When I was pregnant with my LO (little one) I wanted him to be as healthy as possible from the start, so I started eating cleaner. Then when he was born, I started realizing all the yukky stuff that was in baby products. Petroleum jelly – made from the same thing as gasoline? maybe not, but just thinking of the name put me off. Some of the ‘no more tears’ shampoos had a nerve numbing ingredient in them? again, maybe just rumors, but I don’t have a degree in chemicals to figure that out, so no thanks.

I switched a lot of things over to more natural products (cleaners, shampoos, body lotion) but I didn’t know about Young Living – yet.

My youngest had the MOST AWFUL diaper rash that nothing was relieving. That poor little tush was red, inflamed and so sore there wasn’t any sitting going on. I had some basic knowledge of herbs, which did what, which ones were good for skin, which were good for bacteria and made my own salve for that tush. I got a bottle of organic jojoba oil from a local store along with some organic tea tree and lavender oils and mixed it up. 15 drops of each oil into a 4 oz bottle of carrier oil – and IT WORKED. LIKE A CHARM. There was no more diaper rash in our house, and we now use the same mix – jojoba, lavender, tea tree – on mild skin abrasions.

Fast forward two years….it was a flu and stomach bug year in preschool. All the kids were getting sick. Knowing how well the oils worked before, I started diffusing – any anti-viral, anti-bacterial oil I could find. and IT WORKED. None of the family got the flu or a stomach bug or anything bigger than the sniffles that winter. So I continued to diffuse oils. Still not Young Living (YL) oils though.

I was at a kindergarten prep meeting at preschool and my friend leaned over and said “you do oils, right?” I replied “yup.” She said, “This is my friend Heather. She does oils too. You two should talk.” And we did. Before Heather, I didn’t know the company existed. I learned why she chose to use YL and I did my own research. I found that YL does triple testing on all the oils before the oil leaves the distillery to be distributed. YL has a policy of Seed to Seal where the seed of the plant is chosen specifically, the plant is grown, monitored and harvested at the perfect time to produce the best part of the oil from that plant, distilled and tested on the farm where the plant was grown, and then sealed in a bottle to be sold. Its hard to not trust a company that has transparency like that. I can visit a lavender farm in Utah or for that matter ANY FARM around the world where the YL plants are grown.

I learned that oils at drug stores or health grocery stores typically are diluted with a carrier oil. I was paying for 25% of the labeled plant oil, and 75% of a carrier oil! I wanted more for my money. YL’s single oils have only the oil on the label in the bottle. Peppermint is 100% peppermint, cinnamon the same and so on.

And the blends….are spectacular . I tried blending my own mixes and I learned I’m not good at it. Oregano overpowers almost everything, tea tree can do the same. But YL blends are curated specifically for what each oil brings to the table, and oils that work together rather than against each other.

So I signed up. I thought, I’ll just get a few and be done. The starter kit is a great bargain. At the time there was 12 oils in the box, a diffuser, and a lot of other goodies. The kit price brought down the cost of each oil to about $14 each, and it included Frankincense – which alone is about $25/5ml.

And now I’m here….writing a blog about oils. Who knew? My house is WAY less toxic and smells better than ever before and I’m spending less money on my cleaners. And we get sick much less often. Win, Win, Win. Doesn’t get much better.