Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Fads, Propoganda and the Rape of the Environment

It's hard to know where to start with this one.  What has set this off is that I can't find the usual species of Frankincense tears anymore after we just had a massive shortage of Blue Tansy essential oil last year.  The plants are going away, largely because ill informed people are abusing essential oils.

Frankincense essential oil has been overused because of the belief that it fights cancer.  Any cancer killing abilities that have been scientifically proven are from extracts of the whole herb in a petri dish, specifically boswellic acid, which is not present in the essential oil.  This belief is still wide spread among MLM sales reps who only get their information from the company they sell for and are STRONGLY discouraged from getting information outside of the company.  The result is thousands of people drinking Frankincense essential oil believing it will prevent or cure cancer, widespread hysteria and more and more Frankincense being distilled and the trees being stressed to the brink.

The same said company uses WAY too much Blue Tansy essential oil in there blends.  It's a nice oil but very powerful and also a high ketone oil, which should be used with caution.  The result there-a massive world wide shortage last year, still a shortage this year and the same said company had to remake a couple of their blends so they could keep the money rolling in.

Even worse is the copy cats.  The company Melaleuca decided to jump on the essential oil bandwagon in the middle of the worldwide Blue Tansy shortage.  They have their knock off blends but since there was no Blue Tansy on the market they decided to just substitute with Tansy instead.  It's painfully obvious they don't have anyone with even ten seconds of aromatherapy training on staff or they would know that Tansy is EXTREMELY TOXIC AND HAS NO USE IN THERAPY.  NONE.

There's a new MLM company popping up, or a wannabe, at least called Miracle Oils.  All of their blends are $13.95 for 15 ml and if you look at the ingredients they list aromatic chemicals.  Now even if they are naturally derived you could hardly call these pure essential oils and at best, they are taking the lazy way out to get certain components in their oils.  Given the price they are most likely just using chemicals.

Essential oils are wonderful but they are NOT concentrated herbs.  They are the concentrated volatile oils from the plant and heavier elements don't get carried over in the distillation process.  So much plant material is needed to get such a small component out and the rest is pretty much just thrown away-what a waste.  I'm not saying not to use essential oils because I definitely do myself.  I'm saying to respect the plants and recognize that the essential oils are very limited in what they can do.  the whole herb has so much more to offer especially when you consider that only about 5% of all plants even contain an essential oil.  Even if some oils do kill cancer cells you are going to shut down vital organs in the process of "curing" yourself.

I see people who will only use essential oils and people who will only use infused oils who declare "I never use essential oils".  I find both of these ridiculous.  If you are using infused oils some of what is carried over into your infusion is the essential oil.  So you may be using it highly diluted but you're using the essential oil.  As for ONLY using essential oils-you are bombarding your body with extremely concentrated chemicals, which is not healthy and you are cutting yourself off from 95% of the healing plants in the world.  Not to mention that your are contributing to the complete destruction of the 5% that do contain essential oils.

Just some food for thought.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Jackie! I stumbled upon your blog while trying to search essential oils that where cheaper but just as good as or better than young living. I'm trying to go all-natural in a lot of areas in our lives while also saving money where I can. I wanted to make an anti-dandruff shampoo for my husband, because the product he is using is considered an 8 on Skin Deep. However tea tree oil seemed very expensive through young living. And on other websites I sea "therapeutic grade"? I have no idea what that even means. I don't want to buy something that is going to cause more harm.

Unknown said...

Jackie I stumbled across your blog and live in Louisville KY would you be willing to share your supplier with me?? I have been ordering from Mountain Rose but would love a closer supplier

Jackie said...

My main supplier is actually across the river from you in Indiana but you have to have a wholesale account with them and average $500 a month in purchases to keep the account. It's called The Perfumery.

My daughter is in Louisville! She's a student at U of L