Many people love peppermint essential oil for its minty scent and invigorating aroma. Besides enjoying its refreshing fragrance, there are countless uses for peppermint essential oil that make it a versatile addition to any aromatherapy toolkit.
Focusing on peppermint essential oil is the perfect way to start the new year since it has properties that help to uplift and motivate. Emotional needs that many of us work to meet during the winter months and at the beginning of a new year.
So let’s dig in and learn the components that makeup peppermint oil, ways you can use peppermint oil, and different essential oil blends that incorporate this oil.
Components of Peppermint Essential Oil
A main component of peppermint essential oil is menthol. Menthol is a powerful compound that stimulates the central nervous system, helping us feel more alert and less fatigued. This is one of the benefits of peppermint essential oil that makes it so popular.
A study on the cognitive impact of peppermint essential oil shows evidence that inhaling peppermint essential oil can improve memory and increase alertness. Other peppermint essential oil emotional benefits include:
- Reduces fatigue
- Reduces anxiety
- Improves mental focus
Menthol is also a well-known topical pain reliever. It has a cooling and numbing effect when applied topically. Peppermint can help ease headache pain and tension because menthol inhibits muscle contractions in your head and neck. Areas of our bodies where we tend to hold stress. Menthol is also known to increase blood flow which helps in easing pain.
Uses for Peppermint Essential Oil
One of my favorite uses for peppermint essential oil is in a footbath. This soothing and restorative ritual is an excellent way to pamper tired feet while enjoying the benefits of peppermint essential oil for relaxation and rejuvenation.
Here is a great recipe using peppermint and a few other essential oils to give your feet a treat.
Peppermint Oil Foot Bath
- Cool water
- 1 drop Peppermint Essential Oil
- 2 drops Lavender Essential Oil
- 1 Tablespoon Jojoba Oil
Soak feet for 10-15 minutes and then follow up with unscented lotion to which you can add another drop of peppermint essential oil and then apply to your feet.
You can make it extra invigorating for those tired feet and use our Peppermint Mocha body butter which combines peppermint essential oil and organic coffee butter!
Peppermint Essential Oil for Headaches
Peppermint essential oil for headaches is a natural, effective remedy. One study found the use of peppermint oil was as effective as a 1000 mg dose of acetaminophen.
I curated a peppermint essential oil blend that we call Mind Mender. Besides peppermint essential oil, it contains a couple of powerhouse essential oils that have also been studied for their analgesic qualities – lavender and frankincense.
I often use a lavender and flax eye pillow in combination with the Mind Mender blend. I store the eye pillow in my freezer, so when I’m feeling stressed or have a tension headache, I use the Mind Mender rollerball on my neck, jawline, and temples, and then I lay the ice-cold soft eye pillow on my forehead and lay down for a few minutes.
It feels amazing, the coolness of the eye pillow combined with the cooling effects of the peppermint essential oil in Mind Mender soothes my head and neck. I get up feeling refreshed.
Peppermint Essential Oil Benefits for Emotional Regulation
Peppermint essential oil benefits go beyond physical wellness. Its ability to reduce fatigue, enhance focus, and boost mood makes it a key ingredient of our Star Essence Focus Blend. This blend also includes clary sage and cypress, creating a synergistic combination of essential oil blends with peppermint to calm the mind while improving attention.
This peppermint essential oil blend is safe for children as young as five.
It is a great peppermint essential oil blend to use when studying, taking a test, sitting through a meeting, or whenever you need a little extra help paying attention and staying alert. The Focus blend also includes cypress and clary sage essential oils.
Cypress helps to soothe feelings of being overwhelmed and clary sage has properties to help calm your mind. Together this blend can help you to feel alert and attentive while also calming any feelings of nervousness which can happen when we are faced with a big task or challenge.
I often use the Focus blend before beginning work with one of my clients. Together, we each use a Focus nasal inhaler and do breathwork meditation to help us concentrate on the communication work we do together.
My client, a young man in his early twenties that I’ve been working with since he was a small child, sometimes holds the Focus Putty in one hand fidgeting with it while we get his work done.
Essential Oil Blends with Peppermint
I have created several peppermint essential oil blends that are both versatile and effective. These blends combine the benefits of peppermint oil with other complementary oils to create powerful tools for emotional wellness.
If you prefer to apply essential oils topically, we have these options:
Peppermint Mocha Body Butter:
The combination of coffee and peppermint is a powerful boost for your mood and energy. Our Peppermint Mocha Body Butter uses a coffee butter base along with cocoa butter so it’s extra moisturizing for your skin. The invigorating and uplifting scent of coffee, cocoa, vanilla, and peppermint helps to awaken and motivate.
Star Essence Focus Rollerball:
The Star Essence Focus rollerball is a great way to get longer-lasting benefits as the oils are slowly absorbed through your skin. The calming effects of this blend help regulate the nervous system, reducing overstimulation and supporting emotional self-regulation.
Mind Mender Rollerball:
Relieve symptoms of tension naturally with this curated blend of 100% pure therapeutic-grade essential oils designed to bring a sense of peace and relaxation.
The powerful combination of frankincense, peppermint, and lavender essential oils offers many aromatherapy benefits, including reducing stress, balancing moods, and relieving tension headaches.
If you prefer to inhale the essential oils, each blend is also available as diffuser blends. Add one or two drops of one of these peppermint essential oil diffuser blends to your favorite aromatherapy diffuser.
Aromatherapy as a Tool to Support Emotional and Mental Health
I have worked for the past 20 years as an autism therapist and my Wellnessed business has grown out of my use of aromatherapy as a tool to help my clients with emotional regulation. T
he Wellnessed team believes that aromatherapy can be a powerful way to help support emotional and mental health. We believe life is about balance and aromatherapy is a beautiful balance of nature and science.
The individual chemical components that make up an essential oil are studied and researched to identify their effectiveness and uses. We take this knowledge to create innovative oil blends that are powerful additions to your wellness routine.
We don’t create “cures”, instead we create supportive tools that can be a part of your mental and emotional health plan.
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To your wellness... cheers!
Susan