The Essential Oil Essentials

Last week I posted a photo of my brand new shiny package of essential oils from a company I found online, Plant Therapy. The reaction I got from it was incredibly surprising to me. I had several people personally message me asking for details on essential oils. I am in NO WAY an expert on essential oils or any of this stuff I write about really, but I have a loud mouth, so there's THAT.  I'm really just sharing information I'm learning. I'm sharing because I truly believe we should know what's going into the products around us. ESPECIALLY those we put in/on our bodies. For the past year and a half I have been slowly but surely switching everything in my life over to more holistic, healthier versions of things I already like. A BIG one that upset me was scented candles. I'm not joking when I say that I came home one day and my family had thrown them all away and I actually cried. Let's be real, it wasn't just the scented candles. Cancer is stressful ya'll (said in my best southern accent). One thing I didn't do until I was diagnosed with Stage IV is switch over ALL of my beauty and personal care products.  A big part was essential oils. I'm going to start a list of things I have replaced with essential oils and why. Honestly, every single time I go to write this blog I think I have zero to say, don't have any information for you, and then I ramble on for 3 pages.  SO, I'm gonna start here and keeping adding blogs on this subject. Underneath the first long winded explanation you'll find a list of things I believe are important to look for when buying essential oils! The First thing is most certainly first (and SO important)....

1) Deodorant: STOP USING REGULAR DEODORANT RIGHT THE F NOW! Phew. Now that THAT is out of the way I'll tell you why. Underneath your beautiful armpits are your lymph nodes. In case you don't know what the lymphatic system is and what it does, here ya go. "The lymphatic system is a network of tissues and organs that help rid the body of toxins, waste, and other unwanted materials. The primary function of the lymphatic system is to transport lymph, a fluid containing infection-fighting white blood cells throughout our whole body."  Here is what pops up nice and big when you google the words "deodorant side effects" "Deodorants and antiperspirants side effectsDeodorants and antiperspirants can cause breast cancer and Alzheimer's disease. Benign side effects of Deodorants and antiperspirants are skin irritation and allergies, but more serious dangers of deodorants can be vulvar dermatitis."

Woah! I'm sorry, Vulvar what now?!?   Now let's assume that is ALL I know. It's all you know. There is no more science. You don't know exactly why, but you accept the above as fact. The FDA tells you this (side note just because the FDA says something is safe doesn't mean it is. They are seriously corrupt over there--anywhooo).WHY DID I KEEP USING IT?  I dunno, because I'm an idiot or because I smell without it. Only hippies don't use it and that's gross.  I didn't want to be the person who everyone was like, "Yeah Jenny's cool but smells a little."  NO. Well I switched it over and I am none of those things. (OK maybe I am a few of those things but whatever!) I'll tell you what though: I do NOT smell or sweat even half the amount I used to. You won't get there right away.  You will smell for a bit and you will get used to having damp armpits because it's NATURAL. Also it's not that I don't use anything after I wash, I use a crystal! Yes, a crystal.  Did I just lose you? Well I don't just grab a crystal and think it's going to do magic. There's a brand called CRYSTAL deodorant and it's a crystal you wet a little and wipe on. It NATURALLY works as deodorant. When I know I'm going out, going to work out, etc....well, here comes the essential oils. Frankincense gets rubbed over my entire body on most days along with Lavender. That's just standard. Lavender is amazing for your skin and stress levels, and everyone comments on how lovely you smell with it on. Frankincense is a known cancer killer, so that shit goes everywhere. For underarms I use those two, mixed with a few drops of tea tree oil, and a tiny bit of coconut oil. (LOTS OF ANTIMICROBIAL PROPERTIES) gets rubbed in after the crystal goes on.

IMPORTANT NOTE: These essential oils aren't applied directly to your skin. You will need a carrier oil to dilute and spread. Go into your kitchen and grab your organic, unrefined coconut oil. Put some in a glass and that's the coconut oil you use for your body, for oils spreading, for lotion, for teeth, for EVERYTHING.

