Your favorite essential oil combinations?

[Violets]

Taking a bit of a poll, because I want to make some candles for a couple of friends as a belated holiday gift.

[Ava]

Ah nice Violets

I don't really know anything about mixing them. I see suggestions on the Aura Cacia brand oils, and I've followed them in the past, but now I forget.

I love citrus candles, lavender, balsam/pine.

[Violets]

Ava, last year I bought some raw cocoa butter to add to my moisturizers and salves, and the smell was horrifically strong, lol. It's still just sitting in my hall closet, waiting to be put to some purpose. One shred of that stuff, and everything reeks overwhelmingly of dark chocolate (which would seem like a good thing, but not so much in this case). Lesson learned.

[Ava]

Aw I forgot to say that I loved your avatar with the ferris wheel on your cheek. I used to dream of ferris wheels a lot.

I haven't noticed that my cocoa butter has a smell, maybe I just bought the cheap stuff (bleached?). I put it on my heels because I'm a moron with those foot-sandpaper devices and pumice stones, I overdo it and end up with abrasions.

[Violets]

Aw, thanks for liking the avatar. 💕
I just didn't want one with an actual picture of me... This one is the back pasture at my mom's, slightly more anonymous, lol.

Do you put cocoa butter on your feet directly? Mine came in raw chunks that I melted, but jeez it was very...chocolate-smelling. 😅

[anela]

When my sister had oils here, I liked jasmine, and honeysuckle.

[Violets]

I wish I could find a nice bottle of pure jasmine EO... 🤔

[Ava]

Violets

Wow that is so beautiful, your mom's pasture!

The cocoa butter I have came as a cylinder insider a tube, almost like a large chapstick. I do just put it on my feet. Last night I smelled it up close there's a chocolate smell.

anela

I didn't know there was a honeysuckle essential oil!

[Violets]

Thank you, Ava. It was my grandparents', which I will theoretically inherit if we can sell our house and help my mom take care of it (the latter part is easy, but we'll have to give the former another try in the spring).

anela, honeysuckle does sound nice. I have some lily essential oil, but I don't think it's real. I like the scent, though.

[Violets]

I had some sandalwood EO before the cost skyrocketed to $70 per half ounce, or something crazy like that. It's too bad, because it's a favorite for me.

[Ava]

Oooo, lovely Violets ! I like imagining you living in such amazing surroundings.

I have sandalwood but I think it's not pure, it's in Jojoba oil. I have a lot of EOs. I put lemon oil on the diffuser in the kitchen because I've read that it helps people think better, and that's where my kids often do schoolwork. I also put it down the drain in the sink with baking soda. Ditto for lavender, I guess it depends on my mood.

I have this glorious, large bottle of geranium oil for my baths, with a dropper that prevents overdosing. After testing many oils and getting chemical burns by a few (but I WANTED an orange-smelling bath so much! lol), I've settled on geranium and don't even vary that. I used to alternate with clary sage, but I ran out and haven't gotten around to re-purchasing.

The two oils I am most ambitious about using more are frankincense and cypress. I LOVE the smell of cypress, and it's supposedly loaded with psychological benefits (and I need all I can get, hehe) but I don't know how to use it except to sniff once in a while.

I paint my nails with frankincense in those phases where I'm actually on my game and not being a lazy, burnt-out excuse for a Capricorn. Frankincense strengthens the nails and allegedly imparts a spiritual frame of mind. I kind of believe in that. At any rate I rest easy going to bed smelling like a church, it gives me a vague sense that God is nearby and will protect me as I sleep.

Don't worry I think that's all I have to say about EOs.

[Violets]

Ava, I love hearing about EOs!

I might have some frankincense, which I also really love...but then, I may have used it all up. I keep a shelf of oils and various raw butters, etc and it's difficult to keep track of what I have. I almost always have lavender and lemon also, though. And geranium, cedar wood, and bergamot.

I love cedar wood, but yes it also burns in the bath, lol. As does lemon if I overdo it.

