As a child, I grew up in the mountains of San Diego and was often surrounded by oak and pine forests, wild sage, blackberry bushes, and the smell of springs. The scent of wild places has always been part and parcel of my very being and is one of the main ways in which I connect with nature.

Over the past year, I’ve gotten back into getting outside more exploring local peaks and trails and just enjoying the outdoors – in particular, the smell of my surroundings and how calming and grounding that can be. So, when Juniper Ridge finally came out with their own essential oils, I knew I had to have them.

Juniper Ridge Essential Oils – Mountains, Deserts, and Coast

Juniper Ridge is a company that specializes in creating “wilderness perfume” using sustainable wildcrafting practices.

They make all sorts of products like Douglas Fir and White Sage tea, scented candles, solid perfumes, colognes, incense, and other infused items (many of them limited edition) based on the wildflowers, plants, bark, moss, mushrooms, and tree trimmings they harvest on trail.

The products they make are often named after the places where they harvested the plant matter for their formulas. These products are made using old-school perfume-making techniques including distillation, tincturing, infusion, and enfleurage in order to capture the true scent of places like Big Sir, The Mojave Desert, and the myriad trails of the western United States.

Their essential oils are amazing. I can’t stress enough how the scent of these oils transport you to the native habitat where these plants and trees were harvested.

If you’re a lover of pine, resin, sun-warmed sage, and the scent of coastal or desert places, then you will love these essential oils.

Juniper Ridge has five different essential oils:

1. White Sage
2. Cascade Forest
3. Redwood Mist
4. Desert Cedar
5. Coastal Pine

Each one distinctly captures the essence of their namesake and I couldn’t be more excited to use these oils in my homemade body care recipes.

Juniper Ridge Essential Oils – Scent Profiles and Uses

White Sage Essential Oil

The white sage essential oil is distilled from wild harvested white sage (Salvia apiana) and has a full-bodied aroma that is penetrating, warming, spicy, and herbaceous with a pungent and camphorous quality reminiscent of this ceremonial herb.

If you’re looking for an alternative to burning smudge sticks (which are made from bundles of white sage), then look no further than this white sage essential oil.

It’s perfect for cleansing and purifying your personal space by adding a few drops to your diffuser, bath, or even diffuser jewelry. A room spray is especially nice!

I love using this white sage essential oil to create a spiritual and sacred atmosphere for meditation or to change the energy of a room when I need it.

This stuff is potent, so you don’t need much.

Cascade Forest Essential Oil

Cascade Forest is a blend of Western Mountain Fir and Pine and is my favorite of the five essential oils because it is a true snapshot of resinous pine forests. The scent is bright, uplifting, crisp, and penetratingly camphorous with a subtle sweet undertone.

Members of the pine family are known for their grounding and calming effects, especially when emotional stabilization is needed. They are also clarifying to the mind and help energize the senses when you start feeling slow and sluggish after a long day.

The instantly uplifting nature of this essential oil brought me out of a negative mindset time and time again and I couldn’t be happier that they now offer this blend as a solid perfume.

This oil works well diffused, mixed in unscented bubble bath, or used as a room spray.

Redwood Mist Essential Oil

Redwood Mist is a blend of steam distilled redwood, Douglas fir, and California Bay Laurel essential oils and has the characteristic aroma of sun-warmed conifer needles with a burst of resinous fir and spicy bay laurel.

Bay Laurel is an incredibly energizing and invigorating oil that possesses a wide range of molecules from almost every major chemical group found in essential oils and has a broad range of effects one would normally find in complex essential oil blends. It adds a pleasant subtle spiciness that wakes up the senses.

Douglas fir has an intense yet soft woodsy aroma that is vibrant and robust in nature. Its scent is clarifying, cleansing, and purifying and helps ward off winter illness and stagnation in the air. The brightness it adds to this blend is addicting!

Redwood has a bright scent with tangerine-like undertones that give this blend a slightly sweeter aroma. It’s also a bit earthy and resinous and I find it incredibly uplifting. You won’t find redwood essential oil in many products out there, so be sure to snag this blend if you can.

Desert Cedar Essential Oil

This blend is a bit of a mystery in the sense that they don’t list the plant matter ingredients for Desert Cedar.

However, its description hits it right on the head as far as envisioning what Juniper Ridge was going for when they formulated this blend.

Here’s what they have to say about it:

Spend a night sleeping under the stars in the Mojave Desert or Eastern Sierra and you may wake up with frost on your sleeping bag, the air crisp and cold. But as the sun crests the horizon and falls on the red bark and small, deep green leaves of the surrounding junipers and cedars, the air is perfumed with a sharp and sweet scent. Redolent of warm leather and desert varnish–a sun-baked mixture of resin, minerals, and clay–this fragrance is at the heart of our love song to this arid landscape: Desert Cedar essential oil.

In essence, it’s a blend of various conifers from Eastern and Southern California and I’m guessing some inclusion of juniper, cedar, desert lavender, and perhaps some other desert flora I can’t put my finger on. It smells amazing and reminds me of hiking on trail and getting a whiff of sun-warmed wild plants.

I think this blend would make the perfect cologne for the men in your life and I can see myself adding it to my husband’s next batch of homemade shaving oil.

It’s relaxing yet uplifting and penetrates the senses. It smells great as a personal perfume.

Coastal Pine Essential Oil

Last, but not least, is Coastal Pine essential oil. This one is a bright, citrusy, and resinous blend that contains many of the conifers found along the coast of California – all the way up to Alaska!

It includes the needles of Douglas fir, redwood, hemlock, cedar, cypress, pine, and other sustainably harvested plant matter from the coastal areas of the temperate rainforests of California and Cascadia.

This blend is really nice when made into a room spray, diffused, added to body oil, or made into a solid perfume.

It’s uplifting and instills a sense of calm. When I smell this oil, I feel grounded and at ease, as if I’m standing in the coastal pine forests where this blend’s ingredients are wildcrafted.

All in all, I have thoroughly enjoyed the Juniper Ridge essential oils. While it may be difficult to describe each one as being different (save the white sage essential oil), they truly have their own unique scents profiles. If you have been to these special places, I know for a fact that smelling these oils will instantly bring you back to those moments.

Otherwise, if you like the scent of pine forests, desert herbs, and fragrant plants that inhabit the wild places of the Western United States, then these essential oils will not disappoint.

Have you tried the Juniper Ridge essential oils? Which ones are your favorite and how do you use them?

You may also enjoy reading:

Conifer Essential Oils- Essential Oils 101
Forest Bath Milk Concentrate
Winter Forest Shave Oil

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