The liver is one of the most crucial detoxifying organs in the body and keeping it healthy and working optimally is an amazing way to support your overall health. One of my favorite ways to support it is by using essential oils to not only detox the liver, but also to strengthen, stimulate, and regenerate it.
How to Detox the Liver using Essential Oils for Optimum Health
The liver carries out over 500 crucial bodily functions each and every day and has a remarkable capacity for regeneration; an important ability to have considering all the liver does to keep us healthy. Every single minute, the liver processes and filters 2 ½ pints of blood. Harmful wastes and toxins are sent off for excretion while other elements are converted into useful components for use elsewhere in the body.
The liver is responsible for the metabolism of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, cholesterol, and the growth of bone and muscle. It produces the hormone thrombopoietin which regulates blood cell and platelet production, it stores vitamins A, B12, and D, and also synthesizes glucose and amino acids.
So, as you can see, this unassuming organ does much more than just cleanse the blood. Everything you inhale, apply topically, eat, drink – basically everything that touches or goes into the body – is in some way processed by the liver. Certain medications, environmental toxins, alcohol, and processed foods are particularly burdensome on the liver and an overabundance of these substances can start to cause issues.
One of the reasons it can be hard to identify any problems with the liver is that it lacks pain receptors. This can make it difficult to know when it’s struggling and needs support. Since the liver is involved in so many functions of the body, it will usually manifest symptoms elsewhere.
A dull ache under the ribs on the right side of the body, right shoulder or back pain, itchy skin, fatigue, yellowing of the skin, dark urine, and light colored stools can all indicate a distressed liver but those aren’t the only signs of a toxic liver.
How to Cleanse and Detox the Liver Using Essential Oils
There are many things you can do to start supporting the liver which include doing things like eating high quality and preferably organic foods, especially fresh fruits and vegetables. You can also take raw apple cider vinegar daily and drink high quality green tea, dandelion root tea, or fresh carrot juice to help support detox.
Dry brushing the skin, sweating it out at the gym or in a sauna, and getting good lymphatic drainage will also help support a healthy liver.
Essential oils are also a great addition to your liver support routine as they are quick and simple to apply and are very potent and effective remedies.
Some of the best essential oils for detoxifying the liver include:
• Cardamom
• Carrot Seed
• Celery Seed
• Cypress
• Geranium
• German Chamomile
• Ginger
• Grapefruit
• Helichrysum
• Juniper Berry
• Lavender
• Ledum
• Lemon
• Patchouli
• Peppermint
• Roman Chamomile
• Rosemary
• Spearmint
• Sweet Orange
• Turmeric
Many of the essential oils listed above are hepatic in nature which means that they stimulate, strengthen, and tone the liver helping increase bile flow and detoxification. Others are great for emotional detox, gallbladder support, are anti-inflammatory, or aid in lymph circulation which all support a healthy liver.
Liver Support Essential Oil Blend
To make an effective liver support blend, combine the following oils in an empty 1oz dropper bottle:
• 3 drops carrot seed essential oil – aides in the repair, regeneration and detoxification of liver cells.
• 3 drops German chamomile essential oil – stimulates bile secretions and supports liver detox.
• 4 drops cypress essential oil – stimulates and regulates liver secretions and supports cleansing and detoxification.
• 4 drops juniper berry essential oil – a blood purifying essential oil that aides the liver by relieving some of its burden.
• 5 drops geranium essential oil – aides the liver by expanding the liver’s bile ducts which helps with detox. Geranium is considered to be a powerful liver tonic.
• 5 drops rosemary essential oil – enhances bile flow and reduces excess plasma liver enzymes. It also prevents toxic overload.
• 6 drops ginger essential oil – helps reverse a fatty liver and stimulates liver secretions.
Next, fill the dropper bottle to the shoulder with a carrier oil like sweet almond or fractionated coconut oil.
Cap closed and roll between your palms.
To Use
Apply one dropperful of liver support blend under your right ribcage. You can spread it over the abdomen and middle of the back as well.
