Essential Oil Roller Bottle Guide
High quality roller bottles for essential oils come in many different shapes, sizes and colors. The most common oil roller bottles are 10 mL solid color glass with a stainless steel rollerball.
Typically these are filled with essential oil blends and fractionated coconut oil (or other carrier oils) to be applied topically to your skin. The roller ball housing (the tip) can be taken out so that you can refill the bottle.
Using glass roll on bottles with your essential oils is the second most popular way, right behind diffusing.
Table Of Contents
Understanding the parts of your roller bottle
There are four basic components to your essential oil roller bottle
- The roller ball
- The roller ball housing
- The bottle
- The cap
Types of roller balls
Roller balls for essential oils come in three basic types:
- Plastic
- Glass
- Stainless Steel
While they all perform the same function, applying the essential oils to your skin, they will each have different levels of quality.
Plastic roller balls are the cheapest of the options and the lowest quality. At Woop, we feel the price savings is so minimal with this type that we do not even offer them as options.
Complaints on these roller balls is high because of inconsistent application (and leaking).
Glass roller balls fall in the middle when it comes to cost and also quality. We recommend, at minimum, going with glass for your roller balls.
We feel the same about the glass rollers as we do about the plastic and the minimal cost savings for these rollerballs is not significant enough to warrant going this route.
Stainless steel roller balls are at the top of the list. These hold up well over time and maintain consistent quality for continued applications.
The cost is not significantly higher than glass or plastic, yet the quality is much better. For this reason, we always suggest going with the stainless steel roller ball for your bottles.
Types of roller ball housing fitments
The rollerball housing firment is what the actual rollerball sits in and then is inserted into the neck of the bottle.
If you pop the ball out of the housing fitment, the image above is the view looking down at it.
The tightness of the fit between the housing and the rollerball will ensure that there are no leaks, while providing enough room to allow the rollerball to glide smoothly guaranteeing a consistent application.
The hole in the bottom of the housing fitment is what allows the oil to pass from the bottle to the rollerball. The size of the hole is what will determine a higher flow or a lower flow.
When purchasing your roller bottle, there is no real good way to tell one housing from the next, yet this is the part that is most critical.
General leaks and issues with roller bottles will stem from poor manufacturing of the rollerball housing.
A low flow rollerball housing will distribute a lower amount of oil during an application. Many think the rollerball is not working because of the small amount that is distributed. Most likely, you just have a lower flow rollerball.
A high flow rollerball housing will distribute a higher amount of oil during an application and is what most individuals are familiar with.
Types of roller bottles
The shape of the bottle will be common regardless of what size the bottle is. You will find a cylinder shaped bottle in almost every instance.
Where the differences will be found is in the aesthetic look of the bottle. You will want to be sure that your bottle has the colors applied in the manufacturing stage and is actually colored glass.
The most common types of glass roller bottles are:
- Matte glass roller bottles will have a frosted appearance to them. While these are very good looking bottles, one thing to keep in mind is that it can be difficult to accurately tell the amount of liquid remaining in the bottle.
- Gradient glass roller bottles will have a merging of two like colors together (ombre). These are very attractive bottles and still allow you to see the amount of liquid remaining in the bottle.
- Solid glass roller bottles are the most common (with amber glass being the most popular and common). They are just a single color, like blue glass. For this reason they are the most economical choice.
Many glass bottles out there are painted rather than colored glass. While this can look ok at the outset, over time they will fade and rub off leaving your beautiful glass look like it was found at a rummage sale.
Always buy oil bottles that are colored glass.
In addition to the different styles of essential oils roll on bottles, there are also many different roller bottle sizes.
Roller bottles come in many sizes (3 ml, 5 ml, 8 ml, 10ml, 15ml, and 30 ml), but there are two sizes that comprise the majority of ones that are commonly used - 5 ml and 10 ml bottles are the most popular with 10 ml being the leader in those two.
What colored glass is the best?
There are several factors you will want to take into account to protect your oils, with knowing what colored glass is the best for your bottle.
Amber is the hands down safest bet, but read our article on other, more important factors, to consider to preserve the life of your oils.
Roller bottle caps
The caps will come in many different colors and materials. The caps are 100% decorative and do not have any functional value.
Using your roller bottle
How to open your roller bottle
To open your roller bottle, you will need to remove the housing from the bottle.
