Please Don’t Make Your Own Insect Repellent (Seriously — Here’s Why)
At OC Beauty, we love natural ingredients. We use essential oils in everything from bath bombs to muscle balms, and we’ve always believed in the power of plants. So a few years ago, when we started offering an essential oil-based bug spray, we did it with the best intentions: to give people a natural alternative to drugstore repellents.
And guess what? People loved it. We got tons of positive feedback and personal stories about how well it worked. But here's the thing — that still doesn’t make it okay.
Insect Repellent Isn’t Just Another Product — It’s a Pesticide
Even if it's made with essential oils, insect repellent is legally considered a pesticide in Canada. That means it falls under strict government regulations and must be lab-tested and licensed to be sold, regardless of whether it’s natural or not.
It also means we, like many small businesses, weren’t allowed to sell our formula unless we went through the full approval process, which includes proving it works, proving it’s safe, and making sure every single label and claim is backed by science.
And that’s exactly why we made the decision to discontinue our essential oil bug spray — not because it didn’t work, but because it wasn’t fair or safe to keep selling something we hadn’t formally tested and licensed.
What Could Go Wrong?
If you make your own shampoo and it doesn’t work, you get a bad hair day.
If you make your own bug spray and it doesn’t work, you could get bitten, infected, or even end up with something as serious as:
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Lyme disease
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West Nile virus
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Zika
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Malaria
And yes, Lyme disease has been found in our postal code.
Even if you’ve used a homemade spray and had good luck, that doesn’t prove it’s effective. Mosquitoes might not have been active that day. Wind, temperature, time of day — all of these are variables that can affect your “results.” Real testing happens in controlled labs, under regulated conditions. You simply can’t replicate that in your backyard.
Why We’re Not Done Yet
We believe in what we made — and we’re proud of the natural formula we created. That’s why we’re currently looking into getting it properly tested and licensed, so we can eventually offer a version that’s not just natural, but proven and compliant.
In the meantime, we strongly urge you not to make your own bug spray at home, and please be cautious when buying untested or homemade repellents online. Just because it smells good or has “natural” on the label doesn’t mean it’s been proven to work — or safe to use.
Your safety always comes first.