Use upon waking and before bedtime for best results.
Emotional Liver Support Essential Oil Blend
Did you know that the liver can become toxic with emotions? As crazy as it might sound, the liver hangs onto negativity, hate, grief, anger, and number of other unpleasant emotions. In order to help the liver, release its emotional burden, you need to include daily practices like exercise, meditation, yoga, and other emotional release activities along with using emotionally supportive essential oils.
To make an effective emotional liver support blend, combine the following essential oils in an empty 1oz dropper bottle:
• 2 drops ylang ylang essential oil – relieves mental fatigue and calms the mind and feelings of anxiety.
• 3 drops German chamomile essential oil – an incredibly relaxing oil. Reduces stress, and nervous tension.
• 3 drops helichrysum essential oil – one of the top oils for liver regeneration.
• 4 drops cypress essential oil – calms the nervous system and decreases nervous tension and stress.
• 4 drops geranium essential oil – creates a sense of security, safety, and deep relaxation. Supports depression and decreases fear, feelings of hurt, and extreme turbulent emotions.
• 4 drops sweet orange essential oil – uplifts the mood and stimulates feelings of joy and cheerfulness.
• 5 drops grapefruit essential oil – stimulates the liver, gallbladder, and lymphatic system and improves self-acceptance.
• 5 drops lavender essential oil – uplifts the mood, balances mood swings, normalizes emotions, and relaxes the mind. Supports the release of irritability, fear, insecurity, restlessness, depression, nervousness, and stress.
Next, fill the dropper bottle to the shoulder with carrier oil.
Cap closed and roll between the palms to mix.
To Use
Apply one dropperful beneath the right rib cage and behind the ears. Cup the remaining oil over your nose and inhale slowly for three breaths. Use this blend when emotions are turbulent.
You may also enjoy these other detox articles:
How to Detox the Lymphatic System Using Essential Oils
Pre-Bath Body Oil Recipe for Detox
Detoxifying Essential Oils and How to Use Them
Essential Oils for Detox
Super Detoxifying Bath Salt Recipe
How to Take an Epsom Salt Detox Bath
I love your posts and blog. Thanks for helping others like myself learn to use essential oils for health. They’re doing me a world of goodness
You’re welcome, Karen! 🙂
Any suggestions on where to buy the essential oils? There are so many now, now sure which one name brand would be good.
I really like Plant Therapy, Eden Botanicals, Aura Cacia, Simplers Botanicals, and yes, even Young Living and Doterra.
Hi Tash
What are the most important oils for emotional damage to the liver?
I have a fatty liver. I don’t really want to buy all of these. So is there a top 2 or 3 that would work well together?
ginger and geranium!
Hello,
I have had a fatty liver quite a long time. But my numbers now are of concern and I am going to have a liver biopsy later this month. I bought all the ingredients and made the mixture exactly like you said too. Is there any precautions that should be looked out for before taking this mix? Like for example if you are on this med, Do Not use it etc. like what is important to know before using it? I am new to EO’s and want to try every venue possible to help my situation. Any word of advice you have would be soo appreciated. I Love your helpful blog. Thank You for your time and sharing this recipe!
~Hugs~
Hi Tash – I have fatty liver and planning to try to liver detox but don’t have carrot seed, juniper and geranium. Should I simply leave them out of the recipe? Thanks!
Tash I am curious if you know of a possible remedy to help solve my problem with erectile disfunctionand also with my wifes diagnosis with vagional cancer Thank you Jim
Hi Jim!
Do you know of any root cause?
thanks
Hi Tash,
I’m just wondering what your qualifications are to make some of these claims. Do you have a background in an area of the medical field? I feel like it’s important to note that the FDA doesn’t recognize EO as an effective treatment for any ailment, and therefore statements that imply direct cause and effect are actually illegal to publish or use to inform the general public
e.g.:
1.) Juniper is a blood purifying essential oil that aides the liver by relieving some of its burden
Vs
2.) Juniper is thought to play a role in blood purification and may aid the liver by possibly relieving some of it’s burden
These ambiguous terms like “might” and “maybe” are actually really important to use as most associations of EO are based on pseudoscience, which also brings me to my next point in that the emotional role of the liver is based on chinese medicine, a pseudoscience. It’s also important to point out the functions of the liver that are known scientific facts versus the ones that are folk tales and/or non-scientific.