But yeah, it's hard to go wrong with lemon and lavender!

[Ava]

Bergamot, I think that's amazing...though if I recall, it also burnt me in the bathtub. I try not to carry grudges.

Cedarwood, now I really want to smell that! I don't have it.

It took me a while to realize how much I love lavender, because you know, it's everywhere. I guess I took it for granted for a while...now I'm really happy to have an appreciation for it. The only problem is, now I'm being lured into buying products that are actually fake lavender, or poorly-executed lavender with synthetic fragrances overwhelming it, like my new bubble bath. 

I think if people say they don't like lavender, maybe they had a bad run-in with these impostor fragrances.

[Violets]

That's entirely possible, Ava ... OR, they prefer those nasty scents ("flowery", my mother in-law calls it, lol...I call it "air freshener smell"). The lily EO I have is a bit like that. It's not a brand I normally use, and although it does smell nice, it doesn't hold its scent and eventually starts to smell like cheap deodorant if I use it in something like carpet freshener or a candle. Ew.

I wish vanilla EO were a thing. It would go nicely with the beeswax I use. 

[Ava]

I thought it was a thing? (Vanilla EO)

I thought I had some but I can't find it.

Air freshener, ugh...so good when it's good, so trying-to-kill-you-with-chemicals when it's not. lol

Beeswax candles with EOs, that's a perfect gift! 

[Violets]

I don't think it's possible to make real, pure vanilla EO...? Extract is one thing, but there's something about the process of extracting essential oil that doesn't work with vanilla beans (if I'm not confused, which is possible).

I have some, but it's extremely light, and I'm pretty sure not pure.

I like to put fine glitter on the candles, but now I feel kind of badly about the effects on the environment so maybe I'll skip the glitter.

[Ava]

Wow your environmental conscience is stronger than mine, Violets. What's bad about glitter?

I'm an Italian-American from New Jersey, I thought glitter was just a necessary part of life.

[Violets]

Ava, the little bits of plastic that glitter is made from never really break down, they just accumulate in the ocean after they're washed down the drain, hurting marine life. BUT... If I'm going to be that conscientious, I really should stop using any cosmetics that contain little bits of plastic as well (I think my facial scrub might, so if I'm going to talk about it I may as well go back to making my own).

Anyway, it's difficult to be nice to the environment in the world we live in, if not practically impossible. If I don't put glitter on a couple of candles, that's not going to make up for the number of diapers I throw into the trash every month, y'know?

So it's probably sort of ridiculous for me to say anything about it. I can use whatever glitter I have left in the cupboard, and stop buying it, lol.

This post is basically just a ramble of my fingers typing stuff while my coffee brews. My brain wasn't really participating yet.

[Ava]

Right....thing is, just about everything within a more natural, environmentally sane culture is appealing to me. So we've gone to these touristy colonial villages and the blacksmith shops are gorgeous (I love the color of hot iron), the process of carding wool looks relaxing (and wool is pretty), candle-making is also a soothing and aesthetic process.

But we're not immersed in that culture and supported by it, where everyone is working together. I suppose we can just go the extreme route ourselves, but it all feels futile when there's not an obvious, large presence of people making the same effort. Again what it's come back to for me is aesthetics: wood toys are prettier than plastic (though I've bought plastic)...glass containers are nice than plastic....I think just about every natural material is nicer than plastic, except when it comes to necessities like trash bags. But we're unlikely to reverse dependency on plastic, just because some people like me find it kind of essentially ugly.

Sweden has such a dedication to converting trash to power:
sweden.se/nature/the-swedish-recycling-revolution/

If we lived there we could have no-guilt glitter.

[Violets]

We could do a lot if things if we lived in Sweden, lol. I'm not keen on plastic containers and don't buy them, but toys...thankfully, my oldest is developing a strong interest in building things with wood, so one of this Christmas presents was a real tool box with tools. Yay! Now what we'll do with all of these Hot Wheels tracks when they're finished with them, that's not fun to think about.

Books are guilt-free, though.