Hi Friends! Happy Monday 🙂 I’ve been wanting to write this post for a while and I’m finally here, ahhh. Essential oils have become such a big part of our lives, we use them for everything now. They support us in so many ways, sleep, immunity, to skin, and emotionally, the calm us down in stressful situations (aka tantrums), perk us up in the morning. We’ve also gone beyond the oils and explored the safer alternatives to cleaning products, soaps, lotions, etc…
About Young Living
I chose to get my oils from Young Living because I knew they were the best. The company has been around since 1993 and they have a seed to seal promise where nothing touches the oils from the time the oil starts out as a seed until the time it is sealed in the bottle. They are more expensive than the oils you can find in Whole Foods, Amazon, etc… but it is because they are the purest you can get. In order for an oil to be labeled “100% pure” only 5% of what is in that bottle has to be the essential oil, this is why they only cost $8 on Amazon. The other 95% can be synthetic fragrance, water, or who knows what. Because we are inhaling and using them topically, I wasn’t going to mess around.
I also loved the lifestyle and community surrounding YL. I knew that if I was going to start using EO’s, I would want some support because I had no clue what I was doing. I signed up under my blogging friend, Marissa of Style Cusp, and she has held my hand to this point. She’s taught me how to use them, she’s taught how to become a business leader, and has been there as a friend through this whole new journey. I’ve got over 400 girls under me now, and she has guided me SO much on how this all works. We have a facebook group and it’s so great to interact with everyone who has their oils and to go back and forth about different DIY recipes, what to use for various aliments, etc…
What Exactly Are Essential Oils
Essential oils are the lifeblood of a plant, essentially the immune system of the plant. They are what keep the plant healthy and growing and support all of the functions of the plant. We are able to extract essential oils through very careful distillation that preserves the all the important, therapeutic, and health-giving constituents. Oils have been used for as long as we have recorded history, and random fact, they are spoken of in the Bible over 600 times! They have serious beneficial properties to humans (and even animals) and although our culture is constantly steering us to more modern medicine, which don’t get me wrong I believe in 100%, we can not discount what the earth has given us to heal naturally. **Don’t worry, if anyone in my family needed antibiotics, or modern medicine of any kind, I would NOT say no. I am only suggesting that oils can be used in addition to, or sometimes in replace of conventional medicines. Modern medicine has saved us MANY times, and I believe in our doctors and scientists, but it is nice to try other things to alleviate our pain points, and we have that right as humans, parents, and … you get the drift.**
The Most Common Ways We Use Essential Oils
Okay this is hard to condense. Please read through it all because I think you will be amazing at how very much we use them. When I first got my starter kit I didn’t realize how great these little bottles would be for our family. I thought diffusing lavender was pleasant and I liked trying out different sleep combinations in the diffuser, etc… Marissa told me they would be so much more but I didn’t really believe her. Fast forward to May and I don’t know what I would do without them.
Immune Spray
This was the game-changer for us. I have been told Thieves (a combination or blend of oils exclusive to Young Living) was good for the immune system. In fact, it has been used since the 1400’s as a form of immunity for “thieves” to protect them from the sick and dead people they were robbing. CRAY, right?? Brian was catching cold after cold, virus after virus, constantly. To the point we were thinking there could be something seriously wrong with him. For the new year I decided to clean up his diet, take him off dairy (which I think was contributing to his respiratory issues, kid would get a cough like no other), and start using thieves on him religiously. I made a spray with thieves and would rub it on his feet and down his spine every night and before school in the morning, Grace too. Both Brian and Grace haven’t been sick since December. How is that even possible?!!?
In a 2 oz. spray bottle add :
30 drops of Thieves Essential Oil
Fill the rest with fractionated coconut oil
That’s it!
Eczema Body Butter
I called it Eczema body butter because it cleared up Brian’s eczema. I can not claim this as a cure for eczema because I have no idea whether or not it will work for you or your child. It worked for us so that’s what we call it. It’s really the only lotion we use now because it is so pure and smells SO good.
- 1 cup of organic shea butter
- 1/4 cup of coconut oil
- 10 drops of copaiba
- 10 drops of lavender
*melt the shea butter and coconut oil on the stove top. Once it is melted, pour it into a little glass container with a lid so you can store it. Add the 10 drops of each essential oil and let it sit overnight to harden to a butter texture. Rub it all over after the bath.
Sleep Support
Brian and I have never slept better. We use a combination of lavender, frankincense, and cedarwood every night. If I need a little extra help, I add Vetiver as well and it knocks me out. I put about 3-4 drops of each and let it diffuse for an hour. If I wake up in the middle of night, I turn it back on and it puts me back to sleep. MAGIC.
For Brian and Grace, I either use Gentle Baby or Sleepyize (it’s a kids oils pre-diluted for them) in their diffusers at night. They love it and it makes our upstair smell heavenly! They are normally really good sleepers, go to bed around 7:30 and wake up between 7-8.
Allergy Relief
Lemon, lavender, and peppermint. I diffuse this combo to lift the fog in my head and made a couple rollers to roll over temples, chest, behind ears. It helps A LOT.
Cleaning
I don’t use any conventional cleaners anymore. I use the Thieves Household Cleaner for EVERYTHING. I make spray bottles with the Thieves cleaner (which comes in the form of a concentrate). They can be used on glass, tile, hardwood floors, marble, etc… When I need a “soft scrub” texture I use a combination of baking soda, lemon oil, vinegar, and thieves cleaner. Works like a charm and smells divine. No more toxic chemicals and yes, it cleans better than bleach. Oh, and I use their laundry detergent and wool dryer balls! No more dryer sheets 🙂
Glow Serum
One of my favorite DIY’s, glow serum. I use this in place of all serums and moisturizers and my skin has never been better. I use it after I wash my face before makeup, and at night after washing my face. Here is how to make it.
- 1 oz dropper
- 10 drops of copaiba
- 10 drops of lavender
- 10 drops of frankincense
- Fill the rest with jojoba oil (I got mine at whole foods)
Makeup
I switched my make up to the Savvy Minerals line by Young Living. It is 100% pure and has essential oils in it for your skin. I’m obsessed with the way it feels on my face and ditching everything else felt so freeing!
Oh, and then Bug Sprays, Ant Spray, etc… SO much more. We’ve literally replaced everything other than food in our home to Young Living and our wellness has SKY-ROCKETED as a result. I know it might sound strange but I’m being dead serious. I had no idea what signing up for a starter kit would mean for us and it has brought on nothing but GOOD to us, emotionally and physically.
**Also, I was VERY skeptical at first because it is an MLM and my experience with MLM’s had been one of annoyance. This doesn’t really feel like that to me, it feels like I’m sharing good products and mainly just sharing my experience with them in the hopes that I can touch someone and maybe change their path of wellness for the better. It just feels right.**
If you’re interested in getting started, the best way is through a starter kit. You can read more about that here.
