Aromatherapy jewelry has been around for a while, but as our understanding of essential oil benefits has become more robust, so has the selection available out there.
Why do people love essential oil jewelry? Is it truly safe, and what are the benefits?
Aromatherapy jewelry allows you to get the benefits of aromatherapy in a container that you can carry around with you all day. With the right piece of jewelry, it’s a safe way to keep your essential oils with you.
While there are a lot of considerations to make when choosing a piece, like making sure that it’s made with quality materials and doesn’t touch your skin, there are still a plethora of great options to wear a beautiful piece of jewelry that gives you all the benefits of aromatherapy.
Whether you’re new to essential oils or an old hat, this article is going to dive into everything you need to know when choosing the right piece for your needs.
Table of Contents
What Aromatherapy Jewelry Is
Aromatherapy jewelry is essential oil jewelry. It’s a piece of jewelry that allows you to keep essential oils around with you all day long. While some jewelers are now experimenting with bracelets and earrings, most commonly you’ll find this in necklaces.
Because of this, you’ll often see aromatherapy jewelry referred to as an aromatherapy necklace, essential oil necklace, of a diffuser necklace.
That last term gives you a better idea of what this is, exactly. It’s a way to diffuse essential oils all day long.
While jewelers are experimenting with designs, you’re most commonly going to see a few specifications when looking at essential oil jewelry.
It’s typically going to be a necklace with a locket.
The clasp on the locket opens up and inside there is a removable pad. This pad is often made of felt, though a few other materials are sometimes used. Leather is considered the most expensive but is a solid and safe option. This pad will be placed inside the locket, and a single drop of your essential oil of choice will be placed on the pad using a dropper.
You will then close the locket. The design on the front of the locket will allow air to escape, allowing the essential oil to diffuse so you can breathe it in.
That single drop of essential oil will be strong enough to allow you to breathe in the benefits of your essential oil all day long. By placing it in a necklace in this way, you can safely keep the oil from your skin, breathe in the benefits, avoid bothering other people, smell nice, and always have your oils with you.
While this used to be a practice done by only a few, this type of jewelry is becoming more common. That means people are having more fun with a variety of design options.
While you can certainly choose one necklace to wear every day, many enthusiasts end up with a small collection of their favorite designs to go with all their outfits. If essential oils help you avoid headaches, relieve stress, or become more alert when you start to fade in the early afternoon, you’ll hardly want to have to be without them. Jewelry lets you keep them at hand all the time.
6 Benefits of Aromatherapy Jewelry
There are a lot of great benefits of aromatherapy, but here let’s just look at the specific benefits of essential oil jewelry. Being able to carry your oils with you everywhere is a unique experience, so let’s treat it that way.
1. Aromatherapy Benefits Everywhere You Go
As you’re walking through the grocery store and suddenly feel overwhelmed, you can pause for a moment, take a deep breath, and get the calming benefits of lavender. As you’re at work typing away in an office, and feel yourself drifting toward sleepiness, you can pause for a moment, take a deep breath, and get the rejuvenating benefits of citrus oil that helps you become more alert.
It’s not always possible to have a diffuser in your workspace to get essential oil benefits. It’s really not possible at the grocery store or on a walk through the woods. But when you have aromatherapy jewelry, you can keep the benefits of aromatherapy with you all day long.
2. It’s Cost-Effective
When you use essential oil jewelry, you place a single drop on the pad in your locket. When you use a diffuser, depending on the essential oil recipe you’re using, you use maybe three or five drops. Using the jewelry helps your pure essential oil supply last longer.
3. You Smell Amazing
A lot of products you can use for fragrance are expensive and made with toxic solutions. Perfume and lotions are full of so many chemicals. Applying essential oils directly to the skin isn’t safe, recommended, or cost-effective.
With aromatherapy jewelry, you can smell like lavender, citrus, or thyme. You can change your essential oil daily so you can get different benefits, keep yourself from getting too used to the scent to enjoy it, and so you can enjoy a different fragrance daily.
4. It’s Pretty
Wearing a necklace is just more fun, right? You can carry your favorite essential oil around with you while wearing something pretty. It’s a small benefit, but a fun one.
5. Choose Your Scent Based On Your Needs for the Day
When you have a stressful day ahead, you can use your favorite essential oil for that. When you already know it’s going to be a slog, you can choose an essential oil to help you get an extra pep in your step.
6. Individualized Needs
Diffusing essential oils in the living room of your home means that everyone in the living room will smell it. If you live alone, this isn’t an issue. But if you’re living with others, it may become a sore spot. When you wear essential oil jewelry, people in your immediate vicinity may smell it, like they would smell a perfume. But this isn’t the same as diffusing essential oils throughout the house.
With aromatherapy jewelry, you can get the benefits of essential oils in your own space without having to be as concerned with the needs of others in a wider space.
