Mosquitoes hate this blend… but I love it!
Summer evenings are special. The air becomes softer, the light turns golden and everything feels slower… until the mosquitoes arrive!
Every year, before going on holiday, I prepare my own mosquito repellent essential oil blend. I usually make a good amount because I use it in different ways: a stronger version for my home spray and a gentler version for the body.
Making your own mosquito repellent blend is very easy. For the body, you can simply add the essential oil blend to a DIY cream, lotion, carrier oil or any suitable cosmetic formula. I personally prefer using it in a lightweight body lotion, because it feels more pleasant in summer, especially if the formula also contains soothing ingredients like panthenol, cornflower extract, allantoin or aloe.
In this recipe, I’ll show you how to prepare a concentrated essential oil blend that you can then add to your formulas, just like you would use a pre-made natural fragrance or essential oil blend.
The advantage of preparing the blend in advance is that the aromatic molecules have time to meet, soften and become more harmonious before you use them. You can add the essential oils one by one directly to a cream, but the result is not exactly the same. When they rest together first, even for a few days, the scent becomes more complete.
If you love the purity of fragrance, I suggest doing this with every essential oil blend you like adding to your cosmetics: create your own small natural fragrance oils in advance, label them clearly and use them with precision.
This Summer Night Mosquito Repellent Blend is fresh, green, floral, citrusy and softened by the deep blue touch of blue tansy. It is made with lemon eucalyptus, geranium, bergamot FCF (furocoumarin free - don’t use the classic version in summer, I’ll explain why below), and blue tansy essential oils.
The result is a summer evening aroma: bright enough to be functional against mosquitoes, but still elegant enough to make you enjoy using it. Blue tansy adds a calming aromatic shadow and gives the blend a whimsical blue hue.
Of course, this is still a mosquito repellent blend, so it is not the same kind of scent as a fine perfume. But it is pleasant, bright, green and beautiful if you enjoy fresh citrusy notes.
Important Safety Note: This Is a Concentrated Essential Oil Blend!
This is very important:
This blend is not meant to be applied pure on the skin.
It is a concentrated essential oil blend created to be diluted into cosmetic formulas, such as body lotions, body creams, body oils, carrier oils or an alcohol base for a room spray.
Essential oils are powerful aromatic materials. Even when they are natural, they need to be used with precise percentages, especially in leave-on cosmetics.
For body care, this blend should be used at a maximum of 0.8% in the finished body product.
This means 0.8 g of essential oil blend for 100 g of body lotion, body oil or cream.
Why this precise limit? Mainly because of the lemon eucalyptus essential oil. It is one of the most interesting essential oils for summer evening formulas, but it also requires careful dosage.
Why These Essential Oils?
I selected these essential oils for different reasons. They are all disliked by mosquitoes, even if at different levels, and I blended them because I wanted something functional but still pleasant to use during summer nights.
Let’s see the reason behind each choice.
Lemon Eucalyptus Essential Oil
Lemon eucalyptus essential oil (also known as eucalyptus citriodora) is the heart of the blend. It smells like eucalyptus with a bright citrusy note, almost as if it was already a composed blend. It is fresher, more sophisticated and much more pleasant than regular eucalyptus essential oils.
Apart from its beautiful green-citrus scent, lemon eucalyptus is one of the most effective aromatic materials used in mosquito repellent blends. It is more effective than citronella, which I personally don’t enjoy as much.
Also, lemon eucalyptus essential oil is used to produce Citriodiol, a highly effective plant-derived repellent used in many commercial mosquito repellent products.
The oil I have is from Handymade, and I love it. As always, buy essential oils from a provider you trust, because not all essential oils smell the same, even when they have the same INCI name. If you buy it on Handymade, use my affiliate code WONDERLAB for a 7% discount.
Because lemon eucalyptus is powerful, I keep it carefully calculated.
Its IFRA limit for body lotion/body cream use (Category 5A) can be around 0.38% maximum, depending on the supplier and batch. Always check the IFRA certificate of the exact essential oil you have.
In this blend, lemon eucalyptus represents 40% of the blend. So, if you use the finished blend at 0.8% in a body product, the final lemon eucalyptus level will be 0.32% in the finished product. This keeps it below the example IFRA limit of 0.38% for body use.
This is why we cannot simply say, “essential oils can be used at 1–3% in body cosmetics.” Sometimes that is true, but not always. If a blend contains essential oils with lower IFRA limits, the final dosage must be calculated around the most restrictive ingredient.
Geranium Essential Oil
Geranium brings floral brightness to the blend and is also a good mosquito-repellent essential oil.
