Rose (rosa spp.)

It's fairly easy choosing essential oils that are safe for environmental fragrancing with an aroma lamp or clay diffuser. Just avoid anything really toxic or dangerous (or stinky!). Choosing skin safe oils is quite a bit harder. Essential oils are very complex, concentrated products and many of them can cause irritation or allergies in susceptible individuals. I finally got tired of looking oils up and comparing conflicting information so I've compiled my own lists.

Most good aromatherapy books do have lists of dangerous oils, but few agree, and even fewer explain why the oils are dangerous. The Dangerous Oils page is a list of everything that I could find that's really dangerous or orally toxic. I won't even have the first list of oils on that page around my house because they really have no safe use either in AT, or as a flavoring. The Irritants & Sensitizers page has a compilation of oils that can irritate and/or sensitize when used on the skin and a list of untested oils that should be avoided for now. Many of the oils in the irritants page are NOT suitable for skin use. Finally, I ran across some oils that have only a few scientific studies on them, but few or no adverse reactions listed in the studies. I decided that they're reasonable to try on skin in low dilutions, so I've put them on a Reasonable Oils page.

All of the materials on these pages are essential oils, unless otherwise noted. For the most part, absolutes and CO2 extracts tend to be MORE likely to sensitize and irritate because they contain even more phytochemicals than the essential oils. If an oil is listed as a strong sensitizer or toxin, I personally consider the absolute or CO2 extract to be equally dangerous. Please don't confuse essential oils with herbal extracts either. Essential oils have a completely different makeup than water or ethanol herbal extracts, and there are cases where herbal extracts are safe and the essential oils dangerous.

Since there's no way that I can list every oil, I've also compiled a list of some Safer Oils that are suitable for beginning aromatherapists. The list is called "safer oils" rather than "safe oils" as a reminder that no essential oil is always safe, especially if used undiluted. Additionally, unexpected reactions to oils can appear at any time. I know one aromatherapist who is sensitized to lavender oil, another to manuka, and a third who had a very severe reaction to inhaled clary sage. Please test your diluted oils on a small area of skin to make sure you don't react 24 hours before using the diluted oil on a large area of skin.

Please bookmark this page rather than the oil lists because they may change.