You guys know how much we love our essential oils, they have been the piece of the puzzle that has completed our additive-free lifestyles.

With that in mind, we thought we would do a little Q&A and get Tracey to answer all your questions that we have received of late.

A little disclaimer – we love to use doTERRA essential oils so when we refer to specific oils and blends in this post, this is the brand we are talking about.

So, let’s dive in…

1. Why, after a certain amount of time, can I no longer smell my essential oils when I diffuse them? I can smell them at the start, but then the smell seems to go away…

This happens to everyone and is most commonly known as Olfactory Fatigue.  Your olfactory nerve is responsible for your sense of smell.  After prolonged exposure to odours your normal ability to distinguish them fades to the point where you may be unable to smell them any longer.

For example, if you set your diffuser with a particular oil, or blend of oils, that diffuses over a 10-hour period, you may be able to smell them for a while at the start, but by the end that smells seems to be gone. Then once you leave the area of that odour, your ability to smell is restored with time.

This will happen across all fragrances (not just pure, natural ones). Way back when I used to use commercial perfumes, I used to end up over-spraying myself because I couldn’t smell it.  However, those around me would tell me that I had clearly sprayed too much because it was overpowering.

The same would happen with candles when I used to use them, I would put them on and smell them for a while and then I could no longer smell it, even when it was still burning.

The thing to note with essential oils is that even if you can’t smell them, it doesn’t mean that:

  • others can’t smell them on you if you’re wearing them as a pure-fume, or
  • you aren’t getting the emotional and wellness benefits from them being either diffused or applied topically to your skin.

However, it may also be good to make sure that your diffuser is clean because this can sometimes affect the output and strength of what is being diffused into the air.

But #dontstressit because you will still reap the wellness rewards.

On the flip side of this, mix it up, try diffusing oils you wouldn’t normally, so your olfactory system has something different to smell and focus on.

2. How do I clean my diffuser?

This is really simple!

  • Empty out all the remaining liquid.
  • Wipe out the diffuser with a cloth/paper towel.
  • Add about ½ a cup of white vinegar to the diffuser.
  • Diffuse for about 10-15 minutes or so.
  • Empty out the vinegar and thoroughly wipe it out.
  • Then it’s good to diffuse again.

We like to clean our diffusers once a month (when we remember lol).

3. Should I empty the remaining liquid in the diffuser out before I put new oils in?

In all honesty, we are split on this!

For the most part, Tracey doesn’t empty them because her diffusers all run out of liquid before she re-diffuses anyway, and that little bit of remaining liquid that is left, she just leaves there and adds more water and oils on top.

However, if you are more like Jo, then you can definitely empty that remaining liquid out if you want to.

4. How do I know what oils to diffuse?

Essential oils can be separated into three categories: top, middle, and base notes.  This is particularly notable for creating your own perfume custom blends, but the principle works for creating blends to diffuse as well.

TOP NOTES

These are the first thing you smell and will disappear fairly quickly.  Top notes will make up 5% – 20% of a blend.

Examples of top note essential oils:  basil, bergamot, clary sage, coriander, eucalyptus, grapefruit, lemon, lemongrass, lime, wild orange, peppermint, petitgrain, spearmint, tangerine, tea tree, and wintergreen.

MIDDLE NOTES

Middle notes are the oils you will smell next. Once the top note wears off, the middle note will be the next prominent smell – this can take anywhere from 20 – 60 minutes after application. Middle notes make up around 50% – 80% of the blend.

Examples of middle note essential oils:  black pepper, cardamom, cilantro, cypress, douglas fir, sweet fennel, geranium, juniper berry, lavender, marjoram, melissa, oregano, roman chamomile, rosemary, spikenard, thyme, and siberian fir.

BASE NOTES

Base notes at the aromas you will smell after an hour or two, and they will be the oils that will linger the longest.  They will make up around 5% – 20% of the blend.

Examples of base note essential oils: arborvitae, blue tansy, cassia, cedarwood, cinnamon bark, clove, copaiba, frankincense, ginger, helichrysum, jasmine, myrrh, patchouli, rose, sandalwood, vetiver, and ylang ylang.

doTERRA has a whole page dedicated to this which you can find HERE.

Whilst this is good to know, we often find that we use our intuition and go with what really stands out to us on any given day. This has been the best way to find combinations of oils we love.  There has been many a time that we have intuitively picked an oil to diffuse and when researching the oils emotional properties, we have found our intuition has selected just what we needed on that day.

So, we would suggest going with your favourites, and outside of that, get creative and use the top, middle, and base notes above as a guide when blending your own.

DIFFUSING FOR SPECIFIC ISSUES

If you have a specific ailment or emotional issue (ie. stress or anxiety) going on within your home, then there are some really great essential oils to support them.

Here’s some ideas of oils we use for a few different things…

Stress/anxiety: frankincense, adaptiv blend, lemon, siberian fir, calmer blend, lavender, lavender, peace blend, vetiver, balance blend.

Lurgies in the home: on guard blend, eucalyptus, douglas fir, easy air blend.

There really is an essential oil option for every issue!

KNOWING WHAT ESSENTIAL OILS TO DIFFUSE TOGETHER

We were taught this method early on, and that if you are wanting to diffuse a combination of oils together, get the bottles out and hold them all together in your hands and move them around in a circle under your nose so you can get an idea of what they smell like together.

You may find that one oil is quite overpowering to the others.  If you find this, lower that strong oil down in your hands a little so that the other oil/s are sitting higher in your hand, thus closer to your nose, with the other overpowering oil slightly further away, and then, again, move them around in a circle under your nose to get an idea of how that smells.

This will give you an idea of whether you should be putting equal amounts of each oil in the diffuser together, or whether you need to reduce the amount of one oil over the others.

If you use this method in conjunction with knowing the top, middle, and base notes as detailed above, you will be all set to create blends you’ll love.

5. What if you have multiple diffusers in the home… Should you put the same blend in each one? Or can you mix it up and have different blends going throughout the house?

We generally don’t have the same blend going in all diffusers throughout the house because we like to diffuse based on the zones of the house the diffusers are in.  For example…

BEDROOMS

These will have sleep promoting oils in them because we generally only diffuse oils in bedrooms when we’re needing to either calm down or get to sleep.  For kids bedrooms, it can be great to have the diffuser going with really calming oils ½ hour before they get home from school to help calm their moods and minds after a full-on day of learning and socialising.

MAIN LIVING AREAS AND KITCHEN

During the morning we would most likely diffuse uplifting/motivating oils, such as citrus oils, to get us going for the day and then switch that around in the evening and diffuse calming/sleep promoting oils.

But generally speaking, we go with whatever we want each day and have different blends in all our diffusers because as we move through the day and move through the different rooms of our house, we are getting the benefits of the oils in each different diffuser.

Having said that, if you are someone who prefers the same smell, then go with the same blend in all diffusers when they are running together.  It’s up to you.

That’s it for our diffusing Q&A for now.  If you have any further questions you want answered, then email us at info@additivefreelifestyle.com or hit us up in our DM’s over on Instagram or Facebook and we will answer them here to keep this informative blog post going.

Much love,
Jo & Tracey x