Essential Oils 101


I’m sure you’ve heard about essential oils by SOMEONE at this point.  People are talking about oils everywhere and for good reason…They are changing lives!  Both of our families (Heather and Angela) have seen first hand the tremendous benefits that incorporating the oils into our everyday lives have made for our wellness.  We haven’t opened our medicine cabinets in months and we feel so much better!

Essential Oils are Therapeutic Grade

What is therapeutic grade? The potential danger of an essential oil is generally relative to its level or grade of purity. Many essential oils are designed exclusively for their aroma-therapeutic quality; these essential oils generally should not be applied directly to the skin in their undiluted or “neat” form. Some can cause severe irritation, provoke an allergic reaction and, over time, prove hepatotoxic. Non-therapeutic grade essential oils are never recommended for topical or internal use. Source

We have a few good friends who use a brand of essential oils called Young Living  and they kept telling us about all of the amazing things that the oils were doing for their family. So after some research we decided that Young Living made the most sense for our families.

The Full Essential Oils Story

Almost every bottle of essential oil on the market claims to be “Pure Essential Oil”, but that claim can legally be made if there is as little at just 5% of the actual essential oil from the plant in the bottle.

There is also no regulation for how an essential oil is to be extracted. Companies are free to use high-heat, high-pressure, and chemical-solvents to extract more from the plants, and still slap whatever label they want to on the oil. In fact, the majority of essential oil companies buy their oils from an oil broker. The company isn’t actually involved in the process of cultivating the plants or extracting the oils at all.

How to Know the Difference

Here are 8 questions to ask whenever you’re considering purchasing from an essential oils company (adapted from here):

1. Can this company guarantee that the land used to grow their plants & herbs is free of residual herbicides, pesticides, & chemicals?

2. Does this company own their own lab to test an oil’s composition?

3. Does this company ever purchase oils from outside suppliers? If so, does the company visit the farms and oil distilleries to observe the process and make sure that there are no added chemicals to the distillation of the oils and that the herbs and plants are grown completely free from contamination with herbicides, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers?

4. Does this company only use crops that were harvested at their peak time? And if so, does the grower test to make sure that the crop is at its peak time for harvesting?

5. Does this company continuously monitor the process of distillation to make sure that the oils produced from the distillation contain all of the correct therapeutic components?

6. Can this company guarantee that oils are discarded and not sold if mistakes were made during the distillation process that affect the quality of the oils?

7. Does this company’s oil suppliers use extra solvents during the distillation process to extract extra oil from the plants?

8. Can this company guarantee that nothing is added to the oils during bottling?

Why we chose Young Living

Young Living is the only company (probably because they were the pioneers in the therapeutic essential oils market) that has their own farms, can absolutely guarantee that no pesticides or herbicides were used in the growing of any of their oils (they guarantee absolutely no pesticides and they do all of the weeding by hand), has their own testing equipment (they do both in-house and 3rd party testing), only uses the first distillation of oils instead of adding chemicals to get more out of the plant, and basically answered all of my 8 questions in a way that I felt comfortable with.

Young Living also was the only company that was directly in charge of essential oil farming operations. Every other company I researched goes through some kind of an “oil broker” to buy their oils. They have to trust the oil broker that the farmers that he/she buys the oils from can be trusted to do what they are saying they are doing.

With Young Living, you just have to trust one company instead of several.

I feel like it’s a trust step either way (anyone could be lying) but I felt the most comfortable trusting Young Living since I had a few friends who had actually been to the Young Living farms and seen first-hand exactly how the plants were grown and the oils were distilled.

I also loved that I could just sign up and get the member discount (24%!) and not have to sell anything to anyone.  All I had to do to keep getting my discount was to buy $50 worth of products per year.  Yeah, that was definitely doable since I use essential oils for so many things!

How We Use the Oils

We both bought the Premium Starter Kit and we’re super glad we did! Not a day has gone by since we got the oils that we haven’t used them.

There are SO many ways that you can use just the oils in the starter kit.   (Click on the image below to make it larger.)

EMBRACEWELLNESS_oilyfamilies

Even our kids grab the oils now! They love to pick what would be best in the diffuser as well as have learned what oils help maintain their wellness.

How to Buy Young Living Oils

There are a few different options. You’ll likely want to choose the wholesale member option when you sign up so that you’ll get the 24% discount (if you just choose “Customer” then the prices are retail prices). Once you fill out your information you will need to pick an enrollment kit. Here’s a little rundown of the different starter kits available:

Young-Living-FINAL-Start-KitsSPORTSMOM_Sept2015

We would strongly recommend starting with the Premium Starter Kit.  It’s BY FAR the best value, as it includes 11 oils to try out(frankincense, lavender, peppermint, lemon, PanAway, Purification, Thieves, Copaiba, Digize, R.C. and Stress Away).You get your choice of diffusers, and the total retail value of the kit is over $300! And, just because we’re nice like that (and because we really believe these oils are life changing), if you sign up here at Sports Mom Survival Guide, we will throw in even more freebies–essential oils reference materials and a set of bottle labels!

Here’s how to sign up:

1.  Head over to the Young Living page here and fill out your information. It only takes a second, I promise!

2. If you are ordering a Starter Kit, BE SURE the “Member” option is checked so that you don’t end up paying retail prices.

