Benefits of Orange Essential Oil

Orange essential oil blends well with many different essential oils. 

It has this remarkable capacity to make everything it’s blended with not only smell more beautiful, but also highlight the many benefits all essential oils offer us. 

It’s aroma is fresh, sweet and citrusy and it’s been shown to make us feel happier and more joyful.  In fact, just sniffing it’s scent straight out of the bottle can be a great way to inspire a positive mindset

But before we start diving deeper into how best to blend Orange Essential Oil with other essential oils, let’s learn a little more about how we extract Orange Essential Oil from the fruit, and explore the history of its use throughout the centuries and across cultures.

Extracting Orange Essential Oil

Orange Essential Oil is cold expressed from the peel of the fruit.  It’s a fairly simple process and is often done at the same facility where orange juice is manufactured.  

When the oranges first arrive at the processing plant, they are first washed and peeled. Then the peels get transferred to an area in the facility where they are jostled and pricked by thousands of tiny like-needles.  These tiny needles poke the fruit peel in such a way that they expose and open the tiny sacs within the peel that hold the essential oil.  

After being jostled and poked, the peels are then moved to a large pressing machine that squeezes the peels under very high pressure to release all the essential oil.  The essential oil is then collected in a separate vessel, filtered and packaged off to essential oil and flavoring suppliers.

This process is called cold expressing because it doesn’t involve using heat to extract the essential oil.  The reason why this is the preferred method of extracting essential oils from citrus peels, and this includes citrus fruit like lemon, lime, bergamot, grapefruit, yuzu, mandarin and tangerine, is because the molecules that make up the complex composition of the essential oil from citrus peels are particularly sensitive to heat.  Meaning if heat were used to extract the essential oils, it would cause some of the molecules to evaporate too quickly resulting in a change to the aroma and the oil’s benefits for our wellbeing.

A Brief History about the Orange

Oranges are part of the botanical family called Rutaceae, and they are related to other citrus fruits like Lime, Lemon, Grapefruit, Bergamot, Mandarin, Tangerine, Bitter Orange, Yuzu and Pomelo. Oranges, along with all citrus fruits are said to have originated in the southeastern foothills of the Himalayan mountains which include parts of India, Myanmar and China.

The orange first appears in written context from China around the year 314 AD, but what’s mentioned is not the same sweet orange that we know of today - instead it was a more bitter and sour version of the fruit.  

About 400 years later we can find evidence that the Moors during the 8th century started spreading the sour bitter orange fruit as they inhabited a wider geographical area.  And by the 11th century this same bitter sour version of the orange spread through the entire Arab world in areas like Persia, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and North Africa, eventually making its way to Spain, Sardinia and Sicily in Italy.

The first written documentation found of the sweet orange in Europe is from the late 1400’s and it has been told that Columbus brought orange seeds to the New World, and planted them there. Other Spanish settlers are later credited with bringing Oranges to Florida in the 1500s while during this same period Portuguese settlers brought oranges to Brazil.

Since its earliest recorded use across Asia and the Middle East, the Orange has come to symbolize good fortune, fertility, abundance, celebration and the energy and life-force energy of the sun.

These symbolic meanings are reflected in how the scent of sweet orange can make us feel: Full of hope, joy, contentment, abundance, happiness, wellbeing, health giving and supporting and positive.

Benefits of using Orange Essential Oil

Uplifts our spirits

The light fresh sweet and fruity aroma of Orange Essential Oils has been shown to lift our spirits and offer an experience of feeling happy and joyful. It’s easy to see how the aroma can make us feel this way, since the color of the fruit is so bright and vibrant - and when we eat the fruit, most of us can feel immediately energized and healthy. Reach for Orange Essential Oil whenever you are feeling down, disappointed and blue - just by smelling its aroma you can gain a fresher more positive perspective.

Soothes our minds

Orange essential oil has been shown to have a relaxing effect on our minds.  This means when we are feeling overwhelmed by worry or overthinking, it can offer us some relief - and promote a calmer perspective.

Energizes our bodies

Orange essential oil has been shown to support and promote the experience of having more vibrancy. It’s awakening and refreshing aroma charges up our energy levels and helps us snap out of feeling slow and lazy. This burst of vibrancy that it offers is also beneficial for our skin by promoting a healthier glow to our appearance.

What Orange Essential Oil Blends well with:

Orange essential oil blends well with the below essential oils.  Try combining our suggested recipes together in a diffuser.

To feel calmer and more relaxed

Orange 8 drops 

Lavender 7 drops

Frankincense 4 drops

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Orange  8 drops

Ylang Ylang  4 drops

Geranium  3 drops

To feel more positive and uplifted:

Orange  8 drops

Grapefruit  8 drops

Bergamot  5 drops

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Orange  8 drops

Basil  3 drops

Spearmint  4 drops

To feel more vibrant

Orange  8 drops

Lemon  4 drops

Rosemary  3 drops

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Orange  8 drops

Tea Tree  3 drops

Palmarosa  5 drops

When blending essential oils together remember to first start out by smelling them directly from the bottle and paying attention to how the aroma of each individual essential oil makes you feel.  For example, if Geranium and Frankincense both make you feel soothed and comforted, try blending them together along with orange, so that you can enhance the experience of calm and relaxation.

Let us know about your blending experiences!