Unlock Your Creative Potential: Essential Oils for Inspiration, Focus, and Energy

Creative Discipline	Qualities and Feelings to Instill and Encourage
Painting	Relaxation	Passion	Focus	Uplifting
Dancing	Connection to Inner Self	Switching off the conscious mind	Passion	Energizing
Music	Energising	Focus	Calm	Relaxation
Crafting	Focus	Concentration	Relaxation	Peace
Writing	Concentration	Clarity	Stamina	Focus
Reading	Relaxation	Calm	Peace	Comforting
Studying	Balancing	Refreshing	Concentration	Focus
Storytelling	Stimulating	Enlivening	Uplifting	Sensuous

Best Essential Oils For Creativity

Again, the best essential oils for creativity come down to you knowing what you actually want them to do for you! But let’s give you a few to choose from and narrow down the field for you. 

Uplifting Essential Oils For Creativity 

Personally, I just love citrus essential oils for creativity, especially orange citrus aromas. Sweet Orange, Mandarin, and Bergamot are all associated with uplifting, energizing, and making us feel better about life.

Mandarin actually has relaxing properties, so it can help you relax in times when you also need to be focused and stimulated making it the perfect choice for creative endeavors.

Sweet Orange and Tangerine are bright, and feisty and keep you going when things are a bit of a slog or you have lost your inspiration.  

Finding Mental Clarity & Focus Using Essential Oils For Creativity

Think sharp green herbs for mental clarity and focus, and you can’t go too far wrong. Plump for essential oils like Rosemary, Clary Sage, Peppermint, and Summer Savory. They are all wonderful for bringing clarity, shutting out the background noise, and bringing things sharply into focus. They can help with stamina and the need to work under stress and pressure.

Inhaling Summer Savory is particularly good for boosting resolve and resilience during times of prolonged stress, but do not use it on the skin and avoid it during pregnancy. 

I also like those ‘breath of fresh air’ essential oils like Spearmint, Eucalyptus, and Camphor for clearing the mind, pressing reset, and settling back to task. These are especially good if you have been working for a long time, take a break, and struggle with the will to start again. Inhale a blend of these and you’ll be raring to go! It always feels like a ‘blank canvas’ to me, so good for kickstarting inspiration after being blocked, or struggling for new ideas. 

Sensuous and Hypnotic Essential Oils For Creativity

It’s impossible to tell how many of the creative processes that went into famous artworks happened under the influence, but it seems likely it is more than you think! 

From Picasso’s (potentially) opium fueled Blue Period to Van Gogh’s Absinthe and Digitalis consumption, people have been using substances to influence their creativity for millennia. 

Creative disciplines like dancing, painting, and drawing are enhanced by switching off the active/conscious mind and working from the inner, or core, self. Essential oils with intoxicating or hypnotic effects like Ylang-Ylang, Jasmine, Neroli, and Tuberos loosen inhibitions to ‘just create’.

No thought. No judgment. It’s a powerful place to create from. 

Granted. essential oils are a little bit more mainstream than narcotics, but they are easier to get your hands on and no black hoodie or Jackie O sunglasses are required! (Oh go on then. Keep the glasses…)

A Boost Of Confidence

Hypnotic essential oils can come with a bit of ‘the devil may care attitude’ and a sense of euphoria, especially Ylang-Ylang, Neroli, and Jasmine, thanks to a constituent called Indole. 

It may seem like an odd thing to say, but many people want to be creative but just never start. There can be many reasons for this: time, resources, and family responsibilities. More often than not though, it is about fear of being judged. Judged by other people, or worse, by themselves. 

So ask yourself this...

Are you avoiding the ballet class because of your jiggly thighs? Are you worried you’re too old for pole dancing, juggling, or pottery? Do you feel too dumb for the poetry club or writer's circle? 

Come over and join your club, because I assure you, you’re not alone! 

The best way to be creative - is to START! Hypnotic oils might just get you across the threshold to give a new hobby a try.  

