Homemade Deodorant

 In case you couldn't tell by now, I love simple recipes that are just a few ingredients. I found a lot of recipes online for homemade deodorant, but almost all of them included beeswax or certain costly ingredients. I came across this recipe and adjusted the measurements for my personal use. I will often double or triple the recipe and place it in a closed pint-sized mason jar to store it. I love using this deodorant because I can actually smell the essential oil mixed in it all day long. I just use a spoon and scoop out a very small bit of it for daily use. A little bit goes a long way! My next project will be to make a deodorant spray for this busy, on-the-go days.

1/4 Cup Baking Soda
1/4 Cup Arrowroot Powder
4 Tablespoons unrefined Coconut Oil 
10 Drops *Young Living Essential Oil

Scents for Women: 
[Singles] Lavender, Geranium, Frankincense
[Blends] Joy (bergamot, ylang ylang, geranium, rose, jasmine, palmarosa, mandarin, lemon, roman chamomile, rosewood), Peace and Calming (ylang ylang, patchouli, orange, tangerine, blue tansy), orStress Away (copaiba, lime, cedarwood, vanilla, lavender, ocotea)


Scents for Men:
[Singles] Clove, Cedarwood, Frankincense,
[Blends]  Christmas Spirit (orange, cinnamon bark, spruce) or Valor (spruce, rosewood, blue tansy, frankincense).

Some of these oils included in this post can be found in the starter kit when you become a wholesale customer. Not only that, but you will receive 24% off these therapeutic grade high quality essential oils from Young Living. If you are considering purchasing, find out more here.

* I only use Young Living therapeutic grade essential oils because of their high purity. Many essential oils on the market today are adulterated and are not put through a Seed to Seal process that Young Living lives by. I highly recommend these essential oils for their outstanding purity and also because, simply put, they really work. I began my journey two years ago with Young Living EOs and have never looked back. They are remarkable!

[Part 3] Essential Oils for Children: Allergies

This is part 3 of my series in essential oil use for children. In this segment, I want to provide simple and easy steps for helping children tackle allergies. As I've stated before, there is an overload of information on the internet on what oils and recipes to use. Although each situation and individual may differ, leading us to try several blends before finding the one that works for us, I want to keep these post stripped down to the basic. Recently, I wrote a post on an allergy protocol for adults, but seeing as children may not be ready for ingesting a capsule at their young age, here are some other ideas to try. We will look at three areas for supporting kids wrestling with allergies: inhalation, topical application, and diffusing.


Inhalation is the simple method of placing drops of essential oils in hand and, in intervals, breathing in the aroma. The best essential oils to use for this method are:
Wintergreen
Peppermint
R.C.
Raven
Eucalyptus

The aroma of these oils immediately work to begin opening up areas of congestion along nasal passages and sinuses. They are also emotionally supportive and will aid in decreasing the stress, anxiety, and irritability the child might feel from struggling with allergies. I suggest that your child breath in these oils in intervals throughout the day.

This is a wonderful topical blend of oils to apply externally. Recipe credit goes to Stacy McDonald.

Kids Blend

2 Drops Idaho Balsam Fir
1 Drop Wintergreen
1 Drop Peppermint

Mix in hand and rub along hairline, chest, and feet.

In addition, apply the Breathe Again roll-on along chest (may need to be diluted) and Thieves (diluted) onto the child's feet. This will help support his/her immune system while fighting seasonal allergies. 

In the words of Stacey McDonald, "I only trust Young Living therapeutic grade essential oils for internal use, as lower quality oils may be toxic -especially when I consider using them on children (internally or topically). Synthetic oils do not contain any therapeutic properties and can be dangerous. Even some oils that claim to be organic and "pure," have no real therapeutic value."
Click here to read more on this.

Check your personal sensitivity to these oils by rubbing them on your feet before applying anywhere else. If you find that you are sensitive, you can blend with a carrier oil before applying to skin.

