The Essential Oils I Use – Man Versus Oils Confesses

Hey there oily dudes of oilness… Over the past few months I have discussed many types of essential oils, their uses and whether they are actually any good or not. I try to mansperiment with as many of the things I The Essential Oils I Use – Man Versus Oils Confesses. Up to no goodtalk about as possible. However there are many ideas, recipes and essential oils that I have discussed that I simply haven’t had the time, or the oils to fully experience them all. In these cases I am obviously just providing options for you to try rather than speaking from experience. So today I thought I would take it back to a simpler, quieter pace and discuss with you the essential oils I use in my day to day life.

When I say essential oils I use, I mean the oils I use every or most days. Not just just the ones I use every now and then or when I am writing a post. There will be no scientific proof or argument given to these uses. Just my own opinion on them in regards to what I use them for and what the effects of them are to me, and my family. I will even discuss the uses I have had that have not worked at all, like when I tried to use clove essential oil to kill weeds… But I am getting ahead of myself.

Oh, and thanks to my amazing wife for her assistance to my question “So, what oils do I actually use on a day to day basis?”. Again, I offer no rhyme nor reason for the outcomes of my use of these oils. It simply is what it is.

Essential oils I use daily

These are the oils we use daily, or close enough to it that they are always at hand:

YL Northern Lights Black Spruce Essential Oil
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Northern Lights Black Spruce

What I use it for? If you have read any of my posts over the past few months you will know that this is my favorite all time essential oil. I mean, I LOVE this stuff. I sniff it when I am stressed, I diffuse it when I am working at home, I drip it on my shirt collar when I want the scent to linger just a little longer and I use it with coconut oil to shave with. This oil is the best!!

What does it do for me? It calms me. I sniff it straight from the bottle and it calms me. I mean I really don’t have a lot to stress about in my life but when things get a little strained, I simply grab it and sniff it. It is one of the few oils where I genuinely love the smell so I use it whenever I can.

Copaiba

YL Copaiba Essential Oil
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What I use it for? I have stated in the past that this is the first oil that I ever came into contact with. I suffer from leg cramps quite often due to some childhood operations. My wife rubbed it onto my muscles when they were cramping and I have done it ever since.

What does it do for me? The cramps stop. In the past I would have taken paracetamol but now I don’t have to. I simply mix three or four drops with a tiny bit (about half a teaspoon in my hand, just enough for one application) of coconut oil and rub it onto the crampy bit. The cramps are usually gone in about 5 minutes.

Frankincense

YL Frankincense Essential Oil
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What I use it for? This one is my wife’s doing. She mixes it and plasters it on me whenever a need arises. She drops it neat onto my wrists at night before sleep and on my face under my eyes and my upper lip bit (where my mustache would be if I had one) after my shower. Honestly, she chases me around the house with this stuff.

Note: She sometimes hits me with Lavender if it is closer – works the same

What does it do for me? I commented to my wife recently that I felt that I had been sleeping better. Her answer “Frankincense baby”. I had not put two and two together but I guess it is working. She reckons that I am sleeping a lot stiller, meaning I am not bouncing all over the bed keeping her awake. For my skin, the parts where she puts it used to get itchy when I was in the sun a lot. I only really thought about it when as I was writing this and to be honest, had forgotten that used to happen.

Purification

Purification is a blend of Citronella, Lavandin, Lemongrass, Rosemary, Myrtle, and Tea Tree.

What I use it for? Living near the beach as we do there are plenty of biteys around (Mozzies, March Flies, Sand Flies, Midges) why do we live here again? Anyway… a single drop on the old bitey area.

Purification Blend essential oil
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Note: We sometimes use Frankincense for this also.

What does it do for me? It stops me itching. The best thing I have noticed however is I usually start itching again a few days later. Another drop and all gone! We use it a lot on our son for the same reason. His skin reacts a lot worse than mine to these bites, especially the midges, and he scratched until he bleeds. Some in the past have even turned into Staph infections requiring a doctors visit and antibiotics. Since we have been using this, no more issues for him. Smells like oranges to me which is weird as orange is not one of the oils in the blend.

Lavender

What I use it for? Sleep, we use it to get our kid to sleep.

YL Lavender Essential Oil
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What does it do for me? Like most kids, our little boy comes home from school totally worn out and over tired. To help him get some decent sleep each night, as he has never been the best sleeper, we rub a couple of drops of Lavender onto his feet about 20 mintues before bed during ‘wind down’ time. I swear that since we have been doing that, there has been a noticeable improvement in his sleep patterns and abilities to handle the day.

