Essential Oil

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Essential Oils 

Essential oils are strong, fragrant extracts from plants that are used to make natural perfumes, skincare products, diffuser blends, candles, and other home goods. YouWish has a carefully chosen selection of essential oils made from natural plant materials that can help you relax, feel better, and smell great.

Whether you want to buy essential oil for candle making, organic skincare, aromatherapy or soap crafting, we offer high quality essential oil options suitable for beginners and experienced makers alike.

What Makes Essential Oils Unique?

Essential oils come straight from plants, like flowers, leaves, fruit peels, roots, seeds, and resins. Fragrance oils, on the other hand, make scents artificially. Each pure essential oil has its own unique smell, which is usually similar to a single plant profile, like lavender, pine, eucalyptus, or lemon.

Essential oils are very strong, so you don’t need much of them. Because they are very strong, you should always dilute them properly. But this also makes them great for getting a strong scent from a small amount. Many manufacturers also like natural essential oil and organic essential oil because they fit with a philosophy of making products that are cleaner and more inspired by nature.

Types of Essential Oils

Not all essential oils are the same. The smell, strength, and even color of these oils can change depending on where they come from and how they are extracted. This natural difference is what makes each natural essential oil feel real and different.

By plant part

You can get essential oils from different parts of a plant:

  • The leaves and needles of eucalyptus, tea tree, and pine trees often smell fresh, herbal, or like camphor.
  • Lavender, ylang ylang, and geranium flowers are usually soft, floral, and soothing.
  • Lemon, orange, and grapefruit peels are bright, shiny, and make you feel good.
  • Roots, wood, and resins like cedarwood, patchouli, and frankincense usually give blends deep, earthy base notes that hold them together.

Essential oils behave differently in candles, soap, and essential oil perfume blends because each part of the plant has a different mix of aromatic molecules.

By extraction method

The majority of essential oils are extracted through steam distillation, a method that releases volatile aromatic compounds without damaging the plant material. Cold pressing the peel is a common way to make citrus oils. This makes zesty, photoreactive oils that are often used in candle essential oil blends and diffuser mixes.

These methods change the smell of a pure essential oil by making it smell “clean” and stable. For instance, steam-distilled lavender may feel softer than a stronger absolute, and cold-pressed citrus oils may smell very bright but be more sensitive to light and heat.

By plant species and origin

Essential oils can be different from each other even if they have the same name. Lavender from one area may be softer and more herbal, while lavender from another area may be sharper and more camphorous. The smell of lemongrass from Madagascar may differ slightly from that of lemongrass from another region, as the soil, climate, and altitude all impact its composition.

For makers, this means that high quality essential oil selection is not just about the plant name, but also about the source. Choosing organic essential oils or region-specific lots can help you develop a consistent signature scent in your essential oil perfume fragrance or soap line.

Benefits of Using Essential Oils

Essential oils are great for DIY projects, especially if you want to use natural scents.

Some key benefits include:

  • Natural origin: Extracted directly from plants for an authentic botanical profile.
  • Versatile use: Suitable for essential oil for soap, candle essential oil, diffusers, and sprays.
  • Layerable: You can blend multiple essential oils to build your own essential oil perfume.
  • Organic options: Our organic essential oil range is ideal if you prefer organic ingredients.
  • Sensory experience: From calming lavender to energising citrus, each pure essential oil supports a different mood.

If you prefer formulations with fewer synthetic components, natural essential oil collections fit perfectly into your DIY philosophy.

Highlight Features of Our Essential Oils

  • Carefully selected, high quality essential oils: We choose only the best essential oils with consistent aroma profiles so that your soap, candles, and essential oil perfume smell just the way you want them to.
  • Organic Essential Oil Options: We have organic essential oil options in popular scents for makers who care about getting their oils from organic sources. These are great for natural skin care, wellness blends, and projects that use aromatherapy in a gentle way.
  • Great for many uses: You can use our essential oils in many different DIY recipes, such as for soap, candles, diffusers, fragrance lamps, room sprays, and personal perfumes.
  • Documentation and usage guidance: We make sure that our usage recommendations follow IFRA guidelines whenever possible. This helps you work safely when you want to make candles, cold process soap, or essential oil spray.
  • Wholesale availability: Do you need more than one batch? Our essential oils wholesale are great for small businesses and regular makers who need a steady supply of high-quality oils.

We have a wide range of botanical categories, including citrus, herbal, floral, spicy, and wood-style, so you can use essential oils in any project.

How to Use Essential Oils in DIY Projects

Essential oils are concentrated plant extracts, so it’s important to follow the right dilution and percentage rules for each use. Depending on whether the essential oil will touch the skin, be heated in candles, or be spread out in the air, IFRA percentages help find the highest safe levels. These rules help manufacturers make products that are safe and fun to use while making sure that each pure essential oil is used in the right way.

Common applications

You can use Essential Oils in:

Always read the label on skin-contact products to see how much you should use. Also, remember that some oils may have extra safety warnings, like phototoxicity in some citrus varieties. A small test batch lets you see how each natural essential oil works before you make a lot of it.

How to create your first blend

The first step in making your own blend is to try out different top, middle, and base combinations. Choose one essential oil that you really like, then add a second note that goes well with it instead of overpowering it. Finally, add a grounding base note. As time goes on, you’ll learn how different essential oils work together, change, and last on skin or in candles.

For step-by-step guidance, follow our blog: How to Create Your Own Fragrance Using Essential Oil

When to Use Fragrance Oils vs Essential Oils

Essential oils have a natural smell because they come from plants. This makes them act a little differently when you’re crafting, especially when compared to fragrance oil based or multi-layered scent compositions. Knowing these differences helps you choose the right oil for your project and the mood you want to create.

