Can you burn essential oils and get a good aromatherapy experience or is diffusing them the only option?
Well, as it turns out, there are a few tried and proven ways to get your relaxing therapy.
But first … Why do you need to include essential oils in your wellness program?
Incorporating essential oils in your home can benefit you and your household. From lowering stress, relaxing you, and improving your sleep. There are hundreds of benefits of aromatherapy.
Everyone needs some essential oils in their house. They look beautiful on your shelf, make your house smell heavenly, and they help to relieve congestion in the chest and the nasal passages.
But before you can get all of their goodness, you need to diffuse or burn the oils. Burning essential oils is one of the ways you bring their goodness into your home.
You can use an oil warmer (traditional oil burner) or an electric essential oil diffuser to burn essential oils.
Read our article on How to get essential oil off skin
Types of essential oil burners
Oil warmers also referred to as traditional oil burners, are mostly made from soapstone, ceramic, or copper.
These materials have amazing heat retention abilities. A ceramic traditional oil burner is the best as it’s less likely to burn you and it’s easy to clean.
You can use one type of essential oil in the oil burner or have a blend of your favorites.
The other type of essential oil burner is an electric essential oil diffuser. The beauty of electric essential oil diffusers is that there is almost zero risk of starting a fire or water/essential oil spillage.
Electric diffusers are more convenient when you need to use them at night, and there is a possibility of dozing off for a few minutes.
To be safe, plug the diffuser into a main socket instead of using extension codes. You should also use distilled water to avoid residue build-up.
Please note that diffusers don’t shut down automatically when they run out of oil. Rather, they continue running and this might cause damage.
Unlike their almost similar counterparts – humidifiers that shut down automatically when they run empty, diffusers just keep on chugging along.
This is why it is important to run it for a few minutes and then switch it off. After all, you mostly need a few minutes of aromatherapy to last you hours.
Electric essential oil diffuser vs. traditional oil burner
If you are debating which is better between an essential oil diffuser and a traditional oil burner, an electric diffuser always wins hands-down.
This is because burning essential oils damages the oils, especially if the candle is bigger than the oil burner.
Too much heat burns off the oils, thus wasting the much-needed benefits (the aroma and the healing benefits).
With a traditional oil burner, you cannot be able to gauge the right amount of heat to apply to your essential oils. That’s why you need to go with a diffuser. It is not going to affect the quality of your aromatherapy.
Is burning essential oils safe?
Burning essential oils is not safe for the most part. First, there’s a possibility of starting a fire in case of spillage. Essential oil burners are not safe for homes with kids and pets.
Essential oils are volatile chemicals and they have low flash points, so they can catch fire easily. You must use them with carrier oil when using them topically.
If you check the user manual that comes with your oil or read the label, you are going to see a warning to keep them from the fire on account of their flammability.
Other than that, burning essential oil for a prolonged time can turn out toxic. Also, some of the candles you use under the essential oil burner have some petroleum compounds that can be harmful when used for a long time.
The best idea to use essential oils is through mist diffusion (electric diffusers) or nebulizing diffusers.
The only downside to nebulizing diffusers is that you go through the essential oil faster than mist diffusers.
Best carrier oil for burning essential oils
When all is said and done, you might still want to burn essential oils for the experience. To have a successful experience, please use the right carrier oil.
We have already mentioned that burning your oils can destroy them and ruin the aromatherapy benefits and the scent. But don’t worry. There is a solution, and this is to mix your essential oil with carrier oil.
Some of the best carrier oils for burning essential oils are apricot kernel, sweet almond, grapeseed, or sunflower oil. You can use other vegetable oils but ensure they are not scented.
To use a carrier oil when you are burning essential oils, blend your oils first, starting with two drops each.
Add more drops until you get your desired scent. Put four ounces of the carrier oil of your choice. Stir everything.
You can add essential oil(s) if need be. Put the mixture in your essential oil burner for 30 to 60 minutes.
Can you add essential oils to burning candles?
We’ve already talked about burning essential oils not being a good idea, but can you add essential oils to burning candles?
The answer is yes! Adding essentials to an already melted pool of candle wax is safe. It is an amazing way of adding a stronger scent throughout the room.
However, essential oils are flammable, so you must be cautious when you are adding them to the candle wax. Do not add them directly to the candle’s flame.
If you are a DIY guru, you can add the leftover candle fragrance oil to the pool of melted candle wax. You can also add scented wax speckles and get a stronger scent.
You should note something though – when you add essential oils to the candle wax, they may not give you an intensive aromatherapy experience, as you would get from fragrance oils. This happens because of their low flash point, which could cause the oils to evaporate fast.
Is burning essential oils bad for dogs?
In the past, we have looked at whether peppermint essential oil is safe for cats.
It’s in the same light we consider whether you can burn essential oils for your dogs.
These oils have many benefits for most people, but are they okay for dogs? In recent years, diffusers and EO burners have become popular.
Some dog parents have noticed some adverse effects on their pups when burning essential oils in their houses.
Some look confused and unaware of their environment. Others do not recognize their owners.
Before burning these oils, you may need to know for sure that they are safe for dogs.
Some of the EO that is straight bad for dogs include cloves, oregano, hyssop, wintergreen, tea tree, yarrow, white or red thyme, thuja, and juniper, to name but just a few of them.
Some of the burning essential oils that are safe for dogs include ginger, chamomile, carrot seed, clary sage, helichrysum, myrrh, mandarin, green, lavender, orange, sweet rose, peppermint, eucalyptus radiata, ravensara aromatic, valerian and niaouli among others.
Before burning EO in the traditional burner, remember that dogs have more sensitive olfactory systems than human beings.
This means they are more likely to be overwhelmed by essential oils than people. Be gentle with the essential oils and always leave the doors open when using them.
This allows the dog to leave if the scent is too strong. Also, start with minimal amounts to see whether there’s any untoward reaction from your pet.
Is burning essential oils in a wax burner safe?
Burning essential oils in a wax burner sounds like a good idea, but it is not. A wax burner is a device that runs on electricity to melt the scented wax cubes.
The heating element in the wax burner heats the wax with the same heat helping to disperse the scent into the room.
Burning EO in a wax burner is discouraged because when wax (soybean oil or paraffin) mixes with some highly concentrated oil extracts can create toxic fumes.
These harmful fumes may cause you to experience choking and nausea. Generally, when you are burning your favorite oil, it is hard to keep everything under control.
But … this does not mean that you cannot burn EO in the wax burner. You can. Just follow the recommended safety precautions to lower the risk of danger.
Only use the wax burner as the last resort, only when you don’t have a diffuser, or when yours has failed. Even then, only burn carefully selected oils to avoid creating dangerous fumes.
Wrapping up
So, to burn or not to burn essential oils? It depends on your favorite EO. Some can be burned, while others should not come close to dry fire. Most essential oils are better off used in mist or nebulizer diffusers.
It is also vital to be mindful of the pets in your house, as they may not handle the essential oils well. Always leave the door open when using essential oils so your pet can walk out if they get overwhelmed.
Keeping a door or window open also ensures proper airflow, which is needed especially when you burn EO in the wax burner, which produces fumes.