Cypress Oil: Benefits, Uses, Recipes, Dilution & Safety

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Cypress oil, also sold as cypress essential oil, is the essential oil steam-distilled from the leafy branches of the Mediterranean cypress tree, Cupressus sempervirens.78 It's best known as a circulation oil, diluted and rubbed into heavy legs, varicose and spider veins and hemorrhoids.26 It also makes a fresh natural deodorant, a cold-season steam and a clean, uplifting scent for prayer and quiet time.314

If your legs feel heavy by the end of the day, or you've noticed veins bulging where they never used to, the cause is often the same one behind hemorrhoids: blood that isn't moving well, pooling in veins whose walls have lost their tone, like an old waistband that has lost its snap. Varicose veins are typically caused by weak connective tissue and circulatory tissue, so the work is to strengthen that tissue and increase circulation.2 Long before anyone distilled the oil, people in many countries reached for the leaves and cones of the cypress for exactly that kind of job, as an astringent, vessel-tightening remedy and for hemorrhoids.1

Did you know?

• Essential oils are 50 to 100 times as concentrated as the herb itself, which is why cypress oil is measured in drops.5

• Where the tree grows changes the oil: one Moroccan cypress oil was 47.72% δ-3-carene, a compound that usually comes second.910

• Persian traditional medicine applied the berries and leaves of the cypress, called sarv, to the body in remedies for stomach weakness, bloating and rectal prolapse.11

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What is cypress oil?

Cypress trees are evergreens that grow 5 to 40 meters tall, about 16 to 130 feet.12 The oil comes from their leafy branches and sometimes the cones, and the clean, evergreen scent you notice as soon as you open a bottle comes from terpenes, the fragrant compounds distillation carries into the bottle.87

In a 2014 lab analysis of oil from the Mediterranean cypress, researchers identified 20 compounds, and two of them made up most of it: α-pinene at 48.6% of the oil and δ-3-carene at 22.1%. Limonene at 4.6% and α-terpinolene at 4.5% came next, and together the four made up 79.8% of the oil.10 The balance shifts with the part of the tree that's distilled: in one analysis, oil from the cones was 59.2% α-pinene and oil from the branch tips 46.2%.8 Because the makeup changes from oil to oil, the buying checklist below asks to see a batch test.

The whole leaves and cones hold compounds that don't distill into the oil: they're rich in tannins and flavonoids, and the cones carry proanthocyanidins. The oil is closer to the tree's fragrance caught in a bottle, so the traditional whole-plant remedies and the distilled oil aren't the same product.1213

A short history of cypress

For a long time, in many countries, people reached for the cypress mainly when a cough or the flu set in. Its leaves and cones served as astringent, fever-lowering, vessel-tightening and antihemorrhoidal remedies, among others.1 In Turkey, people use the cones for colds and coughs, and cypress trees in general as a diuretic and an antiseptic.12 Then came the distilled oil, and aromatherapy texts listed it for oily skin, blocked pores, foot odor, heavy sweating, cellulite and natural deodorant.14 Researchers have since tested some of those same jobs, from massage for the waistline to skin bacteria and the airways.151016

What is cypress oil good for?

How cypress oil works in your body

In a tired, heavy leg, the blood inside a vein isn't moving well, and the wall around it has lost its tone. Cypress oil works on the first problem, since rubbing it in helps get blood moving in the area where you apply it, while food and movement work on the second by rebuilding the vessel wall. Here's how it works, from the problem to the fix:

Cypress oil has a second, supporting job, too: calming oxidative stress. In lab tests, oil from cypress leaves showed strong free-radical scavenging, and oils from the branch tips and cones protected red blood cells from oxidative damage.78 That antioxidant work has been seen only in the lab so far, so it plays backup to the main job of moving blood.

Cypress oil benefits

Cypress oil does the most for your circulation: heavy legs, varicose veins and hemorrhoids. After that come a trimmer waistline in massage, fresher skin, easier breathing in cold season and calm focus for prayer, and if you only try it one way, start with your legs.

Does cypress oil help varicose veins and heavy legs?

Varicose veins are the bulging blue veins you see mostly in the legs, and they often bring achy legs, particularly after you've been standing for a long time.6 Chinese medicine reads them as a problem of movement and tone, with a root cause of blood stasis, blood that isn't moving, and spleen qi deficiency. The spleen, which in plain English stands for your digestion, governs the smooth muscle in your blood vessels and veins.6 In that reading, when it runs low, the vessel walls lose their tone and blood pools.

