Oil Origins: Welcome the Woods

Reflecting on our essential oil journey begs an important question: where would we be without the wood essential oils? The answer can be a little hard to fathom, especially once you realize just how foundational this group of oils is to every essential oil practice. They are steadfast and reliable, much like the trunks of the trees from which they are sourced, and each is ready to elevate your lifestyle with its woodsy aroma and incredible benefits. Give a warm welcome to the wood essential oils—Arborvitae essential oil, Cedarwood essential oil, Hawaiian Sandalwood essential oil, and Sandalwood essential oil.

What Are Wood Essential Oils?

This type of essential oil comes from the heartwood, bark, and branches of trees from across the world. The innate volatile compounds within these essential oils contribute to the long lives and natural fragrance of their source trees, and in turn, contribute profound and precious benefits for your home and family. Wood essential oils are best characterized by their rich, grounding, warm aromas.

Here in this post, we’ve laid out Arborvitae oil, Cedarwood oil, Hawaiian Sandalwood oil, and Sandalwood oil side-by-side so you can better understand the differences between them. While their related origins give them some similarities, each wood essential oil offers a distinct aroma and a variety of unique applications.

Arborvitae Oil

The arborvitae tree is a needled evergreen that is renewably sourced in Canada’s Pacific Southwest. Arborvitae is the largest tree in the cypress family, as well as the oldest, with most trees living anywhere from 400 to more than 1000 years. This is thanks to the powerful preservation properties of the chemical components found in the arborvitae resin, giving this tree the historical nickname, “the tree of life.”  

Arborvitae essential oil is known for its warm and woody aroma that can be diffused to create a calm, grounding home environment. Arborvitae oil essential is also a powerful cleansing agent, making it ideal to use topically for cleansing both skin and surfaces. Adding Arborvitae to any essential oil cleaning spray is an easy way to keep your house fresh and clean while infusing your space with a rich, stabilizing aroma.

Why choose Arborvitae oil?

The unique chemical compounds that help preserve the wood of the arborvitae tree are abundantly present in Arborvitae essential oil, giving it the ability to preserve and enrich the appearance of wood surfaces. While Arborvitae shares cleansing benefits with other wood oils like Cedarwood oil, Arborvitae essential oil is distinct for its wood polishing and protecting properties.

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Cedarwood Oil

Cedarwood essential oil comes from the wood of the eastern red cedar. This member of the juniper family has soft, brownish-red heartwood that is beautifully aromatic even in its raw form. The aroma of the essential oil that is steam distilled from this heartwood is particularly tranquil and grounding, making Cedarwood essential oil one of the most versatile among the wood oils.

Cedarwood oil’s soothing aroma can be enjoyed through diffusion or topical application and is an especially popular scent in essential oil pure-fume blends for its balanced, earthy aromatic notes. Cedarwood essential oil also possesses topical cleansing properties that can be used in skincare to improve the healthy appearance of skin.

Why choose Cedarwood oil?

The aroma of Cedarwood essential oil is itself refreshing and pleasant when worn on the skin as a personal scent, and also lends a grounding layer of complexity when used as a base note in an essential oil perfume or diffuser blend. A drop of Cedarwood oil can also boost the cleansing benefits of a facial cleanser, or gently cleanse skin during outdoor activities.  

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Hawaiian Sandalwood Oil

Hawaiian Sandalwood essential oil comes from a variety of sandalwood tree that grows in—you guessed it—Hawaii. The leaves of this plant are green and glossy and have clusters of brightly coloured, sweet-smelling blossoms growing among them. The heartwood of the Hawaiian sandalwood tree is also distinctly fragrant, a delightful aroma that is preserved in Hawaiian Sandalwood essential oil.

Hawaiian Sandalwood essential oil delivers a scent that is both rich and subtly sweet, resembling the scent of honey. This aromatic profile makes Hawaiian Sandalwood oil a favourite for creating a spa-like atmosphere, whether through diffusion or massage. Hawaiian Sandalwood oil is also a prized ingredient for skincare, with properties that can help give skin a smooth, younger looking glow.

Why choose Hawaiian Sandalwood oil?

Its unique chemical makeup gives Hawaiian Sandalwood oil a distinctly relaxing aroma as well as powerful properties that can benefit the skin. These benefits make Hawaiian Sandalwood ideal among the wood essential oils for skincare, particularly for a luxurious home-spa routine.

Learn More About Hawaiian Sandalwood Oil Buy Hawaiian Sandalwood Oil

Sandalwood Oil

Like the trees that produce Hawaiian Sandalwood oil, Sandalwood essential oil is distilled from the rich, central heartwood of its source tree, specifically from a highly aromatic variety that doTERRA sources from India. For centuries, this variety of sandalwood tree was used for its dry, woody aroma as incense in religious rituals and meditation throughout the ancient world.

The rich, relaxing aroma of Sandalwood oil makes it beautifully suited for a variety of aromatic applications in your home and beauty routines, such as an essential oil perfume or cologne, massage, or diffusion. Sandalwood essential oil can also deliver incredible calming benefits when used in aromatherapy. *

Why choose Sandalwood oil?

Sandalwood essential oil stands apart from its Hawaiian relative in that it is especially efficacious when used in practices of aromatherapy. Sandalwood oil can be used in aromatherapy, to help relieve headaches, to help relieve colds and cough, as a nervine and calmative, and as a carminative and antispasmodic for symptomatic relief of digestive discomfort.*

*NPN: 80060977

Learn More About Sandalwood Oil  Buy Sandalwood Oil

Whether you are already familiar with these essential oils or this was your first introduction, we hope we’ve given you more reasons than ever to love this unique group of essential oils. From their calm aromas to their rich topical gifts, there is so much to be gained when you welcome the wood oils into your home.