Getting Started with Essential Oils

Let me just start by saying this:

Essential oils aren’t going to reverse global warming or bring world peace.

HOWEVER, "the frequent use of essential oils in itself brings back plant secondary metabolites that had been exorcised by our turn toward synthetic foods.  Reintroducing those secondary metabolites with which the human organism has an intimate relationship and that have been present in life forever dramatically improves the odds for healthy living. It reduces the occurrence of opportunistic illnesses (such as not contracting the flu when everyone else has it). Perhaps even more importantly, many secondary metabolites work to maintain a balanced autonomic nervous system. By maintaining balance in the autonomic nervous system, an aromatherapy lifestyle prevents or delays the onset of more serious metabolic or degenerative diseases (even cancer) and allows an individual to live life as close as possible to the full potential of her or his constitution. For many essential oil users the incidence of serious disease is drastically reduced as a consequence of an aromatherapy lifestyle." --The Pacific Institute of Aromatherapy (PIA)

What does that say about essential oils?

They are powerful. They distill the health-promoting essence of plants into a concentrated, pure form. For example, it takes 60,000 roses to produce just 1 oz of rose essential oil.

Astonishing, right?!?

For centuries (and sometimes millennia), herbalists have been mixing, infusing, extracting, and preserving these plants to create effective, natural remedies.

Now these plants are being distilled into incredibly potent drops of oil.

And their benefits can seem pretty miraculous.

Essential oil use requires caution.

As much as I enjoy using essential oils, I think one of the top priorities ought to be using these oils safely. That’s why I’ve taken a conservative approach to essential oils on Essent-oil Wellness. Typically, the oils that I recommend to take internally are from herbs and plants that we would eat normally (like lemon, ginger or oregano). Additionally, it is well-known and documented in various aromatherapy literature that essential oils are rarely used undiluted.  They blend best with other oils but can also be diluted in alcohol, vinegar, witch hazel, or a cream, lotion, or ointment. They may even be used with water.

All that said - I love my oils.

Because essential oils are so potent, the smallest amount is still wildly effective.

I’ve personally enjoyed using them to help:

• remove the itch from insect bites
• calm cranky children
• relieve stress headaches
• promote better sleep
• support my family’s immune systems when sick
• increase my mental clarity when I’m working

How To Get Started

What makes choosing an essential oils company difficult is that they sell their products at such widely varying prices and yet all claim to have superior quality. Something doesn’t smell right here (pun intended).

In my research, I have learned that most companies buy from the same essential oils “experts,” who basically function as middlemen between the EO company and large-scale farmers. This makes me question how much of their pricing comes down mostly to marketing. It can be very difficult to cut through the sales hype and misinformation to get to the real data.

A Checklist for Choosing an Essential Oils Company

After processing all this information and much more, I came to the conclusion that I just need to do my best to choose a company(s) that seems to have good quality for the price. However, my research revealed some other important things about EO companies to consider. I decided on the following as my personal checklist:

• Purity: I want to choose oils that I feel good about using with my family, so I want to buy oils that are are unadulterated. For me, this is like buying organic/local food over conventional whenever I can (which isn’t all the time). I’d like to get the most pure oils I can reasonably afford.

• Price: I don’t have money to just throw around. However, if I’m going to do this EO thing, I accept that I may have to pay a little more for quality and customer experience. Therefore, I have my eye on prices. I have joined an affiliate program for a company that I loved, but I’m no salesperson and I don’t have warm fuzzy feelings about multi-level marketing, and I've also become quite a bit more skeptical about the price mark-ups (I know that’s an unpopular opinion. #sorrynotsorry)

• Quality: Keeping the price point in mind, I’d love to find a company who has the local farm flavor, purchasing from small, sustainable farms and using farming and distillation methods that produce the highest integrity oils.

• Service: I have a lot of questions and I want a company that can provide good customer service and education in how to use my essential oils most effectively. I also want them to be real experts that shoot straight instead regurgitating fluff. Am I aiming too high here?

• Reputation: Finding a company that has a reputation for all the things above is so very helpful. Finding stories of company interaction and essential oil experiences helps me make the best choice in the midst of so many good options.

Bottom Line

If you want to learn more about essential oils and how to use them in your every day life, do your research. In addition to this site, I highly recommend Aromaweb and Learning About EOs for education, recipes, brand comparison (based on blind 3rd party testing) and more! When you are choosing an essential oils company, consider a checklist like mine and seek out similar articles that get straight to the point. Ultimately, my goal is to find high quality essential oils that work well from a company that I can trust. That would be my advice to you as well, even if you don’t end up buying from the same companies that I do. P.S. I currently use several different brands of EOs: in my collection at the moment, I have Mountain Rose Herbs, doTERRA, Aura Cacia, Sun Rose Aromatics and Plant Therapy. I have been happy with the quality and results from each company.