Essential Oils: Introduction

I know, I know.  Another one bites the dust.  Really?  Essential oils Corina?  I can replay in my own mind exactly what you are thinking.  Believe me, I thought that SAME things as you are right now.  You have friends with hippie ideas who swear by essential oils, they try to coerce you into trying them out,  convince you they will save your life (literally), they’ve tried to get you to go to ‘parties’, sign up for a membership of some sort, and convince you could take your family on multiple vacations with the money you could make selling the oils/products yourself.  We all have at least 2-3 of those friends!

However, I assure you I am NOT selling anything here and I am NOT trying to make you a part of any uplink nor am I offering any special ‘wholesale’ pricing.  I also won’t tell you that essential oils will cure cancer, that they will prevent you from getting diseases, they will always work miracles, that in order to safeguard your house and kids you need to get rid of all the toxins and chemicals STAT and replace them with oils, or that they will wipe out any and all ailments you may suffer from.  That’s not me, never has been, never will be.  However, I will tell you that after a few weeks of playing with essential oils I have found enough ‘positives’ to invest in buying more oils & products for the oils (NOT through any one company mind you… strictly from Amazon thank you very much).  While I’m not a total believer in the essential oil movement at this point, let me explain why I’m finding myself using them more and more.

Those who have been following my recent diagnoses have read about my current pain management situation.  I was given everything from Vicodin and Percocet to Tramadol to Morphine to anti seizure medication to anti depressants and NOTHING made even the slightest dent in terms of the chronic pain & symptoms I now deal with.  I’ve mentioned many times that there are days where I can’t stand up, let alone move off the bed or couch.  “Luckily” most of the time my pain level is around 3-4 (God, I really love and appreciate those days now) which is still not ideal and definitely gets in the way of normal daily activities.  So, when someone is faced with something like that AND there is no relief in sight in terms of modern medicine, people will try just about anything for some relief.  Unfortunately, since I’m not getting my medical marijuana my card anytime soon, I decided to give essential oils a try in hopes of alleviating at least some of my issues.

First, I decided to reach out to a friend who uses, sells, and promotes DoTerra.  I had expressed to Gretchen that I was really only interested in things that may help with pain (back, neck, headaches).  I also told her that my daughter has OCD and extreme anxiety issues.  Amongst other daily occurrences, at 10 years old we still have MAJOR issues with bedtime so I was hoping Gretchen could suggest something that may help her fall asleep.  I’ve also had my fair share of sleeping issues, but mainly due to pain.  For the past 1-2 months I have been taking one Advil PM each night just to help myself fall asleep easier.  Nights that I wouldn’t take it were horrible for me and I stayed awake in bed for 2-3 hours before finally falling asleep.  So after countless text messages and getting the scoop on what I was looking for, Gretchen sent out a little DoTerra package for me.   I was ready to slather myself (and my daughter) in whatever oils were in these bottles/packets for some relief.

I was greeted a few days later to three roller blends (“Calm Your Hot Mess” LOL, “Sweet Dreams”, & something for my headaches) and “Deep Blue” which is supposed to be for muscle aches, pain, etc.

Going to be honest here.  Things didn’t start off too well for my first essential oils attempts.  As soon as the package arrived, I happened to have a headache so I used the headache roller (not shown because its all gone and was thrown out).  I carefully put it on the back of my neck and inside of my wrists.  I waited and waited and waited.  After a couple of hours I came to the conclusion that essential oils probably won’t work for me.  This stuff is a no go so far!

Interestingly enough though, the headache blend Gretchen sent didn’t help me per se, BUT it did help my sister!  She had a headache the last time she visited and happened to see my roller bottle on the counter.  It had been leaking a bit so oil was all over the top when she picked it up.  My sister rubbed her hands together and then took a big whiff of it.  20-30 minutes later I jokingly asked if she still had a headache or if the oils worked for her (I figured it didn’t work for me, so it wouldn’t for her either).  I was WRONG!!!  She said the headache she was dealing with ALL day actually went away!  Maybe I need to give things another chance?

Before I texted Gretchen to say thanks (but no thanks), give my sister the headache roller for her to use, and proceed to throw the rest in the garbage I wanted to test everything out to be completely fair.  Next up was the “Sweet Dreams” roller she sent.  My daughter thought I had lost my mind, but I needed to make sure both of us at least tested it out. The first night we tried it I placed the oil on the back of both of our necks, inside of our wrists, and down our spines.  Please please please.  Let this work for at least one of us!!!

Sigh… nope, didn’t work whatsoever.  I’m not sure what I was thinking would happen.  Perhaps I expected too much.  We continued to have the same OCD and anxiety issues we have had for the past five years AND I didn’t fall asleep any easier than before either.  I was somewhat sad because I really did keep an open mind and was hopeful, probably because I was desperate.  After all, they are “essential oils” right?  They are supposed to cure anything and everything!  I didn’t want to give up yet though.  ONE more try.  Reluctantly, I gave the sleep blend another try EXCEPT this time, I changed the location of application.  This time I put it on the bottoms of our feet.  In the research I was doing, I had read that not everyone will react the same way with oils/oils blends AND location of application can vary from person to person as well.  Maybe just maybe the bottoms of our feet will work better…

Praise Jesus!

It was the first night in quite some time that my daughter not only fell asleep within 20-30 minutes of going to bed, BUT she stayed asleep the entire night!  I also had NO issues falling sleep that night.  No Advil PM either!  The next morning, I thought to myself this is a fluke.  There is no way this hippie shit actually worked.  We must have both been overly tired to start with right?  The following night we would be back to the same old stressful routine and I’d have to resort back to poppin’ the pills and dealing with my tired, anxiety ridden daughter.

