Want to get started with essential oils? Let me share my personal natural living story with you as well as share some beginner essential oil facts and tips.
When a friend started talking to me about essential oils in 2014 – I have to admit I had my doubts.
Fragrances weren’t my thing – I got an awful headache just from walking down the laundry aisle or past a candle shop. Do you know that feeling? It’s the worst!
I had no idea that essential oils were a whole different ball game — that they can be used to replace so many toxic products, and can support the body in so many different ways.
And I’ve discovered that synthetic fragrances were the cause of my headaches! I can actually wear and diffuse my essential oils all day long without an issue.
What got me into natural living… and my first BIG mistake
When we had our kids way back in the early 2000s, I started thinking about what’s really in the products around my house.
I wanted better for us, so I started getting into health and natural living.
I loved how foods and herbs and spices could impact our bodies and minds.
But I got really stressed out and burned out trying to make all the changes all at once!
So now I’m all about baby steps.
Essential oils were a really easy change I made to help make my home and our lifestyle safer.
I clean with them, use them in my beauty products, use them to make my house smell amazing.
I never use scented candles or commercial air fresheners – and my home still smells amazing all the time!
I also love essential oils for stress and emotional support. They’ve really helped me work through some tough emotions and stressful times during the last four years of my life. They were kind of the light at the end of the emotional tunnel for me.
You might be wondering… what exactly are essential oils and what makes them different than synthetic fragrances?
I like to call essential oils “concentrated herbs.”
These oils are distilled or cold pressed from the leaves, peel, bark, flowers, roots, and resins of a ton of different plants. Synthetic fragrances are made in a lab – essential oils are harvested from the plants themselves!
Each essential oil consists of over 100 different natural compounds that have a direct impact on different systems in the body:
- Skeletal and muscular system
- Digestive system
- Endocrine system (your hormones)
- Circulatory system
- Respiratory system
- Nervous system
- Immune system
The compounds in these oils can also affect your focus, your mood, and your stress levels.
There are literally hundreds of different types of oils, but you really only need 10-20 of them to build a good collection and get started.
So your next question might be, how exactly do I use these oils, right?
You don’t have to be a pro to use essential oils. I promise it’s not rocket science. I love to do things the easy way! And essential oils help me do just that.
There are three main ways you can use essential oils –
- the English method is to apply the oils topically, or rub it into your skin.
- The French way is to ingest oils or cook with them.
- The German way is to diffuse and inhale them.
At our house, we do a little of each!
We love to diffuse the oils and breathe in their aroma.
I also apply topically a lot with roll on recipes and homemade serums – they’re really easy to make.
We also take essential oil infused supplements and use them in cooking recipes.
And of course with two kids and several furry friends, we use them a lot for cleaning too! 😉
Sounds pretty easy, right?
How Essential Oils Actually Work
The emotional impact of essential oils fascinates me.
Essential oils affect you within seconds when you smell them.
Literally, that’s all it takes for the molecules to hit the limbic system in your brain through your sense of smell.
The limbic system is a central part of emotional and psychological influence in your brain – if that tells you anything about how these oils can affect you!
Essential oils are also absorbed quickly through your skin, usually diluted with an absorbable carrier oil like jojoba oil, sesame oil or grapeseed oil. These oils help carry the essential oils into your skin and also give a time-release effect so the benefits last longer.
Are you wondering if it matters what essential oils you buy?
Yes, it does!
In the United States, the essential oil industry isn’t well regulated. Anyone can slap a label with “pure” or “natural” on a bottle of oil – it only has to contain 5% actual oil to get that label.
You wouldn’t take a glass of wine, pour 95% of it down the drain and dilute the rest with water and hope it’ll have the same effect, right? It’s the same with oils.
To get the best oils, you need to know the company who produces them.
You need to know if they own their own farms, or coop with farms that follow their guidelines for quality. Can you visit their farms and see the process with your own eyes?
Pesticides, pollution, previously farmed land, weather – all of it can affect the quality of the compounds in your oils.