This totally sounds like I’m just trying to rip you apart, I really am not! I think this post is super cool because I’ve been looking for a good liver roller recipe to make.I just want to get an idea of your experience with medicine before I put anything into/on my body that potentially can cause harm without proper information or guidlines.
Thanks for the post!
Nick
BSc (Honours) Medical Physiology
Is it important to use German chamomile oil vs Roman chamomile oil for this blend?
Yes! The German chamomile has more of the detoxifying properties.
I have an interesting question. If I were to make a salve instead of the liquid detox EO recipe, how many more drops of ea EO would I need for 8oz of oil? Should I double or triple the recipe, would you suggest?
Hi! Thank you for this article. What would you say the top 3 most effective ones would be?
Hi Jessi!
I would say lemon, rosemary, and ledum.
Hi! do you know if these oils are good for fatty liver? Can you recommend me some for that? Thanks in advance.
I’m curious why you went with another brand of Geranium EO instead of one from Plant Therapy? Is the one you chose more effective on the liver than those other ones?
Hi Janet!
Both of these companies are great and very high quality 🙂
Hi Tash do need all of those? what if I use only the ginger and perhaps geranium, as i am trying it for my fatty liver. How do you combine both? How do you use the ginger on its own, is it gonna be as effective?
Hi Vyie!
You don’t need all the oils, but they are helpful! For the ginger and geranium, mix 3 drops of each in 1 oz of carrier oil and apply it over the liver 1-2 times daily. It should help!
Hi, can I replace juniper berry oil with juniper essential oil? Thank you !
Hi Sunny!
Yes! Those should be the same thing 🙂
Should you use the liver detox blend every day continuously, or is there some sort of break in routine – like use for 2 weeks, stop 2 weeks, then repeat? Thanks!
Hi Nasa!
I would recommend taking a break as you say – two weeks on and two weeks off 🙂 It isn’t terrible if you go a bit longer, but it is good to give the body a rest no matter what natural protocol you may be using.
If I don’t have all the oils for the liver detox (some are just way too expensive on my limited disability income) can I leave them out of substitute or add more of the oils that I do have to total the same amount of drops? I have non-alcoholic cirrhosis, it’s from using cancer fighting drugs and radiation therapy treatments.
Hi Joyce!
Which oils do you currently have for the blend?
Hi, I started using essential oils about 6 months ago but not so informed about using them
Well, you’ve come to the right place Charlene! 🙂
Just found out I have slightly elevated liver enzymes, so I am looking forward to trying this blend. I already have some empty roller bottles. Is it okay to roll this on instead of using a dropper? Thank you for the help!
Hi Rebecca!
Since both liver recipes contain 30 drops total of essential oil, I would divide all the number of drops by 3 as best as you can. This will make a dilution of about 5% (the same as adding 30 drops of essential oil to 1 oz of carrier oil) which is a therapeutic dilution. If you add the whole recipe as is (30 drops total of essential oil) the dilution you would get in a 10ml bottle would be too high to use comfortably on the skin.
I actually prefer to make a “master blend” by just adding all of the essential oils in the recipe to its own 5ml bottle. This makes it VERY easy to use the right dilution for any sized vessel you choose.
Hi I was reading the comment about liver distress. I too can have days where toxins can be overwhelming to my liver. A good diet of course is critical. But for transdermal therapy on the liver, castor bean oil is great. If the monks –back during the days of the Black Plague had –had cell phones there would have been fewer deaths. Those monks were so impressed with the lives saved that they renamed the castor bean oil to Palma de Cristo. Healing Hands of Christ. I’ll use that one day and an essential oil– usually with an aloe vera the next — kinda rotate between the two till my liver does a happy hum. Gee I wish we had Kloss Clinics today.
