I love Halloween! Different people celebrate this time of the year in various ways. For some it is just a fun holiday with costumes and candy. And for others it has religious or spiritual significance. Many Christians observe Nov 1st as All Saints Day. And to many pagans and wiccans, October 31st is Samhain.
I often make aromatherapy blends for special events, spiritual and emotional uses, holidays, astrology, and seasons, etc. There are many natural scents that are associated with Halloween and the fall, including spices, green scents, and autumn produce. Some Halloween associated spices include clove and cinnamon. Green, woody, or earthy scents are also linked with this holiday including cypress, vetivert and patchouli. During the fall, produce like apples and pumpkins come to mind too. Sadly, apples and pumpkin aren’t available as essential oils and absolutes. But delicious foods made with fresh produce are a stable for many, such as apple crisp and pumpkin pie. These delicious foods are often made with aromatic spices! The season for many types of citrus is the fall and winter months, so adding citrus essential oils can add a bit of sparkle and brightness to your blends!
The great thing about blending is that you can make blends for scent purposes only, or you can make them with a spiritual, emotional, or another special intent in mind. For example, cypress is used for protection, and for awareness of and to remember those who have passed. Sweet orange is often used for love and happiness. Clove is for protection and to drive away negative forces.
Try blending different essential oils together (nearly all the ones I mentioned blend well together). Please note that for cinnamon, I usually don’t recommend using cinnamon leaf or bark essential oils for skin care use, since the bark oil is a sensitizer, while the leaf oil can be a dermal irritant if used at too high of a concentration. It is best to use cinnamon for diffusing, in my opinion. I personally very occasionally use the leaf oil in very, very, very low dilutions in perfume and blends—I only use one to a few drops in a whole batch (which is several ounces of carrier oil) and at a concentration well below the level of what usually causes skin irritation in humans. Some soap crafters choose to use the cinnamon essential oils in soap (since soap is a wash off product).
There are so many different combinations you can make, with just a few essential oils. A really lovely blend is using a citrus essential oil with a spice essential oil. Try 3 drops sweet orange essential oil to 1 drop of clove. Think it needs more orange or less clove? Then add another drop or two of orange. Think it needs more clove and less orange, add a drop or two more of clove. This is a nice diffuser blend, or if you don’t have a diffuser, then mix up the blend in a vial, shake well, and then place one drop of the blend on a cotton ball or sachet. Or try my recipe for an aromatherapy spray. Clove essential oil can be a dermal irritant if used at really high concentrations, so I personally don’t usually use it in skin care, but I sometimes use it very well diluted in blends and perfumes. Many soapers also use it in soap.
For other blends, if you want to scent yourself, make an aromatherapy scent blend (for the pulse points), or make an aromatherapy spray and spray your hair (hair holds scent very well) or body. Just be sure to dilute the essential oil blend in plenty of carrier oil for the scent blends, or dilute it in another base! Never apply essential oils neat/undiluted to the skin. You can also add a lot of blends to skin care (such as elixirs aka oil based serums, body oils, masks, scrubs, etc)*. Be sure to research each essential oil in depth before use.
Here is a great article I found from West Coast Institute Of Aromatherapy about spiritual and esoteric essential oil uses for Halloween.
For more Halloween tips, check out my green Halloween article at anb (all natural beauty) mall. Lots of green, natural tips on costumes, food, decorations, and more! I have also written more eco Halloween tips on my personal eco blog, Solarkat’s Eco Blog, on mineral makeup and Halloween children games.
*There are a lot of recipes listed on Solarkat’s Eco Blog, my anb (all natural beauty) mall Eco Living articles, and my Eco Living & DIY Natural Beauty Formulating articles on anb portal. Other herbalists, aromatherapists, green Indie business owners, perfumers, formulators, and skin care experts have written articles for the three anb websites (the third website is all natural beauty website).
