Life
From Winter Blues To Festive Moods, You'll Want To Keep These 6 Essential Oils On Hand This Winter
Bring the scents you love from winter indoors or fend off winter blues and seasonal colds with the best essential oils for winter. With this often chilly season come shorter, colder days and longer, darker nights. So, many of the oils below have anti-anxiety and mood-boosting properties, as well as a festive blend with a cozy, woodsy scent that exudes winter.
To combat the winter blues, essential oils like lavender and geranium are research-backed mood boosters, and peppermint oil can help fight off any winter tiredness that may have you down. But there's more than mood to think about when winter weather hits.
While it’s possible to catch the flu year-round, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has dubbed fall and winter America’s flu season, and essential oils like ravintsara and oregano can help you feel better and breathe easy; oregano, particularly, has antioxidant and antibacterial properties, as well as pain-fighting qualities that can come in handy if you start feeling under the weather.
For your peace of mind, I've made sure the oils below are 100% pure, come from companies with third-party lab testing, and have all undergone GC/MS testing, a form of testing that identifies different substances within a test sample.
Check out the best essential oils for winter, which can either be diffused or used topically and might just help improve your mood, your sleep quality, and promote overall winter wellness.
1A Holiday Essential Oil Blend For Winter
This 100% pure essential oil blend is perfect for the holidays and the whole winter season with its combination of orange peel, cinnamon, and nutmeg essential oils. In addition to being a possible mood booster, cinnamon essential oil has antioxidant, anti-fungal, and antibacterial properties.
Among other things, orange peel essential oil is often used to relieve stress and pain; and ginger essential oil may help with everything from relieving migraines to fighting colds to settling an upset stomach. Finally, nutmeg is chockfull of antioxidants, which can help support your immune system.
Like all Plant Therapy essential oils, this holiday essential oil blend is 100% pure, premium grade, and certified organic. Plus, Plant Therapy oils are rigorously tested via GC/MS standards by a third-party, and the company makes the test results of each batch available for download on the Plant Therapy website.
2A Woodsy Essential Oil Blend To Clear Stuffy Air
This Deep Breathe Blend by Rocky Mountain Oils combines pine, rosemary, lime, and ravintsara essential oil for a woodsy scent that works to clear the stuffy winter air in your home and help you breathe more deeply. Research suggests that pine oil may help reduce inflammation and relieve muscle aches and pains, while research shows that rosemary helps with everything from easing stress to improving brain function to boosting energy — and more! Due to its natural antiviral and antiseptic qualities, ravintsara essential oil is often used to ward off and/or treat coughs and colds, and lime oil is both purifying and energizing.
Rocky Mountain Oils provides GC/MS test results from a verified third-party and makes the test results of each batch available for download on the company’s website. Rocky Mountain Oils also promises all of its oils are guaranteed S.A.A.F.E., which stands for: satisfaction guaranteed, authentic, analysis, free of adulterants, as well as effective and pure.
3A Peppermint Essential Oil To Fight Fatigue
Aside from its festive scent, peppermint essential oil has been shown to prevent fatigue and boost energy. In fact, a 2013 study found that peppermint essential oil can help improve exercise performance — a pretty useful side effect during the year’s most sluggish season. That said, you shouldn’t use peppermint oil if you’re allergic to mint, sage, basil, or lavender.
As mentioned, Rocky Mountain Oils provides GC/MS test results from a verified third-party and makes the test results available for download on the company’s website. The company also promises all of its oils are guaranteed S.A.A.F.E.
4An Oregano Essential Oil To Boost Your Immune System
This 100% pure oregano essential oil comes with a host of benefits. A 2017 study found that oregano oil is a great source of antioxidants and may also help to relieve pain, fight cancer, improve gut health, and relieve cold and flu symptoms. That said, you shouldn’t use oregano oil if you’re allergic to mint, sage, basil, or lavender.