Do they actually guarantee that quality from Seed to Seal? (from planting to harvesting to distilling to bottling)
I only order Young Living’s oils because Young Living oversees the entire process that produces their oils:
- Plants are hand weeded and grown without harmful chemicals
- They’re harvest at their peak
- And vigorously tested once they’re distilled
- Oils that don’t make the cut are never bottled
- Seed to Seal is a promise that Young Living makes and you can see everything that means at seedtoseal.com if you want to learn more
Other companies sell cheap oils because they cut corners and they don’t monitor the process from start to finish.
But think about it:
- It takes 22 pounds of rose petals roses to make 5ml of rose oil.
- It takes more than 30 pounds of lavender plants to make 1 pound of oil
- A sandalwood has to grow for 30 years before it’s harvested and distilled!
Quality oils shouldn’t be dirt cheap. It doesn’t work that way.
But luckily a little bit goes a long way. Most of the time all you need is a couple of drops! And every 5ml bottle contains more than 80 drops of oil – each bottle has a lot to give. 🙂
You can really stretch these oils for any budget.
Basically, it comes down to this: I like knowing what’s in the products I use around my home.
When I went through my kitchen and bathroom and laundry room a few years ago and started looking up ingredients – I didn’t like what I found.
With essential oils, I know what I’m getting – lemon is lemon, peppermint is peppermint, lavender is lavender.
Is all of this a little overwhelming?
Remember, I’m all about baby steps!
I started my journey with the Young Living Premium Starter Kit. It’s $160 and literally the only thing they sell for half off!
The kit comes with 11 bottles of oil and a diffuser.
Plus your kit includes a lifetime wholesale membership – that means you get 24% off your oils FOR LIFE. You just spend $50 on whatever products you like every year to keep your membership active.
Click here to order now
Here are the oils you get in your kit:
Frankincense – one of my skin’s favorites – for oily or dry or aging skin, you’ll love it. It’s also a powerful stress reliever.
Lavender – the “swiss army knife” of oils – it does everything. I love diffusing it before bed or after the kids get home from school to help everyone relax.
Thieves – I call this a knight in shining armor for your immune system. I use it all winter long. It’s great for cleaning and purifying the air.
Copaiba – this little guy supports the skin, muscles and bones like you wouldn’t believe. It contains one of the powerful compounds present in the famous CBD oil – in even greater quantities!
Citrus Fresh – this makes your house smell sweet and CLEAN especially when you have kids and dogs and… a husband, lol. It’s great for laundry, stinky shoes, gym bags. It’s also good for uplifting emotions and bringing a sense of happiness into the home. 🙂
Lemon – this is my favorite on dark gloomy days for bringing a cheerful mood around. It’s also amazing for cleaning and getting sticky or greasy messes out of things. I’ve even gotten gum out of baseball pants! I also love cooking with it and adding it to lemon bars and smoothies.
Raven – I also love this one in the winter. It makes a great chest rub and is perfect for diffusing when you need to breathe easy. It smells absolutely delicious!
PanAway – OMG my back loves this oil. An incredibly soothing massage oil for backs, shoulders, necks, knees. It’s also really handy after leg day at the gym. 😉
DiGize – THE oil for digestion, especially after a big meal. Your digestive system really affects your whole body and your immune system, so supporting your digestion is a really good thing to do.
Peppermint – helps the mind wake up and focus, makes the air smell so fresh and clean when you diffuse it. Also great for digestion and breathing. Makes some really good peppermint brownies, too. 😉
Stress Away – it does just what it says! You can massage this into your wrists or temples anytime the stress is just getting to be too much. I use it all the time.
Step-by-step: How to Order Your Own Kit
(1) Click below to get started.
Click here to order now
(2) Select “Sign up as: Young Living Wholesale Member” – which will allow you to purchase the Premium Starter Kit.
Remember: you’re NOT obligated to make any further purchases after this. Wholesale membership simply allows you to buy the Premium Starter Kit at a huge discount.
(3) Fill out your name, billing address, shipping address, and contact information.
(4) Create your password and PIN – which you’ll use to log in to your account and order any future oils.
(5) Choose your diffuser!
(6) Optional: join Essential Rewards and start earning free points! You can cancel at any time.
(7) Agree to the Terms & Conditions.
(8) Confirm your order.
That’s it!
Congratulations on starting your oily adventure! I’ll be sending you a welcome email soon, which contains tons of resources and information about getting started. 🙂
~ Elizabeth