After topically applying oils, I would highly recommend you diffuse either of these blends or combinations:

Thieves
Peppermint, Lemon, Lavender, 
Eucalyptus Radiata
R.C.
Raven
Wintergreen

Last, but not least, the nutrient filled drink, NingxiaRed, by Young Living is another way to help boost our children's immune systems to help fight the allergies. 1 to 2 packs of these a day will help support their system daily. Ningxia Red is an antioxidant boosting drinking filled with essential oils, fruits, and the reputable Wolfberry from China.

Again, every child and family is different. It is helpful to connect with other parents in a community who are familiar and educated on the use of Young Living essential oils. As a wholesale customer in my organization, I invite all new members to part of a Young Living private discussion group on Facebook with hundreds of other members to share and recommend essential oils ideas and testimonies. Learn more about the tremendous benefits of becoming a wholesale customer here.

Defining Therapeutic Grade

Therapeutic Grade.
It's something that is lightly thrown around on the essential oil market today. You see it slapped onto many essential oil brands and it is natural for us to think that we are getting a quality product. But this is not the case, unfortunately. Any company can use the term "therapeutic grade," but only Young Living can boast in the term Young Living Therapeutic Grade and actually provide us a clear and thorough definition into what it actually means, as well as a standard by which to live. The graphic on this by Dolf Cheng is a great summary for what YL means by Therapeutic Grade, but let's go a little deeper.

Although therapeutic grade is not a term regulated by any independent group, this term is not an indication of purity for 90% of the oils found on the market today, which are manufactured by brokers and, most often, contain additives, synthetics, and chemicals. Young Living, in their commitment to quality, go beyond mere organic practices and industry standards. Nor do they obtain their essential oils from brokers. In fact, they create their essential oils, from seed to seal. In addition, their requirements are more strict than the unimpressive FDA regulations for certified organic. One example of YL standards being higher than organic is that organic only requires that land have not had fertilizers on it for 3 years. Gary Young searches for land that has never had fertilizers on it! He obtained land in Coeur d'Alene, ID which did not have any record of having had chemicals on it since the 1880's. It was and still is virgin land. They ensure, every step of the way, that the product they are creating is absolutely, unquestionably pure and contain the highest concentration of therapeutic components. Their standards give us the most potent essential oils around because of their Seed to Seal process. The Seed to Seal standard is crucial because Young Living created it and they live by it with consistency and integrity.  If you take the time to research every other brand and company of essential oil, you will not find that they can boast of these same standards for the production of their oils.

Recently, I ran across this image on Pinterest.

  According to the definition below, we could say the same for fresh food like fruits and vegetables and wheat and anything else that is grown. We could say, "Nutritious is a marketing term which has no actual certification value. The fact is ALL FRESH GROWN FOODS are, by definition, Nutritious." We could even replace the word Nutritious with Organic or whatever word we choose to convey the quality and purity of it.
  However, only in theory is it true that all essential oils are, by definition, therapeutic. But in the real world, this does not hold weight because of the the fact that the land, seeds, and plants from which essential oils are made are called into question. Chemicals, toxins, GMOs. These are all factors that play into whether or not we are receiving a pure product. Not to mention, maintaining purity during the distilling and testing process when handled in factories and labs.

So, yes, "therapeutic grade" is a marketing term which, in and of itself, holds no value. But as I stated in the beginning of my post, Young Living has their own standard, definition, and lifestyle for it, which gives "therapeutic grade" a true and living meaning for their brand of essential oils. Just as we desire outstanding quality and nutrition in our food, so we also should desire the same in our medicine.

click to enlarge

My passion is not to bash other essential oil brands or company. My passion is to uphold Young Living Essential Oils and share them because of how much they have changed my life. Because of their standards, I can stand by them and their practices and not feel ashamed about these oils that I promote. By nature, I am a Perfectionist. So, it thrills the perfectionist in me that Young Living takes steps beyond what is satisfactory to give me a product that is the best!