In Ancient Remedies, I recommend rubbing 5 drops of cypress or thyme oil mixed with witch hazel on the affected veins twice daily.6 In my video on varicose veins, I paired cypress with witch hazel, too, and said that essential oils such as cypress oil are very effective with varicose veins.2 Use 2 teaspoons of witch hazel for those 5 drops, about a 2.5% blend; the vein rub in the recipes below has the steps.5 And if your legs feel tired and heavy at the end of the day, massage in a 2% cypress oil from the dilution table below.5

Cypress works from the outside, on the circulation where you rub it, while the rest of my plan works from the inside, strengthening the vein wall and keeping blood moving:2

• Move every day. Any exercise improves circulation. I especially recommend weight training and burst training, and yoga, walking in nature, cycling and swimming all count.26

• Wear compression socks, the third step in my plan for varicose veins.2

• Add bilberry. I recommend 500 to 1,000 milligrams of bilberry extract daily, an antioxidant-rich berry that strengthens veins.26

• Drink bone broth. Collagen supports connective tissue, and I recommend 8 to 12 ounces of bone broth 2 to 3 times daily.2

• Use the vein herbs. Butcher's broom helps veins contract, and horse chestnut promotes blood flow and reduces swelling.6

• Eat for your veins. Fill your plate with leafy greens such as spinach and kale, beets, citrus, salmon and flaxseed for omega-3s, and turmeric. Then cut hydrogenated oils, sugar, processed food and alcohol.6

Cypress oil for hemorrhoids

Hemorrhoids are swollen veins, too, just in a more uncomfortable place, and cypress is one of the two oils I recommend for them, along with helichrysum.6 People have long used cypress leaves and cones as a traditional remedy for hemorrhoids.1 Mix the oil into coconut oil and dab it on with a cotton ball; the hemorrhoid compress in the recipes below gives the amounts.6

Chinese medicine reads hemorrhoids as intestinal qi deficiency and qi stagnation, movement in the gut that's weak and stuck, and constipation is a cause.6 So I pair the oil with daily movement, plenty of fluids through the day, high-fiber foods and fermented foods, along with daily prayer, meditation and spiritual growth reading to reduce frustration and build hope and faith.6 (For a soothing salve, see this DIY hemorrhoid cream.)

Can cypress oil help with cellulite and belly fat?

If you've been fighting cellulite, it may help to know that it shares roots with heavy legs, since poor circulation is one of its causes, along with fluid retention.19 A randomized trial from Korea used grapefruit and cypress, two of the oils in my cellulite cream, in massage blends for the waistline.1519

The women in that trial were all at least a year past natural menopause, with a waist of 80 cm (about 31.5 inches) or more, and the researchers split them at random into two groups. For 6 weeks, both groups followed the same routine, a weekly 1-hour whole-body massage from a researcher plus about 20 minutes of massaging their own bellies twice a day, 5 days a week, and what differed was the oil. One group used aromatic oils at 3% in jojoba oil: a grapefruit-led blend for the whole-body massage and a blend of cypress and four other oils for the belly. The other group used plain grapeseed oil. Of 38 women, 35 finished.15

Waist size fell from 97.33 to 91.94 cm with the aromatic blends and from 93.24 to 92.59 cm with grapeseed oil, so with the same massage and the same routine, the women using the blends lost far more from their waists. CT scans showed the fat under the skin of the belly, the soft layer you can pinch, shrinking from 233.81 to 219.54 cm² with the blends, while the deeper visceral fat around the organs didn't change differently between the groups. The women's body-image scores also improved more with the blends.15

For more ways to work on cellulite, see essential oils for cellulite and dry brushing. And if you want to start with two of the same oils the trial used, grapefruit and cypress, my cream is in the recipes below.

Is cypress oil good for your skin?

For a homemade deodorant, the masculine scents I like best are sandalwood, bergamot, black pepper and cypress, with cedarwood too. My wife, Chelsea, and I make our own deodorants and use them all the time,3 and my recipe is in the recipes below.

The lab work fits that use. In a 2014 lab study, cypress oil was active against 3 of the 11 bacteria tested, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae and a Salmonella strain, but had no effect on the two yeasts tested.10 In other lab tests, a δ-3-carene-rich oil from Morocco killed several other bacteria, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa, by damaging their membranes, the thin skin around each bacterial cell. So an oil's activity follows its makeup, which is one more reason to know what's in your bottle.9

For oily skin or an oily scalp, add 1 drop of cypress oil to a palmful of face wash or shampoo.14 (See moisturizer for oily skin for more.) Or use the face strength from the dilution table below, about 1 drop per teaspoon of jojoba oil.5

Can cypress oil help a cough?

