Five on Friday & Scraptastic Saturday: Essential Oils

Happy Friday my Friends! 

I had some busy and fun adventures today at an art studio where my daughter has been going to art camp this week. Since today was the last day they had a little gallery show and pizza party. Lots of fun! But now I'm finally home and can get this post in before my day is done.  Today for my 5 I thought I'd share some of the essential oils I've been loving and some uses for them.

ONE

I love adding a few drops to my big water bottle. Just a very little gives a lot of flavor to boring old water. I like lemon, lime, or grapefruit...although lately my favorite has been just a few drops of orange oil.

TWO

I love lavender essential oil for using in a spray for the bed sheets. It's such a soothing smell and it's very calming and great for bed time. It's also a natural antiseptic and great to help treat minor scrapes or burns - so also handy to keep in the kitchen. Further you can read here how it can improve circulation on your scalp and be good for stopping hair loss and promoting hair growth. All that in one tiny bottle and you only need a few drops.

THREE

I love thieves essential oil! This oil is so versatile and smells so good! With it's clove, lemon and cinnamon base it smells like the holidays to me.  You can read more about it here, but it basically got its name based on a legend about thieves in the 15th century that used it on themselves to cover the smell when robbing those dead from the plague...and they never got sick, as it's supposed to help the immune system. I love to use it for a safe cleaner. Just put about one drop for every 1/2 ounce to ounce of water in a spray bottle and it's healthy and non-toxic, yet effective. Also, as you can see above - it helps numb things for the mouth if you have a toothache or gum pain. I guess clove oil was used for many years in dentistry as a common ingredient to help with tooth pain. My daughter had a tooth coming in recently that bothered her and she used this and it worked great to numb the pain. 

FOUR

As I have mentioned several times before, I love to use essential oils in the diffuser. I'm diffusing oils into the room with positive healthy properties to it....as well as making my home smell great. I'm still really into lavender and lemon together and often will add some orange too. In the Fall I love using thieves instead.

FIVE

Another fun use for essential oils is to make your own natural soaps and lotions. I recently picked up these goodies at the craft store and I'm going to use them to make some little bottle of lotions - great to keep or give as gifts! It will be fun to experiment with different smells. I think for summer lime would make a yummy citrus smelling lotion and of course I'll have to make a lavender one, as its one of my favorite oil scents for this time of year.   I didn't take a photo but I also use peppermint essential oil for headaches as needed. I have a little bottle that has a roller on the top and I keep it in my purse. A little bit at my temples or the back of my neck and I can truly get rid of headaches that way!

These are just some of the ways I've been using essential oils lately. I'm not selling oils or getting anything for talking about them. Nor am I any kind of expert; I'm still learning a lot but I love that everything is natural. I love the idea of not using things with chemicals in them...plus most oils actually have wonderful health benefits! I know a gal that makes her own cough drops and even has capsules she can fill with oils to make her own vitamins for health benefits. If you want to learn even more you can look at my pinterest board about essential oils here and read how they can help belly aches, acid reflux, allergies, help with skin and beauty and many more ideas. I just keep learning and I can honestly say that with the ones I've been using - they WORK! 

I'm linking with Amy of Love Made My Home for Five on Friday.

I'm also linking with Scrapality for Scraptastic Saturday.