Active components of essential oils degrade easily in air. Moreover, their introduction into aqueous formulations is not straightforward due to hydrophobic nature. Spray drying encapsulation may solve both problems by entrapping the sensitive oil components inside a fine powder. In this contribution, using a Design Of Experiment (DOE) approach, we optimized the spray drying conditions, as well as a feed composition to obtain the encapsulated eucalyptus oil in a powder form at reasonable yield (29.0–32.1 %). The optimum feed contained maltodextrin and Gum Arabic mixture (3:1) as a carrier (6 %), EO at 5 % and emulsifier at variable concentrations (1–5 %). When re-dispersed in water, they produced dispersions stable for at least 30 days, much longer than the starting emulsions used for encapsulation. The best results were obtained for Cocamidopropyl Betaine (CAPB), Coco-Glucoside and Caprylyl/Capryl Glucoside. The best-performing emulsifier (CAPB) was also employed for encapsulation of lavender oil using the same DOE approach.