Top Reasons Why I Trust Young Living Essential Oils

[1] Young Living owns their own farms and grows their own plants. They have 9 farms on 5 different continents and 14 partners in wild crafting world wide.

[2] Anyone can visit their farms and take part in the harvest/distillation process. This is key. Their honesty, transparency, and vulnerability to open themselves to the public is quite impressive!

[3] The Seed to Seal Gaurantee. This is everything. 

[4] Young Living has 20+ years of experience and research!

[5] Young Living has the greatest selection and blends of essential oils.

What spring may bring...

Spring is blossoming and that means many new things, both welcome and un-welcomed! Spring cleaning and allergies. Those are the two things on most of our lists at the moment. There is an overwhelming amount of information available these days to combat seasonal allergies and tackle our home spring cleaning goals. So, for brevity's sake, I am keeping this post simple and straight to the point.

Here are some easy and affordable go-to tips and recipes for combating season allergies and beginning a top-to-bottom cleaning of your home! So, for allergies, I am going to share with you three simple ways to combat it: internally, by inhalation, and topically.

1. Internally: Buy clear vegetable shots at your local health food store (or online) in bulk. Fill the capsule with 3 drops each of Lemon, Lavender, and Peppermint as often as needed throughout the day.

2. Inhalation: Combine the above oils into your home diffuser with distilled water (pour the water up to the fill line) and leave it running all day long. This also eases the stress that allergies brings into our homes, especially when we have to care for children who are uncomfortable through this time.

 3. Topical: Use a few drops of Lavender on a q-tip to do a swipe inside nostrils (may need to slightly dilute with olive oil/coconut oil if you experience a slight sting). Use another clean set of q-tips to do a Lavender swipe inside the cheeks of your mouth. Apply drops of Lavender onto the bottoms of your feet a couple times each day.

And for those with a lot of head and sinus pressure during this season, I want to share an excellent graphic with steps for really battling through the worst of it!

Now, on to simple steps for beginning your spring cleaning goals!

1. Begin with the Citrus Vinegar Cleaner for cleaning all counter tops, floors, appliances, and practically anywhere!

Fill a quart size jar full of leftover citrus peels. Pour white vinegar up to the top. Add 5-8 drops of each essential oil. Let mixture sit in a cool, dark place for a couple weeks. Remove citrus peels and pour vinegar cleaner into a glass spray bottle for cleaning counter-tops in the bathroom and kitchen.

I used Orange and Grapefruit in this blend, but I have also used Young Living's Citrus Fresh blend and Lemon. Their citrus oils are the most affordable, ranging from $10 - $16, which is why they are so *perfect* to use for every day cleaning.

 2. For the tough places, like the toilet bowl and sinks, I use these cleaners:

Basic Sink Cleanser
Safe for porcelain or stainless steel.
1/4 cup baking soda
1/2 cup vinegar
3 drops Lavender, or Rosemary, or Lemon/Lime EO
 Combine Ingredients. Rinse sink with hot water then pour cleanser and wipe with sponge. Rinse.

 No Scrub Toilet Bowl Cleaner
1 Cup Borax
1 Cup Vinegar
!0 Drops Lavender EO
5 Drops Lemon or Lime EO
 Combine all ingredients in a bowl and pour all at once in the toilet. Allow to sit overnight. In the morning, just flush.

A bit of baking soda mixed with drops of Lemon oil always makes the perfect scrub to get your hardware to shine again. I do this to my kitchen and bathroom faucets and it looks and smells like heaven!

3. For those who are looking for something that really gets tough spots, particularly with issues like mildew, try the most effective Young Living cleaner: Thieves!

Thieves is a blend that smells like Christmas to me! It is a treat every time! It is a powerful blend that contains Cinnamon, Lemon, Rosemary, Clove, and Eucalyptus Radiata. 

 That wraps up this post! Begin your Essential Oil-infused journey today by applying these simple and practical steps. :-)