Autumn essential oil blends and recipes are a great way to get into the spirit of the season (or maybe it’s the middle of summer and you just can’t wait!)

When the air turns crisp and the leaves on all the trees turn into beautiful golden colors, you know that autumn has arrived. Fall is by far one of the best seasons to explore new essential oil recipes. Whether you’re experimenting with new blends for your diffuser, crafting your own organic room freshening spray, or making an all-natural, DIY hand cream, autumn is a great time for aromatherapy and homemade essential oil recipes.

(By the way, we’re going to teach you how to make all of those great essential oil projects we just mentioned!)

Are you ready for the smell of clove and cinnamon to fill your home and invigorate your spirit? We’ll begin by examining which essential oils are best for the fall.

What Essential Oils are Best for Autumn?

Autumn essential oils are often best when blended. Imagine stepping outside of your warm home into the cold, clear air of a fall morning—it’s that kind of contrast that a lot of your blends should be going for. For example, cinnamon leaf essential oil with juniper or mandarin orange essential oils. That’s not to say that you can’t go with one or the other, since woodsy aromas are also a staple of this season, with cedarwood, cypress, and sandalwood making an appearance.

Autumn is a great time to experiment with DIY essential oil recipes. Below we’ll discuss a great room freshener featuring some very fall-themed essential oils like clove and cinnamon leaf. Clove is perhaps the most autumn-y of all essential oils in many ways, thanks to its spicy yet fresh scent. However, keep in mind that spices like clove and cinnamon can be very strong, so don’t overdo it. A lot of blends and recipes will pair spice essential oils with citrusy aromas, like orange or bergamot.

If you’re coming up with your own recipes and diffuser blends, try sticking to the following essential oils. You’re sure to hit on all of the great autumn notes that you’re looking for:

• Anise essential oil
• Bay Leaf essential oil
• Bergamot essential oil
• Cardamom essential oil
• Cinnamon essential oil
• Clove essential oil
• Coriander essential oil
• Ginger essential oil
• Juniper essential oil
• Orange essential oil
• Nutmeg essential oil
• Vanilla essential oil

Autumn carrier oils tend to be aroma-neutral or non-sweet. Jojoba, avocado, and olive oil are all excellent choices, leaving oils like coconut or sweet almond for the warmer seasons. Of course, as with all things essential oil, use the mixtures that you like the most—these are just general guidelines for fun, seasonally-themed recipes.

Speaking of which, let’s take a look at an invigorating autumn-themed room freshener that’s easy to make and smells amazing:

Fall Themed Essential Oil Room Freshener Spray

These autumn themed essential oil room fresheners are fantastic whether it’s actually autumn or the middle of any other season. Once prepared, you can use them to make your home or office smell like the leaves are falling and there’s a crisp chill in the air, nevermind the fact that this all-natural room freshener is cheaper than commercial sprays and doesn’t have any of the chemicals.

To start, get yourself a 16 ounce spray bottle, preferably glass. Then add:

• 12 ounces distilled water. Distilled water is more acidic than water from the tap, so it works better with essential oils.
• 2 ounces witch hazel. Incredibly useful for many essential oil recipes, witch hazel allows the essential oils to become more easily dispersed throughout your mixture (a process called emulsion).
• 20 drops orange essential oil. This fruity, citrusy component will add a fresh component to the spray.
• 10 drops ginger essential oil. Ginger tends to be a very strong-smelling essential oil which some find unpleasant by itself. We feel that it really ties everything together in this blend, but feel free to leave it out if you’re particularly sensitive to it, or reduce to 5 drops.
• 10 drops clove essential oil. Other than cinnamon, clove is the big fall-themed essential oil here. Clean and strong, clove essential oil is the perfect addition to any autumn blend.
• 10 drops cinnamon essential oil. Is there anything more autumn-y than cinnamon?

Some room sprays also call for high-proof alcohol because this will strengthen the scent of the essential oils. If you find that this spray isn’t quite as aromatic as you’d like, add 1oz of vodka or everclear, but we’ve found that this usually isn’t necessary.

Add everything to your spray bottle and gently stir and swish around. Let stand for about an hour and then spray to your heart’s content. While these sprays are generally quite safe, take care to avoid getting it near your eyes or mouth, and of course, keep in mind that if others in the area have allergies to any of the ingredients that they might not like it so much! Other than those little caveats, this blend makes a spray perfect for your home or office.

DIY Autumn Essential Oil Hand Cream

The strange thing about store-bought hand lotion is that essentially all manufacturers market their product as being generally good and healthy for you. Certainly, some of the components are—few would argue the benefits of things like aloe vera—but things start to get a whole lot more murky when you start investigating some of the other ingredients, usually the ones with names that you have trouble pronouncing.

Rather than “rolling the dice” on whether or not the preservatives and who-knows-what-else in large brand-name lotions is good or bad for you, why not make your own? The beauty of DIY with essential oils is that you know exactly what you’re putting on your skin.

