Accidents happen; so it’s a good idea to be prepared ahead of time. While some people have sensitive skin, everyone has sensitive eyes. So, what do you do if you get essential oils in your eyes?* Since essential oils and water don’t mix, you need a substance that is safe to use in your eyes and that will quickly emulsify the essential oil, allowing water to quickly flush it all away.
The easy answer is milk or cream. If you get essential oils in your eyes, quickly flush the eye with milk or cream until it stops burning. This should happen almost immediately. At that point, you can flush the eyes with fresh water to remove the milk.
Some aromatherapy authors advise using a carrier oil in the eye, but while this is good on the skin, it doesn’t remove the essential oil quickly enough from the eye. And while it may not hurt, it’s not fun to have olive oil in your eye either.
Don’t Panic!
We’ve had the opportunity to see this work many times! And each time, the milk helped almost immediately. When you’re frantic is not the time to look up what to do. Know what to do ahead of time! So consider writing down the following “cheat sheet” to remind the family how to deal with accidents:
Cheat Sheet
Eyes: Whole milk, cream, coconut milk, almond milk, or other nut milk (the more “cream” the better).
Sensitive Skin: Plain olive oil or any nut/coconut/vegetable oil.
Never try to use water to dilute essential oils.
See Young Living’s safety guidelines HERE.
What about My Skin?
Everyone’s skin type is different, and essential oils are powerful; so if you use an essential oil that seems to irritate or burn your skin, you should dilute the oil by rubbing a carrier oil (olive oil, almond oil…even vegetable oil) into the spot. This dilutes the oil.
Some oils are considered “spicier” than others and should be diluted for most people before applying to the skin (cinnamon, lemongrass, oregano, etc.)
Click HERE to find out why it’s so important to only use quality essential oils!
This Post Has 16 Comments
Thank you so much for the info on milk for treating essential oils in the eye. I made the mistake of rubbing my eye immediately after using peppermint oil and was in agony. This worked like a charm.
Thanks for the milk tip. One screaming 3 1/2 year old now not screaming. Thank you, thank you.
I had one screaming 2 year old yesterday with peppermint all over hands and was rubbing all over face/into eyes. She happens to have an allergy to dairy (includes severe irritation on skin contact), although I don’t plan on an accident with peppermint oil happening again, I was wondering if there is an alternative to milk or cream?
Any fatty oil will work. To me, milk is easiest to clean up if you get eo in your eyes; but, you can also use olive oil, coconut oil, or any other type of vegetable oil to dilute essential oils.
Thank you so much for this info. It literally just saved my brother. He was in so much pain he was throwing up but i found this and helped him and he feel 100% better!!
That is wonderful, Daryn! Thanks for letting us know!
This was very helpful, thanks!
Thank you for sharing such important information. This will be helpful.
This just happened to me. so happy i could find this with burning eyes. i had the peppermint essential oil on my hands. i washed my hand after but when i went to take my contacts out the oil was clearly still on my hands and therefore got into my eye. my eyes are relieved but im wondering if the redness will go away soon
I can’t tell you, since I don’t know what brand you are using. Many brands are adulterated with various chemicals, regardless of the labeling. Praying you were using Young Living! If so, I’m not concerned.
Note: http://yoursacredcalling.com/commonscentsmom/safe-or-toxic-how-much-do-you-know-about-essential-oils/
Yes! Please pray in that case! I really don’t know what brand I have. If my eyes are red in the morning I wont want to go to church but I really want to go.
My eyes do feel SO much better though
Last night I accidently got Past Tense in my 11 yr old’s eye. I immediately Googled the problem and your blog entry popped up. I quickly put almond milk (all we have) on/in her eye and instantly the pain lessened. In less than a minute her pain was gone. Thank you SO much for the tip! I’m now a suscriber 🙂
You can use plain almond or coconut milk if you want!
This very thing happened to me today, with peppermint oil. I poured about 1/4 of a bottle of EVOO all over my little guy’s face. I didn’t know about the milk until after that. Good to know should it ever happen again in the future.
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Thank you so much for this info! My hubby has been using peppermint straight from the plant lately and this time he got the oils in his eyes. He was in dire misery so I tried the cream and…… Viola! He is better. Thank you soooooo much!
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