Essential Oils - Expensive -or- Valuable?

Recently, a friend told me that she loved essential oils but that she wouldn't buy from Young Living because they were too expensive. She said that she buys drug store oils to diffuse and that she found Young Living oils for cheaper on Amazon. I should have educated her on the spot. I wanted to, but it was so cringe-worthy, I knew it was going to take a while, and I was short on time.

Why would I cringe upon learning my friend sources her oils from Amazon or the grocery store? I mean, I'm all about online shopping (amazon keeps a truck on hold for my purchases unfortunately - I'm sorry for what I bought when I was awake and nursing the baby at 3am) and I get that sometimes budgets have to give somewhere.

I cringe because I have done the research. I have put some skin into it and I have found that, like with most things, you get what you pay for. A lecture in economics should be required before anyone can be released as a consumer - I would call it 'Responsible buying practices.'

There is NO regulation on the labeling of oils sold in the US. That means that even if 5% of the oils in a bottle are 100% pure, they can be labeled as 100% pure, therapeutic grade oils. The rest of the contents could be 2nd or 3rd distillations. They could be chemically distilled or synthetically derived versions of the oils. IF they are actually steam distilled, they could be done on too high of a temp in order to eek out every last drop, and therefore damaging the cellular structure of the oils. There could be only a few drops of the actual oil and the rest, an unknown carrier oil.

I could go on and on with the what-if scenarios. You get the point.

For a specific example, let's use Frankincense. A bottle of it is about $100 retail from Young Living. That's a lot of dough to drop for a little bottle. Sure, $100 is $100, and if you don't have it, it might as well be $1,000. I get it. So, you go grocery shopping and you find a $10 bottle of it on the shelf. SCORE. It's your lucky day because you almost blew you budget on that expensive YL one.

What did you really get? *see above*

Frankincense specifically has been valued and prized for centuries. It has been used as currency in trade. Frankincense essential oil is considered a holy oil in the Middle East, where it has been used in religious ceremonies for thousands of years and was one of the gifts given to Christ at his birth. Frankincense is mentioned in the Ebers Papyrus, an ancient Egyptian scroll from approximately 1500 BCE, that documents its use. Young Living distills Frankincense oil from the resin of Boswellia carterii trees located in northern Africa, near the Arabian Peninsula.

Frankincense is distilled from a resin (which is often chewed in its whole state as a gum-type substance) and that resin has to be sourced from a very specific region. There are many varieties of this resin, and Young Living sources only the very best. Because the region they source from is so small, we can know exactly what is in the resin.

Young Living also partners with their suppliers and only takes the product they offer if it meets a strict set of guidelines and passes all of their qualifications. They would rather not take the product and therefore have an out of stock product for a time than to make an inferior end product. Those same strict guidelines follow the resin through the entire distillation and bottling process. (Read about Seed to Seal) Before a batch is released to be sold, it is tested in-house and by third-party testing to ensure that the highest quality standards are being met.

Additionally, Young Living ALWAYS uses the latin name for the plant the oil is distilled from. This is really important. For example, Lavender has a couple of different varieties. Both are Lavender, but one is known for the skin soothing properties we love lavender for. It can support your body's healing if it is cut or burned, etc. The other variety smells great, but should not be used as the first variety. It can actually make a burn worse if applied. If your bottle simply says Lavender on it, you could be doing more harm than good by using it. Also, if you do not know or trust the source, and are unsure of the ingredients, what chemicals or other substances are you applying to your open skin? Yikes!

Expensive? I say valuable. When I can trust what I am putting on and in my body is safe, and that I am not getting any hidden chemicals, I am willing to pay for that. I may not have Frank as a part of my oil collection all the time. I might save for it, or use my ER points to get a FREE bottle once a year, but I will NOT buy the bottle off of the grocery store shelf.

To me, the very reason to use essential oils and Young Living products is to ditch and switch. It is to get the chemicals that could be causing damage out of my home. It is to detox my body of the chemical residues that I have been exposed to over the years. I can't accomplish those goals with a product I can not trust.