aromatherapy & blending: how?

If you or someone close to you has bought your first essential oil kit, its normal to wonder how to make the oils in front of you feel therapeutic or the blending of their aromas smell good. While this quick post won’t make you an expert aromatherapist, it will help you smell the oils in a way that settles the mind and blend the oils in a way that’s balanced enough to whiff well.

Aromatherapy helps bypass lower levels of consciousness that are focused on whether we like or dislike a smell in order to help you observe the effects the aroma has on your experience of the moment. This helps your nervous system settle down as the slower vibrations of the nose come to the forefront of your sensual experience. In order for your essential oils to be most therapeutic, let's explore not only the scent, but how it changes your personal experience - mind, body and breath.

To fully experience the smell of an oil, check in with your mind (clarity, thought patterns), body (energy levels, feelings, mood), and breath (depth, pacing). Open the oil, hold the nose a couple inches above its opening and breathe in the oil by filling the belly with air like a balloon as you breathe in, breathe out of the mouth. Let go of the abdominals as you breathe into the belly. To deepen this experience, dilute the oil with a carrier oil like olive oil in a 3:1 ratio carrier:essential and place a dab of the blend on both sides of the nostrils. Press firmly here to stimulate acupressure points to awaken the sensual bodies. Explore the smell. After a few breaths, check-in again.

When blending oils, we use the same methods for experience after they’re complete. Creating your balanced blend is far more simple than you think if you use your intuition. For this you divide your oils into three categories: (1) smells that are light and you could smell forever, (2) smells that are moderate and you appreciate, and (3) smells that are intense and fine in small doses. From here you blend in a 3:2:1 ratio, respectively, meaning for every three drops of a light smell, you put in two drops of a moderate smell and one drop of an intense smell. Try not to overthink it, just follow your nose.

This technique is great for beginners because it shows the art of balance in making a scent: a base that’s gentle but soothing, a mid-tone that adds some energy and a high-note that spices it up. Whatever oils you have, play around categorizing them and creating a blend or few. If the intense scent overwhelms you, add a 3:2 ratio of the light and moderate scents to dilute it. Once you create a blend that smells just right, use the sense awakening meditation above to fully experience it.

∞ While we encourage our community to create your own, Uncommon Sense Studio has an aromatherapy line with guided meditations for those looking for more guidance from u.s.