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By Judith Yamada, Kitchen Maven
As a Certified Aroma-therapist, I’ve been using essential oils for years, and have watched them become increasingly popular for use in diffusers, for creating natural personal scents and even for natural cleaning uses. Sometimes oils that pose as essential oils may be partly essential oil cut with vegetable oils or solvents or they may be labeled as a rare and therefore expensive essential oil (such as rose) and be cut with a cheaper essential oil (such as bergamot). A simple test can help you distinguish whether your essential oils are pure. Determining if they’re really what you purchased, may be more difficult. Therefore, it’s important to research and know your source.
Here’s the test: Put a few sample drops of your oils on a blotting paper. Pure essential oils will not leave any residue once they have evaporated. Petroleum solvents will.
And if you’d like to try your essential oils in some natural easy to prepare, cleaning products, check out the recipes below. Happy cleaning!
Homemade Soft Scrubber
1/2-cup baking soda
Liquid Castile Soap
5 drops Lavender essential oil and/or 5 drops Tea Tree essential oil
Place the baking soda in a bowl. Slowly pour in liquid soap stirring constantly, add liquid soap until the consistency resembles frosting. Add the essential oil (oils) if desired. Scoop the creamy mixture onto a sponge; scrub the surface, and then rinse.
If you add a little pure vegetable glycerin to the baking soda, the mixture will stay moist for a long time in a jar with a tight lid.
Kitchen Deodorizer
In a spray bottle, combine 4 ounces of filtered water with 20 drops lime essential oil, 10 drops cedar wood essential oil, and 5 drops eucalyptus essential oil.
Kitchen Surface Cleaner
For a final rinse, combine 2 pints filtered water with 5 drops bergamot essential oil, 3 drops lemon essential oil, 1 drop eucalyptus essential oil, and 1 drop thyme essential oil.
Kitchen Floor Cleaner
For a final rinse, combine 2 pints filtered water with 4 drops pine essential oil, 3 drops lemon essential oil, and 2 drops niaouli essential oil.
Also, when wiping down surfaces, you can add just a few drops of lemon essential oil to your sponge or cloth.