Stimulating Essential Oils For Creativity

Ylang Ylang has hypnotic qualities, and patchouli brings energy down into the body. Combine Ylang-Ylang with Patchouli for a powerful combination to stimulate dance (especially), exercise or just to get you moving. Drop a couple of orange citrus oils in too, like Bergamot or Sweet Orange to boost your energy, and shake off inhibitions. A potent little number for gym or dance class. 

Spice oils like Ginger, Pink Pepper, and Black Pepper have amazing stimulating properties and can get things moving in both your body and mind. Warming, comforting, and energizing they get us moving in ways that feel familiar and safe to us. This is useful if we feel nervous, or fretful or if we are wary of what people might say or think. 

Step out of your comfort zone. Boost enthusiasm with big bold oils like Cinnamon and Wintergreen which are best inhaled. Take giant strides towards enhanced creative energy with these. 

Calmer Essential Oils For Creativity

I often turn to creative crafts to calm and soothe me and to reduce stress.  I want oils that invoke a cool, calm, and collected energy but that won’t make me so sleepy that I just want to drift off. 

I love using Mandarin to get the creative juices flowing and lead to better creative energy while keeping me calm, relaxed, and focused on the task at hand. It’s not too stimulating. Try it! I love it for meditation too.

For an essential oil blend to shift you out of a creative rut, try Lavender with a dash of Spearmint. They balance each other beautifully -  Quiet, enhanced creativity, and focused concentration.

Whichever essential oils for creativity you choose, make sure they are suited to what YOU need them to do. 

How To Use Essential Oils For Creativity

Now we know which essential oils for creativity to use, you need to know how to use them. 

Diffusing Essential Oils For Creativity

If you are working from home or have an accommodating workplace, diffusing essential oils is an ideal way to use essential oils for creativity.

Using Candles and Reed Diffusers are other ways of scenting more confined spaces and can help you boost your creativity. They can be especially helpful for scenting your work or studio space before you start work, to provoke inspiration and set the theme.  

But just remember if you are using it in the workplace it will affect everyone around you too. Be especially mindful of this if you are using relaxing essential oils like Lavender that can send some people straight to sleep! Worse, essential oils in diffusers can be problematic for people suffering from epilepsy, high blood pressure, or ADHD, so if you are working in a team, having a personal applicator like an inhaler or aroma pendant is better.

Inhaling Essential Oils For Creativity

Inhaling essential oils for creativity gives you the ability to use them as and when you need them. Plus they are discrete for the work environment. 

You can buy specialist inhaler sticks to which you add undiluted essential oil to a felt pad and simply inhale as you need a boost. They are easy to store and can be popped into an art or music box.

Rollerballs offer both inhalation and the chance to wear your blends for a longer-lasting effect on your skin. Your essential oils always need to be carefully diluted in a carrier oil when used in this way. Rollerballs do offer you the best of both worlds and are my preference. Again, easy to transport and store. 

You can also buy Aroma Pendants or necklaces that contain a felt pad to which you apply your diluted essential oil blend. It will be on hand as and when you need it and you simply refresh the blend as and when. Always dilute your essential oils in carrier oils for these necklaces since the essential oils can sometimes leak and get onto your skin. 

All of these are wonderfully discrete and can be used in most work environments.  

All of these methods are particularly useful to use during meditation if that is part of your creative process. If it isn’t, why not try it alongside using essential oils for creativity?

Wearing Essential Oils For Creativity

If you have longer-term creative goals and processes it can be useful to consider a long-term approach. In this instance, I would suggest wearing (and absorbing) your essential oils for creativity in a cream, oil, or lotion.

Authors may need a sustained source of inspiration and motivation, as might traveling theater productions and musicians on tour. This is where applying them to the body, diluted in a base of some kind, keeps creative juices flowing and maintains enhanced creativity over sustained periods.  

Additionally, using them in this way means you enjoy the properties of the essential oil too! Maybe that Sweet Orange will give you a good detox, revitalize and brighten your skin, and boost your immunity to boot! All great reasons to pop a few drops in your daily Hand Cream. 

