This all natural essential oil fusion has been created to soothe tension headaches, migraine and nausea. The blend offers cooling, stabilizing properties to help relieve tension and tightness while supporting calm and restoring equilibrium.
Some of the more common contributors to migraine and tension headaches include: hormonal fluctuations, environmental factors (weather/barometric pressure changes/exposure to synthetic fragrances/artificial light/other pollutants), stress — both emotional and structural (tech neck is a thing) and dietary triggers.
Understanding your personal triggers can be one of the most helpful ways to prevent and minimize onset. Lifestyle approaches and holistic health modalities, including aromatherapy, can be supportive when headache/migraine does occur.
Not Just Pixie Dust
(Although, who doesn’t love pixie dust)
There is plenty of good science supporting the use of essential oils, particularly peppermint, in soothing and relieving tension headaches, migraine and nausea. As a writer, I tread a fine line between providing useful information and not boring my audience to tears. So here goes.
A closer look at the bioactive properties of this essential oil blend:
PEPPERMINT
With its characteristic cool, refreshing and tingly menthol constituent (the opposite of inflaming), peppermint offers an aspect of clearance — helping to ease tension while offering grounding, steadying properties. When used in aromatherapy, peppermint oil has been shown to have medicinal benefits for headache (and here), migraine and the reduction in nausea and vomiting (links to studies).
LAVENDER
Revered for its beautiful, delicate fragrance and mood enhancing properties, lavender has been shown to support calm by helping to reduce anxiety and depression while also improving sleep quality (links to studies).
SWEET MARJORAM
Sometimes described as the herbal equivalent of lavender, marjoram is one of my favorite essential oils; if you’ve not yet discovered it, prepare to fall in love. Deeply. This soft herbaceous oil is a beautiful complement to the floral lavender in lessening stress and supporting a balanced nervous system and a calm mind (links to studies).
ROSEMARY
Not unlike peppermint, rosemary oil with its characteristic camphor aroma (think eucalyptus or ”vicks vaporub” smell) provides both uplifting and stabilizing elements. A robust and energizing herbal, rosemary facilitates aspects of clearance and strength while offering neuroprotective benefits through its anti-inflammatory action (link to study).
FRANKINCENSE
Frankincense is one of those fragrances that makes you feel like you’re holding the universe in the palm of your hand. It has an undeniable strength and grounding element in its deep woodsy aroma but also a quality of clarity and courage that makes it uniquely empowering. Well known for its skin benefits, frankincense essential oil is in another modulator of inflammation and immune support (link to study).
How to Use this Essential Oil Roll-On
The roll-on application allows you to easily glide the essential oil blend across your temples and forehead (avoiding eyes), wrists/pulse points, palms and the nape of your neck (back of the neck just below the hairline). It also travels well, so you can tuck it into your bag/purse and leave one at your desk at work.
My favorite way to use it: one of my favorite ways to use this oil preparation is to spread some across the palm of one hand, rub my palms together and then raise cupped hands over my face (with eyes closed and covered) and just breathe in that resting position. This works especially well if you’re lying down or can recline in some fashion — it’s also wonderful for airline travel — a great one to have in your inflight goodie bag! (we should talk about inflight goodie bags soon).
THE CARRIER OIL
Essential oils are concentrated plant extracts that can cause irritation when applied directly to the skin; a carrier oil is used to dilute the potency of the oil but not diminish its bioactive impact. The function of the carrier oil is to essentially transport the essential oils more safely to the skin while facilitating absorption.
My favorite carrier oil for this roll-on is fractionated coconut oil — which I wrote about in detail in this post; there are many other carrier oils you can explore including sweet almond oil, options laid out in post as well.
- 6 drops peppermint essential oil
- 3 drops rosemary essential oil
- 2 drops lavender essential oil
- 2 drops marjoram essential oil
- 2 drops frankincense essential oil
- fill remaining 10 mL with fractionated coconut oil (bottles found on Amazon)
- In a clean 10 mL bottle with roller top removed, drop: peppermint, rosemary, lavender, marjoram and frankincense oil. Fill the remaining portion of the bottle (just until you reach the bottom 'neck' of the bottle not to the top) with fractionated coconut oil.
- You can use a dropper and mini funnel with the essential oils and/or fractionated coconut oil (I used a dropper for the fractionated coconut oil part).
- Placing a clean finger on the opening of the bottle, invert the mixture turning it back and forth to mix the oils and then returning it to the upright position.