I get this rolled onto my feet also if the Frankincense is not around.

Wintergreen

YL Wintergreen Essential Oil
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What I use it for? I have described this one in other posts as having the same aroma as Deep Heat, which is an Australian brand sports cream used for inflammation, keeping joints warm and assisting with arthritis. My use is of a similar nature as I am not getting any younger and, having had to give up many of my sporting pursuitsin the past few years I find myself in the gym, pool and Pilates studio more and more. I use this one (80% carrier and 20% oil) on my shoulder when the tendinitis flares up.

What does it do for me? I was really skeptical about this one when Nic purchased it (with this use in mind of course). And whilst it certainly takes a little longer than the Deep Heat to really get in there, I have to again admit that it does relieve my shoulder pain. I will add at this stage that if I am going swimming I add my Panaway and Peppermint concoction (see below) to my shoulder beforehand so that may be part of the improvement also. But who really cares? It seems to be working for me.

Oh, and do not ever add this one to your skin without a carrier oil – trust me, I made that mistake once!

Panaway and Peppermint

What I use it for? I have included these two together as I use them together on most days when I am partaking in any sporting activity. I rub a mixture of 5 – 8 drops of each to 10ml of carrier oil onto my ankle joints before and after.

What does it do for me? This is another that took me by surprise. I used to hobble for days after a 4km walk, but now the pain is minimal. It is still there slightly as I was born with club feet so it is a lifelong ailment, but it has certainly improved the resulting symptoms out of sight.

YL Peppermint Essential Oils
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YL Panaway Essential Oil Blend
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List of essential oils I use less regularly

I mansperiment with a lot of oils for my posts which means I have a lot of things I have tried only once and not really been taken enough by them to keep them up. These are mostly diffuser recipes or blends and I am sure there are more that I have forgotten about so I will keep this post updated as I go. Here are some that I have noticed to work and keep them for occasional use:

Rosemary

What I use it for? If I am really tired but have some laptop work I really need to get done, I take a whiff of this one.

YL Rosemary Essential Oil
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What does it do for me? This one was suggested to me by some essential oil loving visitors one night (I think around the time we were discussing the manly and non-manly oils). The jury is still out a little but I have to admit that I have been able to get my stuff done afterwards. I usually have a stop point when I am tired. I will warn you though, Rosemary is NOT one of those oils that smells like the bush it comes from. There are no Sunday roast lamb and rosemary moments when you inhale this one. It does seem to work, but you have been warned…

 

Recipes and essential oils - Jetlag - AircraftJetlag Blend

Jetlag Blend is 10 drops each cedarwood and Lavender with 10ml Grapeseed oil.

What I use it for? I took this with me when I flew to the U.S. late last year.

What does it do for me? I suffer chronic jetlag. Whenever I felt the ‘haze’ whilst I was over there, I rolled this onto my wrists, neck and temple. It really did seem to ease the hazey tiredness for me. I now sometimes throw it onto my wrists and temples when I am tired and about to walk out the door. It seems to work a bit.

Feet Blend

Feet Blend is 10 drops each Panaway, Peppermint and Valor with 10ml Grapeseed oil.

What I use it for? I use this if I have been on my feet all day and my ankle joints get sore when I finally sit down at night.

What does it do for me? The sore ankle joints are a residue from the club feet. I rub this into them when I am lying down. Again, not as deep as a Deep Heat type cream, but certainly does give some relief. I can use wintergreen for this also, but we made this one up before I purchased it and it is already made up and it works so I just keep using it.

Gone Camping Diffuser Recipe 

This recipe is 3 drops Frankincense, 2 drops Idaho Balsam Fir, 1 drop Cedarwood.

What I use it for? If I am working on the laptop at home all day and just want a different aroma about the place, I add the above to the diffuser.

What does it do for me? I tried this one when writing my post on manly diffuser recipes and it just stuck with me. If I put it in the diffuser it seems to help me focus. I love the aroma, simple as that.

Stress Blend

Stress Blend is 5 drops each of Lavender, Stressaway and Frankincense with 10ml Grapeseed oil.

What I use it for? When our little one gets stressed or a little anxious (not anxiety, just anxious).

