iopele:

thebibliosphere:

fireheartedkaratepup:

thebibliosphere:

thebibliosphere:

I’m wandering around Whole Foods unattended (left the bae sleeping) and there’s a person here doing a demonstration on the uses for essential oils around the home and I may have to fight them.

Just for the record, tea tree oil is toxic to dogs and cats and you should not “drop a few drops on their bed to disinfect it”. Tea tree oil is only safe for your pets when thoroughly diluted, the safety range being a dilution of 0.1 to 1%. Most tea tree oil bottles come at 100%.

You are potentially dropping liquid death onto your pets bed where it will certainly come into contact with their skin and may be ingested when they lick themselves or their bed. Also never ever orally administer tea tree oil to your pet, I dont care what that one blogger and their nice clean aesthetic said, tea tree oil is toxic to dogs and cats and you will make them sick or possibly even kill them. It should only ever be used topically but only ever at the correct dilution and after the consultation of your vet who will most certainly have a better non lethal solution for your furry friend.

Now. If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to fight a Young Living sales rep. Hold my cart.

Their response when I quietly sidled up to them (I’m not an actual asshole who yells at people while they are doing their job) and informed them that some of the information (all of it, actually) was wrong, the sales rep looked immediately remorseful, told me they knew it was wrong, but that they had a script to follow in order to maximize sales, and that if they didn’t make their target goal they didn’t get paid.

So just in case you give a shit about ethical business practices and your pets (not to mention yourselves!): Do Not Buy Young Living Essential Oils. 

Not only do I suspect they are synthetic based (meaning myself and several others with respiratory allergies have reacted badly to them, in ways we do not react to actual pure oils which are obtained through either steam or cold press. I do not trust their “authentic” claims, and I have worked with a lot of essential oils over the last decade and a half. Also, the whole “therapeutic grade” things doesn’t actually mean shit. It’s not a standard recognized by any official regulating authority in the US, AUS, UK or other parts of Europe. Always dillute your oils with a carrier oil for topical application and for the love of god stop drinking them. You want the supplement not the essential oil, it’s a separate thing!) they also do not care that they are offering dangerous consumer advice, but are actively enforcing it. Do not buy into their pyramid scheme. Do not buy or sell from them.

I had to be That person who asked to speak to the manager of my local WH today because holy shit this, could have straight up murdered someone’s cat or caused their dog to have seizures. Their response to my concern was a befuddled “but it’s natural…” and I had to respond with “so is arsenic but I don’t see you selling it in the supplements aisle as a vital mineral”. She had to straight up think about that for a second before it clicked. 

Natural =/= safe. Be careful and educated and always double check your sources.

Nono, it’s not just suspicion. People have sent samples to companies for testing, and found that the lab results showed that Young Living uses synthetic materials in their products. Only one of these that I know of was not discredited by the company, because that person was the only one who thought to send their package directly to the testing company, instead of to their own home. The other people who paid out of their own pocket to send their oils that they bought (at a fairly high price point, mind you) have confronted YL with their findings, and YL is claiming that the oils were tampered with. (They weren’t. But Young Living can make this claim, because the oils went to that person’s house. OBVIOUSLY the only reason any lab would find any synthetic materials in their pure brand is due to tampering. Obviously.
That is sarcasm, in case it wasn’t blindingly clear already.) 

tl;dr: they’re extremely shady. 

*deep breath* I found this out because my dad started selling for doTerra, and I was worried about his practices based on some things I’d read, and I wanted to be informed so I joined a bunch of facebook groups. 

No, really, there’s a bunch of super informed people there. Most of them are waayyyy more into this than I am. Some of them are aromatherapists, but a lot are laypeople like me, who wanted to learn things and be safe. (The best group I’ve found thus far is the Eden’s Garden group. Eden’s Garden is a good company that has lower prices because they sell directly to you. I think. That’s what they say.) 

Anyway, I’ve also done a bit of my own research, and if you look the groups that are there to provide information for other people usually have organized files and everything. 

