Maybe if you put certain pure EO right on your skin but general not really. I mean, a lot of the modern soaps, creams, ointments, perfumes, deodorants, etc we use have some level of EOs in them. Some are pretty beneficial. I really hate modern EO culture because they say stupid shit like cures cancer and fucking makes you an immortal god human with flawless skin. Like no, they aren’t THAT amazing, but there is research behind their benefits and in general are not bad for you. Just FFS don’t use (most of) them in their concentrated forms AND DON’T FUCKING INGEST THEM. Like technically you could… if they are pure and diluted but more on why you shouldn’t later. They are meant to be diluted. I want to reiterate, dilute them. You use like a couple tbs total in a gallon of soap. I use lemongrass, tea tree, lavender, and peppermint mostly. I also sometimes add cassia oil (more on that below).

There are soap lye calculators online that make setting up the amounts of fat and lye super easy. I just calculate my total fat, say, 90% lard (or tallow or whatever really) and 10% coconut oil. It tells you how much lye to use and you can set it up for certain percentages of “superfat” which is unreacted fat to help “moisturize” (I usually do 4-5%). I then add the lye to the lard only and stir for several minutes. THEN I add the coconut oil. This helps make sure the bulk of the superfat is coconut oil and the soap is reacted lard. You then let it cure for 3 months minimum before you use it.

Back to EOs… Certain compounds we know in EOs have benefits. Take cinnamic aldehyde for example. It’s the primary component of cinnamon oil and cassia oil. If you smell pure cinnamic aldehyde you’d be able to tell immediately it’s what makes cinnamon, cinnamon. It’s also extremely antiseptic. You can put this shit on a piece of wet bread, let it sit out, and it just won’t grow mold. I use cassia oil on cuts in weird places that are hard to keep clean. Mainly under fingernails. It’s an area thats hard to keep clean and dry and typically slow to heal. Also I use it on skin rashes before it’s my go to if I’m worried about infection. I have used it diluted and, in a few specific instances, pure and never had an issue.

Another good example is catnip oil. It contains a compound, I forget it’s name, but it is basically nearly identical to a hormone used in the brains and nervous system of parasitic insects like mosquitoes that signals them being “irritated” or “in danger” and causes them to flea the area. It’s just as effective as deet. I have a roller bottle of it and use like a 5 - 10% catnip oil diluted into a carrier oil. Never get bug bites when I remember to actually use it. In fact it’s believed to be why certain animals, like cats, have such an attraction to catnip. For the insect repellent properties of the plant.

There’s also a lot of adulteration with EOs and sometimes whatever has been used to adulterate the oil can be not so good for you. It’s why you never ingest these things. Don’t fucking drink EOs. They will not give you super powers, but they might help your weird fungal rash go away faster or help keeps the bugs off you. And I know I probably sound like some crazy EO person saying this but it’s also why doTerra shit is so fuck all expensive. Because they actually test their shit and make sure it’s pure.

So it’s less drinking then is bad and more about what else COULD be in them. So why chance it? I mean if you’ve made peppermint tea you’ve drank peppermint EO. It’s just extremely diluted (and not really any chance it’s been adulterated with some unknown solvent). Same with any other flavored tea. Lavender tea? Camomile? Use orange, lemon, lime, etc zest in cooking in any way? Citrus EOs are cold pressed from the rinds. In fact you can squeeze it out yourself with not too much effort. Fun note, citrus EOs are so similar that’s nearly impossible to tell them a part. And they are some of the most potent natural degreasers out there. Also extremely flammable and you can burn them in a diesel engine and it will actually clean the engine. Put a drop of citrus EO on a styrofoam cup and it’ll start dissolving the styrofoam. Limonene is the main component and is one of the most common EO components thanks in the vast majority of them at some level. You can buy pure limonene, usually as “citrus solvent” from most hardware stores and it’s commonly used to dilute oils that are used for food safe coatings and applications.

This concludes my Ted Talk.