5 Tips For Using Essential Oils In Hot Tubs
Essential oils can help you feel relaxed or invigorate you. They can also help soothe aching muscles and are commonly used to help cure diseases. Using essential oils in your hot tub can increase the spa-like affect of your hot tub. However, it is important that you use essential oils wisely. Below are five tips to get you started.
Use Anti-Fungal or Anti-Bacterial Oils to Keep Your Water Fresh
Many essential oils have either anti-bacterial or anti-fungal properties. Some of the more common examples include eucalyptus, peppermint, lavender, cinnamon, and tea tree oil. These can help limit bacterial and fungus in your tub when they are added to the water. While you may want to use a specific blend of anti-bacterial and anti-fungal essential oils during a deep clean of your hot tub, you may also want to add a few drops of one of these oils to a soaking blend. This way, when people enter your hot tub with a bacterial or fungal infection, the bacteria or fungus may be neutralized before spreading to other people.
Beware of Oils that Result In Photosensitive Skin
Some essential oils can cause a photosensitive reaction on your skin. This means that after your skin has been exposed to the essential oil, if it is exposed to sunlight or other UV lights, you may experience a rash, blisters, or darkening of the skin, similar to a bad sunburn. Photosensitivity is mostly caused by citrus essential oils.
It is best to avoid photosensitive-inducing essential oils when people will be using the hot tub. However, you can still use these oils for cleaning purposes if there will be enough time for the oil to evaporate before someone uses the hot tub. Since essential oils are volatile and evaporate quickly, you should be okay to use the hot tub by the next day.
Use Only Pure Essential Oils
Essential oils are safe to use in a hot tub because they evaporate quickly and do not stick to the sides of the tub or in the plumbing. However, other types of oils should not be used in a hot tub. Essential oils are often mixed with a carrier oil, such as argon oil, to dilute the effects of the oil. However, since you will be using a small amount in a large body of water, it is not necessary to dilute your essential oils. Additionally, it is important to make sure you are purchasing real essential oils as opposed to infused oils, which are carrier oils that have the scent of the essential oils but not the same chemical properties.
Use Small Amounts of Essential Oils
Essential oils are highly concentrated, powerful oils, which means that you only have to use a small amount of them to achieve their benefits. In general, you will want to use about 3 drops of essential oil per person capacity of your tub. Keep in mind that this number refers to the capacity of your tub, so if you have a 6-person tub, you should use 18 drops of essential oil, even if only 3 people are using the tub at the time. Also, you can blend more than three types of essential oils together, as long as you follow the correct total dosage.
Use Thieve's Oil for a Deep Clean
Thieve's oil is a blend of essential oils that have high anti-bacterial properties. There are several recipes, most of them containing clove, lemon, cinnamon, and eucalyptus oils. You will notice that thieves oil blends contain a citrus oil, so they should not be used while someone is using the hot tub. However, they can effectively clean your hot tub if you use a large dose (doubling the normal dose) when the tub will not be used for a while.
If you want to know how essential oils might affect your spa in particular, reach out to a professional, such as Ole's Pool & Spa, for more information.
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