I’m constantly amazed by the amount of people using essential oils neat on their own skin. This is especially common in the world of the multi-level-marketing (MLM) essential oils. Focus is placed on selling volume, and not nearly enough on the safety aspect of EOs. Useage of EOs neat is when their used undiluted on the skin.

Just today I saw a picture of a young boy, who had used a blend made to be used for ADD or ADHD along the spine undiluted in a roller bottle. The young boy had the hyperpigment(darkened skin) along his spine where the blend was used.

An example of photo-sensitization with essential oil:

The bottle was from a very large company, which also has no warning or dilution instructions. Lime is KNOWN to be phototoxic even in minute amounts, but there were no warnings nor mention on the companies website and pages about the oil. Not only is this unsafe its negligent in the simplest form.

http://www.naha.org/explore-aromatherapy/safety/ gives a great rundown on photo-sensitization

Photosensitization

An essential oil that exhibits this quality will cause burning or skin pigmentation changes, such as tanning, on exposure to sun or similar light (ultraviolet rays). Reactions can range from a mild color change through to deep weeping burns. Do not use or recommend the use of photosensitizing essential oils prior to going into a sun tanning booth or the sun. Recommend that the client stay out of the sun or sun tanning booth for at least twenty-four hours after treatment if photosensitizing essential oils were applied to the skin. Certain drugs, such as tetracycline, increase the photosensitivity of the skin, thus increasing the harmful effects of photosensitizing essential oils under the necessary conditions. Table 3 lists some common essential oils considered to be photosensitizers.

Photosensitizers (Table 3)

Essential Oil	Latin Name
Angelica root	Angelica archangelica
Bergamot	Citrus bergamia
Cumin	Cuminum cyminum
Distilled grapefruit	Citrus paradisi
Expressed lemon	Citrus limon
Expressed lime	Citrus medica
Distilled orange	Citrus sinensis
Distilled tangerine	Citrus reticulata
Verbena	Lippia citriodora

Non-phototoxic citrus oils (Table 4)

Essential Oil	Latin Name
Bergamot: Bergapteneless (FCF: Furanocoumarin Free)	Citrus bergamia
Expressed grapefruit	Citrus paradisi
Distilled lemon	Citrus limon
Distilled lime	Citrus medica
Expressed sweet orange	Citrus sinensis
Expressed tangerine	Citrus reticulata

Some oils depending on their method of distillation or expression, may fall onto either side of phototoxic, so be sure you know what your using.

All of this talk about the phototoxic oils really got me thinking about the overall safety aspect of dilution.

The normal “standard” dilution rate for an adult is 2 – 2.5%. 2.5% is 15 drops per 30ml(1 ounce) of carrier oil.  2% is 12 drops per 30ml(1 ounce).. For children, pregnant women, the elderly, immune compromised or pets, 1% is sufficent.

To get a better visual of just how powerful EOs are, and how much carrier is needed to safely dilute I created this graphic for another site. www.learningabouteos.com and the facebook group Learning about Essential Oils.
The numbers within the oil drops are the total amount of drops of essential oil. The bottles represent the amount of carrier.

I dilute the commercial blends I use to 2% if they’re undiluted, unless its a pretty severe acute issue needing an focused treatment then it may be up to 10%.

So now that your mind is all jumbled up with numbers, I’ll make it easy.. Lets go back to that 10-15ml roller ball bottle used neat, how much blended diluted oil does that make? A LOT!