Other Ways To Use Essential Oils For Creativity

Regular readers will know that I can come up with a hundred ways to supplement using essential oils for creativity while masquerading as hand wash, laundry cleanser, or massage oil! 

Looks like I already did! Unlock The Power Of Aromatherapy: 100 Ways To Use Essential Oils.

There’s no reason why you cannot use your essential oils for creativity blends in some of these products, though you do need to keep an eye on your essential oil safety data when formulating your own blend and recipe combinations. 

Use your creativity blend to scent your laundry detergents, softeners, and cleansers and scent your bed linen for dream work and to find inspiration in your dreams. Use it to scent your dancing kit or even your apron! 

If you have a little ritual of your own before you settle down to create, consider adding scent and aroma and the benefits of the essential oils themselves into your ritual or routine. Candles, diffusers, and even a bowl of potpourri can all add to the ambiance. If your ritual is a little more spiritual, essential oils make wonderful offerings. 

Do you meet as a group? Bitch and Stitch, Knit and Natter, Paper and Paste? With everyone's permission, why not experiment with different essential oils each time and see what it inspires in you all? 

I remember doing a class once where my lesson plan went pot, so we ended up painting the envisaged aromas of a chosen essential oil. It was sensational! The results were things of beauty and everyone left on a high, excited and inspired by what they had produced. Even the absolute novices who struggled with the concept of painting an aroma. It was a joy to behold. Why not try it for yourself? 

Diffuser Blends With Essential Oils For Creativity

I have designed a versatile collection of Diffuser Blends for you to enhance your creativity. I have made sure that they are also skin-safe when you dilute them as instructed. 

Use these 10ml creative blends in your home diffuser, reed diffusers, rollerballs, and aroma pendants. 

You Will Need:

1. Small measuring jug
2. Silicone spatula
3. Funnel
4. 10ml dark amber glass bottle with dropper insert
5. Oil and waterproof label

Inspire Me Diffuser Blend

• 4 ml of Mandarin Essential Oil (Citrus Reticulata)
• 3 ml of Sweet Orange Essential Oil (Citrus Sinensis L)
• 2 ml of Clary Sage Essential Oil (Salvia Sclarea)
• 16 drops of Ylang Ylang Essential Oil (Cananga Odorata)

Safety:

• Do not use in the first 37 weeks of pregnancy.
• Always dilute this blend to use it topically. Mandarin is phototoxic so don’t use any more than 6 drops of your blend in 20 ml of carrier oil to stay skin-safe with your Rollerballs and Aroma Pendants. Since mandarin can oxidize quickly to cause skin sensitization, replace your bottle regularly.

Calm Me Diffuser Blend

• 4 ml of Lavender Essential Oil (Lavandula Angustifolia)
• 3 ml of Patchouli Essential Oil (Pogostemon Cablin)
• 3 ml of Mandarin Essential Oil (Citrus Reticulata)

Safety:

• Do not use it in the first 16 weeks of pregnancy.
• Always dilute this blend to use it topically. Mandarin is phototoxic so don’t use any more than 6 drops of your blend in 20 ml of carrier oil to stay skin-safe with your Rollerballs and Aroma Pendants. Since mandarin can oxidize quickly to cause skin sensitization, replace your bottle regularly.

Stimulate Me Diffuser Blend

• 3 ml of Clary Sage Essential Oil (Salvia Sclarea)
• 3 ml of Peppermint Essential Oil (Mentha Piperita)
• 3 ml of Spearmint Essential Oil (Mentha Spicata)
• 1 ml of Rosemary Essential Oil (Rosmarinus Officinalis)

Safety:

• Do not use it in the first 16 weeks of pregnancy.
• Not suitable for topical use on young children.
• Always dilute this blend to use it topically. Use 6 drops of your blend in 20 ml of carrier oil to stay skin-safe with your Rollerballs and Aroma Pendants. 
• Rosemary Specific
• Rosemary contains constituents proven to be pro-convulsive for some people, be cautious with this essential oil if you have epilepsy.
• The stimulant nature of Rosemary may also stimulate your blood pressure, so those with hypertension - High Blood Pressure need to use it with caution, if at all.
• It contains constituents that can be neurotoxic and can affect psychosis or delusory issues like schizophrenia; use with extreme caution if you experience or are diagnosed with any of these.