How to Choose My First Essential Oil for My Aromatherapy Jewelry
With essential oil jewelry, you really only need to purchase one oil to get started. However, you may want to try a few. If you don’t like one or find any benefits from it, it may be easy to believe that essential oils don’t work for you. While that may be true, more commonly the situation is that you haven’t found the right one with the benefits you’re looking for.
When making your first purchase, make sure to look for a pure essential oil. That means you need to read the ingredients label and see that only one essential oil is listed.
Sometimes, companies will dilute the essential oil with a carrier oil so they can lower the price. While that may be okay in some instances, if you’re looking for a pure essential oil, you want to make sure you know what you’re getting. The ingredient label should only list one ingredient, and it will likely be in its scientific name. So lavender will list “lavandula angustifolia” as its ingredient.
Some oils you may want to try from the beginning include tea tree oil, eucalyptus, citrus oil like lemon, grapefruit, or orange, frankincense, lavender, or mint oil. Keep in mind that you will want to research any oil you purchase since they all have different benefits and different warnings. For example, you never want to go out into the sun if you have a citrus oil on your skin, since it can have adverse reactions. Be sure you take a little time to read up before choosing the right essential oil for your needs.
Safety Rules for Essential Oils
Never ingest essential oils. Some people may find that confusing because they see a label that sounds like something you can eat. Essential oils are good for you, the label says “citrus”, and so it’s easy to think that you can eat them. This is a particular concern with children or pets, since they will smell something like food. While essential oils are made from plants, they are highly concentrated and can be very bad for your health.
You also never want to apply a pure essential oil topically. A pure essential oil should be diluted with a carrier oil before used on the skin. This means that you can mix a few drops of pure essential oil like lavender with a larger quantity of a carrier oil like fractionated coconut oil, grapeseed oil, or jojoba oil to create a massage oil. This is a nice way to have a relaxing massage and get the benefits of aromatherapy at the same time.
You never want to use pure essential oils in a diffuser on their own, either. When using a diffuser, you will apply a mix of a few drops of a pure essential oil with a larger quantity of water. This will allow you to safely breathe them in.
To safely use essential oil jewelry, you’ll apply a drop of essential oil to a felt pad in a locket. You will close the locket and then breathe the single drop in throughout the day. This is a way to breathe them in at a low level.
If you have any new ideas about how to use essential oils, always check trusted sources for safety first. While essential oils can easily be used and enjoyed safely for great benefits, it’s easy to also do something that can cause harm to your health. Keep them out of reach of children and pets and always be mindful of how you’re storing and using them.
What to Look For In Essential Oil Jewelry
There is a lot of aromatherapy jewelry out there. A lot. There was a time when this was more of a niche purchase, but now, your options are endless.
In many ways, this is a good thing. It means you can find exactly what you want.
In other ways, this is to your detriment. Because there are so many options, there can be a lot to sift through. There are many types of materials, designs, sellers, and ways that the essential oil is diffused.
So how do you choose one that works well for you? The first thing we’re going to talk about here is safety.
Safety Concerns When Choosing Aromatherapy Jewelry
The safety concerns are fairly simple, but they’re easy to ignore when you get shopping. At least, if you’re anything like me. You may see a very pretty design at a great price and want to move forward on that one. The appeal is there. Some of the most beautiful and intricate designs are prominently displayed on websites, sold as “essential oil jewelry” (which is what I’m looking for) and I want that one.
The problem is, there are some specific things you need to look for when choosing a piece that is specifically meant for aromatherapy. So while it may be a beautiful necklace, a lot of what is currently on the market doesn’t actually work with safe aromatherapy practices.
Here’s what you need to think about, at the end of the day: is essential oil going to be touching my skin in this scenario?
When we use essential oils in any manner, we never want to allow pure essential oils to touch our skin. So when we use a diffuser to disperse essential oils in a room, we dilute the essential oils with water first. When we use essential oils for massage oil, we mix a few drops of the essential oil with a carrier oil, like fractionated coconut oil, jojoba oil, or sweet almond oil.
Many sellers today are getting into selling essential oil jewelry because people have heard about the benefits of essential oils and want to bring those with them throughout the day. As buyers are excited, craftspeople are creating jewelry to meet that demand. However, they are often craftspeople who are into making jewelry, but not necessarily knowledgeable about essential oils. They are simply trying to meet customer demands and so they make jewelry based on what they know.
Now we have the problem that there are a lot of unsafe designs out there. Since they are so common, they seem okay. And when it seems like it’s okay, designers create even more of these pieces of jewelry. And the cycle continues.
This is unfortunate, but all it means for you is that you need to be mindful when choosing aromatherapy jewelry. You want to find a piece that is going to let you breathe in essential oils without allowing them to touch your skin.
You also probably want to find a material that won’t corrode, turn your skin green, or create other problems for your skin health.
