I love to promote natural healing from whichever source is best. As I've mentioned previously, I research things. I talk with professionals and I have blunt talks with my sister (who is a nurse) so I can understand the impact a supplement will have on most people. In short, I research the heck out of things so other people won't have to. The nice part is that I've been able to help resolve some pretty hefty issues for people - like my mom's Ulcerative Colitis, Diabetes, and high cholesterol - through the use of supplements. And even though I've previously said that there are several companies that have great products, one company I recommend that consistently benefits the most amount of people is Young Living. Here's why:
After my trusted friend started working for Young Living, he talked to me one day in early 2018 and said, “Gary [Young] is going to southern Utah to buy some land.” I was listening, but I didn’t really care about what he was saying until he talked to me at the end of the week and said, “Gary didn’t buy the land.” When I asked why, he responded, “because they used fertilizer on it 20 years ago.” I wanted to know what Gary expected from a bunch of dirt. I researched it and discovered that Gary wanted land that had no pesticides or herbicides or fertilizers used on it for FIFTY years! That’s ten times the USDA organic standard of five years!!
Once I heard this, I finally decided to join Young Living and I felt completely confident in sharing Young Living's products with others because I knew who they were at their core - this story wasn't told at a convention and it wasn't shared on a billboard; it was shared from a Young Living employee to his friend. No bells. No whistles. No attempt to impress; just info about his normal day at work.
Rose and me at the Young Living convention, June 2019
Gary Young was a pioneer in essential oils. He's the one who brought essential oils into the modern day. He learned the importance of growing quality plants, harvesting at the peak time, distilling at the right temperatures, and how to blend oils to keep from negating the effectiveness of any of the oils in the blend. He founded Young Living over 25 years ago and literally every other essential oil company in existence today exists because of Gary Young's years of international research, testing, and expertise.
Gary Young (who founded Young Living) is the one who said, "If you don't know your soil, you don't know your oil." He's right. Starting with the right seeds (non-hybrid, non-GMO) and growing the plants in chemical-free soil is a solid foundation for fantastic products. This is just part of Young Living's "Seed to Seal Promise"which provides the most effective essential oils in the world.
We love Young Living, 2019
With all of that said, here are some RED FLAGS you should consider when considering an essential oil purchase:
#1: If you find a 20 ounce bottle of lavender essential oil for sale online for $20, there’s absolutely no way it’s truly pure. No farmer in America would work that hard to grow acres of lavender only to end up with one 20 ounce bottle for a grand total of $20. Twenty ounces of pure lavender oil would cost close to $1,000 to make and sell with a profit. With that said, the cost of any essential oil is directly proportional to how much work is put into it. It takes 60,000 rose blossoms to make only one ounce - about five 5 ml bottles - of rose oil! There’s a reason it’s the most expensive oil on the market at about $200 per 5 ml bottle. When you understand how much effort goes into making that 5 ml bottle, you can understand the price. Cheap oil brands are cutting the quality so they can make a profit, and your health is what they're willing to put at risk.
Young Living lavender
#2: If you smell an essential oil that smells really sweet like candy, it has likely been distilled more than once. Distilling plants more than once increases the amount of oil produced, but it significantly decreases the quality of the oil. Think of it this way: If you baked a lasagna for 30 minutes, you’d have dinner. If you put it back in the oven and baked an already-cooked lasagna for another 30 minutes, you’d have a mushy or burnt mess that no one would want to eat because it’s overcooked; the chemical compounds of your dinner have been changed. You shouldn’t do that to your dinner and you definitely shouldn’t do that to your oils.
#3: If you ever see an essential oil label that says “not for topical use” or “not for internal use,” it’s a Grade C oil and it should be immediately discarded! If you can eat lemon zest, you should absolutely be able to consume lemon essential oil. (Read this post to learn about the different grades of oils.)
#4: If an oil smells strongly of vanilla, it likely has ethyl vanillin in it which extends the oil at a very cheap cost to the manufacturer. (Side note: Ethyl vanillin is also used in common processed foods in place of real vanilla - which is another reason to cook your own food from scratch and eventually to make your own vanilla!)
#5: If an essential oil causes any type of long-term rash, it’s at least a grade B, if not a more-harmful Grade C oil. Short-term redness from using a grade A oil depends on the sensitivity of your skin. I can use Young Living's Thieves blend on my skin and even in my mouth without a problem, but my daughter will have a reaction if it gets on her hands without a carrier oil. If your skin is sensitive, combine your essential oil with a high-quality carrier oil – coconut oil, avocado oil, olive oil, etc. Essential oils have very small molecules and are absorbed very quickly. Carrier oils have larger molecules, and they will slow down the absorption process and eliminate any brief redness that may occur. A multi-day rash is the result of something other than essential oil (like a chemical).
Choosing the best quality products for your family is truly a matter of starting from something as seemingly-obvious as chemical-free dirt. You NEED to know where and how your essential oil plants are grown. In this day and age when everything is so highly processed and preserved, it's very refreshing to find a company whose core values are based on providing the cleanest and purest products they possibly can!
To get your hands on a premium Young Living starter kit with 12 popular oils and an ultrasonic diffuser, order it here or go to www.youngliving.com and specify member #17515057 as the referral and sponsor number. For people in the United States and Canada, it may be easier to order a kit by calling Young Living's customer service hotline: 1-800-371-3515.
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