Yes! Castor oil packs are amazing for giving your liver a bit more support!
So castor oil would be a great carrier oil to use with these blends? Is that correct?
Yep! 🙂
jo, how did the monks us the castor oil? externally or internally or both?
Hello Tash,
I am new to using essential oils and my doTerra coach sold me my initial product then that’s the end of that journey. I still purchase my own oils from them but have no support.
I have many medical issues and liver disease is one. I am wondering if I could ingest this blend with tea or a drop under the tongue for more support?
LIVER SUPPORT ESSENTIAL OIL BLEND
To make an effective liver support blend, combine the following oils in an empty 1oz dropper bottle:
• 3 drops carrot seed essential oil – aides in the repair, regeneration and detoxification of liver cells.
• 3 drops German chamomile essential oil – stimulates bile secretions and supports liver detox.
• 4 drops cypress essential oil – stimulates and regulates liver secretions and supports cleansing and detoxification.
• 4 drops juniper berry essential oil – a blood purifying essential oil that aides the liver by relieving some of its burden.
• 5 drops geranium essential oil – aides the liver by expanding the liver’s bile ducts which helps with detox. Geranium is considered to be a powerful liver tonic.
• 5 drops rosemary essential oil – enhances bile flow and reduces excess plasma liver enzymes. It also prevents toxic overload.
• 6 drops ginger essential oil – helps reverse a fatty liver and stimulates liver secretions.
Next, fill the dropper bottle to the shoulder with a carrier oil like sweet almond or fractionated coconut oil.
Cap closed and roll between your palms.
To Use
Apply one dropperful of liver support blend under your right ribcage. You can spread it over the abdomen and middle of the back as well.
Hi Annie!
I would not recommend ingesting this blend or putting it under the tongue. Many of the people who sell DoTerra or YL encourage people to ingest essential oils, but it is actually a practice that can be quite harmful to the body if you aren’t under the guidance of a certified aromatherapist. Almost all of the people who sell those oils are NOT trained in the proper oral use of essential oils, so I just want to express caution. Don’t get me wrong, I love those oils, but their improper use is why I started this blog in the first place.
This blend is actually quite effective when used topically because essential oils enter the bloodstream through the skin. 🙂
Hi Tash, is it ok too use joba oil if you don’t have the others? I don’t have ginger oil but I have everything else. Thank you
Hi Rachel! Do you mean jojoba oil? If so, yes you can definitely just use that 🙂 It’s okay if you don’t have the ginger essential oil, the blend is still effective!
Hi Annie. I would love to help you with your journey. I am a health and wellness coach and a Emergency Room nurse. I’m very passionate about health and would love to help. I use different approaches including the use of essential oils. If you feel inclined, you may email me at BalancedLifestyle@hotmail.com. To you and yours in health and wellness, Jordan
Can you use Roman Chamomile if you don’t have German Chamomile for the liver master blend? Thanks for the information.
For the liver detox do you use all the oils at one time?
Hi Amber!
You can make a master formula using all of the essential oils. I recommend getting an empty 10 ml essential oil bottle like this one, and then follow the maximum dilutions for each oil which you can find here. Add all the oils to the bottle and allow to “cure” for a few days before use to allow them to synergize. You can then make the dilution you need using a carrier oil (some examples might be a body oil, roll-on, lotion, etc.)
Wanting to know how helpful Epsom salt baths are? Or THC oils for a unhealthy liver.
Hi Sarah!
Epsom salts are fantastic for eliminating toxins from the body and lightening the liver’s load. I’m not sure about THC oils though 🙁
Do you sell the oils already blended together? Is so how much
Hi Belen!
I don’t, but I am considering it! 🙂
Would be great if you sold blended formulas!
I’ve thought of it! Perhaps in the future when I finally get moved in and settled into my new house! 🙂