Peppermint Specific 

• Peppermint stimulates the heart, so it carries a mild risk of fibrillation. 
• Anyone with epilepsy or a heart condition should use only the smallest dilutions. 
• G6PD is a blood disorder that mainly affects males. Therefore, Peppermint essential oil is not suitable for patients with G6PD Deficiency.

How to Use:

Home Diffusers

• Follow your individual manufacturer's guidelines for your diffusers, please.  

Reed Diffusers

• Follow the instructions given in How To Make Reed Diffusers and mix Grapeseed carrier oil with high-proof vodka and a dispersant. Then add up to 6 ml of essential oils/fragrance blend to make your Reed Diffuser base. 

Rollerballs 

• Take 20 ml of carrier oil, like Grapeseed or Coconut, and add up to 6 drops of your undiluted Diffuser Blends with essential oils for creativity and combine them. Use a funnel and decant into a 20 ml rollerball, pop the cap, and top on. Label, listing all ingredients for safety. 
• Apply as and when needed up to 8 times a day. Don’t forget to do a patch test!  

Aroma Pendants

• Dilute as for rollerballs above and drip a few drops onto your felt pad. Refresh as needed and use a new pad for a new blend. 

Recipes With Essential Oils For Creativity

Let's get essential oils for creativity working hard for us and employ them in varied ways to inspire, stimulate, and energize our creative process. Allow them to calm your mind, focus your intent, and release the burden of inhibitions and judgment.  

Set the scene and start focused and energized with our Focus My Creativity Room Spray. The

Creative Long-Term Goals Body Lotion keeps the energy flowing over a prolonged period and supports you through these longer periods. The Creative Ritual Oil can be used in a variety of ways to boost creative energy and kickstart creative processes. It can also help you connect with spirit and divine energy. 

Focus My Creativity Room Spray

You can use essential oils for creativity to set the scene before you even set down to work. Give the room a good spritz of this and soon enough the desire to get moving, explore, and find your rhythm in the process will kick in. 

You Will Need:

1. Measuring jug
2. Stainless steel spoon
3. Funnel
4. 100 ml spray bottle
5. Oil and waterproof label 

Ingredients:

• 92 ml of Distilled Water (Aqua)
• 2 ml of Dispersant like Polysorbate 20 or 80 or Castile Soap
• 40 drops of Mandarin Essential Oil (Citrus Reticulata)
• 20 drops of Litsea Cubeba Essential Oil (Litsea Cubeba)
• 20 drops of Rosemary Essential Oil (Rosmarinus Officinalis)
• 20 drops of Lavender Essential Oil (Lavandula Angustifolia)

Optional - 1% Preservative of your choice - follow the manufacturer's instructions on how much to use and when.

Safety:

• Do not use it in the first 16 weeks of pregnancy.
• Not for topical use.
• Shake well before every use.
• Make sure that the nozzle is facing away from you when spraying.
• Do not spray near the eyes or face. If you get any in your eyes, rinse immediately with clean, tepid water. Should irritation persist, seek immediate medical attention and take the clearly labeled container with you. 
• Avoid aiming this spray at pets and animals, do not spray areas where they sleep or rest, and cover fishbowls.
•  Rosemary Specific
• Rosemary contains constituents proven to be pro-convulsive for some people, be cautious with this essential oil if you have epilepsy.
• The stimulant nature of Rosemary may also stimulate your blood pressure, so those with Hypertension - High Blood Pressure need to use it with caution, if at all.
• It contains constituents that can be neurotoxic and can affect psychosis or delusory issues like schizophrenia; use with extreme caution if you experience or are diagnosed with any of these.