- Reinsert the roller ball to the top of the bottle, making sure that it is firmly/evenly in place without damaging. Screw op top.
- Enjoy your soothing essential oil fusion!
Patch Test
As a precautionary measure, you can perform a patch test of this roll-on by applying it to clean skin on the inside of your elbow or wrist, cover with a bandage and leave for 24 hours. If a rash or redness appears, discontinue (but be sure to pass it on to your bestie ♥) — have I mentioned that it smells divine?
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This roll-on is intended for external use only and may not be suitable for children or during pregnancy. The information in this post is provided for educational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for the advice of your physician. Always consult your physician or other health care professional directly before beginning or changing a course of health treatment.
What if I do not have rosemary?
hello, i feel like rosemary eo is an important ingredient in this recipe; that said, if you’re unable to get some, you could try substituting eucalyptus eo ~ cheers.
I am on my third batch! I love this recipe so much, the combination of fragrances are so soothing. I will confess though that I add more drops of each oil to make it more concentrated. Thank you!
hello Meri, thank you for your kind words and for dropping in with your feedback – i’m delighted to hear that you’re enjoying this roll-on and that you found an intensity level that works best for you, that’s perfect. cheers.
Hi Kelly,
Love your post, so interesting and inspiring. You brought your creativity to a new level! I have never used essential oils before but the ease of the roll-on along with the fresh scents of the natural herbs seem beyond tempting.
Also, I must say that I especially love your photos – truly spectacular!
Keep up your fantastic work :)
thanks so much Lynn, appreciate your encouraging words of support; photos are what i struggle with the most on the blog, happy to know how they’re received, hugs, x
What a great idea! I love using essential oils in my Lampe Berger, I bet this combo would work well fragrancing the house. Do you think I could use it without the roller jar, just rubbing it directly on the skin?
you sure could! (i use peppermint in the kitchen in a water spray bottle – luuuv the invigorating scent and it sure snaps back at lingering curry aromas and stinky brussels sprouts, hah!)
Kelly
Just looking at the post I feel more relaxed.
What a great idea to create one’s own roll on.
I always have a roll on for the start of my day and the end of the day..
The scents you have chosen seem delightful.
Cannot wait to try to create one🦋
Ahhh, the best :) hope this roll-on treats you well, a nice one to add to the lineup♥ it really is fun (and a heck of a lot cheaper) to self-create:) x
Would you consider selling a bottle (with all the contents?) My daughter really suffers from migraines, and I would like to see if it would work for her before buying all these essential oils. Thanks! (I met you at the Y! Are you back there there yet?)
HI Carole! I’d be happy to drop one off for you to pass along to your daughter, no need to pay for that, my pleasure (will reach out by email to confirm address). I did a few of the outdoor group fitness classes, teacher’s wonderful, terrain not ideal — I’m counting down the days till we return to the inside gym, see you there :))
Hi Kelly – another in a continuing line of beautiful and informative posts! As a person occasionally prone to an attack of “tech neck,” I am looking forward to trying your formulation. Love the balance of well curated research and on-going sense of fun in your writing. Thanks!
what a thoughtful note, thank you for the sunshine! darn tech neck :d get y’a every time
Hi Kelly. What a great post (not boring at all!). I’ve been using essential oils for years and can’t imagine life without them, and I’m very interested in this blend you’ve concocted. I need to ask, where did you get those nifty bottles with the rolling ball? They’re perfect. 😊
thanks so much Suzanne! aren’t the bottles cute, couldn’t resist the bamboo lids:) i just popped the link into the recipe card (hopefully it works), thanks for dropping in, appreciate your feedback, x
Interesting information. Over the past couple of years I have become more interested in essential oils, but still haven’t used them that much. I did start using a lavender scented lotion at bedtime that has helped me sleep more deeply. Luckily, I don’t suffer from migraines or stress related headaches, or headaches of any kind for that matter; but if I did, I would definitely give your remedy a go.
your evening lavender ritual sounds so nice mj ♥ such a gentle supportive fragrance; i sometimes run my hands along the stems of the lavender in our garden covering my hands with the scent that follows me into the house; nature is pretty wonderful.
Yes nature is pretty wonderful. Many mornings I’ll rub my hands through my rosemary bush (which is huge), and then run my fingers through my hair. Bobby can’t help but to bury his face in my hair. :)
Oh MJ… I just love that <3