Our skin is the largest organ in our bodies and can easily absorb harmful molecules sprayed into the air as well as the chemicals that we touch, so knowing what’s in the chemicals we have around the home is important. I started making my own homemade cleaning products with disinfectant essential oil blends in order to eliminate the number of toxic chemicals that I and my family were coming in contact with.
I was just at a popular chain store the other day looking at what they offered in their cleaning products section. It bothered me that a number of products labeled as “Green”, “Natural”, or “Healthy” were not green, natural, or healthy at all!
A quick look at the label showed that there were a number of chemicals that I would never use in my house! They can get away with a lot on labels these days. You really have to educate yourself to long elaborate or Latin names in order to even know what you are putting in or around your body.
You can also completely move away from trying to decipher those ingredients or even buying those products, and instead, make your own using disinfectant essential oil blends.
The Best Disinfectant Essential Oils
***Note, if you are looking for cold and flu blends and herbal remedies CLICK HERE.
**If you’d like to purchase a blend from my shop click here.
A study by BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine studied 21 essential oils, of which 19 oils showed antibacterial properties.(1)
The best of these 19 oils were:
While all of these seem are great at killing germs, some of the above oils needed higher concentrations, or only killed certain strains of bacteria.
Cinnamon, clove, and lime were the best against multiple strains and just highly effective overall. (1)
Oils they said did not perform well: aniseed, eucalyptus, and camphor. You still shouldn’t discount these oils, because even if they aren’t great germ killers, they do other amazing things. Camphor, for example, is a great anti-inflammatory.
Another study found in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy examined 14 essential oils and their use against major illnesses like the Flu and E. coli. They found that the following were most effective: (2)
Once again, eucalyptus (one of my favorite smelling oils) was least effective, along with citron. Those of the above especially effective on E. coli were tea tree and coriander.
The Best Disinfectant Essential Oil Blends
Overall this is a great list! Peppermint and Tea Tree I’ve found to be rather inexpensive, so they make a great combination. Lemongrass and Lavender also make an amazing combination. Here are some more combinations to try:
- peppermint and tea tree
- lemongrass and lavender
- lavender and rosemary
- geranium and lime
- grapefruit, lemon, and lavender
- tea tree and orange
What’s your favorite combo?
