Essential Oils for Summer

The warmer summertime months are the perfect time to diffuse and blend with light, energizing, herbaceous, floral, and cooling essential oils. Oils from the mint, citrus and floral families are especially nice during summer.

Essential Oil Bearing Flowers and Herbs Picked from My Garden

Below is a list of essential oils chosen with summertime use in mind. This is a highly subjective list. For instance, I grow patchouli in the summertime, and tend to enjoy the aroma of patchouli all year round. I also love to include Ginger Essential Oil in summertime blends, but it is a warming essential oil. You may want to skim through the list of 110 oils contained in AromaWeb's Essential Oil Profiles area to see if there are additional essential oils that you personally like for Summer.

I have included a few spicy essential oils like Ginger. Spicy essential oils are strong and quite warming. A little goes a long way with the spice oils. They shouldn't be heavily diffused into a room as they can irritate the mucous membranes. It's best to blend stronger spice oils into more gentle oils like Sweet Orange Essential Oil (see the Blending Spice Oils section below).

Seasonal Essential Oils for Summer

Cooling / Floral / Energizing / Herbaceous / Sweet / Summery Essential Oils and Absolutes

Cooling Essential Oils

Read Essential Oils That Help Cool You Down When You're Hot for a list of essential oils that are particularly cooling and that are useful to enjoy on hot summer days. The article includes suggested recipes and tips.

Summer Essential Oil Diffuser Blend Examples

Below are several example summertime diffuser blends. Create the blends by adding the proper amount of essential oils to a dark-colored glass bottle. Add the appropriate number of drops from your created blend to your diffuser following the manufacturer’s instructions.

Be sure and familiarize yourself using reputable sources for the safety and contraindications of all oils you choose to use. Make the smallest possible blend first to make sure you like the blend before doubling, tripling, etc. the recipe.

Please be responsible to find out the specific safety precautions and contraindications of the oils in the blends you choose to use.

Blend #1

Blend #2

Blend #3

Blend #4

Blend #5

The above blends are only several of an infinite possibility of combinations.

Citrus Essential Oils

Citrus oils, especially Sweet Orange Essential Oil is an inexpensive essential oil to include in diffuser blends all year round. See AromaWeb's Citrus Essential Oil article for descriptions of summery citrus essential oils.

Natural Insect Repellent Recipe

A number of essential oils also act as natural insect repellents. These oils include Citronella, Catnip, Lavender, Lemongrass and Eucalyptus. For a natural insect repellent recipe that uses commonly available essential oils, refer to AromaWeb's Aromatherapy Insect Repellent Recipe.

A Warning About Mint Essential Oils and Spice Oils Like Ginger

Mint oils, especially Peppermint Essential Oil and spice essential oils like Ginger Essential Oil can be quite strong. When I create a seasonal essential oil diffuser blend, I typically start with a single essential oil that I particularly enjoy and then complement it by adding spice oils in low proportion.

My focus within this article is in selecting oils for diffusion. When creating blends and topical products that you apply to your skin, remember that many of the spice oils can cause skin irritation and should be used as incredibly low dilutions, if at all.

General Safety Information

Do not take any oils internally and do not apply undiluted essential oils, absolutes, CO2s or other concentrated essences onto the skin without advanced essential oil knowledge or consultation from a qualified aromatherapy practitioner. For general dilution information, read AromaWeb's Guide to Diluting Essential Oils. If you are pregnant, epileptic, have liver damage, have cancer, or have any other medical problem, use oils only under the proper guidance of a qualified aromatherapy practitioner. Use extreme caution when using oils with children and be sure to first read the recommended dilution ratios for children. Consult a qualified aromatherapy practitioner before using oils with children, the elderly, if you have medical issues or are taking medications. Before using this or any essential oil, carefully read AromaWeb's Essential Oil Safety Information page. For in-depth information on oil safety issues, read Essential Oil Safety by Robert Tisserand and Rodney Young.

Shelf Life

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Important Information About the Profiles

The essential oil information provided on AromaWeb is intended for basic educational purposes only. The references to safety information, test results, constituents and percentages is generalized information. Essential oils can vary greatly in composition. The data is not necessary complete and is not guaranteed to be accurate. The essential oil photos are intended to represent the typical and approximate color of each essential oil. However, essential oil composition and color can vary based on harvesting, distillation, age of the essential oil and other factors. Profiles for several CO2 Extracts and absolutes are included within the directory, and are denoted as such.