7 Winter Wellness Essential Oil Recipes

Explore these essential oil body care and clean home recipes to help support your health and immune system this winter.

These recipes all feature blends from the Wellness Sampler Set, created by Plant Therapy.

You can buy it at Amazon, or Plant Therapy’s website.

What’s in the Wellness Sampler Set?

The set contains 3 bottles of essential oil blends. Each bottle is 10 ml, or about 1/3 of an ounce.

That’s plenty to make all kinds of projects and recipes!

(Please note that none of these essential oil blends should be used internally and never apply them to your skin undiluted. If you have young kids, look for KidSafe versions, designed for kids aged 2 to 10.)

Immune Aid

Immune Aid encourages a healthy immune system. You can apply it (diluted at 2% in carrier oil) to your chest, neck, or feet, or diffuse it. It could also be helpful in hand sanitizer, hand soap, household cleaners, etc. Try mixing some with a little bit of lavender for a calming scent (great for bedtime), or you can add a few drops of sweet orange or lemon to highlight the citrus tones. Some fans like to mix it with Germ Fighter (below).

Immune Aid contains: essential oils of frankincense serrata, tea tree, rosemary 1,8-cineole, lemon, eucalyptus, and sweet orange.

Dilution Rate: 1 to 3%

Germ Fighter

Germ Fighter is packed with essential oils to help you stay healthy or get back to a healthy state faster if you catch a bug. It’s a great one to include in hand sanitizers, hand soap, hand creams, shower steamers, and cleaning products. You could also diffuse it for 30 minutes at a time every few hours (or use the individual jar method below, like we do since we have cats.)

Germ Fighter contains: essential oils of lemon, clove bud, eucalyptus globulus, cinnamon cassia, and rosemary.

Suggested dilution Rate: 0.5 to 2%

Not for use during pregnancy or breastfeeding.

Plant Therapy’s site suggests that if you’ve been exposed to germs, try mixing 1 drop of Germ Fighter with 1 tbsp carrier oil (sweet almond, sunflower, rice bran, olive, etc) and massage into your feet at bedtime and in the morning.

Respir Aid

This blend is designed to soothe and cool, clear congestion, and help you breathe more easily. It’s perfect for chest rubs or balms, roll-ons, shower steamers, and more.

Respir Aid contains: eucalyptus, pine, peppermint, lavender, spruce, cypress, and marjoram.

Dilution Rate: 3 to 5%, don’t diffuse this oil near or apply to the face of kids age 6 and under.

1. Essential Oil Shower Steamers

You could use any of the three oil blends in this recipe, though my favorite is Respir Aid – the combination of steam from the shower plus the essential oils really helps open the sinuses!

Because there’s no butter or coconut oil holding them together (that would make the shower floor slippery), they can be a little fragile. Handle and store with care!

To make, you’ll need:

• 1/2 cup baking soda
• 1/4 cup citric acid
• 1/2 tbsp white or colored clay
• small spritz bottle containing witch hazel
• around 1/2 teaspoon or 30 drops essential oil blend

Stir the baking soda, citric acid, and clay together. Sprinkle the essential oil over the mixture and work in thoroughly with a fork. Spritz the mixture with several sprays of witch hazel, while stirring with a whisk or a fork, checking the mix periodically. When it can squeeze together in a ball without easily crumbling, it’s ready. Press the mixture firmly into a 1/4 cup measuring cup, then turn out onto parchment or wax paper to air dry. Store in an airtight container (not glass though, as there have been reports of glass containers shattering when products made with citric acid and baking soda were stored within and started reacting before they should.)

Directions to Use

Place the shower steamer at the far edge of your shower or tub where they won’t be directly under the water spray. As you shower, they’ll start melting and fizzing, releasing the scent of the essential oil. These aren’t recommended for using as bath bombs; so stick to using these for showers only.

2. Chest Rub for Congestion

You can use a plain carrier oil or combination of carrier oils in this recipe. Olive or sunflower oil are classic choices, though I like a blend of grapeseed and fractionated coconut oil so the rub feels less greasy and absorbs in quickly.

