Essential oils are more than just fragrant liquids that smell fabulous and evaporate when left open. There is much natural medicinal and curative power inside them that has been used since ages for good health and hygiene. One wonderful application of essential oils is to use them for purifying, cleaning, and disinfecting spaces and surfaces. Let’s know more about how to use essential oils as antimicrobial active.
The ongoing Corona pandemic has reinforced the absolute necessity of keeping living spaces clean, hygienic, and germ-free. We are also realizing that cleanliness is more than just the absence of visible dirt and grime. It also means surfaces free of microbes that can cause infections if we touch them and then carry hands with germs anywhere close to the face. These microbes – or micro-sized infecting and disease-causing pathogens – can be viruses, bacteria or fungi mainly.
Now with more and more people staying in and working from home (WFH) to comply with social distancing needs, it is all the more imperative that homes be cleansed effectively on a regular basis. This includes surfaces, floors, doors, furnitures, and even the air that circulates inside the home. Essential oils are a good and natural way to achieve these cleaning objectives.
What are essential oils?
Essential oils are not fatty seed oils that are extracted by cold pressing seeds or nuts. These are instead naturally occurring volatile and aromatic compounds found inside plants and their parts – roots, stem, leaves, flowers, bark, buds, grasses etc. These carry the plant’s characteristic fragrance, contain the most active physiological properties, and represent the essence of the plant. Hence, these are called essential oils. These are sometimes also called ‘the prana or the life force’ of plants. In living plants, these act as hormones for growth and reproduction, as pheromones for attracting pollinating insects, as defense mechanisms for saving the plants from microbial infections. These essential oils can be distilled and bottled.
When we use bottled essential oils, we put these anti-infection, antiseptic, antimicrobial qualities to use for our benefit.
Essential oils & aromatherapy
Essential oils are called ‘nature’s own pharmacy’ because of their natural healing goodness and therapeutic qualities. There is a whole alternative therapy named ‘aromatherapy’ that treats physical and mental ailments using essential oils.
Essential oils vs aroma/aromatherapy oil
Aromatherapy oils are usually a blend of a large amount of vegetable oil with a small amount of essential oil. These can often contain synthetic, lab-made fragrant chemicals with none of the natural healing power of the pure essential oils. Remember, pure essential oils are 100% essential oils, no dilutions, no synthetic additives.
Some recommended essential oils for antimicrobial cleaning support
In this article, we are mainly focusing on essential oils that can be used for purifying and cleaning for their antimicrobial strength. Here are some key essential oils that you can use:
Citronella Essential Oil - Steam distilled from citronella grass, this essential oil has a refreshing lemony-grassy scent that’s good at repelling creepy-crawlies and flying bugs too. Often used to check the spread of malaria-causing mosquitoes, citronella essential oil has anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and antiseptic qualities as well.
Good for adding to soaps, sanitizers, liquid detergents, homemade room sprays, and surface wipes.
Eucalyptus Essential Oil - Made by steam distilling leaves of the eucalyptus tree, this essential oil has a woody and camphor-like fragrance. An excellent decongestant, its vapors bring relief in cold, cough, asthma, and bronchitis.
Good for room purification and decongestant vapourization. Also works well for adding to personal bath and body products.
Lemon Essential Oil - Made by cold expressing lemon peels, the lemon essential oil has a fresh and zesty fragrance with germicidal and antiseptic that makes it a useful addition to home care and personal care products.
Good for adding to soaps, sanitizers, liquid detergents, homemade room sprays, and surface wipes. Also works well for adding to personal bath and body products.
Lemongrass Essential Oil - Made by steam distillation of lemongrass blades, the lemongrass essential oil has a lemony fragrance with warm grassy-woody hints. Its strong antimicrobial and insecticidal properties make it a par excellence additive to cleaners and soaps.
Good for adding to soaps, sanitizers, liquid detergents, homemade room sprays, and surface wipes.