As mentioned, Plant Therapy essential oils are 100% pure, premium grade, and certified organic and are rigorously tested via GC/MS standards by a third-party. Plus, the company makes the test results available for download.
5A Geranium Essential Oil For Relaxation & Positive Thinking
This 100% pure geranium essential oil by Rocky Mountain Oils gives off a strong floral aroma that pairs well with woodsy and citrus blends. Even better, research shows that geranium essential oil can help relieve stress, anxiety, and depression. It has also been listed as one of the best essential oils for dealing with Seasonal Affective Disorder. It’s also believed to help with allergies, which may be helpful for more seasonal allergies.
As mentioned, Rocky Mountain Oils provides GC/MS test results and makes them available for download. Plus, the company promises all of its oils are guaranteed S.A.A.F.E.
6A Lavender Essential Oil To Ease Stress & Promote Rest
This 100% pure lavender essential oil by DoTerra is the only one on this list that can be taken orally, used topically, or diffused where the rest should be used topically or diffused only. It’s an excellent pick for winter since an abundance of research shows that lavender may help treat anxiety and depression, ease aches and pains, and promote a more peaceful night’s sleep. In fact, one study from 2013 study found that lavender helped mice fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer. Plus, lavender essential oil smells earthy and floral at the same time, making it a pleasant and grounding scent for you and your home.
Additionally, all DoTerra products are Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade (CPTG), meaning each batch of the company’s essential oils are tested for purity, potency, and consistency. DoTerra is also very transparent about their sourcing practices; through the Source To You page on DoTerra’s website, you can follow the journey of the company’s essential oils from growers to distillers to lab testing to retailers to you. You can also look up and download the GC/MS quality reports.
For a more budget friendly option, Plant Therapy's Lavender Essential Oil is also great and less than $10 though you won't want to take that one orally.
Bustle may receive a portion of sales from products purchased from this article, which was created independently of Bustle's editorial and sales departments.
Studies referenced:
Bendich, A. (1993). Physiological Role of Antioxidants in the Immune System. Journal of Dairy Science, 76(9), 2789–2794. doi: 10.3168/jds.s0022-0302(93)77617-1. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8227682.
Han, F., Ma, G.-Q., Yang, M., Yan, L., Xiong, W., Shu, J.-C., … Xu, H.-L. (2017). Chemical composition and antioxidant activities of essential oils from different parts of the oregano. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5260481/.
Koulivand, P. H., Khaleghi Ghadiri, M., & Gorji, A. (2013). Lavender and the nervous system. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3612440/.
Lakhan, S. E., Sheafer, H., & Tepper, D. (2016). The Effectiveness of Aromatherapy in Reducing Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Pain Research and Treatment, 2016, 1–13. doi: 10.1155/2016/8158693 Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5192342/.
Leyva-Lopez, N., Gutiérrez-Grijalva, E. P., Vazquez-Olivo, G., & Basilio Heredia*, J. (2017). Essential Oils of Oregano: Biological Activity beyond Their Antimicrobial Properties. Molecules, 22(6), 989. doi: 10.3390/molecules22060989. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6152729/.
Kobayashi, Y., Sato, H., Yorita, M., Nakayama, H., Miyazato, H., Sugimoto, K., & Jippo, T. (2016). Inhibitory effects of geranium essential oil and its major component, citronellol, on degranulation and cytokine production by mast cells. Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry, 80(6), 1172–1178. doi: 10.1080/09168451.2016.1148573. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26927807.
Meamarbashi, A., & Rajabi, A. (2013, March 21). The effects of peppermint on exercise performance. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23517650/.
Sánchez-Vidaña, D. I., Ngai, S. P.-C., He, W., Chow, J. K.-W., Lau, B. W.-M., & Tsang, H. W.-H. (2017). The Effectiveness of Aromatherapy for Depressive Symptoms: A Systematic Review. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2017, 1–21. doi: 10.1155/2017/5869315 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5241490/.