So far the science is only lab and mouse work, but it points the same way. In the 2014 lab study, cypress oil's strongest result was against Klebsiella pneumoniae, a bacterium behind many lung infections.10 And in mice with asthma, δ-3-carene, cypress oil's second compound, calmed allergic airway inflammation, lowering IL-4, IL-5 and IL-13, inflammatory signals that act like alarm bells, and thinning the swollen airway lining.16

To make a steam, pour steaming water into a large bowl and add 2 to 3 drops, the amount my field guide gives for a eucalyptus steam. Drape a towel over your head, close your eyes and breathe slowly for a few minutes,5 and you'll feel the warmth on your face first, then that clean, evergreen scent. (The guides to essential oils for cough, essential oils for colds and homemade vapor rub have more to try.) For a chest rub, mix 2 drops into each teaspoon of carrier oil.5

Can cypress oil help with prayer and focus?

Fragrance and prayer have gone together for a long time. David prayed, "Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice" (Psalm 141:2). Diffusing these oils as you pray carries that picture into your own quiet time. For more on the practice itself, see healing prayer.

You might expect a prayer oil to be a calming one, but cypress may not be. In a mouse study, breathing cypress oil cut the time the mice spent floating still in a swim test, as ginger, thyme and peppermint oils did, while lavender and hyssop oils had the opposite, sedating effect.18 So in mice, at least, cypress sits with the wake-up oils rather than the wind-down ones, which lines up with how I've described it, as an oil for motivation.

In people, there's a study of 11 healthy adults in Japan in which each person had two 30-minute massages at least 2 weeks apart, one with a blend of lavender, sweet marjoram and cypress in sweet almond oil, with cypress the smallest part, and the other with plain almond oil. Anxiety scores fell after both, from 41.2 to 34.1 with the blend and from 42 to 34 with plain oil.17 (See aromatherapy massage for more on that.) So the massage itself is a big part of the calm, and a cypress blend makes it a fragrant one.

How to use cypress oil

On your skin, cypress always goes into a carrier first, such as jojoba, fractionated coconut, sweet almond or olive oil, or witch hazel for a vein rub.56 The carrier spreads a few strong drops thin enough to be gentle on your skin, and the table below gives the amounts for each use:

Diffuse it 30 to 60 minutes at a time, with breaks, in a ventilated room. The breaks matter because your nose adapts quickly, the way you stop noticing a candle once you've been in the room a while.5

How to buy and store cypress oil

Start with the label, because several trees share the name cypress, and you want the right one:

• The Latin name: Cupressus sempervirens, the Mediterranean cypress. Blue cypress oil comes from a different Australian tree.1020

• Pure oil only: 100% cypress oil, with no added fragrance or perfume oil.5

• Dark glass: a dark glass bottle that names the Latin name and the country of origin.5

• A batch test on request: a seller who can show the oil's makeup, since α-pinene and δ-3-carene shift from oil to oil.109

Keep the bottle cool, dark and tightly closed, and most oils other than citrus will keep 2 to 3 years. Oxidized oils irritate skin, so if a bottle smells off, toss it.5

Cypress oil recipes

Each recipe below uses my own pairings for cypress: witch hazel for veins, coconut oil for hemorrhoids, grapefruit for cellulite, the masculine scents in my deodorant, and the four oils I recommend diffusing for prayer.61934

Blends well with: frankincense, myrrh and spikenard; sandalwood, bergamot, black pepper and cedarwood; grapefruit with ginger; helichrysum; and witch hazel.43196

Cypress oil side effects and who should skip it

No serious harm has been reported from cypress oil used on the skin or in a diffuser, and its main risk is a skin reaction from oil that's too strong or too old.2122 Cypress is one of the tree oils I consider dangerous to ingest, so keep it to your skin and your diffuser, and store the bottle where children can't reach it.65

Always dilute it, using the amounts in the dilution table, and patch test first. Apply your diluted blend to the inner forearm and wait 24 hours, and if you see redness or itching, skip that oil.5 Keep it off broken skin, cuts and incisions, and away from your eyes and the inside of your nose. Most allergic reactions to essential oils come from pure oils or strong blends, and δ-3-carene, cypress oil's second compound, becomes a skin sensitizer as it oxidizes,2122 so buy fresh oil and store it well. (See essential oil safety for more.) In one documented case, an allergy to cypress resin cross-reacted with rosin, also called colophony, so if you've reacted to rosin before, patch test with extra care.23

