Thieves essential oil blend has its roots deep in history. It was created from research based on the infamous 15th century thieves who rubbed oils and herbs on themselves to avoid contracting the plague while they robbed bodies of the dead and dying. Legend has it they told their secret recipe to the King of France to be spared the death penalty. To honor their story, Young Living formulated their proprietary, immune boosting Thieves essential oil blend.
- What is Thieves Essential Oil Blend made of?
- How to use Thieves Essential Oil Blend Safely
- Our favorite recipes featuring Thieves Vitality Essential Oil Blend
- Frequently Asked Questions about Thieves Essential Oil Blend
- Is Thieves essential oil blend safe for dogs and cats?
- What is the difference between Thieves and Thieves vitality essential oils?
- Is Thieves essential oil safe to use while pregnant?
- Is Thieves essential oil safe for kids and babies?
- Can you be allergic to Thieves essential oil?
- Should you use Thieves essential oil if you're taking medication?
- How often should you use Thieves essential oil?
- Where we purchase our essential oils, and why
- How do you use Thieves Essential Oil Blend?
- Where to Buy High-Quality Essential Oils
What is Thieves Essential Oil Blend made of?
Thieves essential oil blend is formulated with clove, lemon, cinnamon bark, eucalyptus radiata, and rosemary essential oils.
- Clove essential oil – Clove supports your cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, and immune systems. It's a fantastic addition to oral hygiene and aids in anti-aging. It is also a stimulant, influencing focus, stimulating dreams, and creating a sense of protection and courage.
- Lemon essential oil – Lemon supports your respiratory, digestive, and immune systems and is also great for skin health too. It's largely used in skin care for its cleansing and anti-aging properties. Lemon improves memory and concentration, reduces stress, and increases alertness.
- Cinnamon Bark essential oil – Cinnamon essential oil is known for its immune-boosting properties.
- Eucalyptus Radiata essential oil – Eucalyptus Radiata helps support and purify your respiratory system and boosts your immune system. It's also energizing and soothing.
- Rosemary – Rosemary supports your circulatory, digestive, immune, and musculoskeletal systems. It also stimulates hair follicles and mental focus.
How to use Thieves Essential Oil Blend Safely
There are three main ways to use Thieves essential oil blend:
- Aromatically – diffusing or wearing in diffusing jewelry
- Topically – diluting and applying to your skin
- Ingesting – using pre-made supplements, or specifically designed recipes
If you're going to apply Thieves to your skin, always be sure to dilute it. To dilute it, I always recommend 1 drop to 1ml of carrier oil (any cold-pressed seed oil, like sweet almond, grapeseed, coconut, avocado, coconut… etc).
A carrier oil can be any cold-pressed, seed-based oil (ideally organic and unrefined). This includes most cooking oil, like coconut oil, avocado oil, and olive oil. Personally, we LOVE using sweet almond oil, grapeseed oil, and the V6 Carrier oil (made by Young Living). This is the best way to dilute your essential oils for topical use.
How does Thieves Essential Oil Blend work?
Thieves essential oil blend is comprised of 5 essential oils that are all very well known and studied to have immune-supporting functions. When using it topically (diluted) or aromatically, your body absorbs the oil, and uses it where it needs it the most.
Our Favorite Ways to use Thieves Essential Oil Blend:
- Dilute a drop per ml (or 5 drops per tsp) of carrier oil, such as coconut or sweet almond oil, and rub on the bottom of your feet, over your belly, and/or over your chest to help boost your immune system.
- Diffuse to purify and cleanse the air
- I love adding a couple of drops of orange oil to Thieves in the diffuser (it reminds me of Thanksgiving)
- Make an immune-boosting sugar scrub
- Add Thieves Vitality to your oil pulling routine
- Add Thieves to your homemade toothpaste
- Add Thieves to homemade playdough to boost your children's immune systems while they play
- Diffuse Thieves with a drop of lavender in the evenings to help support your immune functioning and relax
- Add to your homemade cleaning products (be sure to check out this Pumpkin Spice cleaning recipe)
- Add a drop of Thieves Vitality to a tsp of salt and warm water to gargle for a sore throat
- Make your own Thieves Spray as a throat spray for a sore throat
Our favorite recipes featuring Thieves Vitality Essential Oil Blend
- Put a drop of Thieves Vitality in a tsp of honey and dissolve in a mug of warm water for a soothing Thieves Tea
- Use in place of pumpkin pie seasoning (1 drop per TBS)

Frequently Asked Questions about Thieves Essential Oil Blend
Is Thieves essential oil blend safe for dogs and cats?