It rounds the sharper freshness of lemon eucalyptus and gives the formula a more sophisticated feeling. Lemon eucalyptus is beautiful alone, much more than other eucalyptus oils like eucalyptus globulus, but without geranium the blend would feel more functional and less elegant.
Geranium makes it more wearable and more cosmetic.
Bergamot FCF Essential Oil
Bergamot adds brightness and elegance. It is one of the most beautiful essential oils in botanical perfumery, and this is the main reason I added it.
I use bergamot FCF, which means it is furocoumarin-free. This is important because regular expressed bergamot essential oil can be phototoxic, while bergamot FCF is the safer choice for leave-on cosmetics when used correctly.
This is less important during the colder months, but in summer or whenever there is sun exposure, it makes a real difference.
Bergamot FCF is not always easy to find, but you can purchase it from Handymade. Use my affiliate code WONDERLAB for a 7% discount.
In any case, I use this blend during the evening, and I don’t recommend applying perfumes or essential oils before sun exposure.
If you don’t have furocoumarin-free bergamot, omit it. It gives a perfumery touch to the blend, but lemon eucalyptus, geranium and blue tansy are still beautiful together.
Never use regular expressed bergamot in a summer leave-on body product. Phototoxicity is a real issue, always use the FCF version.
Blue Tansy Essential Oil
Blue tansy (Tanacetum annuum flower oil) adds the magical final touch: deep blue, herbal, slightly sweet and calming in character.
It is very intense, so a little is enough. In this blend, it does not dominate. It gives depth and softness, like a blue shadow inside the green freshness of the formula.
It also makes the blend blue, but don’t worry: when you dilute the final blend in a cream at the suggested percentage, it should not color the formula. It may give a subtle blue tone to a carrier oil, but it should not stain the skin.
In any case, always make a small test after dilution and avoid contact with fabrics.
Summer Night Essential Oil Blend Recipe
This recipe makes 5 g of concentrated essential oil blend.
It cannot be used pure and must be diluted before use, as explained above.
You can prepare it in a small dark glass bottle, label it clearly and then dilute it into your formulas whenever needed.
Formula
|
Essential oil |
% in blend |
Amount for 5 g |
|
Geranium essential oil |
45% |
2.25 g |
|
40% |
2.00 g |
|
|
10% |
0.50 g |
|
|
Blue tansy essential oil |
5% |
0.25 g |
|
Total |
100% |
5.00 g |
Use only bergamot FCF, which means furocoumarin-free bergamot. If you only have regular bergamot essential oil, omit it.
What If You Don’t Have All These Essential Oils?
This blend is more sophisticated than a very simple mosquito repellent blend, but if you don’t have all the essential oils, you can simplify it.
The most functional combination would be Lemon eucalyptus + geranium or, if you want to use only one essential oil, simply choose Lemon eucalyptus, which is the most important one in this blend.
Remember to keep it around 0.35% maximum even when used alone, or lower if your supplier’s IFRA certificate gives a stricter limit. Always check the IFRA certificate of your own essential oil.
How to Use the Blend in a Body Lotion, Cream or Carrier Oil
Use the Summer Night Essential Oil Blend at a maximum of 0.8% of the finished cosmetic formula.
This turns a simple body lotion, cream, or oil into a summer night mosquito repellent body product.
Do not use more than this for body leave on use and do not use this blend in face products. A blend containing lemon eucalyptus is not a common choice for the face, and the IFRA limit for face use is much lower. For this reason, I prefer keeping this blend for body products only.
Usage Examples
|
Finished product size |
Maximum essential oil blend to add |
|
50 g body lotion, cream, or oil |
0.4 g |
|
100 g body lotion, cream, or oil |
0.8 g |
|
200 g body lotion, cream, or oil |
1.6 g |
Make Your Summer Night Air Spray
You can also use this blend to create a simple home air perfume spray for your home or terrace.
For an air perfume, I suggest using it at 2%, that is a good balance. IFRA limits are different for home spray products and are usually much higher than for leave-on skin products.
Formula for 100 g Home Spray
|
Ingredient |
% |
Amount |
|
Alcohol 96° |
98% |
98 g |
|
Summer Night Essential Oil Blend |
2% |
2 g |
Mix the essential oil blend into alcohol, bottle it and allow it to rest at least for a couple of days before use.
Use it as a room spray, not as a skin spray. Spray lightly into the air, away from the face, eyes, pets, babies and delicate surfaces or textiles. Do not spray directly on skin, pillows, bedding, furniture or clothing.
A Small Note About DIY Mosquito Repellents
DIY mosquito repellent blends are beautiful for cosmetic and home use, especially when you want something natural, fragrant and pleasant for summer evenings.
However, if you are in an area where mosquitoes can transmit disease, use a properly tested and registered repellent.