Week of Oils Day 2 The Who (not the band)

Welcome back, it's day 2 of our week of essential oils talks. Yesterday we talked WHAT essential oils are and WHAT they can be used for in your life. Today I wanted to talk about how important it is to know WHO your essential oils come from. In other words WHO is doing the distillation, the process of obtaining the oils, and what kind of quality control standards you should look for in your essential oils. 



When I started on this essential oils journey, I wanted to know WHO my oils came from and be sure that they were organic. We are big consumers of organic fruits, veggies and meats in our house so I wanted anything else we would apply to our bodies or take into them to be pure as well. 

My friend who introduced me to the oils only used a company called Young Living. She had done alot of research on them and passed it along to me. Young Living owns everything from the seeds they plant to the bottling facility they put the oils in. As with yesterday's example of lavender, Young Living plants all the lavender plants, does all the harvesting, conducts strict quality control tests and then finally bottles and sells the essential oil. There is no middle man, there is no other contributor to muck up the process. I really like that.

This is a great video about how Young Living is able to test every oil they distill right on site to ensure quality is maintained.

Testing Video

 A great example of the standards Young Living holds itself to is what is known in the oil community as Valor Gate 2014. There is a MASSIVE shortage of a very popular blend called Valor. (Valor is used for ADD, snoring, sore muscles and dozens of other things.)

That is all because months ago Young Living got in a plant that contributes to the blend and it was basically not up to snuff. So instead of just buying some of that plant or oil from someplace else they replanted and waited until a new harvest could be brought in. They are loosing untold amounts of money because people can not buy Valor but Gary Young, founder of Young Living, would not compromise the integrity of the oils so we all just have to wait. That speaks volumes to me.

Another part of knowing WHO produces your oils is knowing the grades oils come in. Essential oils are not regulated by the FDA and for some people that is a turn off. Bear in mond however the FDA regulated things like the YAZ and Aspartame and we all know how well that turned out for people who used/took those so called "safe" things.

Oils come in 4 varying degrees of purity, Therapeutic Grade, Natural or Certified, Extended or Altered and Synthetic. An oil that is Therapeutic grade has nothing in it but the essential oil from the plant. That's it, no fillers, no lab made synthetic oil look a likes. Every oil Young Living produces is Therapeutic Grade. the stuff you buy from Whole Foods or Amazon may look and even smell like the Lavender from Young Living but costs half the price. There is a reason.....it's likely only half a bottle of real lavender oil. The rest is some "filler" and has zero beneficial properties to you or your body. Young Living invites and and all who wish to see the process of their oils to visit their farms all over the world. No other oil company even owns its own farms.

This is a great video of how Young Living even controls the bottles and seals of their oils. They literally monitor everything from the seed to the seal.

Bottling video

I hope this post helps you understand how important it is to know WHO your oils are coming from. I have done extensive research and only trust Young Living oils for my family. Check back tomorrow to read about the WHY of essential oils. I will be sharing our story of how we began our oily journey and WHY I am grateful daily to have these God given gifts in our lives. Until next time.