No safety studies exist for cypress oil in pregnancy or while nursing, so if you're expecting or nursing, skip it on your skin during those months. Keep any diffusing light and brief, and leave the myrrh out of the prayer blend, since my field guide lists myrrh among the oils to avoid in pregnancy.5

With children, go gentle: never give it by mouth, and don't use it on the skin of children under 2. From 2 to 6, diffuse it lightly and briefly rather than using a hot-water steam, which can scald, and from age 6, use about 1 drop per teaspoon of carrier oil on the skin.5

The bottom line

Cypress oil: frequently asked questions

References

1. Orhan IE, Tumen I. Potential of Cupressus sempervirens (Mediterranean Cypress) in Health. In: Preedy VR, Watson RR, editors. The Mediterranean Diet: An Evidence-Based Approach. Academic Press (Elsevier); 2015. p. 639-647. doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-407849-9.00057-9
2. Axe J. 7 Ways to Get Rid of Varicose Veins Fast | Dr. Josh Axe. Dr. Josh Axe on YouTube. April 19, 2016 (weak connective tissue and circulatory tissue as the usual cause, at 0:23; cypress oil topically as step one, to increase circulation in the area, at 0:41; cypress with witch hazel, at 0:51 and 5:00; exercise, especially weight training or burst training, at 1:08; compression socks, at 1:54; bilberry, 500 to 1,000 mg of extract daily, at 2:10-2:23; collagen and bone broth, 8 to 12 ounces 2 to 3 times daily, at 2:55-3:35).
3. Axe J. How To Smell Good Naturally: Best Essential Oils for Odor. Dr. Josh Axe on YouTube. November 29, 2017 (homemade deodorant recipe, at 5:25; cypress among his favorite masculine scents with sandalwood, bergamot, black pepper and cedarwood, at 5:54; he and his wife, Chelsea, make their own deodorants, at 6:03; melting and pouring the deodorant, at 6:37-6:59).
4. Axe J. 8 Surprising Essential Oil Remedies. The Dr. Axe Show. 2017 (cypress oil among oils for spiritual awareness and for motivation, at 16:49; diffusing frankincense, myrrh, cypress and spikenard during meditation or prayer, at 18:23; YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWEEKIaHbeQ&t=1103s).
5. Axe J. Top 50 Healing Herbs & Essential Oils: A Field Guide to God's Pharmacy. DrAxe.com protocol; 2026 ("Read This First: Essential oil safety & dilution": oils 50 to 100 times as concentrated as the herb, carrier oils, dilution chart, patch test, phototoxic citrus oils, babies and kids, pets, diffusing 3 to 5 drops per 100 mL with breaks; start-here page: inhale, apply, soak, oils do not dissolve in water; Quick Reference: eucalyptus steam, 2 to 3 drops in hot water, p. 41, and rosemary for hair thinning, 3 to 5 drops in 1 tablespoon of oil, p. 43; "Build your home apothecary": buying essential oils, storage and shelf life).
6. Axe J. Ancient Remedies: Secrets to Healing with Herbs, Essential Oils, CBD, and the Most Powerful Natural Medicine in History. Little, Brown Spark (Hachette Book Group); 2021 (tree oils, cypress among them, named as dangerous to ingest, p. 147; Hemorrhoids: intestinal qi deficiency and qi stagnation, foods that heal, movement, fluids, and prayer, meditation and spiritual growth reading because constipation is a cause, and 3 drops of cypress or helichrysum oil in 1 teaspoon of coconut oil applied with a cotton ball, pp. 247-248; Varicose veins: achy legs after standing, blood stasis and spleen qi deficiency in Chinese medicine, foods that heal and harm, butcher's broom, horse chestnut and bilberry, exercise, and 5 drops of cypress or thyme oil mixed with witch hazel rubbed on the affected veins twice daily, pp. 284-285).
7. Galovičová L, Čmiková N, Schwarzová M, Vukic MD, Vukovic NL, Kowalczewski PŁ, et al. Biological Activity of Cupressus sempervirens Essential Oil. Plants (Basel). 2023;12(5):1097. doi:10.3390/plants12051097
8. Asgary S, Naderi GA, Shams Ardekani MR, Sahebkar A, Airin A, Aslani S, et al. Chemical analysis and biological activities of Cupressus sempervirens var. horizontalis essential oils. Pharm Biol. 2013;51(2):137-44. doi:10.3109/13880209.2012.715168
