Essential oils for back to school!

It’s that time of year again. Going back to school can be stressful for some. Let’s explore how you can use essential oils for back to school.

Make your own rollerballs

What’s great about rollerballs is that they are very portable, and can be used with ease. Tip: If you send your child to school with a rollerball, consider placing it in a zipper baggie in case of any leaks.

Things you’ll need to make your own rollerballs include empty rollerballs. Glass ones are commonly available in either a 5ml or 10ml size. Depending on the type available from your supplier, the roller insert part might be plastic or metal.

Your rollerball will have 3 components: the cap, the roller insert, and the container part. The ones pictured here are 10ml.

Tip: You need to press the insert part down all the way until it clicks into place.

You will also need a carrier oil such as jojoba, fractionated coconut oil, grapeseed oil or sunflower oil. Try not to use heavy oils like avocado or hemp seed, or they may interfere with the roller mechanism.

Of course you’ll be using some essential oils too! If you don’t want to do your own mixing and already have a favourite essential oil blend, you can definitely use that. For a 10ml rollerball you’ll use between 10-40 drops of essential oils in TOTAL. The younger the child, the fewer drops you’d use. A teen or adult can manage 40 drops (or about 2ml).

Here are some recommended Nature Notes blends to use for making your own rollerballs at home for kids:

How to do it yourself:

Have all your supplies ready before you begin- your carrier oil, and chosen essential oils.
Add the essential oil by the drop until you reach the total number of oils you want to add.
Pierce a vitamin e capsule and squeeze it into the bottle. While optional, I highly recommend this. Adding some vitamin e will help prevent the carrier oil from going rancid before you finish using up your project.
Fill up the rest of the bottle with your carrier oil. It should reach the shoulder, or slightly more. Don’t forget to leave some headspace for the roller insert to go in.
Snap the roller insert into place, pressing down carefully, but firmly. You may want to use a clean hand towel to help with this. You should hear and feel it locking in. Do a visual check to make sure it is down all the way.
Replace the cap and tighten.
Gently roll the bottle between your hands to blend everything together.
Don’t forget to add a label to your bottle.

If you want to save time and fuss, you can also purchase ready- made for you rollerballs:

Make your own personal inhalers

Using a personal inhaler is super portable and convenient. They are ideal for when you need to keep your aromas to yourself- such as a classroom or other scent free zone.

To make your own personal inhaler, you’ll need:

An empty inhaler unit
The essential oils of your choice (about 20 drops in total)
A label for your inhaler
A non-reactive small dish for mixing the oils (ceramic or plastic)
Tweezers

There are 3 components to your personal inhaler:

Canister part (empty, hollow unit)
Sheath or outer covering
Cap/plug

There are 2 ways to assemble your inhaler:

1) Super fast & easy way (better if you’ve done this before)

Insert the absorbent wick into the inhaler canister. Add the essential oils directly into the canister onto the wick. Place the stopper cap/plug to hold everything together. Attach your label outlining the oils you used to the outer sheath/cap.

You are good to go!

2) Use a small mixing dish to add your chosen essential oils. Using tweezers, grip one end of the cotton wick and hold the rest of the wick into the oils until they are all absorbed by the wick. Drop the loaded wick into the inhaler canister. Place the stopper cap/plug to hold everything together. Attach your label outlining the oils you used to the outer sheath/cap. You are good to go!

To use your personal inhaler

When the time comes to use your inhaler, you’ll need to remove the outer sheath or cap. You’ll notice a couple of holes at the top. This is where the smell escapes from, so put this against one of your nostrils while pressing the other nostril closed.

Breathe in deeply. When you release your breath, do it through your mouth.

Let me take this opportunity to stress the PERSONAL nature of the inhalers. Don’t pass them around. One for each person, please. Maybe use that label for the person’s name as well.

Want to get some inhalers? Purchase them here.

Don’t have an inhaler? You can use a cotton ball in a pinch. You can stash it in a tiny container or plastic baggie until you need it.

Recommended diffuser blends to use in a personal inhaler include:

Recommended essential oils for school age children

There are LOTS to choose from, but I’ll just give you my top 10:

lavender
bergamot (any citrus really)
frankincense
palmarosa
ginger root
Roman chamomile
geranium
spearmint or peppermint
fragonia
sandalwood

You will have a lot of options if you can access these oils. A couple of them are getting hard to get, such as chamomiles and sandalwood. If you find either of these too expensive, you can use petitgrain or lavender in place of Roman chamomile and Virginian cedarwood in place of sandalwood.