Best essential oils 2024: sleep better, beat stress and boost your mood

The best essential oils improve your sleep, help you relax, and add a beautiful scent in every room of your home... here are our top picks

best essential oils
(Image credit: Chelsea shapouri on Unsplash)

Investing in the best essential oils of 2024 can be a great way to improve your general wellbeing. Whether you're not getting enough sleep, feeling stressed or you simply need a mood boost, essential oils can help, especially when you use them in the best essential oil diffuser, in aromatherapy massage or with other wellness treatments.

Whatever wellbeing issues you want to address, there's most likely an essential oil to suit your needs. For example, lavender oil has long been used as a relaxation aid and can help you get a better night's sleep, while tea-tree oil has impressive antibacterial properties. Essential oils can even help you feel less congestion and more relaxed when you're ill, so there are plenty of benefits to adding essential oils into your home throughout the seasons.

Alongside having health-boosting properties, there's a simple reason you might want to stock up on the best essential oils around. That's because they smell amazing, and of course, scent can be a useful tool in improving your mood.

In short, for a natural non-toxic way to feel better all round, the best essential oils can really help. Do bear in mind, though, that if you're suffering from health issues, your first port of call should be your GP, who'll be much better equipped to provide you with the help and treatment you need.

Below, we've rounded up the best essential oils you can buy today. If you're new to the world of essential oils, we've explained what they are and how you can use them at the bottom of this guide.

Best essential oils ranking 2024

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What are essential oils?

Essential oils aren’t anything new – Ancient Egypt is widely believed to be their birthplace, and if they're good enough for Cleopatra, they're good enough for us. That's why we've been trying out various oils made by a range of brands, from Aesop to Neom, to bring you our pick of the best essential oils.

These types of aroma oils, which include the likes of lavender essential oil and peppermint essential oil, have gone mainstream in the past decade. Leading beauty brands are widely incorporating them into a whole world of nourishing products, from shampoos and body washes to perfumes and facial moisturisers. Albeit, these products are usually more expensive because they contain potent oils.

Once you open your eyes to the world of essential oils, you’ll notice that they’re everywhere – in ointments, gels, perfumes, candles and pillow sprays. There are a host of essential oil diffusers you can buy to make the most of them too.

Generally speaking, organic essential oils are of a superior quality and should also be favoured, budget allowing. There are some surprisingly powerful and affordable alternatives though, and we've included both options below. Let's take a look at these best essential oils now...

Grace Allen is a homes style and interiors writer, and has written for other trusted Future brands including Real Homes.