Can you put too much oil in a diffuser?

Last Updated on December 4, 2019

Yes, essential oils are great for wellness but this doesn’t necessarily mean that filling up your diffuser with special scents will make you feel better than faster. Using too much essential oil can sometimes even have the opposite effect of improving your mood and overall wellness.

What we should never forget when dealing with essential oils is that they are very potent versions of their original plant forms and using too much in a single session will have side effects such as nausea, irritation and many other effects that depend on the type of essential oil you are using.

How many drops of essential oils should you put in your diffuser?

As an avid essential oils consumer, I know how annoying it can be to go too much without the scents that help promote healthy states of mind or help to induce sleep. This is why it’s understandable that you might want to use more essential drops than usual in order to boost their efficiency. Unfortunately, this is not how it works. With that said, let’s go ahead and check out how many drops you should put in a diffuser depending on its size.

100ml – 3-5 drops

200 ml – 6-10 drops

300 ml – 9-12 drops

400 ml – 12-15 drops

500 ml – 15-20 drops

A good rule of thumb that you can follow is to have a ratio of dilution for essential oils of 0.5% to 1%. This is usually 1 or 2 drops per teaspoon of carrier oil.

In addition, we are advising everyone to not overwhelm the area with fragrance. The reason behind this is that most scented products, which include essential oils, can prove to be irritating when inhaled. You only want to have a hint of a scent instead of a dousing.

What if you add too many essential oil drops?

Did you love how amazing one of your new essential oils made you feel and you added 5 or more drops in the diffuser? Fortunately, this doesn’t mean that you need to book a hotel room and wait for the diffuser to empty itself.

The only thing you need to do in order to save the situation is to pour the contents of the diffuser in a glass jar and then dilute it with water. This trick will also help you save the drops you added.

Useful Tips

• You should avoid using essential oils directly on the skin;
• The fastest and best way to enjoy diffusing essential oils is to always add them fresh to the diffuser;
• If you are using a diffuser in your bedroom or living room, make sure that the room is not ventilated so that the scent last for longer times;
• Don’t forget to change the water and clean the bowl of your diffuser every couple of days;
• People who have high blood pressure should not diffuse essential oils for more than 60 minutes at a time because otherwise, their heart beats per minute will be affected.