9. Al-Mijalli SH, El Hachlafi N, Jeddi M, Abdallah EM, Assaggaf H, Qasem A, et al. Unveiling the volatile compounds and antibacterial mechanisms of action of Cupressus sempervirens L., against Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Biomed Pharmacother. 2023;167:115609. doi:10.1016/j.biopha.2023.115609
10. Selim SA, Adam ME, Hassan SM, Albalawi AR. Chemical composition, antimicrobial and antibiofilm activity of the essential oil and methanol extract of the Mediterranean cypress (Cupressus sempervirens L.). BMC Complement Altern Med. 2014;14:179. doi:10.1186/1472-6882-14-179
11. Tafti LD, Shariatpanahi SM, Damghani MM, Javadi B. Traditional Persian topical medications for gastrointestinal diseases. Iran J Basic Med Sci. 2017;20(3):222-241.
12. Tumen I, Süntar I, Keleş H, Küpeli Akkol E. A therapeutic approach for wound healing by using essential oils of cupressus and juniperus species growing in Turkey. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2012;2012:728281. doi:10.1155/2012/728281
13. Meunier MT, Villie F, Bastide P. [The interaction of Cupressus sempervirens L. proanthocyanidolic oligomers with elastase and elastins]. J Pharm Belg. 1994;49(6):453-61.
14. Orchard A, van Vuuren S. Commercial Essential Oils as Potential Antimicrobials to Treat Skin Diseases. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2017;2017:4517971. doi:10.1155/2017/4517971
15. Kim HJ. [Effect of aromatherapy massage on abdominal fat and body image in post-menopausal women]. Taehan Kanho Hakhoe Chi. 2007;37(4):603-12. doi:10.4040/jkan.2007.37.4.603
16. Kim K, Kim Y, Lee J, Lee M, Ahn C, Park MJ, et al. 3-carene supresses inflammatory cytokine interleukin-4, interleukin-5 and interleukin-13 in a murine model of asthma. J Physiol Pharmacol. 2024;75(2):195-203.
17. Kuriyama H, Watanabe S, Nakaya T, Shigemori I, Kita M, Yoshida N, et al. Immunological and Psychological Benefits of Aromatherapy Massage. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2005;2(2):179-184. doi:10.1093/ecam/neh087
18. Lim WC, Seo JM, Lee CI, Pyo HB, Lee BC. Stimulative and sedative effects of essential oils upon inhalation in mice. Arch Pharm Res. 2005;28(7):770-4. doi:10.1007/BF02977341
19. Axe J. How to Get Rid of Cellulite Naturally (And at Home!). The Dr. Axe Show. 2017 (fluid retention and poor circulation among the causes, at 1:23-1:36; grapefruit, black pepper, ginger and cypress oils, at 8:54; his cellulite cream, 1 cup of coconut oil and 30 drops of grapefruit oil with optional ginger or black pepper and cypress, massaged in 2 to 5 minutes once daily, at 9:08-9:48; YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af-Ojej_PkY&t=534s).
20. Koinari M, Amos B, Townsend M, Karl S. Mosquito Repellent Efficacy of Australian Blue Cypress Callitris intratropica Essential Oil and a Topical Formulation under Laboratory and Field Conditions. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2023;109(3):690-697. doi:10.4269/ajtmh.23-0089
21. de Groot AC, Schmidt E. Essential Oils, Part IV: Contact Allergy. Dermatitis. 2016;27(4):170-5. doi:10.1097/DER.0000000000000197
22. Karlberg AT, Lepoittevin JP. One hundred years of allergic contact dermatitis due to oxidized terpenes: What we can learn from old research on turpentine allergy. Contact Dermatitis. 2021;85(6):627-636. doi:10.1111/cod.13962
23. Samaran Q, Clark E, Dereure O, Raison-Peyron N. Allergic contact dermatitis to Cupressus sempervirens resin and cross-reaction with colophonium. Contact Dermatitis. 2020;83(1):33-35. doi:10.1111/cod.13496
24. Karkabounas S, Kiortsis DN, Zelovitis J, Skafida P, Demetzos C, Malamas M, et al. Effects of Cupressus sempervirens cone extract on lipid parameters in Wistar rats. In Vivo. 2003;17(1):101-3.
25. Koriem KM, Gad IB, Nasiry ZK. Protective effect of Cupressus sempervirens extract against indomethacin-induced gastric ulcer in rats. Interdiscip Toxicol. 2015;8(1):25-34. doi:10.1515/intox-2015-0006

Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DNM, CNS

Doctor of Natural Medicine · Founder, DrAxe.com

Dr. Axe is a certified doctor of natural medicine, clinical nutritionist, and multiple New York Times bestselling author. He has spent 20+ years in clinical practice helping people heal at the root cause and founded one of the most-visited natural-health platforms in the world.

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