Sometimes the housing can come off by simply pulling it away from the bottle.
Most will have a pretty secure fit in the roller bottle, so this may not prove possible for you (also depending on how tight of a grip you can get on the housing).
If you cannot simply pull the housing off, you could use a bottle “key”.
This has an area that you can insert at the base of the housing and pop it off of the bottle. This is the easiest way to remove the housing from most bottles.
If you do not have a key handy, a little trick is to use the cap for the bottle.
If you put it on the bottle, but do not screw it down, you can bend it a little and pull.
The threads of the cap should grab onto the housing and allow you the leverage to work it out.
This may take several attempts but is our go to when a bottle key is not readily available.
How to fill your roller bottle
Filling your roller bottle is pretty straight forward but there is one key trick you can use. We suggest using a funnel when filling the bottle.
Funnels will be great when you are adding more than just a few drops of something. It will surely cut down on the mess that you get trying to pour something in the small mouth of the bottle.
How to label your roller bottle
One simple way to do this yourself for low cost, is make (or download from somewhere) labels you can print out at home.
After printing them out you will cut the label from the full sheet of paper.
Next use some clear packaging tape (you can get by with cheap packaging tape that is 2mil-4mil thick) and cut out a piece larger than your sticker that will wrap the full diameter of the bottle.
Put the packaging tape down on the table, sticky side up, and place your label in the middle of it.
Now simply apply that to your bottle.
Not only will this allow you to make your own labels, but it also provides protection to the label.
The protection is important, because regular labels after a few applications from the bottle, will start to fade and smear.
The tape over it will provide you protection from the little bit of oil that will inevitably get on it over time.
How to clean your roller bottle
The best way to remove the label is to soak the bottle in warm soapy water.
To clean the remaining oil from the insidie of the bottle you will want to use Special Denaturated Alcohol (SDA)
Read our article on more detailed steps and information on how to clean your empty roller bottle.
How to apply oils with your roller bottle
Applying the oils is as easy as 1-2-3 with the roller bottle.
Simply tilt the bottle to at least a 45 degree angle and apply to the area of skin you are wanting the blend.
Be sure to follow any safety precautions depending on the oils you have in your blend.
How many drops are in a roller bottle
There are 20 drops per milliliter (mL). So if you have a 5 ml bottle, there will be 100 drops in it. A 10 ml bottle will have 200. Just multiply the ml size of the bottle by 20 and that is the amount of drops that are in the bottle.
12 most popular roller recipe blends
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defender : immune boost rollerball blend
immune boost blend roller bottle label
20 drops lemon
15 drops onguard
15 drops melaleuca
10 drops oregano
10 drops frankincense -
hacker : cough rollerball blend
cough blend roller bottle label
20 drops breathe
10 drops eucalyptus
5 drops frankincense -
itch stick : itch rollerball blend
itch stick blend roller bottle label
10 drops lavender
10 drops melaleuca
10 drops frankincense (optional) -
all clear : sinus rollerball blend
sinus blend roller bottle label
15 drops eucalyptus
10 drops rosemary
10 drops melaleuca
10 drops lavender
10 drops lemon -
l-l-p : allergy rollerball blend
allergy blend roller bottle label
20 drops lemon
20 drops lavender
20 drops peppermint -
easy queasy : motion sickness rollerball blend
motion sickness blend roller bottle label
10 drops digestzen
10 drops wild orange -
liquid calm : anxiety rollerball blend
anxiety blend roller bottle label
10 drops balance
10 drops serenity -
owwwww : ouchie rollerball blend
ouchie blend roller bottle label
5 drops lavender
5 drops melaleuca
5 drops frankincense -
pounding head : headache rollerball blend
headache blend roller bottle label
5 drops lavender
5 drops frankincense
5 drops copiaba
5 drops peppermint -
recovery : muscle relief rollerball blend
muscle relief blend roller bottle label
10 drops eucalyptus
10 drops lavender
10 drops deep blue -
stress-less : stress relief rollerball blend
stress relief blend roller bottle label
4 drops frankincense
4 drops marjoram
6 drops geranium
6 drops clary sage
4 drops wild orange -
breathe easy : respiratory relief rollerball blend
respiratory relief blend roller bottle label
10 drops peppermint
10 drops eucalyptus
10 drops lavender