.
- Which essential oils should you choose?
- How many can you mix together?
- In what proportions?
- Should you dilute them in a vegetable oil — and if so, which one and at what percentage?
All of these questions can race through the mind in an instant — whether you want to act effectively on a symptom, support a conventional treatment, or maintain your well-being through prevention.
Below are a few guidelines to help you use essential oils in a useful and safe way within family aromatherapy, either for prevention and/or to support the effectiveness of conventional care.
Why Recommendations Differ So Much
The number of essential oils available is vast. When you explore aromatherapy books, you quickly notice that two authors can propose very different approaches for the same condition.
It may look as if aromatherapy is purely empirical and based on intuition, but in reality, trained aromatherapists have a wide range of options and take time to build recommendations on rigorous foundations. A scientific approach to aromatherapy makes it possible to personalize advice to each individual according to their temperament, medical history, presence of chronic conditions, intensity of symptoms, duration, and individual sensitivity.
In family aromatherapy, people often rely on a good reference book or a guided program and reproduce the proposed blends. This generally improves the chances of effectiveness and reduces the risk of accidents. But many people also try to “make do” with what they already have at home — and sometimes start making their own blends. Here are a few principles to optimize both effectiveness and safety.
Treating with a Single Essential Oil
In practice, due to limited supplies or in urgent situations, we sometimes use only one essential oil. This can be very effective — but it also has limitations.
Advantages (if the oil is well chosen)
- The essential oil can express its full potential because it is not “diluted” within other essential oils.
- It helps you identify the essential oil’s specific effect and compare it with other essential oils used before or later.
- It is practical, simple, and fast.
Limitations
- Using only one oil limits the therapeutic approach to the properties of that single oil — so you must be confident in your choice.
- You must avoid choosing the wrong essential oil oil and be mindful of possible toxicity, especially if the oil is used undiluted.
- The result may be helpful but not optimal when symptoms are complex or chronic — such as infections (viral, bacterial, parasitic, fungal), pain management, or long-term support for chronic conditions. In such cases, a well-designed synergy is often more effective and faster — though these contexts often go beyond the scope of basic family aromatherapy.
Examples of situations where a single essential oil used neat can be extremely effective
- Burns and insect stings: EO spike lavender (Lavandula latifolia) applied neat directly to the affected area. (Important contraindications: children under 7, pregnancy and breastfeeding, atopic skin, epilepsy.)
- Bruises and hematomas: EO Helichrysum / Immortella (Helichrysum italicum) applied neat directly to the bruised area
- Warts: EO Cinnamon Ceylon bark (Cinnamomum zeylanicum, bark) applied daily for around two weeks. (Protect the healthy surrounding skin with a protective varnish available in pharmacies.)
- Emotional discomfort: Inhalation of one calming essential oil, chosen according to personal preference (e.g., petitgrain bigarade, clementine, mandarin, Roman chamomile, ylang-ylang, red myrtle, fragonia, neroli, verbena, laurel leaf).
It is strongly recommended to choose an essential oil whose scent is genuinely pleasant to you.
In all these examples, the selected essential oil is both highly targeted and strongly active.
Safety advice
- If you are not fully aware of an essential oil’s risks (skin irritation, dermocausticity, neurotoxicity, etc.), do not apply it neat to the skin.
- Applying essential oils neat to the skin is contraindicated in children under 7, during pregnancy and breastfeeding, and on reactive or eczematous skin.
How to Mix Essential Oils (Synergy)
Creating a blend of essential oils is called building a synergy. The goal is to amplify the properties of each essential oil. The result is not simply the sum of effects: a proper synergy can produce a stronger, more targeted overall action.
A synergy can provide:
- Greater molecular diversity
- A broader and stronger anti-infectious spectrum
- Multiple therapeutic actions at once
For example, when a viral infection causes severe sore throat, you may combine:
- antiviral oils (e.g., ravintsara, saro, eucalyptus radiata),
- immune-supportive oils (often the same ones plus tea tree and thyme ct. linalool),
- and soothing / discomfort-relieving oils (tea tree, peppermint, or Roman chamomile),
to obtain a blend that supports the body’s defenses and treats the virus, while also easing throat discomfort.
