Essential Oils // The who, what, where, and more

I'm so excited to finally be sharing about my discovery of these little oils up there. It's been a long time coming (and a lot of you asking!) so here we are. I knew there would be too much to share in just one or two or three posts so this will be an ongoing series of everything we use these little babies for. If you have any questions right of the bat or want to know more about anything I've said, please email me (vanillaandlace@gmail) ! I'd love to help you out in any way I can!

I have to admit, I was super hesitant to jump in to the world of essential oils for wellness because it seemed SO TRENDY and I didn't really see what all the fuss was about. But since over the years we've been working on getting rid of chemicals in our home and are always looking for home remedies over the use of medicine, I decided to dig a little deeper and do some real deal research into these things that people had such high claims for.

I learned SO MUCH about the quality of oils and how people have been using them for literally thousands of years (bible times!) to naturally alleviate sickness and health problems. I looked up testimonial after testimonial after testimonial then started kicking myself for not doing this sooner!

I didn't have a bias toward any company and I wanted to make sure to not just go with whatever one was in front of me so I did a bunch more research on the top companies and landed with the one I felt was the best and had the highest standards... which was Young Living. Now I know even more about the company and I'm so glad I chose them.

I connected with a friend who was a distributor and decided to get the premium starter kit from young living, which comes with all the oils in the above photo plus a diffuser and a slew of other goodies. It was definitely the best bang for my buck and the absolute best way to go if you're wanting to dive into the essential oil world (which trust me on this one, you want to!). **Edited to add: If you're wanting to make an account ASAP and order that kit, be sure to sign-up as a Wholesale account to get any future orders at a 24% discount! It's like a costco membership but free! More will be in the next post about the kit and wholesale :)

And now you're thinking "Okay, great story... but what do you use them for and have they actually worked?" 

My answer would be What do I NOT use them for?! I really don't want to sound like a salesperson or something but this purchase has been one of the best things I've ever done for our family.
Where we would previously use Ibuprofen for a headache, we now use peppermint oil (a drop on the temples and back of the neck). We use them to help Beck sleep through the night and for teething and fussiness and when he doesn't feel well. We use them on sore muscles and any skin problems. I use them in our laundry and to clean with. I've even used them in baking and cooking! And so much more. My next post is going to highlight each oil that came in the kit I got so I'll go more in depth with how we use each one soon!

I know I might sound like a crazy hippy or something (I'm not, promise) but it has been so important to me to find more natural ways of treating sicknesses that come up  or cleaning our home without chemicals, especially since Beck was born, and this has been HUGE in that journey to basically get rid of our medicine cabinet and find natural ways that work just as good without the harmful side effects. If I can get rid of a headache or stomach ache with a PLANT OIL instead of popping a pill, sign me up... forever!

I did want to be sure to include in this little intro that not all essential oils are equal. That was one of the biggest things I discovered when doing my initial research on them. Most of the brands you'll find in stores (yes, even Whole foods sadly!) claim "Pure" but that is pretty much the equivalent to Oreos being "natural". Purity means only that the oil does not contain a base oil or some other essential oil. The question of whether or not the essential oil is adulterated with chemicals or solvents is not even considered. Even ones that say Organic can be sketchy because many oils that are produced from organically-grown plant sources are still contaminated with chemicals during processing, or extracted in a way that produces poor quality oils. Not to mention, most of those oils are meant to be aromatherapy, not applied to the skin and definitely not ingested. I was bummed to discover that about most of the "cheap" companies but quality was much more important to me than saving a few dollars here and there, which is the same reason most of us don't buy lotion or foundation at the dollar store (who knows what is in that stuff!). I would highly recommend doing your own research on this if you have those oils, or you can email me and I can tell/bore you with more of my research on the topic... especially if you are using them on kiddos!

This is already so long so I'll stop here! Looking forward to sharing more about each individual oil at the end of the week! If you have ANY questions or things you want me to address in regards to essential oils, or want more info of the tedious research that I already did, please email me. I'd be happy to talk your ear off :)