Autumn is one of those seasons where people tend to put off skin care because it’s less immediately obvious that it’s necessary than other seasons. Skin care is basic stuff in summer due to the heat, and it’s a no-brainer during winter when the cold dries you out. However, the fall is actually the perfect time to repair any skin damage that occurred during summer and prepare you for the coming winter. “An ounce of prevention” and all that really is true for this season.

Rather than a lotion, our recipe here is a hand cream—creams are thicker than lotions, and this extra layer of protection will help keep your skin nourished. Hands tend to be the most exposed during summer and can get dry and cracked. A lotion just doesn’t have the thickness to provide the kind of protective barrier necessary for your skin to repair itself.

Let’s take a look at the ingredients for this essential oil hand cream:

• ¼ Cup of organic Shea Butter. Shea butter is where the “creamy” part of this little concoction is going to come from. It’s also very moisturizing and has a subtle aroma on its own, meaning that the natural scent of the essential oils will be able to come through nicely.
• 1 tablespoon jojoba oil. Jojoba is an excellent carrier oil for lotions and creams thanks to its consistency and high vitamin E content.
• 1 tablespoon avocado oil. Avocado oil is fantastic for your skin. No, really, even by itself it can work wonders on dry skin, thanks to its concentration of vitamins A, D, and E (among quite a few others).
• 1 tablespoon beeswax. The beeswax is a fun addition—you can go without it if you must—it’s good for your skin and primarily acts as a sealant, locking in vitamins and moisture from the other ingredients.
• 5 drops lavender essential oil. Lauded by many as the “best” essential oil for your skin, lavender essential oil has natural cleansing properties and the ability to reduce puffiness which helps repair damaged skin. With the right carrier oils (like the ones we’ve picked here), it can also help tremendously with moisturization.
• 5 drops frankincense essential oil. Capable of repairing and protecting your skin, frankincense essential oil will even out some of the “splotches” you might have after a summertime of exposing your hands (sun spots). In addition to evening out your skin tone, frankincense essential oil will tighten wrinkles.

Doesn’t that sound just a tiny bit better than “Phenoxyethanol” and/or “Caprylyl Glycol”?

(Yes, check your store bought lotion, those are common ingredients.)

Anyway, to brew this up, you’ll want to start by combining the shea butter, jojoba oil, avocado oil, and beeswax (if you’ve opted to use it) in a glass boiler. The beeswax will take the longest to melt properly, but make sure it is, otherwise, your lotion won’t be as smooth as it should.

After everything has melted, take it off your heat source and add the lavender and frankincense essential oils. Mix well and pour into glass containers. The above recipe will make about 4oz. Let the cream cool completely—come back after an hour or so—and you’ll be greeted by a rich, great-smelling hand cream.

You’ll find that a little bit of this cream goes a very long way. Try taking out only about a pea-sized dollop of the cream to rub into your hands. Enjoy using this cream all autumn to repair damage from summer and to get your skin ready for winter!

Essential Oil Diffuser Blends for Autumn

We’ve come up with a lot of amazing diffuser blends with seasonal themes, but our favorite has to be the ones for fall. These diffuser blends are so cozy and inviting that you might be tempted to use them year-round!

Diffusers are often the very reason that people start using essential oils. If you’ve been trying to convert a friend or family member to start using essential oils for home aromatherapy, some of these blends might be the way to do it—they’re that good.

Why not start off with one of our favorite blends, “Thanksgiving Dessert”? This diffuser recipe has a citrusy aroma that’s tied together with vanilla:

• 2 drops lemon essential oil
• 2 drops lime essential oil
• 1 drop vanilla essential oil
• 1 drop wild orange essential oil

How about a diffuser blend that will make you feel like you’re walking through a forest, with the golden and brown leaves falling all around you? Try “Woodsy Walk”:

• 4 drops cedarwood essential oil
• 2 drops sandalwood essential oil
• 1 drop cypress essential oil

And finally, we can’t get enough of “Tea Thyme”:

• 1 drop vanilla essential oil
• 1 drop ginger essential oil
• 1 drop thyme essential oil
• 1 drop nutmeg essential oil
• 1 drop cinnamon essential oil

If you’d like to try even more autumn-themed diffuser blends, you’ll love our completely free, printable diffuser blend recipe sheet! You’ll also get a copy of Essential Oils Around the Year, our collection of seasonal essential oil recipes and blends.

What’s Next for Your Essential Oil Collection?

Autumn is the perfect opportunity to try out essential oils you might not have had a chance to use during the other times of the year. Take this chance to assess your supply of essential oils and figure out which ones are your favorites, either for their utility or just because you love their scents.

One of our absolute favorite ways to enjoy essential oils is with a diffuser, but there are so many other uses for them. If you haven’t made any of your own DIY products before, we encourage you to set aside some time this autumn and give it a try—the hand cream recipe from this post is a great beginner recipe to put together and it’s so useful.

What are your favorite fall-themed essential oil blends or projects? Let us know in the comments below. Enjoy your autumn and be sure to check back for our favorite winter essential oil blends and recipes!