Aromatherapy offers this potential — from a single-oil gesture to a well-designed synergy. Even in family aromatherapy, the field can be broad — as long as you follow safety rules precisely.
Know Risky Essential Oils and Fragile Profiles
You should first identify:
- essential oils that carry higher risks (neurotoxic, dermocaustic, hepatotoxic),
- and “fragile” profiles for whom improvising is strongly discouraged. These profiles include people with narrow tolerance margins and specific contraindications.
How Many Essential Oils Should You Combine?
In family aromatherapy, it is generally recommended to combine no more than 2 to 4 essential oils in one bottle — especially for painful and/or infectious conditions, or chronic issues such as:
- osteoarthritis
- digestive problems
- pain management
- respiratory, urinary, digestive, or skin infections
There are several ways to choose oils for a synergy, but one rule comes first:
choose according to the aromatic molecules they contain, because therapeutic properties directly follow from that chemical composition.
This is where it becomes difficult for the general public — and understandably so. Learning the properties of aromatic molecules can require months or years of study.
That’s why, in family aromatherapy, it’s important to rely on well-made reference books that clearly list, for each essential oil:
- main properties
- key molecules
- potential risks and contraindications
(e.g., my e-book containing 90+ essential oil monographs).
What Should You Dilute Essential Oils In?
Essential oils are biochemically closer to vegetable oils than to water.
If you place one drop of essential oil in:
- a glass of water: it floats — even after stirring → essential oils are not water-miscible
- vinegar or 70% alcohol: it disperses slightly but doesn’t truly dissolve → micro-droplets remain
- whole milk: miscibility is better; after shaking and waiting, the drop disperses more
- vegetable oil: the mixture becomes perfectly homogeneous → essential oil dissolves fully and lastingly in the lipid phase
Conclusion
Never add essential oils directly to bath water or to a glass of water or herbal tea — this can cause burns to the skin or mouth if the oil is irritating or dermocaustic. Specific dispersants exist for this purpose (follow instructions carefully). If needed, whole milk can be used as a traditional alternative.
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Vegetable oil is therefore the most appropriate carrier for diluting essential oils.
Choosing the Right Vegetable Oil
The choice of vegetable oil also matters for comfort and absorption. Prefer a light, non-greasy oil that allows good penetration of aromatic molecules, such as:
- apricot kernel oil, or
- grapeseed oil
These are reliable references in aromatherapy, pleasant to use, and often considered less allergenic than sweet almond oil.
Why Dilute Essential Oils?
Diluting a few drops of essential oil in a vegetable oil improves tolerance and reduces toxic risks such as:
- skin burning/irritation (“dermocausticity”)
- neurotoxicity (effects on nerve sheaths and the nervous system)
- hepatotoxicity (liver stress)
Vegetable oil slows absorption through skin or digestive mucosa, acting as a safety buffer.
Dilution should be systematic in fragile profiles such as:
- pregnant or breastfeeding women
- children under 7
- people with epilepsy
- severe asthma
- fragile, reactive, or eczematous skin
How to Dilute Essential Oils in Vegetable Oil
You can dilute directly in the palm of the hand (for adults), using roughly 2 to 6 drops* of essential oil with at least the same amount of vegetable oil.
*) Bear in mind that the drop size varies depending on where you purchase your essential oils. If drop size is 1 ml = approx. 30 drops, you may use up to 6 drops. If drop size is 1 ml = approx. 20 drops, only use up to 4 drops.
Or you can prepare a dilution in advance in a bottle.
To prepare a dilution you’ll need:
- a dark glass bottle (size based on your protocol), with a dropper cap
- ideally, a small graduated cylinder (10 or 20 ml) for precise measurement
(If measuring by counting drops: In France, 1 ml consists of approximately 30 drops. But as there is no internationally standardised drop size, this may differ in your country.)
