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Dive into the sweetly-scented world of aromatherapy.

Essential oils do more than provide a pleasant sent. The best essential oils, a form of aromatherapy, can offer numerous benefits ranging from rest and relaxation to headache relief and even hair and skin health. You can try adding essential oils to your bath for some serious self-care or using them with one of the best essential oil diffusers to fill your room with mood-boosting scents. Bottom line? They can help you achieve a wide range of goals and take advantage of the many essential oil benefits.

“Essential oils are a type of compound that is extracted from different plants,” explains Monisha Bhanote, M.D., A.B.O.I.M., integrative lifestyle physician and author of The Anatomy of Wellbeing. Some consider these compounds to be the “essence” of the plant, hence the name essential oil.

“Each plant is unique and has different essential oils that each contain different benefits for health and well being,” notes Danielle Ryan Broida, registered herbalist, certified holistic nutritionist, head of education at Four Sigmatic, and co-author of Healing Adaptogens. Whether you’re using rosemary essential oil for healthy hair or lavender essential oil for sleep, there’s something for everyone.

So, what are the best essential oils? While there are a plethora of varieties worth adding to your aromatherapy arsenal, we narrowed down the best of the best along with exactly how and why to use them and possible side effects.

We consulted Broida, Dr. Bhanote, countless customer reviews, and tested some ourselves to find the best essential oils for every concern.

Lavender has long been associated with sleep and relaxation—for good reason. Lavender is categorized as a nervine, which relaxes the nervous system and can be used for meditation, for mood, or calming before sleep, explains Broida. This essential oil from Aura Cacia, one of Broida’s go-to brands, is 100% pure with no synthetic ingredients for maximum efficacy.

This rosemary essential oil boasts an overall 4.7-star rating on Amazon: “My hair isn't falling out near as much as it usually does,” one user wrote. “It smells really good, and I use it in my diffuser, too. It's a great product!” Additionally, it is USDA-certified organic and comes in a dark bottle to preserve the quality of the oil, which Dr. Bhanote emphasized is important when selecting a product. Rosemary essential oil can be used topically to ease inflammation and joint pain, as well as for hair health and growth when added to your shampoo, according to Dr. Bhanote

Best use: Inflammation, hair health

This peppermint essential oil is from Saje, Dr. Bhanote’s recommended brand, which provides 100% pure, additive-free products. Menthol is the key component in peppermint essential oil, “and often you can use peppermint oil for headaches, you can use it for digestive issues, you can use it even for nausea,” explains Dr. Bhanote. For headaches, Dr. Bhanote recommends applying the oil directly to your temples (mixed with a carrier oil, like coconut oil), while sniffing the oil from the bottle will help with digestive issues and nausea.

Best use: Headaches, digestive issues

This tea tree essential oil is USDA certified organic, packaged in a dark bottle, and has over 1,800 five-star ratings. “I love Plant Therapy for the quality of products they carry with the added bonus on affordability,” one user wrote. “Tea tree oil’s benefits really come from it being anti-microbial,” Dr. Bhanote says. It can be used topically and diluted on acne to reduce and heal breakouts, but Dr. Bhanote cautions that tea tree essential oil is very concentrated and some may be sensitive to it.

Best use: Acne, skin health

This sandalwood essential oil from Aura Cacia is a 100% pure botanical oil and is free from synthetics. “Sandalwood essential oil can help calm the nerves, promote relaxation, and help with focus,” explains Dr. Bhanote. It also boasts a delightful, woody fragrance, making it perfect for diffusing and inhalation.

This frankincense essential oil from Saje, Bhanote’s go-to brand, is 100% pure and free from synthetics. Saje notes that the essential oil has a “spicy, warm, and woody,” and is great for diffusing, inhaling from the bottle, and as an addition to massage oil. Frankincense essential oil “is known to be beneficial: to improve your mood, improve sleep, and reduce inflammation, but even more so, it's really beneficial for gut function,” Dr. Bhanote emphasizes.

Best use: Gut health, mood enhancement

This eucalyptus essential oil also comes from one of Broida’s favorite brands, with one five-star reviewer writing: “I have used this oil for a decade, I love the quality.” Eucalyptus can be used as a remedy for cold symptoms, and “also has benefits for immune health,” Broida explains. “It is one of the older plant essential oils and there's a deep history of the use of inhaling the essential oil to cure a cold.”

Best use: Congestion, cold symptoms

This oil from Young Living, another one of Broida’s favorite brands, is high-quality . The therapeutic properties of jasmine essential oil include “counteracting anxiety, nervous exhaustion, and depression,” explains Dr. Bhanote. However, it’s difficult to find a non-synthetic version of the oil as it “takes almost one thousand pounds to get one pound of oil.”