Sweet Orange Essential Oil - Made by cold expression of orange peels, this warm, tangy, and fruity-smelling essential oil is believed to boost immunity. As a good antiseptic, it is added to home cleansers.
Good for adding to soaps, sanitizers, liquid detergents, homemade room sprays, and surface wipes. Also works well for adding to personal bath and body products.
Peppermint Essential Oil - Made by steam distillation of peppermint leaves, this has a sharp minty and cool smell that helps ease cold and cough. A popular and safe lozenge ingredient, it is recommended for breathing relief.
Good for room purification and decongestant vapourization. Also works well for adding to personal bath and body products.
Basil Essential Oil - Made by steam distillation of basil leaves, this sweet-spicy, and the herby-woody fragrant essential oil is very useful for relieving stress, headaches, joint pains, cold, cough, asthma, bronchitis, and sinusitis.
Good for room purification and decongestant vapourization. Also works well for adding to personal bath and body products.
Cedarwood Essential Oil - Made by steam distillation of cedarwood twigs, cedarwood essential oil has a mildly sweet, warm, and woody fragrance that is excellent for purifying the environment and decongesting breathing issues.
Good for room purification and decongestant vapourization. Also works well for adding to personal bath and body products.
Lavender Essential Oil- Made by steam distillation of lavender blossoms, this incomparable essential oil is prized for its soothing, calming, and disinfecting strength. This is an antibacterial heavyweight essential oil that is gentle enough to be used even without dilution.
Good for adding to personal bath and body products. Also recommended for room vapourization. Good for phone disinfectant.
Tea Tree Essential Oil- A safe and gentle essential oil from Australia. Native Australians (the Aborigines) have used tea trees for thousands of years to heal skin ailments, infections, chest congestion, and sore throats. Made by steam distillation of leaves of the tea tree, a tree species native to Australia, it has remarkable antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal qualities that make it a must-have for your self-care cabinet.
Good for adding to personal bath and body products. Also recommended for room vapourization and surface cleaners. Good for phone disinfectant.
How to use essential oils for cleaning and purifying
- Vaporize them: Use a steam vaporizer or an electric one. Diffuse 2-3 drops to get a lovely room fragrance with a purifying effect.
- Spritz them: Blend 10-12 drops in a spray bottle filled with water. Shake well and spritz all around for a fragrant and insect-repelling environment.
- Add to home cleaners: Add 2-3 drops per 1tbs cleaner of choice – detergent, soap, tile cleaner – to enhance the disinfectant power of your cleaners.
- Add to sanitizers: Add 3-4 drops per 10 ml to the sanitizer bottle. Shake well and use it as usual.
- Add to hand wash/face wash/ body wash/ shower gel: Add 3 drops per 10 ml wash formula to increase antimicrobial strength of your bath and body product.
- Phone disinfection: Blend 1 tbsp white vinegar, 1 tbsp distilled water and 8 drops lavender essential oil. Spray on a cleaning cloth and wipe the phone gently.
Essential oil do’s and don’ts
Always store your essential oils in original dark bottles in a cool dark place away from sunlight. Never keep uncapped. Never use undiluted. Always use in recommended quantities and adequately diluted. Always read the instructions on the essential oil package and use it accordingly.
Buying pure essential oils
Always buy from a reputed and trustworthy seller who will not compromise on their professional integrity and sell you spurious or adulterated or diluted oil on the sly. Secondly, read the fine print on the label. Does it say, 100% pure essential oil? If it doesn’t, it is not worth your money or time or health. Remember, synthetic oils may have a fragrance similar to the genuine essential oil but they will never have the goodness of the real thing. Also, check the prices. A quality seller will never have rock bottom rates. Plus, genuine essential oils are never sold in clear bottles.
If you are looking for pure, undiluted, and premium quality essential oils to keep your spaces clean and purified, look no further than WOW Skin Science Range of Essential Oils.