Recommended Dilutions and Conversion Table
How Much Essential Oil for Each Bottle Size?
| Bottle size | dilution to 5 % | dilution to 10 % | dilution to 20 % | dilution to 30 % | dilution to 40 % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| For infants under 36 months and very fragile profiles. | For infants under 36 months and very fragile profiles. | Do not exceed this dilution with fragile profiles. Possible for children over 36 months. Usual dilution for adults and adolescents. | Possible for children over 36 months. Usual dilution for adults and adolescents. | A possibility in adolescents and adults if acute context. | |
| 10 ml | 0.5 ml | 1 ml | 2 ml | 3 ml | 4 ml |
| 20 ml | 1 ml | 2 ml | 4 ml | 6 ml | 8 ml |
| 30 ml | 1.5 ml | 3 ml | 6 ml | 9 ml | 12 ml |
| 50 ml | 2.5 ml | 5 ml | 10 ml | 15 ml | 20 ml |
| 60 ml | 3 ml | 6 ml | 12 ml | 18 ml | 24 ml |
| 100 ml | 5 ml | 10 ml | 20 ml | 30 ml | 40 ml |
How to Measure
To measure milliliters, use a graduated cylinder (size: 10 or 20 ml).
Beginners often prefer to count the drops when measuring essential oils. However, it's important to note that there is no internationally standardized drop size and that different companies may use different dropper caps for their essential oil bottles. For example: In France, 1 ml is usually considered to be approximately 30 drops of essential oil. In Germany, however, 1 ml is generally considered to be 18-20 drops of essential oil. Therefore, the number of drops is not a reliable indicator of quantity when readers live in different countries.
Safety Guidelines
- Do not use concentrations higher than 5-10% on sensitive skin areas (e.g., face).
- Do not use concentrations higher than 5 % on inflammed skin areas (e.g., eczema, neurodermatitis)
- Higher concentrations of essential oils require that only a few drops of the blend be used per application! This means that you would generally only use 4 to 12 drops of a blend per application.
- Choose essential oils that do not pose neurotoxic, dermocaustic, or phototoxic risks (unless you are trained in aromatherapy). See my article "The toxicity of essential oils".
- Always consider individual skin tolerance and perform an allergy test (apply 1 drop of the ready-made blend to the inside of your elbow, wait 20 minutes, then repeat and wait 48 hours. If redness or irritation occurs, do not use the blend).
If the Blend Is Intended for a “Fragile Profile”
If the blend is for:
- a child under 7
- pregnancy
- breastfeeding
- reactive or eczematous skin
- epilepsy
- asthma
…it is strongly discouraged to improvise your own blends. Some essential oils are strictly contraindicated in these cases. Refer to specialized resources or seek guidance from a trained aromatherapy professional.
Important Information:
Whenever we use the term ‘essential oils’ (EO), we always refer to essential oils that are 100% natural, 100% pure, 100% unadulterated, and preferably organic or wildcrafted. Only 100% genuine essential oils, obtained either by distillation or cold expression, are suitable for French aromatherapy. Proper storage and packaging, as well as adherence to the shelf life, are equally important in order to prevent the oxidation of aromatic molecules.
The information provided on this website is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, prescription or treatment. Essential oils are excellent complementary tools, but are not a replacement for medication. Aromatherapy is not recommended without medical advice for anyone in a fragile state (children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, people with allergies, asthma or epilepsy), or for anyone taking medication.
French aromatherapy requires strict compliance with contraindications, dosages and duration of use, and requires the use of essential oils of the best quality that meet standard criteria (method of cultivation, extraction, packaging, analysis and traceability). It is important to strictly adhere to the botanical and biochemical identifaction of the essential oils mentionned.
Individual tolerance to essential oils varies significantly, and it is important that each individual respects their own tolerance. For people with a low tolerance threshold, it is advisable to further dilute the essential oils listed in recipes. Long-term use of essential oils requires medical advice.