3. BE SURE to click the option “I was referred by a Young Living member, and I have his or her member number.” under the “Who introduced you to Young Living” question. Enter the “sponsor ID”  say 2416292 and “enroller id” say 2248169.

4. If you do not feel comfortable putting in your social security number (this is only for tax purposes if you decide to turn this into a business) then you can get an EIN from the IRS in just a few seconds here and use that number instead (the IRS just needs to be able to connect some number with you for tax purposes).   They need a Social Security Number or an EIN because if you make $600 or more per year selling Young Living products, you will receive a 1099 form in the mail (which is required by law). Young Living will never share this info with anyone.

5. Select which starter kit you want to get. My recommendation would be the Premium Starter Kit (and that’s the one where you get the FREE Quick Reference Guide from me!) Those are the oils that I use almost every single day! You can get the kit that’s $150, or you can get a kit for $160 with an even nicer essential oil diffuser!

6. You can skip the Essential Rewards part of the sign-up process if you want to. I’ll send over an email with more details on that part of things after you sign up (if you’re going to be purchasing products monthly then it’s a great program that will give you credit back with each order and save you on shipping costs). This Essential Rewards has quickly become a favorite of mine!

7. If you would like to add more products, beyond the Starter Kit, click the “Add More Products to Enrollment Order.” If you are only purchasing the Starter Kit, click on the “ENROLLMENT CHECKOUT” button.

8. Go through the checkout process. Young Living accepts most major credit cards, including Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express.

9.   IMPORTANT: After you sign up, FILL OUT THIS FORM HERE. If you have any specific questions, feel free to email us at [email protected] and I will also help you find the information that you need.

10. BONUS STEP–Completely Optional! If you would like to receive an additional bonus oil this month, then get your order total up to 190 PV (different products have different point values). You could get the Start Living With Everyday Oils Kit and automatically have 100 point value… then you’ll just need 90 more points to get the bonus oil. For example, you could grab an extra bottle of Thieves Oil at 33.75 points, 15 ml bottle of Lavender at 23.5 points, 15 ml bottle of Lime at 11 points, and the 14.4 ounces of Thieves Household Cleaner at 22 points (just pour one capful of the concentrated Thieves cleaning solution into a spray bottle and it lasts for a really long time!) All of those items will bring your total points up to $190.25 which will qualify you to get the BONUS oil! (This step is completely optional!)

Frequently Asked Questions:

Does signing up make me a “distributor”?

Nope! You are not required to sell anything at all to anyone. When you become a wholesale member, you get a special link that you can share with friends and get credit from their purchases, but there are no minimum sales amounts at all. In fact, 90% of the wholesale members in Young Living don’t do the business side at all. They are buying from Young Living because of the quality alone.

Am I required to make a minimum purchase each month?

There are absolutely NO minimum monthly purchase requirements. To remain a wholesale member, you have to make $50 worth of purchases per year to keep your membership. But if there’s a year that you don’t make a $50 purchase, you can reinstate your wholesale membership discount by just placing a $50 order.

If you do find yourself making regular purchases each month, then Young Living has a rewards program (called Essential Rewards) where you can make a nice percentage back in product credit each month on all of your purchases. So that’s a neat program to join if you find that you *want* to purchase regularly (but it’s not a requirement for being a wholesale member).

Why should I buy from Young Living instead of other essential oils companies?

It does seem like a new essential oils company pops up every day, doesn’t it?

I can’t speak to the quality of other companies, but I can say that Young Living was the only company in my research of essential oil companies that could answer all of my questions about purity in a way that was satisfactory to me.

Young Living was the only company that has their own farms (in the regions where the plants should be grown), could absolutely guarantee that no pesticides or herbicides were used in the growing of any of their oils (they guarantee no pesticides and they do all of the weeding by hand), has their own testing equipment (they do both in-house and 3rd party testing, and use many different testing methods not just GC/MS which only tests for certain chemicals, not whether those chemicals are synthetic or not), and only uses the first distillation of oils instead of adding chemicals to get more out of the plant.

Young Living also was the only company that was directly in charge of essential oil farming operations. Every other company I researched goes through some kind of an “oil broker” to buy their oils. They have to trust that the oil broker is telling the truth, who has to trust that the essential oil distilleries are telling the truth, who have to trust that the farmers are telling the truth about what they say they are doing.

With Young Living, you just have to trust one company instead of several.

I feel like it’s a trust step either way (anyone could be lying) but I felt the most comfortable trusting Young Living since they are a full-disclosure company. ANYONE can visit the farms, participate in the harvesting and distillation, view the Young Living labs, and see the entire process. That’s not an option with any other company.

How will I know how to use my oils?

One of the benefits of getting a starter kit through this promotion is that you also get to join our private Facebook group.

Does Young Living only sell essential oils?

The answer to this one was surprising to me when I first got my starter kit! Young Living actually has an entire line of personal care products, supplements, meal replacements, energy drinks, and more! Almost every product incorporates essential oils (for example, frankincense is absolutely wonderful in facial products), but there’s a wide variety of products available. Please let us know if you have any other questions and we will do my best to answer them!

Disclaimer: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The information on this site is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Please confirm any information obtained from or through this web site with other sources, and review all information regarding any medical condition or treatment with your physician. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking medical treatment because of something you have read on this website. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any disease.

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