Bottom line: this is common. People in multi level marketing groups are usually not educated enough to be telling people how to use their products, as a general rule. They often tell you that using oils ‘neat’ (applying them directly to the skin) is Just Fine for oils like Lavender (this isn’t true; you can develop a sensitivity to the oil and become allergic to it over time, even if you don’t react strongly at first); they typically advocate putting oils in your water (which is basically using them ‘neat’, only on your intestines–I don’t buy the styrofoam cup example, as the chemical makeup of styrofoam is different from that of your mouth, throat, and stomach, but it’s still not great–); and if you question them they usually act confused, brush it off, argue, or tell you they’ll talk to their upline manager–the person who is making money off of their sales, and is therefore motivated to get the to sell product. 

There’s also a lot of commotion in some of the groups about diffusing in public areas. Preschool teachers in particular are getting into essential oils and oh it’s such a great classroom remedy! I have a blend that calms the kids and another that keeps allergies away! The problem with this is that you don’t know if someone is going to be allergic to the oils you are diffusing, and that means that anyone who walks into the room could be in physical danger, because they are now inhaling diffused essential oils. 

Examples: 

1. asthma sometimes 
2. just last week, I tried to offer a door to door salesperson some natural bugspray. He was allergic to cedar. Guess what natural essential oil was in that spray? 
3. I just saw a conversation on my feed about how the allergy essential oil blends actually make some people feel stopped up. That’s, um, the opposite of what they’re supposed to do, so if you’re in a classroom setting, and you decide to diffuse a blend that will help with everyone’s seasonal allergies, you can actually cause more problems. 

So it’s kind of a health risk that no one really has given any consent for, since this is still sort of a new thing for many people, and a lot of people who know shit about essential oils are up in arms about it. (Like, most people are gonna be fine… but that’s like giving everyone pb&j for lunch because most people are fine with peanut butter. The one person with the peanut allergy is now sick, hospitalized, or dead. Good job!) 

Bottom line: there’s proof that the Young Living Execs are shady, doTerra is a bit better but not much, NOW oils have a good rep I think? and Eden’s Garden has a great reputation, from what I’ve read. Plant Therapy is said to be good too. 

Also please do not ingest essential oils unless a qualified aromatherapist tells you to do so, and if you do use them in food products or on your skin, always make sure to dilute them with another type of oil. Oil and water do not mix. This is elementary level knowledge. 

(Carrier oils are typically the kind you might cook with, like Olive, Coconut, Safflower, etc.) 

Thank you for confirming this for me. The few times I’ve been exposed to YL Essential oils I’ve suffered from respiratory distress and migraines, so I knew something was up. I just never had the means to have them officially tested myself and went out of my way to avoid them.

Also thank you for pointing out that people should refrain from using scented oils in spaces like school rooms—particularly in preschool age classrooms. I used to react badly enough to my teacher’s perfumes as a child, I can’t imagine what would have happened if they were diffusing synthetic scents through the air either. Or even just oils from the menthol family.

Young children in particular are susceptible to respiratory distress or even failure when exposed to certain menthol oils (which I’ve covered extensively on my blog before) which is why I always urge against using anything like wintergreen, any of the mint family or eucalyptus oils in an air diffuser if you have children under the age of 12 in your home. And even then if your young person starts complaining of headaches and fuzziness after exposure to such things, you should top using them immediately. You should especially not apply any of those things to them in a topical ointment. I have midwife friends who won’t even use vicks vapor rub on any child under the age of 7 due to how severely small bodies can be affected by them.

Back when I still worked in alternative therapies, even before I understood what was setting my own allergies off, I would always ask if clients had scent allergies or asthma. If they did then I wouldn’t use any perfumed products on those days, on my person or in the area I was working in. It’s been hard to find health therapists who will afford me the same consideration 😦

Other brands which appear to be allergy safe for me in terms of not using synthetic elements include Veriditas Botanicals and Sun Leaf Naturals. In case anyone with similar allergies to mine, are wanting to try some decent oils. I also predominantly use jojoba oil as my carrier oil, as I find it doesn’t clog my skin pores quite so badly as coconut does.

long post but it’s full of excellent info. @ladydragon76