Turn your bath into a spa with these essential oils that’ll calm your nerves with a daily soak!
At the end of a long day, there’s nothing quite like unwinding and easing tired muscles, while cleansing away the day’s build-up of dirt, stress, and fatigue. What better way to achieve this than with a soothing bath? But it’s not just about getting clean. Baths can be deeply therapeutic, flushing out toxins, relaxing muscles, enhancing sleep quality, and improving circulation. And when you add aromatherapy into the mix, you elevate your bath to a spa-like experience, enriching the benefits with the soothing power of essential oils.
Why Add Essential Oils To A Bath?
Using essential oils in your bath is more than enjoying a fragrant soak; it’s a deeply therapeutic practice that enhances your overall well-being. When you add these natural extracts to warm bathwater, they promote relaxation and stress relief.
The warmth of the water helps release the therapeutic properties of the oils, which you breathe in and absorb through your skin. This not only eases mental tension but also nourishes and softens your skin, providing a holistic approach to relaxation and self-care.
Essential oils to add to your bath
Again, choosing the right essential oil is a very important part of your bath, of course, and an integral part of the experience as well. While you can definitely choose to do something eccentric for your mornings, you will be way more pleased and relaxed while enjoying this spa-like experience in the evenings or weekends. Here, we will share some of the best essential oils to help turn your bath into a spa.
1) Lavender Essential Oil
To relieve stress and anxiety, you could use lavender oil in your bath, which is known for its sedative and relaxing properties, helping you deal with stress, anxiety, depression, headaches, and migraines. It can also improve your quality of sleep, helping alleviate symptoms of insomnia.
Besides that, the antibacterial and antimicrobial properties of lavender oil can mean great things for your skin, refreshing your skin and relieving chapped lips, and it could also improve blood circulation. Enjoy life’s little luxuries with a lavender-infused bath!
2) Jasmine Essential Oil
Next, we have jasmine essential oil, whose primary properties resemble lavender essential oil. But there’s more to Jasmine! Besides alleviating stress and anxiety and promoting sleep, jasmine essential oil in your bath can act like a skin toner, as it is known to reduce redness and inflammation.
It is also said to be great for acne-prone skin, as it acts like an astringent and helps tighten pores. Its anti-inflammatory and anti-spasmodic can aid in providing relief to coughs and sore throats.
3) Rose Essential Oil
Though you might love inhaling the scent of rose essential oil and might be using it in your bath only for that reason, this essential oil packs in a range of benefits! Not only does it signal to your brain the release of endorphins for increased well-being, but it also has medicinal properties to alleviate symptoms of cough, cold, and laryngitis.
Not to mention its quality of being mild and gentle on most skin types, especially on dry skin. Plus, its antiseptic, bactericidal, and anti-inflammatory properties act as a valuable remedy for inflammation and irritation, including eczema and allergic rashes.
4) Eucalyptus Essential Oil
Eucalyptus, with its crisp, strong scent, has many amazing qualities that you would love to experience in a bath. Firstly, its antiseptic properties help relieve congestion in your nose and chest, so if you’re feeling a little under the weather, don’t be afraid to add eucalyptus oil to your bathwater!
Besides that, it is also great for soothing irritated skin, relieving pain, protecting against infection, and also relieving sore muscles, thanks to its anti-inflammatory properties. Its antiseptic properties are perfect for getting rid of toxins in your body.
5) Peppermint Essential Oil
Exquisite, invigorating fragrance might be a good introduction to peppermint essential oil, but there is so much more to it than just the scent! The fragrance of the peppermint essential oil itself can boost your energy, relieving fatigue and drowsiness while also aiding in focus and concentration.
Plus, it also helps clear up your respiratory tract and releases muscle tightness. Like other oils in this list, peppermint oil too has anti-inflammatory properties that help soothe pain, redness, inflammation, aches, and even digestive discomfort.
In a bath, when it comes in contact with your skin, you can gently massage it in as it can help close pores and tighten skin. Plus, its simultaneous cooling and warming sensation on the skin makes it an effective numbing agent.
6) Lemon Essential Oil
The perfect essential oil to positively breathe life into you after a long, tiring day is the lemon essential oil, which not only helps alleviate anxiety but also helps you get out of the haze of a long work day, improving mental clarity.
Plus, the ‘zing’ of the lemon essential oil is the perfect stimulant that additionally detoxifies, disinfects and helps with insomnia as well. Since it helps relieve stress, it, in turn, boosts immunity, preventing fevers and infections.
Last but not least, the lemon essential oil is also an anti-fungal oil that soothes irritations, rejuvenates your skin, increases skin luster, and reduces excessive oil.
