Hello! This blog post is a continuation of last week when I was answering questions about diffusing in general and I said that we would start this week with the question........
Can I diffuse essential oils if there are pets in the house?
So this answer is about diffusing only, not using the oils directly on pets, I’ll cover that in a different Q&A. So, yes you can diffuse essential oils if there are pets in the house. However, some animals are sensitive to essential oils and some, especially cats, do not have the necessary enzymes in their liver to process essential oils high in phenols (found in such oils as Clove), and terpenes - found in Tea Tree and citrus oils. You also need to ask yourself another question in this regard and that is what chemicals are being used in the house already that could be more harmful than essential oils – hairspray, bleach, harsh cleaning materials, perfumed candles, plug ins? – all of these will do you pets, and you, more harm that the essential oils from a water based diffuser could ever do! So if they have survived years of chemicals, a diffuser will do no harm.
Here is a picture of Sasha - my cat who is over 20 years old (pictured May, 2020) and has lived her whole life with essential oils diffusing in every room of the house! Just make sure there is an escape route for your pet – so leave the door open so they can leave and go into another room if they wish.
Is it okay to diffuse two blends at the same time – for example Thieves and RC?
Each of these blends were blended for a specific reason – so if you mix two blends together you ae getting a watered down effect from using them alone – does that make sense? Do you are not getting the full benefits of Thieves as you’ve mixed it with something else, and therefore changed the synergy of the blend, and you’re not getting the full benefit of the RC as you’ve mixed it with something else again changing the synergy – so I would strongly recommend you use the blends alone – the YL blends already contain sometimes up to 10 single oils – that’s enough! If you feel you absolutely have to add another oil, then I would choose one that is already in the blend so for Thieves, you could add a further drop of lemon for example, or for RC you could add a further drop of lavender for example.
Can I put my diffuser on natural wood table? It’s a common mistake and many of us have put our diffusers onto a wooden table because in time when the water and oil droplets lands on the table it will leave a mark where the diffuser has been. A way around this is to buy a clear glass chopping board and put your diffuser on that, to the clear glass isn’t taking away any of the beauty of the table – but it’s protecting it.
An interesting fact that I’ve encountered many times in the past, is that I’ve introduced 100% pure essential oils into someone’s life, and they have said ‘oh, I’ll use my other oils up in the diffuser’ - NOOOOOO - the diffuser isn’t just to make the room smell nice, you are actually breathing in the tiny molecules of essential oil that the diffuser is putting into the air – so any non pure essential oils should definitely not be ‘used up’ in the diffuser – I would recommend you ‘use them up’ in cleaning products.
Watch my IGTV Video on this topic here
Hello! This is Part 1 of a 2 part Blog post! Here are the first 3 FAQs
How many drops of essential oil should I use in my diffuser?
I wish I could just give you a number, but it’s not that simple! It depends on many things - the size of your diffuser, how much water you put in the well of your diffuser, the size of your room you are diffusing in and for the person or people you’re diffusing for.
As a rule of thumb use 1-4 drops per 100ml of water! so the Desert Mist diffuser holds 200mls of water in its well so you could use a maximum of 8 drops if you filled the well up to its maximum level – and a diffuser with this size well is ideal for a room of about 10’ x 10’ or 3 x 3 meters. The 'Feathers the Owl' diffuser shown on the right also holds 200mls of water in it's water well.
You would also need to consider the essential oil – so if you chose Geranium, you would choose the lesser amount of drops as Geranium is very overpowering for a small room, but if you chose Lavender or Frankincense you could choose the maximum amount of drops as lavender and Frankincense aren’t anywhere near as overpowering as Geranium.
Another consideration is the age of the recipient – if you are diffusing for a child or a senior and the diffuser is next to their bed, you could choose the smaller number of drops if the purpose of diffusing were for a calming atmosphere, or you may choose a higher number of drops (still within the 1 – 4 per 100ms of water) if you were diffusing to stay alert.
I want to use both Orange & Cedarwood in my diffuser – should I put them in the water separately or mix them together first?
When you choose to diffuse a combination of singles say Orange & Cedarwood in this example– the choice is yours - some people put 2 drops of Cedarwood and then 2 drops of Orange separately into the diffuser well – this is okay but you are not getting the real synergistic effect of these two oils - in my opinion, it would be more beneficial to blend the orange and Cedarwood together first, then add your drops of that blend into the diffuser well. - Once you find a blend you love – you could make a batch bottle – so in a 5ml bottle – that holds approximately 100 drops – you could put 40 drops of Cedarwood and 60 drops of orange (or whatever combination you like) then drop the number of drops you want to use in the diffuser – so 2 – 8 drops of this blend of two oils into your 200mls of water for the Desert Mist diffuser.
I have a blend like this using Orange and Cedarwood - I call it my Christmas Blend and use it all year round. So if you were using 8 drops of this blend in your diffuser, your 5mls bottle that contains approximately 100 drops would be good for about 12 diffusing sessions (that’s 96 drops! If you are checking my maths!).
Do I really need to clean my diffuser? Yes, you really do! And it only takes a few seconds. It’s all in the instruction book you received with your diffuser (your guarantee could be invalid if you don’t follow the instructions) - which state that the only substance you can use to clean your diffuser is rubbing alcohol. and should be cleaned every time you change the essential oil.
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