Thieves essential oil blend is safe for dogs, as long as you use it properly. Thieves essential oil may be beneficial to dogs.
My aunt loves diffusing Thieves for her dogs. She often finds her little dogs curled up around the diffuser every time she diffuses any. She especially loves how it seems one doesn't cough nearly as much as normal when he hangs out near the mist.
Just ensure if you're diffusing around your dogs to allow them a way to escape the room if they decide they've had enough.
Be very cautious using any essential oil on cats because they metabolize differently. Thieves oil does contain lemon, which all citrus oils should be avoided with cats.
If you have pets in your home, I highly recommend having an animal essential oil reference book.
If you’re using essential oils around your family pets, be sure to allow them to access out of the room and into a room where you’re not diffusing. This way they’re able to escape when they feel they’ve had enough.
Please also consider picking up a reference guide specific to using essential oils with animals. There are also reference guides specific to Young Living’s oils too.
What is the difference between Thieves and Thieves vitality essential oils?
Absolutely nothing aside from the label printed. They are 100% the exact same oil that may be used in the exact same ways interchangeably. Young Living adopted the Vitality label in 2015 to remain legal with the FDA and FTC's marketing requirements that state a supplement cannot be labeled as topical and oral at the same time.
This means legally, we cannot discuss using essential oil in your cooking, baking, drinks, or any oral supplement form if it is the same bottle you're discussing using in your diffuser or topically on your skin.
To reduce confusion and stay in the eyes of the law, Young Living separated their labels to compliantly discuss all the benefits essential oils can provide in all use capacities.
Is Thieves essential oil safe to use while pregnant?
Yes. Generally, Thieves essential oil is considered safe to use while you're pregnant.. just please dilute more than normal. I recommend one drop per 5ml of your favorite carrier oil.
If you're using oils while pregnant, I highly recommend this reference guide. It contains some great advice for using essential oils while pregnant, plus some DIY Recipes you'll love too.
Is Thieves essential oil safe for kids and babies?
Generally, yes, diluted much more than normal. Though I do highly recommend only using lavender and frankincense on or around newborns.
While essential oils may be safe for kids to use, please do not have your child use an essential oil internally without being under the direct guidance of a naturopathic doctor.
Can you be allergic to Thieves essential oil?
There are a few reasons why you would experience an allergy-like reaction to essential oils. Usually, this is caused by not diluting the oil you're applying (or not diluting it enough). Please refer to our essential oils and allergies article for more in-depth information.
Should you use Thieves essential oil if you're taking medication?
This is a very personal question, and really depends on which medications you're taking. I have an entire article dedicated to known medication contraindications that I highly recommend you check out… in addition to having a lengthy conversation with your local aromatherapist, herbalist, or pharmacist.
How often should you use Thieves essential oil?
This is also a personal question. This depends on what you're using it for and how experienced you are using it. For beginners, I recommend only diffusing for 30 minutes at a time, then giving your body an hour break. If you diffuse too much, you could end up lightheaded. Personally, I have a diffuser running most of the day intermittently (using the intermittent setting on our diffuser). Or I'll wear a piece of diffusing jewelry with 3 drops of oil on it throughout the day (those 3 drops usually last a few days). Check out our article about diffusing essential oils safely for more info.
Where to Buy High-Quality Essential Oils
Don't be fooled into purchasing substandard, fake, or counterfeit essential oils using clever marketing and loose labeling laws. Be sure you know about the 10 Dirty Little Secrets of the essential oil industry so you can make the best choice for your needs for in-depth information about why quality matters, how not to be fooled, and what to look for
Warning: DO NOT purchase your oils through Amazon, eBay, Walmart, or similar websites with 3rd party sellers! Many of those oils are counterfeit and may cause health ailments, skin reactions, headaches, and a lot of misery. Most reputable essential oil brands do not allow their oils to be purchased there, so when you do find them (even if the seller appears to be legitimate), they're often fake.
If you're ready to start your essential oil journey, this is our favorite place to purchase from because of their transparency and dedication to doing what is right for their customers and not compromising on their integrity to provide industry-setting quality standards throughout all their products.
Where we purchase our essential oils, and why
We purchase our oils through Young Living because they set a higher standard for essential oils than what the rest of the industry expects. Their Seed to Seal guarantee is unmatched and shows their dedication to a farm-to-table type of approach. This company has proven to me time and time again to be the closest thing out there to buying from your local farmer. They are totally transparent in their processes, and even open their farms so you can see for yourself (or involve yourself in the process).
Sign up for my complimentary online introduction to essential oils email class, to learn the basics.
How do you use Thieves Essential Oil Blend?
I would love to hear about it in the comments below!
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Nicole
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