Best use: Anxiety, mood enhancement

This bergamot essential oil from Vitruvi is 100% pure, vegan, cruelty-free, and comes in a protective bottle. Additionally, over 1,000 five-star ratings attest to its high quality, with one user writing: “Vitruvi's oils are of excellent quality and value,” while another describes it as “a lovely, lively scent that will lift your spirits.” Dr. Bhanote explains, “Bergamot is known to relieve anxiety, lift mood, and treat skin disorders because of its calming, antibacterial, hormone-supporting, and antidepressant properties.”

Best use: Anxiety, mood enhancement, hormones

This marjoram essential oil from an expert-backed brand is 100% pure and natural with a warm, pleasant scent. “I put this in a roller with a few other oils for muscle tension and pain and it works wonders,” one user wrote. Marjoram essential oil is great for pain relief, and Dr. Bhanote recommends massaging it into the skin with a carrier oil to help relieve menstrual cramping pain.

This option from Saje is 100% pure with a bright, citrus scent that helps uplift and brighten your mood. Broida calls lemon essential oil “uplifting” and notes its memory, mood, and immune health benefits. In terms of mood, it is great for boosting energy and would be a wonderful addition to a morning routine.

Best use: Mood enhancement, memory, immune health

This one, from one of Broida’s favorite brands, has a warm, spicy aroma, and is pure, vegan, and cruelty-free. “As a result of its anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antifungal, and circulatory properties, cinnamon is an excellent choice for digestive issues and cardiovascular health,” explains Dr. Bhanote.

Best use: Digestive health, cardiovascular health

If you’re looking to try out a blend of essential oils and take some guesswork out of the equation, check out this uplifting blend from an expert-backed brand. This blend of grapefruit, bergamot, and lime essential oils is aptly named “liquid sunshine” for its mood-enhancing properties. The brand suggests adding a few drops to a diffuser and “you’ll be walking on sunshine.”

This set of 10 top-rated essential oils is perfect for someone looking to try a variety. The set includes lavender, lemongrass, jasmine, peppermint, and more. Over 28,000 customers on Amazon gave this set five stars and amazing reviews. “I am delighted with how well they are filling my room with relaxing hues delivered from my diffuser,” one user wrote. “They are pure oil and not watered down.”

✔️ Don’t skimp on quality. “You get what you pay for with essential oils,” explains Broida. There is a range of essential oils, and many of them are not pure and cut with other carrier oils. Essential oils cut with carrier oils are great options for topical application, but it’s important to determine purity to know what you’re getting.

✔️ Search for the correct packaging. “High-quality essential oils usually come in a darker glass bottle as they can lose their therapeutic effects after time if not,” Dr. Bhanote explains. Improperly packaged essential oils can even become irritating over time.

✔️ Go organic. Broida emphasizes the importance of choosing an organic essential oil because when inhaling or applying essential oils, if they have been sprayed with pesticides and herbicides, you will be inhaling and applying those as well.

✔️ Analyze the label. While searching for words like “pure” and “organic” is useful, Dr. Bhanote also recommends steering clear of any essential oils with the word “fragrance,” which often means the oil contains some kind of synthetic compound that can be harmful for our health. Dr. Bhanote suggests looking for essential oils labeled with a botanical name and brands that note exactly what region the essential oil is sourced from.

✔️ In a diffuser. Adding three to five drops to an essential oil diffuser is a great way to scent your space and reap the benefits of your chosen essential oil. Dr. Bhanote also suggests limiting the amount of diffusing to about 30 minutes as prolonged exposure can be unhealthy.

✔️ Topical application. Applying essential oils to the skin is great for essential oils such as rosemary for inflammation, or tea tree for acne. However, essential oils are very concentrated and always need to be diluted with a carrier oil to avoid irritation. Look for carrier oils like sesame, almond, coconut, and jojoba.

✔️ Inhalation. Inhaling essential oils directly from the bottle is another option that “offers the same benefits and is much more sustainable,” Broida explains. Simply place the bottle a few inches below your nose and waft the scent towards you.

✔️ Use a small amount. Less is more with essential oils, explain both Broida and Dr. Bhanote. Due to their potency, you only need a few drops whether in a diffuser or applying topically.

✔️ Utilize the whole plant. Alternatively, Broida explains that using the plant that an essential oil is derived from still provides the essential oil benefits and can often be more beneficial. You can do this by brewing a tea, such as a lavender or peppermint tea, or steaming the plant and inhaling the scented vapors as the essential oils are “lifted with the steam,” according to Broida.

While essential oils offer a variety of potential health benefits, you should still exercise caution. Side effects are few and far between, but will depend upon which essential you are using and how.

The easiest side effect to avoid is skin irritation via direct application—by cutting the essential oil with a carrier oil you can mitigate the risk of skin-related side effects like rashes and burning. Additionally, the same sort of tissue damage can happen internally, cautions Broida, which is why you should never ingest essential oils.

Certain essential oils can also be harmful to pets and children, like tea tree and eucalyptus, due to neurotoxicity, explains Dr. Bhanote. These oils should not be diffused around pets, children, and other vulnerable groups like people who are pregnant or who have weakened immune systems.