For the most part, you want to find essential oil jewelry in stainless steel, silver, or gold. Typically, these will be in lockets. The back of the locket should be a solid surface. The front should have a design that leaves openings. The openings allow the scent of the aromatherapy to get out. Typically, there will be a pad you can place a drop of essential oil on for the day. You place the pad inside the locket and the fragrance is emitted through the holes in the front of the design. The solid back of the locket keeps your skin protected from the essential oils.
And then, of course, look for a piece you like!
6 Great Pieces of Aromatherapy Jewelry
With so many options out there, this list will help you narrow things down. These aromatherapy jewels come from a variety of sellers, in a variety of price points, to help everyone find the right piece of safe jewelry for their needs.
Role Gold Essential Oil Necklace
This locket on Etsy is inexpensive, simple, and pretty. There is a pad inside for applying the essential oil safely. The rose gold is a modern design and the seller has multiple chain lengths you can select from to customize your choice.
Find this necklace on Etsy here.
Essential Oil Tree Designed Bracelet
Yes, a bracelet. You’re not going to breathe in the essential oils as closely with a bracelet as you will with a necklace, but this is a matter of personal preference. If you’re looking for a bracelet, this is a fun and simple choice. It’s made with 316L stainless steel, which is considered great for essential oils, but has a rose gold finish. The back is solid. It comes with 24 refill pads for applying the essential oils to. The bracelet is adjustable. And it has a nice tree design. This is also a very inexpensive option, so might be a good way to try out essential oil jewelry without too much of an investment upfront.
You can find this bracelet on Amazon here.
Essential Oil Tree Design Necklace
This is actually from a different designer than the bracelet mentioned above, but has a similar design on a necklace. This “tree of life” essential oil necklace comes with twelve refill pads and four pure essential oils to try out. The refill pads come in different colors, which is a fun touch since it changes the look of the necklace. The pendant is made from stainless steel.
This is another less expensive option to get started.
You can find this tree of life necklace on Amazon here.
Rose Gold Mandala
This rose gold mandala is made from stainless steel, has a solid back, and comes with ten different pads in various colors. The necklace has a simple mandala design and comes with different chain lengths. It also comes with one essential oil of your choice.
You can find this Mandala necklace on Etsy here.
Incanted Wellness Diffuser Pendant
This is a beautiful piece that has been designed to last. The seller, Anjaca, has this in other similar designs as well. They have two types of chains in two different lengths available, so you can choose a chain link or a beaded chain. The necklace is made with 316L stainless steel, has a solid back, and comes with felt pads in different colors to switch up the look of the necklace.
You can find this necklace on the Anjaca website right here.
Aromatherapy Necklace With A Lot of Customization
This one is particularly fun in that you can get exactly what you want.
You can order this simple essential oil necklace with one pad or six. You probably want to go ahead and order it with six, just so you have refills on hand. You can order each one in whatever color you choose.
There are choices you can make about the length of the stainless steel chain.
You can also decide to add an engraving to the back. Would you like to add someone’s name? Your powerful word for the year? An important date?
This aromatherapy necklace has a solid back and everything else you need to look for in safe aromatherapy jewelry. It’s definitely a solid choice.
You can find it on MonogramHub here.
Is Aromatherapy Jewelry Right For Me?
This is a question you can only answer for yourself, though I can help you think it through some.
First, you have to decide if you enjoy essential oils. Some may have already tried essential oils, found the ones they get the most health benefits from and are pure enthusiasts. Some people hearing about this type of jewelry are considering essential oils for the first time.
If you’re new to the world of essential oils, this jewelry may be a solid way for you to test it out. Your other main options are to purchase a diffuser and see if you enjoy having a room smell like essential oils or research massage oils for topical solutions. These are both solid options as well, but applying a single drop to a pad in a piece of jewelry can be an easy way to break into the world of essential oils. It gives you just one oil to consider to see how you react to, you don’t need to feel pressured to explore many solutions, and it’s more personalized and private.
If you know and love essential oils, then the biggest benefit to you will likely be the fact that you can bring this with you everywhere. If that sounds like a great thing to you, then essential oil jewelry is definitely something you’ll want to pursue.
In terms of who may not enjoy aromatherapy jewelry, your concerns may be more circumstantial. For instance, if you work in a daycare where children may tug at your jewelry, this may just not be practical for you. Same if you work with pets or otherwise have a job where jewelry is impractical, like in a factory where it can get caught on things. You may still enjoy wearing aromatherapy jewelry during other parts of your day, but that’s a scenario where it may just not work for you.
Enjoying Essential Oil Jewelry
To get the most benefits from your aromatherapy jewelry, you’ll want to choose a design you enjoy and use essential oils you love. Ideally, you will find a few different oils over time, so you can switch things up with your mood. Make sure to properly clean your jewelry regularly, so the oils don’t build up inside and confuse the scents.
By being able to switch things up regularly, you’ll have more fun and keep your own interest in your essential oil jewelry longer. This may just be the way you end up with a collection of oils, a diffuser, massage oils, and a life of relaxation ahead of you.