Taken from the flowers, bark, leaves, and other parts of plants, essential oils are as natural as fresh air and sunshine. Many have their own properties as disinfectants, grease cutters and deterrents to pests — and they impart fresh and pleasing aromas that linger long after your chores are finished.

Natural cleaning products are increasingly available in stores, but you can also easily and economically make your own mixtures with just a few basic ingredients. Chances are some of these ingredients, such as baking soda, white vinegar and borax, are already in your cupboards. One hundred percent pure essential oils can be found at natural products stores or online at www.auracacia.com.

Homemade natural cleaning products are versatile; many can be used for a variety of tasks. Because essential oils are in a highly concentrated form, often only a few drops are needed for a solution that can take you through several cleaning cycles. Not only do you save money — your homemade cleansers will work just as well as commercially produced cleaners without harming the environment.

“Choices abound,” says Tom Havran, aromatherapy product developer. “From pine or lemon oil, whose essences suggest more traditional cleaning aromas, to tea tree and grapefruit, which people might not think of as cleaning ingredients.”

Not sure which oil to start with? Here are some of Havran’s suggestions:

* Pine is inexpensive and clean smelling. It is effective as both a disinfectant and deodorizer.

* Lavender has a pleasing scent, is anti-bacterial and deters insects such as moths.

* Tea tree oil has a sharp, spicy scent and is a good disinfectant and deodorizer.

* Lemon is fresh and clean smelling. It’s also acidic, providing antibacterial and antiseptic cleaning properties.

* Grapefruit has a clean and uplifting aroma that eliminates odors — even strong pet odors.

Making your own cleaning products with essential oils can be as simple as mixing 15 to 20 drops of any essential oil into a cup of baking soda, letting the mixture stand overnight so the oil can be absorbed, and then sprinkling the powder on carpet before you vacuum.

You can also make a quick and easy disinfecting toilet bowl cleanser by combining one cup of water, one-quarter cup of liquid castile soap and 20 drops of white thyme, lavender or lemon essential oil in a 22-oz. spray bottle.

Spring is a time of renewal that offers a perfect opportunity to replace chemical cleansers with pure and natural essential oils. Your whole family, including your pets, will benefit.

For more spring-cleaning formulas you can make yourself with essential oils visit www.auracacia.com/springcleaning. While you’re there, be sure to get more information about Aura Cacia’s live web chats with host Tim Blakley, and download previous chats to learn more about using essential oils that benefit you and your family, naturally.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

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More Expensive, But Still Worth Paying Extra For

Though normal soaps may not include essential oils, there are many that do and they include ingredients such as olive and palm as well as almond and even lotus oil extracts. However, be sure that essential oil for soap is more expensive though when you consider the therapeutic benefits you should not mind paying the extra money for it. When you use essential oil for soap you are going to get soaps that will help to relax you and also make you feel and appear more beautiful and are thus more suitable than the normal soaps that basically only perform one function which is to clean the skin and nothing beyond that.

The continuing competition in the making of various kinds of soaps including the soaps that are made from essential oils are providing customers with many soaps that come with various fragrances, and essential oil for soap is especially recommended because most soaps actually are synthetic and may even contain too much of fat in them. Soaps that do not use essential oil for soap usually use glycerin which will no doubt keep the skin smooth, but they may not provide benefits such as you could get if you were to use essential oil for soap such as thyme, which is also commonly available today.

If you were to use thyme as essential oil for soap you would get a great smell and also benefit from its freshness and medicinal as well as herbaceous odor, and as its name implies, you should get excellent scents since in Greek it means perfume and has been commonly used by the Greeks as incense for use in their temples. However, given that this essential oil for soap is very strong as well as potent it should not be used by mothers that are lactating or those women who are pregnant.

Even when using thyme as an essential oil for soap it will provide best results when blended with other oils such as bergamot, rosemary and lavender oils to get even better results.

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