7) Sweet Orange Oil
One of the best essential oils to start your day with is sweet orange oil, which is zesty and can get you in the right frame of mind for work. With this oil, your body will be positively charged with a sense of upliftment, cheerfulness, and peace.
Not to mention its excellent properties in helping reduce stress, anxiety, anger, and depression, sweet orange oil in your morning bath also relaxes muscles while helping you get more alert for the day. Lastly, sweet orange oil is an excellent one to battle fungal infections and inhibit the growth of further bacterial growth in wounds.
Now that we have discussed the essential oils that can turn your bath into a haven of relaxation let us tell you about the essential oils that can rejuvenate you and give you that much-needed boost of energy to start your day.
Other essential oils that you can choose to include in your bath time schedule to ensure a positive spa-like experience right at home include:
- Citrus oils like grapefruit and bergamot
- chamomile
- geranium
- sandalwood
- frankincense
- ylang ylang
Make your Own Essential Oil Mix for a Spa-Like Bath
Create a more enriching bath experience by mixing two or more types of essential oils together. Of course, you must never forget the rule of diluting your essential oils with a carrier oil. This is necessary because oil floats in water, and as it comes into contact with your skin, it can cause irritation or other adverse reactions.
Hence, the Tisserand Institute recommends using essential oils in your bath at a dilution rate of 1 to 4 percent. For a bath, you can blend 5 to 20 drops of essential oil with one tablespoon of any carrier oil that you pick.
You can choose from any carrier oil from this list of options:
- grapeseed
- jojoba
- almond
- argan
You can add your essential oil blend just before you get into your bath and mix them at the end. This would prevent the oils from evaporating too quickly. While in the bath, you can start to rub the oil blend onto your skin, especially the droplets. This will allow the oils to penetrate your skin better so that you can reap maximum benefits.
Here are the top three essential oil blends you must try out during bathtime.
1) Eucalyptus Blend For Rejuvenation
- For this blend, add 15 drops of eucalyptus essential oil, 10 drops each of peppermint and sweet orange essential oils, 5 drops each of rosemary and tea tree essential oils, and 125 ml of carrier oil like jojoba or apricot kernel oil to a dark glass bottle.
- Shake the bottle to ensure all the oils are mixed thoroughly.
- Add 1 tablespoon or 5 drops of this blend to warm bath water. This blend is an excellent relaxing blend if you want to relieve soreness in your muscles, especially in your chest, bath, and feet.
- Lastly, store the remaining blend in a cool, dark place and not in a humid bathroom.
2) Eucalyptus Bath Blend For Immunity
- Add to a glass bottle and mix 5 drops each of eucalyptus and lemon essential oils, 2 drops each of tea tree and pine essential oils, and 2 tablespoons of virgin coconut oil as a carrier oil.
- Shake the glass bottle and add 1 tablespoon or 5 drops of the oil blend to warm bath water. This blend can not only help relieve stress, anxiety, and muscle soreness after a long, hard day but also boost your immunity
- Store the unused blend in a cool, dark place outside of the humid bathroom.
3) Best Essential Oil Blend For Insomnia
- Add to a glass bottle and mix 3 drops each of jasmine and ylang-ylang essential oils, 2 drops each of neroli essential oils, and 1 tablespoon of grapeseed oil as a carrier oil.
- Shake the glass bottle and add 1 tablespoon or 5 drops of the oil blend to warm bath water. If you find yourself tossing and turning all night with sleep evading you, prepare yourself this jasmine essential oil blend and add it to your bath. It will calm your mind and nerves, thus inducing good sleep.
- Store the unused blend in a cool, dark place outside of the humid bathroom.
Do’s and Don’ts of Adding Essential Oils to Your Bath
The first thing to remember is to find a reputable brand that sells pure, good-quality essential oils. Any substitute or poor-quality oil would not reap the same benefits as the original ones. After you find the best essential oil, here are a few tips you must remember:
1) Avoid using essential oils if you have broken skin that is irritated, inflamed, or scratched.
2) If you use citrus oils, be careful of their reaction with sunlight, which can cause photosensitivity. The best thing to do is to avoid direct exposure to sunlight after using any citrus oil.
3) Since essential oils are quite concentrated, they may cause adverse allergic reactions. This is why it is imperative that you do a patch test, especially if you are using essential oils for the first time. Apply a small amount of oil to the inside of your forearm and wait for 24 hours to gauge any reactions that might occur.
4) To follow up on the previous point, you must always dilute the concentrated essential oils. You should use carrier oils, especially before topical use.
5) Before using essential oils in your bath, you must consult your dermatologist or a certified aromatherapy practitioner if you have any health concerns or skin disorders or take medications that could interact with them.
6) Avoid using essential oils if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. Children under the age of 12 must use essential oils with caution and under parental guidance, not before consulting a healthcare professional.