It’s so important to be informed and safe when it comes to using essential oils. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with all of the information available, but using common sense and starting gradually will help ease any sort of intimidation you might feel as you begin using essential oils in your everyday life, on yourself, and your family. I use Young Living essential oils (see why here). Due to the fact that Young Living’s purity and grade of oils are so high, they should be used with knowledge and respect. (Here are YL’s safety tips for usage.)

Okay, so how do you know what essential oils to use or what each essential oil does? Here are my top 3 reference guides for essential oils. Everyone who is using essential oils should grab these! Being part of exclusive Facebook discussion groups is amazing and Pinterest has all kinds of ideas for “recipes”, but those are not a substitute for responsibly doing your own research.

Essential Oils Pocket Reference by Life Science Publishing – This thick book has an easy reference guide at the beginning and talks about each oil specifically and what each can be used for. It also tells you about specific ailments, the best essential oils for those ailments, and the best application methods. Please have this on hand.

Gentle Babies by Debra Raybern – If you are past the child stage of life, you can skip this one. For mamas, this is a great tool for essential oil safety while pregnant and for children. There are some essential oils that shouldn’t be used on or around children and even the safest essential oils must be heavily diluted. Please diffuse and use responsibly.

Reference Guide for Essential Oils app – This is a great app for quick referencing on the go! From the description: “This app will become your go-to reference for personal essential oil use and for sharing your love of essential oils. The app features a personal guide section that details over 700 health topics for which essential oils are commonly used to help support the body’s natural ability to heal itself. Additionally, key information on over 100 single oils and more than 90 commercially-available oil blends will help you better understand and use essential oils.”