Key things to know about Essential Oils in crafting

  • Natural aroma identity: Essential oils usually have a single plant scent, like lavender, eucalyptus, or citrus peel. This is different from the layered perfume structure you might find in formulated blends.
  • Botanical variation: The smell of each natural essential oil is different because it comes from a different plant species, grows in a different area, and is extracted in a different way.
  • Behavior in heat and curing: Some essential oils, especially citrus and herbs, can become less strong when they are heated or left to cure for a long time. Notes of wood, spice, or resin usually stay stronger.
  • Longevity and style: Essential oils make things change in a more natural, softer way over time. They are a great choice if you want a natural smell instead of a strong perfume-like smell.
  • Project preference: People who like aromatherapy-style products, botanical body care, diffuser blends, or natural essential oil perfumes tend to like essential oils because they are made from plants.

We have explained everything step by step here if you want to see a more in-depth comparison, including how certain oils act in soap and candle bases, Fragrance Oils versus Essential Oils: What’s the Difference When Making Soap and Candles.

How to Choose the Right Essential Oils

The best essential oils for your project will depend on how you want to use them and the mood you want to set.

For soap making: look for essential oils that are labeled as “cold process soap essential oil” or “melt and pour essential oil.” More tests are done on these options to see how stable they are in alkaline environments and at high temperatures. Oils that smell like lavender, patchouli, or rosemary, which are more earthy, herbal, and resinous, usually last longer in soap than oils that smell like citrus.

For candles: When choosing candle essential oil, look for oils that can handle heat without losing their smell too quickly. Essential oils with wood, spice, or herbs as base notes often work well. You can add citrus or floral oils in small amounts to give the scent a lift.

For diffusers and fragrance lamps: You can choose diffuser essential oil and fragrance lamp essential oil based mostly on how they smell, since they aren’t put directly on the skin. People here like fresh, clean scents like eucalyptus, peppermint, citrus, and pine.

For perfumes and sprays: When making an essential oil perfume, think about the top, middle, and base notes. Citrus oils make lively top notes, florals make the heart, and wood or resins make the base last a long time. 

Understanding Essential Oil Notes

When using essential oils, the scent isn’t just about the oil itself; it’s also about how it changes over time. Essential Oil notes describe how quickly an aroma appears, how long it stays noticeable and how it interacts with other oils in a blend.

  • Top notes are usually light and fresh, such as citrus or eucalyptus. They are the first scents you notice, but they fade more quickly.
  • Middle notes form the heart of a blend.  Essential oils from flowers and herbs, like lavender and rosemary, often sit here and add balance and softness.
  • Base notes are deeper and longer-lasting.  Essential oils that smell like wood and resin help hold a blend together and give it depth, especially in candles and perfumes.

Knowing the notes of essential oils makes it easier to make balanced essential oil perfumes, diffuser blends, and candle compositions. We have made a separate guide here for you to read if you want to learn more about this topic with real-life examples: Understanding Essential Oil Notes: A Practical Guide for DIY Aromatherapy & Cosmetics

Explore Our Essential Oil Sub-Categories

We’ve put our essential oils into useful subcategories so you can easily find what you need for your project:

Melt and Pour Essential Oil

Melt and pour essential oils are great for people who work with melt and pour soap bases. They smell great in ready-made bases and are the best choice when you want to quickly and easily buy essential oils for colorful, creative soap designs.

Cold Process Soap Essential Oil

The cold process soap essential oil category is all about essential oils that work well with the higher pH and longer curing times of cold process soap. Artisans who want a natural story and a scent that lasts a long time like them.

Candle Essential Oil

Here are some candle essential oils that work well for making candles. They were chosen because they smell good in wax and can help create cozy, atmospheric scents in the home, like relaxing lavender and comforting woods. These candle essential oil blends help you get a natural, plant-based scent while keeping the cozy atmosphere that people love about handmade candles.

Diffuser Essential Oil

These essential oils for diffusers are good for electric or reed diffusers. They mix well with diffuser bases and are great for making a natural essential oil blend that lasts in living rooms, bedrooms, or workspaces. By selecting the right diffuser essential oil, you can build long-lasting ambient scents that feel clean, fresh and naturally aromatic.

Fragrance Lamp Essential Oil

This sub-category is for fragrance lamps that warm the oil slowly. Fragrance lamp essential oil blends are easy to switch out and try out, so you can make home scents that are clean, bright, or soothing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. What do people use essential oils for?

Essential oils are used in perfumes, candles, soaps, diffusers, and room sprays. They smell good on their own and can be used to make anything from a simple home scent to a more complicated blend of essential oils for perfume.

Q2. Can I put essential oils in soap that is made using the cold process?

Yes, but you need to pick Cold Process Soap Essential Oil types that will stay strong during the saponification process. When using essential oil for soap, always check the recommended usage rates.

Q3. Can you use essential oils in candles?

Many candle makers use candle essential oil blends successfully in soy and other types of wax. To see how your chosen pure essential oil works in terms of hot throw and cold throw, start with small test candles.

Q4. What do I need to do to make essential oil spray?

To make essential oil spray, mix the oils with a base that is safe for the body or a room spray. Then, put the mixture in a bottle and label it. Start with a small batch, smell it, and change the percentage until you like it.

Create Natural Aromas

YouWish has one of the biggest selections of high-quality essential oils online, whether you want to buy essential oil for skincare, candles, diffusers, or natural perfume. Look through the natural essential oil, organic essential oil, and pure essential oil collections. Pick the best sub-category for your project and start making your own scented experience.