Method:

1. Simply measure out your Distilled Water, dispersant, and preservative if you are using it in a measuring jug combine them all and mix well. 
2. Measure your essential oils carefully into the water base, an extra couple of accidental drops won’t make much difference, so don’t panic. 
3. Mix everything thoroughly until it is well combined.
4. Take a moment to double-check that the essential oils have fully dispersed, if not, mix in a little more dispersant. 
5. When happy, decant into your bottle and add the spray nozzle and lid tightly.
6. Label clearly, listing all of the ingredients on an oil and waterproof label. Don’t skip this, especially if you have kids!!! 
7. It pays to add the instructions not to spray near the face and eyes and to shake well before use. 

How To Use:

1. This is not designed for use on the skin.
2. Always shake the bottle well before use to disperse the oils evenly.
3. Always check which way the nozzle is facing and spray away from your face and body.
4. Never spray toward animals or where your pets sleep and rest. 

For full tutorials and some exciting variations visit - Crafting The Perfect Scent: Your Guide To Room Spray.

Creative Long-Term Goals Body Lotion

We can use our essential oils for creativity over more prolonged periods for those long-lived projects and creations. It can be especially useful when you want to stay connected to a certain energetic signature for continuity. 

Delicious creations like Body Lotions, Body Butters, and Moisturizers are all ideal for use every day to stay connected and within that creative energy matrix.

This is super simple to make as it uses a pre-made unscented lotion base. This means you can make small amounts and change the lotion during the creative process to suit you if you wish.   

You Will Need:

1. Mixing bowl
2. Measuring jug
3. Stainless steel spoon
4. Funnel
5. 100ml bottle
6. Oil and waterproof label 

Ingredients:

• 90 ml of Unscented Lotion Base (Various Ingredients)
• 7 ml of Glycerin (Glycerol)
• 20 drops of Patchouli Essential Oil (Pogostemon Cablin)
• 16 drops of Ylang Ylang Essential Oil (Cananga Odorata)
• 10 drops of Neroli Essential Oil (Citrus Aurantium)
• 14 drops of Frankincense Essential Oil (Boswellia Serrata)

Optional - Preservative of your choice - follow the manufacturer's instructions on how much to use and when.

Safety:

• Do not use it in the first 37 weeks of pregnancy.

Method:

1. Measure out your glycerin add the essential oils to it and mix well.
2. Measure out the lotion base and add the glycerin and essential oils.
3. Stir thoroughly to combine and use a funnel to decant into a 100ml bottle.
4. Label, listing all ingredients on a suitable label, preferably oil and waterproof. 

How To Use:

1. Always carry out a 24 - 48 patch test before the first use, please. 
2. Apply as needed, working liberally into the skin and allowing it to absorb, up to 4 times a day. 
3. Use within 3-6 months. 

For more Body Lotion ideas check out - How To Make Body Lotion With Essential Oils.

Creative Ritual Oil

One of the most sacred ways you can use essential oils for creativity is to make a ritual oil. 

Now this one will be personal, there’s no two ways about it. We all have different beliefs, religions, and cultures and that’s what makes us wonderful. 

Scented oils have been used in sacred creative ceremonies and rituals of all kinds for millennia and they can be just as relevant in today's creative endeavors. 

How you use this Creative Ritual Oil will be up to you. Diffuse it, burn it, anoint it, offer it. It is entirely your choice.

It is skin-safe, so you can use it for anointing the body if you wish.

Imagine dancing to the performance of your life and anointing a dab across your heart before you begin, connecting to your passion and drive and honoring it. Perhaps, if you want to paint a masterpiece, you could even anoint your paintbrush styles. Offer a few drops to the Goddess Minerva, patron of arts and crafts as you pick up your knitting. However you use it, make it heartfelt and make it yours. 

A Note on Palo Santo

I LOVE Palo Santo, however, I may have bought my last bottle. The demand is so high for the wood, for sacred (and not so sacred - on the bandwagon) ceremonies, that its habitat of tropical dry forest is now considered critically endangered. This is NOT a good thing, not at all, and we don’t want to contribute to this either. 