NOPE!

Night two, three, four… we both fell sleep with NO issues at all.  Based on this use alone, I was officially sold into the whole essential oils cult!  If this sleep blend was the ONLY thing I use oils for, I was completely fine with that.  But wait, once this tiny little bottle was all used up then what would we do?  I couldn’t keep asking Gretchen to make them for us!  Time to decide which company would be getting my money.

After chatting with Gretchen about DoTerra and with another friend who recently signed up with Young Living, I still wasn’t sold on going with either company.  I HATED that I had to buy a membership/enrollment or whatever, do the whole pyramid sales thing multi level marketing, and I definitely didn’t like the prices that either company had for their oils.  That’s quite an investment and one I wasn’t quite willing to jump into right out of the gate.

Instead I took my research to internet AKA Pinterest and Facebook.  Really, thats the best way these days to find things out quickly right?!  As it turned out, a couple of the women in my Tarlov Cyst support group on Facebook were already using oils from a company called Edens Garden and they were actually having some luck with their pain management!  This was HUGE news for me because Tarlov Cyst disease is so rare and our pain/symptoms are very unique.  Then a good friend of mine randomly linked me to this diffuser which happened to be made by the same company.  I started to browse around and checked the prices on their oils and was beyond surprised.  Surely if the prices were this low, it’s a low quality product and won’t deliver the same results right?  However, I figured that before I dove into the big DoTerra or Young Living investment, I could test out some other oils out first.

Boy am I glad I did!!!

The ‘Premium’ starter set for Young Living is $160 I believe.  You get ten or eleven basic essential oil bottles (10 mL), a small diffuser, two samples of their NingXia Red packs (no idea what these are), a few empty bottles to create your own blends, some additional oil samples, blends, and some literature.

The DoTerra Home Essentials ‘enrollment’ kit includes ten bottles (most that are 15 mL which is awesome), their Petal Diffuser, cap stickers, and some literature for $275.

Doesn’t sound horrible for an essential oil beginner right?  Both options offer a nice little stock to get you going and test things out!  However, I chose a third option!  I bought things a la carte via Amazon:

Essential Oils “Best of the Best” Beginners Set (TWELVE– 10 mL essential oil bottles):

Vetiver (10mL) Essential Oil:

Cedarwood (10mL) Essential Oil:

This HUGE 700 mL Welledia diffuser:

TWELVE 2mL empty essential oil bottles:

For UNDER $110????

SOLD

Yup, I decided to go this route before committing to one of the bigger, more well known companies.  And before someone jumps on here and says that the oils I bought are “lesser quality” or anything like that, slow your role.  Just because everyone talks about the other brands being the best, doesn’t mean they are the only ones who offer a GREAT, high quality, and comparable product.  Again, I had already spoken with a few women who were using this brand of oils with luck.  In the slight chance they aren’t as good as I hoped, I would really only end up losing out on the $40 in oils because I could still use the diffuser and empty bottles with DoTerra and Young Living.  I figured I was still FAR ahead of the game!!!  So let’s do it!!!

I eagerly awaited my order… thank GOD for Amazon Prime 🙂  I had a nice supply of my very own oils and super excited to get going!!!!  First up of course was Gretchen’s “Sweet Dreams” blend (lavender, vetiver, & cedarwood).  Because I didn’t go with the DoTerra oils or the popular Young Living brand, I still wasn’t sure if things would work the same on my daughter and I but turns out…

They all worked PERFECT!!!

My daughter and I have had far better sleep than ever before and she’s going to sleep much much easier.  We have had a couple of occasions where her anxiety and OCD have surfaced, but after reapplying oils during those times we get back on track.  I will take it!!!  Things have been loads better the past few weeks with both of our sleep quality.

Now I’m not telling you that DoTerra and Young Living aren’t ‘optimal’ or better quality at all.  I’m also not saying that there are other less expensive brands out there that aren’t total crap and a waste of money.  I’m just saying that I personally didn’t go with those brands.   I decided to go with Edens Garden initially simply because of cost.  But I looked a bit further and feel like I made the best decision for ME!

A few other things I liked about the Edens Garden company:

• small business initially started up by a women/mother with a BIG dream… in her garage
• products are sourced from organic growers and distillers
• 100% therapeutic grade
• 100% PURE, undiluted, with no adulteration, additives, or synthetics
• certificate of analysis, specifications and MSDS are available (if requested)
• unconditional guarantee, refunds available for ANY reason (within 30 days of purchase)
• most of their oils are IN STOCK most of the time (unlike the other ‘bigger’ companies)

So far, I’m extremely happy with Edens Garden, LOVE their pricing, LOVE that they are located so close to me (only about 40 minutes away), have a HUGE variety of essential oils to choose from, and most importantly… the quality and results have been awesome.  I’ve probably gone a bit overboard with buying and after about a month now I have a very very very nice selection to choose from!!!  Seriously guys.  Check the reviews on their products!!!  Everything on Amazon has nearly perfect ratings, if not PERFECT!!!  You won’t be disappointed and will be SO happy your oil collection can grow at a much quicker (and less expensive) pace.

Can’t wait to share the blends and items I’ve created!!!  Lots more essential oil shenanigans coming soon!!!

Here are some things that I will be sharing on the blog:

• essential oils: 101
• headache soother
• anti wrinkle stick
• eyelash/eyebrow conditioner
• air freshener/s & diffuser blends
• muscle relaxer
• nerve pain
• anxiety inhaler
• anti bacterial spray
• snore prevention
• make up remover
• stuffy nose inhaler
• dandruff control spray
• special “brand name” blends

Stay tuned oily friends!