Yield: 2 ounces of chest rub with a 3% dilution rate

• 0.25 oz (7 g) beeswax
• 1.75 oz (50 g) carrier oil of choice (olive, sunflower, grapeseed, etc)
• 54 drops Respir Aid

Melt the beeswax with the oil over medium low heat, using a double boiler or heatproof container set down into a saucepan of hot water. Let cool for a couple of minutes, then add the essential oil blend. Stir frequently while the mixture cools which helps it turn into a balm consistency. (Not stirring will create a more solid salve texture.) Spoon into a jar and rub on chest, throat, and back as needed. Shelf life is at least 6 to 9 months.

3. Hand Sanitizer with Essential Oils

Plant Therapy has a great recipe for hand sanitizer made with Germ Fighter over at their website:

Make Your Own Hand Sanitizer

4. Essential Oil Room, Car & Linen Spray

This is helpful for misting over your mattress, soft furnishings, or to freshen a room, or even car upholstery. (Use caution and don’t use around small kids or cats, test an inconspicuous spot before applying to surfaces to make sure it won’t stain.)

To make, you’ll need:

• about 0.5 oz Everclear (95% alcohol) (enough to fill a 2 oz spray bottle 1/4 of the way)
• 54 drops Germ Fighter, Immune Aid, or Respir Aid
• 1 to 1.5 oz distilled water

Pour the alcohol in a 2 ounce spray bottle. (You can buy glass ones at Specialty Bottle.) Add the essential oils and shake well. Uncap and pour in enough water to fill the bottle. Shake well again.

5. Sink & Tub Cleaner

You could use any of the blends or even individual oils in this cleaner, though I do like the combination of Immune Aid + Lemon essential oils.

I make this cleaner up on the fly, just on house cleaning days, since it’s one of those things I would stick in my cabinet and forget about otherwise.

It only takes a minute though!

To make, place 2 tablespoons baking soda in a small glass bowl and mix in about 1 1/2 tbsp or enough castile soap to make a paste. Add 3 drops lemon essential oil and 3 drops Immune Aid (or 6 drops total of your chosen blend/oil.)

I use this for kitchen and bathroom sinks, tubs, and showers. Wear gloves when using since the alkalinity can be tough on your hands.

6. Inhaler Jar

We have four rescue kitties and even though they only roam around a portion of our house (because we also have two cat-chasing dogs and a very elaborate system that ensures they never cross paths) – I’m VERY careful not to use essential oils around them. For that reason, I don’t use an essential oil diffuser in my house.

Instead, we use individual inhaler jars when needed. I wish I had thought up this wonderful idea, but I first found it over at the beautiful website Floranella: ??

I just fill a small jelly jar half way with some type of coarse (or sometimes fine) salt and sprinkle in essential oil to suit the need of the person.

We can open and close the jar as needed to take a few sniffs, and it doesn’t go all in the air where it could potentially hurt the cats.

Feel free to experiment – I’ve used everything from large grain to small grain salt, but I made the one shown using:

• 1/4 cup coarse Himalayan (or sea) salt
• 1 tbsp sea salt
• 25 drops Respir Aid
• 5 drops peppermint (for daytime) or lavender (for bedtime) essential oil

7. Foaming Hand Soap with Essential Oils

Here’s another recipe I really like, that I found over at the Plant Therapy blog:

Foaming Hand Soap DIY

To make it, you’ll need:

• castile soap
• fractionated coconut oil (or sweet almond, sunflower, olive, etc)
• Germ Fighter blend (or Immune Aid would work well too)
• distilled water
• foamer bottle
• preservative for keeping over 1 week – my current favorite is Geogard ECT (Preservative ECO); for a less natural but very effective option, use Liquid Germall Plus

There you have it!

Seven practical ways to use the Wellness Essential Oil Sampler Set from Plant Therapy.

I hope you’re able to grab yours today!

Have a healthy and safe winter! ?