What does it do for me? We rub this on his wrists and the bottom of his feet and tell him to breath. He usually calms immediately. He even comes and asks for it if he feels himself getting stressed, which is usually when there are a thousand people in the house.

Types of essential oils - Hangover in bed

Nicole’s Hangover Cure

This recipe is 2 drops of Lemon, Lavender and Peppermint with one 1 tablespoon of Coconut Oil.

What I use it for? When I have over indulged (which luckily for me is not too often).

What does it do for me? I did this out of necessity for my hangover mansperiment and rub in onto my wrists, temple and stomach. I admit I thought it was a once off success when I used it as anything that day was better than nothing. But I admit I have used it since and it really does seem to take the edge off. If only it would stop the next day beer breath that my wife loves so much!

What hasn’t worked?

Now, just for a little fun here is a blooper reel of some of the things we have tried, or found that simply did not work… again there are probably more that I will remember, so continue to watch this space…

Clove

What did I use it for? I was working on a mansperiment (that I am still trying to get right) on killing weeds in the garden. I was told that Clove essential oil was good for killing weeds, which was backed up by some research I did.

What did it do? It worked… as a fertilizer. I mean these weeds doubled in size in about 2 days. Good fodder for another mansperiment, but useless in this case.

Thieves

Thieves is a Young Living blend of Clove, Lemon, Cinnamon, Eucalyptus Radiata, and Rosemary.

What did I use it for? Same mansperiment on killing weeds in the garden. It has clove and cinnamon in it so thought why not?

What did it do? Oh it killed the weed… and all the grass in a 2 foot radius. It may have been the vinegar with it. I tried with water and vinegar but I haven’t been game to use it since. I guess it was a success.

Lemon

What did I use it for? Used it with water to try and kill mold.

What did it do? Nothing.

Rosemary and Lemongrass

What did I use it for? We put it in the diffuser as we were told it was an amazing aroma. “Will remind you of Sunday” we were told

What did it do? It made us want to wish that Sunday never existed! It is horrendous. Don’t do it to yourselves!

Conclusion

So there you have it! These are the oils that we commonly use around here. As you can probably tell, we are constantly playing with them either for my posts or just cos that’s what my wife likes to do. So I promise to update this post from time to time with any new ones that work for us or at the very least, things that we would not wish on anybody…

Until then

Have fun

Paul

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My name is Paul and I live on the east coast of Australia with my wife and six year old son. I also have 19 and 23 year old daughters. I am an ex government and bank worker who took a bit of a sea change and opened my own business by the beach with my amazing wife. If you can do it, try it. You will never look back. You want to know more about me, read my About Me page

9 thoughts on “The Essential Oils I Use – Man Versus Oils Confesses”

  1. I like all the oil here and I think they are just perfect in their own ways. They are perfect for specific uses and according to what your need be for purchasing the oil. I think when an oil can handle certain things like body or leg cramp I think that oil has a way of penetrating the bone marrows and bringing out the best experience for itself.

    Reply
  2. Hi Paul,

    I have read this product review article with lot’s of information about the essential oils. I would not learn so much information about it if I did not read your article thoroughly. I like Lavender most and I think it will be useful for my kid’s sleeping properly since they don’t want to sleep in time which is painful for us. I am going to share this article with my family and I believe they will also like these products. Thanks for sharing this helpful reviews.

    Reply
  3. Paul

    I travel often and after having tried all possible remedies for jet lag that I could come across over the past 20 years, I am naturally sceptical about any new proposals. However, I’ll be trying your Cedarwood, Lavender and Grapeseed concoction when I fly next. Will keep you posted what my experience was.

    Thanks for an informative article!

    Reply
    • Hi Arie, watch this space as I have just started a post on essential oils for travel.  Let me know how you go with the Jetlag recipe.

      Paul

      Reply
  4. Hi Paul – Oils, huh?  Never really thought about it.  My wife has containers full of magic potions laying about, most probably to keep me at a distance!  I do, however, enjoy various scents. I see you have quite a collection.

    What would you recommend for general use, a scent that might quietly permeate the home?  And is there something you would recommend for creaky joints?  

    Appreciate the information – Mike

    Reply
  5. Here in this post are tons of essential oil to select from and that really is amazing, I was previously stuck with just one type of oil.

    Personally i think it is good to explore all kind of oils as far as you have the information on each of them, which you have done here already, would be looking forward to the updates.

    Reply

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