Flower Essences vs Essential Oils: What’s the Difference?

If you're on a wellness journey, chances are you've encountered both flower essences and essential oils. They’re often used in similar spaces — for emotional support, energetic balance, and self-care rituals — but they’re not the same. In fact, understanding the distinction can help you use each more effectively and intuitively.

What Are Flower Essences?

Flower essences are vibrational remedies. Made by placing fresh flowers in water and allowing the sunlight to imprint their energetic signature into the liquid, they contain no plant matter and no scent — just the energetic pattern of the flower. This means they’re safe for internal use and work on a very subtle level.

Because flower essences are vibrational only, they interact primarily with the emotional layer of the energy body. By taking them orally or adding to a drink, their frequency begins to imprint the water in your body — circulating through the blood and, over time, influencing you at a cellular level. From a metaphysical perspective, this attunement of the body’s water carries deep significance. Ancient healing systems like Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda describe how the water we consume becomes our chi or prana — our life force.

In my practice at Vibe Alchemy, I create oral flower essence blends that work gently and powerfully. And while they’re unscented, they can be paired with essential oils in a diffuser for a truly alchemical ritual.

What Are Essential Oils?

Essential oils also carry the essence of the plant, but through a more concentrated and physical process. They contain the chemical constituents of the plant, offering therapeutic benefits to the body and mind via scent and topical use.

Energetically, they are potent. Classical Chinese Medicine recognises essential oils as alchemical agents capable of interacting not only with the body’s 12 meridians, but also with the 8 extraordinary meridians — deep energy channels that store Jing (essence) and connect us with cosmic and zodiacal influences. These channels are typically difficult to reach with acupuncture but can be accessed through the high-frequency nature of certain essential oils.

I use essential oils in my aura sprays, where they support energy clearing and emotional grounding. Here, their scent, vibrational potency, and energetic complexity combine to create a sensory and spiritual experience.

So, Which One Should You Use?

Use flower essences when you're working with emotional patterns, inner shifts, or energetic alignment — especially when internal support and vibrational subtlety are needed.

Use essential oils when you want to engage the senses, create ritual space, clear energy fields, or work with deeper layers of the energetic body that include physical or cosmically-rooted imbalances.

And sometimes, like in my practice — you’ll use both, with intention and reverence.