In 2014, I contracted pneumonia. I was bedridden for Five. Long. Weeks. On a day that I felt particularly close to death, my sister, a hospice nurse, came over with a diffuser and started diffusing a variety of essential oils. She informed me that they would help. It must have helped enough because I slowly began to recover. I thought the essential oils smelled nice, but I wasn't truly convinced that they should be a regular part of my life, and I didn't believe that they were the path for me.
An actual picture of me with pneumonia, 2014
A few days after I regained my strength, I read a news article about a woman my age who had just DIED from pneumonia, and I thought, "THAT COULD HAVE BEEN ME!!" It was a startling reality because my youngest child was only nine years old! I realized that I DESPERATELY needed to do more for my health than I was currently doing.
I'm a researcher at heart so for over a year, I explored the connection between gut health and overall health. There is a definite connection and the gut is called the "second brain" for a reason. I bought a LOT of supplements for about 18 months, but I also wasted plenty of money on supplements because so many of them didn't work. I found a few major companies who consistently offered quality supplements. It was an ah-hah for me when I realized that finding companies I could trust would save me a lot of money overall because I wouldn't be throwing away so many ineffective supplements.
Around the same time as my supplement journey began, my sister Rose, a nurse, nurtured her interest in natural healing as well. She had gotten involved in a popular essential oils company in 2013 and was always giving me essential oils. I wasn’t interested in what she was offering me, but she seemed very sincere, so I politely accepted what she gave me and set it aside.
In 2017, a close, trusted friend got a job at the Young Living corporate office and he started giving me essential oils and other Young Living products. Rose gave me more of her essential oils, and my friend gave me more Young Living oils. I used the Young Living products for about a year to keep up with the pace at which my friend was giving them to me. I have to admit that I was impressed! I loved how they smelled (especially Thieves essential oil), and they were truly effective. For example, I didn't have a cold or any other illness for that entire year.
Eventually I had quite a collection of over 30 Young Living oils, and I started to compare them with what Rose had given me. There was a big difference!! I called Rose near the end of 2018 and asked her to bring all of her oils over so we could have a “dare to compare” day and see if I was just imagining the difference because both brands claimed to be “100% pure therapeutic grade essential oil.” We both agreed to keep an open mind as we smelled matching oils from each brand, and by the time we were done, we both agreed that Young Living was clearly better. She promptly abandoned the essential oil company she had been with for five years and signed up with Young Living that same day!
If you're interested in trying the oils my sister discovered that day, you can order your own starter kit here. I recommend the Premium Starter Kit with a Deseret Mist (10-hour) diffuser. In case it's easier, you can also call Young Living's customer service hotline (1-800-371-3515) to place an order as well. Please use enroller #17515057.
Comparing oils, 2019
Since then, I’ve done more research and I’ve learned the following:
Essential oils are the lifeblood of the plant. It is the absolute most nutritious part of any plant and has the most benefits.
The industry standard for essential oils mandates that the bottle must have 5% essential oil to be labeled “100% pure essential oil.” That means that the rest of the bottle can be vegetable oil, herbicides, fertilizers, or chemicals and the bottle can still be labeled 100% pure!! This makes me sick to my stomach because I can get more-accurate information off of a box of crackers than I can off of an essential oil bottle!
In addition to this, I learned that there are drastically different levels of quality in essential oils. Before I explain this, let me just say that there is no "official" grading system for oils anywhere. I just think this is a great way to categorize how plants are being grown and how oils are being processed.
Grade A
Grade A oils are truly pure essential oils. These oils are made from organically-grown non-hybrid plants grown in chemical-free dirt. They're distilled once at low temperatures (if you heat an oil too much during distillation, its healing properties can almost be completely destroyed). The bottles are filled from bottom to top with essential oil and have no fillers unless clearly identified on the label. Grade A oils are pure enough to consume orally. If you can eat a peppermint leaf off a plant, you should absolutely be able to consume a truly pure peppermint essential oil. Young Living oils are Grade A oils.
Grade B
These oils are "food grade" essential oils. This sounds good on the surface, but it's worse than it seems. We can buy an apple or orange from the store that has been grown with pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers and eat it without any visible harm done. When it comes to essential oils, though, they're very, very concentrated. Having a significant amount of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers in each of your bottles of essential oil can be harmful!
Grade C
Grade C oils are "perfume grade" essential oils. These are oils that contain adulterated compounds. They're considered perfume oils because they’re not meant for consumption, but your skin absorbs things topically, and you could breathe in these oils if they are diffused, so these oils will still end up inside of your body. The manufacturer's distillation process uses solvents like Hexane to get a higher percentage of oil harvested. Hexane has known links to cancer and is in a lot of lower-cost essential oils. Grade C oils have been banned in many countries around the world, but they have not been banned by the United States. These oils either smell really good - like a perfume - or they smell just like the chemicals they contain. Usually anyone who says that an oil should "never be ingested" is using a Grade B or even a Grade C oil - and with those lower levels of quality they're absolutely right!
Grade D
These oils are garbage. They're the the leftovers from a Grade A/B/C oil distillation. They are meant for aromatic use only, and the world buys them like crazy because they’re sold in things like air fresheners and scented candles. There is nothing in these oils that will benefit the human body. You’d never spray a popular air freshener in your mouth or eat a store-bought scented candle because they're nothing but garbage and chemicals!
After learning all of this, I realized that the only way I could trust an essential oil when every essential oil label says "100% pure essential oil" regardless of how it was grown, was if I trusted the company who grew, harvested, and distilled the oil. Virtually every essential oil company buys their oil from a wholesaler, and there is absolutely no way to know how their plants were grown nor how their oils are distilled because they will not release that information to the consumer. (That begs the question of WHY, but that's a topic for another day.)
Young Living's many corporate-owned farms throughout the world are accessible to their members. They add many new corporate-owned farms as well as partner farms each year. Both types of farms (corporate and partner) abide by Young Living's strict protocol of 1) chemical-free dirt, 2) organic farming, 3) sustainable harvesting, 4) ideal distillation temperatures, and 5) distribution with a story through people like me or Nurse Rose so you will know how to use their 600+ products. Feel free to visit their demonstration farm in Mona, Utah, or as a member, you can visit every one of their organic farms worldwide and see what they do first-hand - just don't be surprised if they ask you to pull some weeds!
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