If you have a bottle, then use a drop. If you absolutely MUST have it, buy it responsibly and check the provenance and the sustainability is unequivocal. If you neither have it nor feel the need for it, then you don’t have to use it. Add another drop of Frankincense instead. 

The reason I have included it is because I have found nothing comparable that opens you up so widely. It has the potential to let inspiration and creativity flood in and rush forth. (The trouble is it might not just be creative energy it unleashes. It can unearth emotions, and old feelings and clear out the ‘old stuff’, so it can be a bit of a shock and an intense experience for some people). 

When you want to connect with the Divine, it is only closely matched with Rose and Blue Lotus. 

Palo Santo is super precious, please treat it so. 

You Will Need:

1. Small measuring jug
2. Stainless steel spoon
3. Funnel
4. 5ml dropper bottle - Purple glass is gorgeous if you can get it! 
5. Oil and waterproof label

Ingredients:

• 5 ml of Rosehip Carrier Oil (Rosa Canina)
• 1 drop of Palo Santo Essential Oil (Bursera Graveolens)
• 1 drop of Frankincense Essential Oil (Boswellia Serrata)
• 1 drop of Rose Essential Oil (Rosa Damascena)

Optional - Preservative of your choice - follow the manufacturer's instructions on how much to use and when.

Safety:

• Do not use it in the first 37 weeks of pregnancy.

Method:

1. Measure out your Rosehip carrier oil, add the drops of essential oils, and mix well.
2. Decant into a 5ml bottle and lid tightly.
3. Label, listing all ingredients clearly with an oil and waterproof label. 

How To Use:

1. Please do a 24 - 48 patch test before using it on your skin. 

Anointing

Apply a small amount to your skin and allow it to absorb. Take care of precious clothing as it could stain.

Diffusing

Follow your manufacturer's guidance for your diffuser. 

Burning

This will smoke considerably, but you can drip a few drops on burning charcoal or wood to create a fragrant smoky offering. Always do this outside or in a very well-ventilated space. It will set your smoke alarms off.  

Offering

You can use this oil in a variety of ways as an offering. Place a few drops in a small bowl of warm water to diffuse its fragrance. Add a couple of drops to dried rice or corn and bury them in the garden. Anoint a candle to a particular deity. Do what feels right to you! 

It’s a truly beautiful and profound spiritual way to use your essential oils for creativity and I hope it brings you inspiration. 

Liz tells you more about these practices in Unlocking The Power Of Anointing Oil In Spiritual Practices and The Power Of Indigenous Herbal Medicine Harnessed As Essential Oils.

The Final Word

As you can see, using essential oils for creativity is a very personal thing. What works for one person may not work for you and I urge you to experiment. If one thing does not work, don’t give up, try something else, or add another element. 

Remember what I said about that hypnotic trance of Ylang-Ylang and Patchouli becomes much more energetic, functional, and effervescent when you add in the enlivening Sweet Orange. Just one oil can change the whole balance, and markedly so. 

Inspiring Diffuser Blends

There is plenty for you to explore, and please feel free to tinker with my diffuser blends, but remember if you are not sure how to make it skin-safe too, leave it in the diffuser! 

Decide which blend suits you best, what suits you best, the Inspire Me, Calm Me, or the Stimulate Me Diffuser Blend. Create a different ambiance to suit your mood and temper. 

Try Out The Essential Oils For Creativity Recipes

Set the scene in your workspace or studio with Focus My Creativity Room Spray and start laser-focused, bright, energized, and inspired.

If you are in for the long haul, writing a book, on tour, or creating a masterpiece use the Creative Long Term Goals Body Lotion. It helps to sustain and support you and keeps the energy flowing over a protracted period.

Boost creative energy and processes and connect to the Divine within you for more personal inspirational source material with our Creative Ritual Oil. This simply stunning oil can be used in a variety of ways to connect to spirit, create focus, and channel inspiration. Connect with the more sacred and reverent side of creativity.  

I sincerely hope that you find the most effective essential oils for creativity and that the wellhead of creative inspiration bursts forth like a shimmering fountain of endless ideas and beauty.