Tips for buying essential oils:

1) DO YOUR RESEARCH. - I use Plant Therapy. I used to use doTERRA. I'm not telling you not to use it but I'll tell you why I don't later.....

2) Buy dark glass bottle, usually dark brown or dark blue. Light exposure and temperature can taint your essential oils.

3) Look for the words for USDA certified Organic. Listen, I am not the biggest fan of the FDA. (If they would do their damn job and stop taking handouts I would be.) But it is the ONLY system we have in place to regulate what we put in/use on our bodies. One of the MAIN reasons I stopped using doTERRA is because I don't trust them.  I don't trust them because they REPEATEDLY lie on their website, and tell their sales people to lie for them. Listen. I get it, it's a tough world out there to have a business, especially a small business. BUT, if you are a smaller business that is selling and playing up your products to people like me: GENUINELY looking for the BEST holistic products to fight a "TERMINAL DISEASE", and I find out later that your labeling is BULLSHIT, then yeah, I'm gonna have a problem. Here is why:

doTerra uses a little phrase on all their products that says 'Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade Ⓡ' or  CPTGⓇ That little Ⓡ is a copyright. When I actually opened my idiot eyes and looked at it, I was PISSED. I could NOT believe I had fallen for it! The wool had been pulled over my eyes.  I believed the people pushing the products onto me. Hell, one of them was a breast cancer patient herself!  I really started to get pissed off when I found that out. And, it further infuriated me that I found out that SO MANY of the awesome METAVIVORS I know were using them. They have used this copyright and marketing tool to force themselves to the top of the essential oil game. It says on their website, and I have had a rep say to me, "If an oil doesn't have the CPTGⓇ do NOT trust it." . No, doTERRA DO NOT trust YOU. They literally own that label and slap it on all their products as a verification that they are amazing. So we think we know to look for it. Then in turn they become THE ONLY essential oil company you look for and then they have the monopoly on it, not that hard to see through when you open your eyes. I have asked (ok possibly attacked) them on Twitter and Instagram and the only response I got was that they were NOT a re-bottling company (how would we KNOW THAT FOR SURE, NO ONE IS REGULATING IT), and then they never said a word about the CPTGⓇ. This is copied and pasted directly from their website "Each doTERRA essential oil is also carefully and thoroughly tested using the strict CPTG Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade® quality protocol. Experienced essential oil users will immediately recognize the superior quality standard for naturally safe, purely effective therapeutic-grade doTERRA essential oils."

So, if you regulate your own oils with a certification process that you own and then you're telling me it carefully goes through your OWN testing with your OWN scientists testing it, and not to trust anyone that doesn't do what you do, why should I trust you? Because you say so?? Well I did. and I certainly do not now.

At this point they may be THE BEST essential oil company on the planet but WHY would I believe you? Your lies are blatantly there I just chose to ignore them. Well no more.

This isn't just doTERRA this is ALL products, look at ingredients lists DO NOT trust labels. Labels are just marketing tools. If everything was in the same bottle with no outside sources influencing you and all you had was an ingredients list what would you choose? Well I know what I am choosing and it ain't doTERRA.

Listen, you don't have to believe me about them and even if you use them you're still doing better than using something like deodorant. I'm deciding to be the annoying as all hell whistle blower because I'm sick of it. And I'm sick of it because I got VERY sick and started to learn the TRUTH about our health, it's not pretty guys. The ONLY way it will change is if we put our money where our mouths are.  That's where change happens, that's where you make the difference. Don't go eat at your favorite restaurant all the time, yeah it can suck but once you start cooking for yourself or making your own lotion you may find yourself addicted to it, and also addicted to the money it ends up saving you in the long run. And then maybe more of our favorite places will be forced to use products we will want to consume and they will gain back our business.

So there's my REALLY short blog on Essential Oils.....stay tuned for ALL (turns out I have a lot to say on the subject) the additional blogs on this subject!

XOXO,

Jenny

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