Day 5: Concoctions for Massage Bottles

12 days of Christmas Crafting: Creating Aromatic Gifts with Essential Oils

Easily one of my favorite types of blending is creating concoctions for co-workers, friends, and family in our little 1 oz massage bottles.  Perfect for storing in the fridge or setting on a bedside table, our PET plastic bottles provide a sensible solution for diluted massage-on blends.  It doesn’t just have to be about massage per se, therapeutic blends for ankle or joint pain, bug bites, skincare and nearly anything you can think of will work well in these.

Cobalt or Clear PET one ounce bottles

Our favorite carrier oil for massage blends is Fractionated Coconut Oil for several reasons.  It has the longest shelf life of any of our carrier oils, it has wonderful "slip" for a massage, and it totally washes out of towels, sheets, etc. This makes it our massage base of choice, but you could always use some of our more luxurious facial oils to create a truly luxury blend for facial massages.

You can always refer back to Marge’s handy blending/dilution chart to help with the numbers.  Basically, since these are 1 oz bottles, you will be dealing with 1 oz of carrier or vegetable oil, and select an appropriate dilution from 1-5% for the essential oil or oils.

Normal dilution for a full body massage is 2 to 2.5%, 15 drops of essential oil or synergistic blend to 1 oz carrier oil.

As an extreme example, if you were blending potent and powerful Arnica CO2, it is recommended for use at one half of one percent.  One percent of 1 oz (30 ml) is six drops.  One half of one percent is merely three drops!  This is a good reminder about the less is more rule in aromatherapy.  Some oils should be used with extra special caution.  While Arnica is excellent for joint pain and bruising, our CO2 extraction is quite powerful and deserves respect.  We’ve found a blend of our Arnica Massage Oil (pre-blended) and Helichrysum to be especially helpful with this type of pain.  I personally add Kunzea Ambigua into the mix for its analgesic properties.

Simple helpful blends include:

2.5% facial oil blend for dry winter skin: 15 drops essential oil of Carrot Seed, Neroli, or Geranium to a 1 oz carrier oil such as White Camellia, Squalane, or Avocado.  Our skincare tips page has tons of information about which oils to use for skin types.

A 10% women’s blend I created for painful menses or periods is:Lavandin Grosso 20 drops, German Chamomile Steam Distilled 20 drops, Peppermint Organic 10 drops, Sweet Marjoram 10 drops in 1 oz Evening Primrose Oil.  (Note: I don’t tolerate Clary Sage well, but it would be a good addition to any blend of this type.)

HINT:  Pouring a full 5 ml bottle of one of our Anointing Oils into one of the 30 ml bottles and "topping off" with Fractionated Coconut will give a 1.67% dilution. Quite strong enough for a full body or back massage with some of our luxury blends.

There’s a bit of fun and creativity to blending for massage.  I’ve made blends for Bug Bites (became our After the Bite), anxiety, joint pain, cramps, viral issues, and many others. It is truly a matter of researching which oils are best for each situation and always considering any pertinent safety information plus sensitivities or allergies of the individual for which you are blending.

We offer a package of three 1 oz clear or cobalt blue PET massage bottles  for your creations or if you prefer, simply using them to rebottle a favorite carrier or facial oil to share with others.

A 20% discount is available on our one ounce PET clear bottles with disk lids, and cobalt bottles with treatment pumps and on our Fractionated Coconut Oil until October 12^th.  Enter the promotional code craft5 at checkout, and press apply to see your 20% discount. I’ll be back tomorrow with another aromatherapy Christmas crafting idea.