Quality Always Matters

  The Ancient Essentials blog has been a bit too quiet lately, but there has been quite a bit on my plate. I hope to soon share posts and testimonials on hormonal balance and emotional support with YLEOs. For today, I thought I'd blog a simple post sharing the new Seed to Seal website that Young Living Essential Oils recently launched [Click on image below]. Quality essential oils are an ongoing topic of debate right now, so how appropriate is it that Young Living is providing us detailed steps to share their process of producing essential oils. Honesty and integrity speaks for itself.

  Their new website contains videos and step by step summaries of each step they take to ensure their customers only the highest quality of essential oils. In the words of Gary Young, "If you don't know your seed, you don't know your oil." These steps are essential to a pure oil. If any step of the way is compromised, or left undone, then the quality of that oil cannot be guaranteed and should not be used internally or topically. While Young Living has full control over the production of their oils, many others are merely broker companies - not producers. This is why I give a word of caution to anyone who is seeking other essential oil brands just because they are cheaper. Cheap = Cheap. Don't take that risk on your own health. When you take the time to find out what it is involved in producing a pure and unadulterated oil, you will realize it is not cheap at all to make. It is worth the investment for the safety and health of your own self and family to commit to a company that cares about you. Young Living has shown that commitment time and time again. They don't settle for less when it comes to their products and their customers.
  In addition, through the wholesale membership and the Essential Rewards program offered by Young Living, you will find that you can save quite a bit if you are a regular buyer of essential oils. The wholesale membership grants you 24% off products ($50 a year in oils maintains your wholesale customer status) and gives you free access to join the Essential Rewards program at anytime, which is $50 in oils a month to maintain. The Essential Rewards program offers you discounted shipping and the ability to receive 20% back on your orders every month (I've been doing this for the past several years and LOVE this program! At the end of every year, I have free points racked up on my account and am able to purchase a ton of oils and products! It's basically like Christmas!). Now isn't that a savings? So, when it comes to essential oils, do your research. Know your company. Know your producer. Learn what it takes to create a pure essential oil and the real costs of it. Lastly, I finish this post with a graphic of the top reasons why I encourage others to choose Young Living Essential Oils.

To get started using therapeutic grade essential oils for you and your family, I recommend purchasing the Premium Starter Kit! You can begin enjoying wholesale prices AND a large selection of essential oils at the same time. This is a great way to begin incorporating the most versatile essential oils into your daily life. I also personally send you with an essential oil gift when you become a wholesale customer under me. It's my way of saying "thank you!" and supporting you in building your own natural medicine cabinet. I am always holding giveaways every month for those who become wholesale customers with Ancient Essentials. Feel free to comment or message me to find out which oils I am giving away this month! :)

By the way, I am not a doctor. I just a woman who uses essential oils in her daily life with family and friends. The information provided on Ancient Essentials is for educational purposes only. It is not intended to prescribe, diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. It is your responsibility to educate yourself and address any health or medical needs you may have with your physician. Please seek professional help when needed.

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.

Therapeutic Grade & The Four P's

Therapeutic-Grade Standard

Gary Young established the term “therapeutic-grade,” now known as Young Living Therapeutic Grade™ (YLTG), as a guarantee that Young Living will only sell 100% pure, natural, uncut, unadulterated essential oils that maintain the vital therapeutic potency.
As Gary traveled the world studying the distillation of pure essential oils, he saw wide discrepancies in quality and learned that in order to ensure purity and potency, expert and rigorous analysis of finished essential oils was critical.
Today, using gas chromatography (GC) and mass spectrometry (MS) analysis, the phytochemical profile of every batch of Young Living essential oils is measured to evaluate each specific plant compound. Certain plant compounds must meet or exceed specific levels to ensure the essential oil is natural, pure, and therapeutic-grade. Only then does Young Living guarantee the oil will provide the desired results and label it Young Living Therapeutic Grade™ (YLTG).

Young Living essential oils are:

• 100% pure
• Sourced only from known botanical species
• Sustainably grown and harvested
• Grown on chemical-free farmlands in carefully nourished soil (organic)
• Unmatched throughout the essential oils industry
• So pure and natural, they're used and recommended by integrative health professionals around the world

 Young Living: The Seed To Seal™ Process

Strict attention to detail—from the seeds sown to the plants harvested—ensures that the oils you obtain from Young Living are the purest, most potent essential oils available. This precise, detailed method is known as the Seed to Seal process.

Seed
Potent essential oils come from plant species that have been authenticated by Young Living experts. Species certification involves scientific research, field study, university partnerships, and on-site planting certification.
Cultivate
Through cultivation on the four Young Living farms, Young Living Essential Oils has mastered the creation of pure, potent essential oils. The company takes this knowledge around the world to co-op farms to certify that these farms’ growing processes meet Young Living’s strict quality standards.
Distill
Young Living’s proprietary low-temperature, low-pressure steam distillation process ensures that the beneficial plant compounds in every batch of essential oil remain uncompromised during the extraction process.
Test
Each essential oil must pass Young Living’s stringent testing to ensure the optimal bioactive natural compounds are present. Young Living uses its own internal labs, in addition to third-party audits, to verify that international purity and potency standards are met and surpassed.
Seal
Young Living completes the Seed to Seal process by carefully sealing each bottle of essential oil before shipping them to members worldwide.

 Below is a video of the Young Living Seed to Seal process that guarantees us the best quality essential oils.

From the beginning, Gary Young's commitment has remained unchanged: to offer the finest natural essential oils and pure aromatherapy products that enhance well being and wellness of body, mind and spirit. Gary Young’s commitment to understanding the remarkable therapeutic power of plants has resulted in the world’s largest line of essential oils and blends. Gary has traveled the globe discovering how to best support both physical health and emotional wellness. His discoveries have helped hundreds of thousands of people experience the benefits of natural healing and have led to the creation of the world’s largest and foremost authority on essential oils sciences: Young Living Essential Oils.
Whether from the Young Living Farms in the United States, France or Ecuador - these farms provide an ongoing source for pure and natural essential oils that are in critically short supply around the world.
The process Young Living uses when planting, cultivating, harvesting, and distilling a batch of essential oil is crucial to retaining its vital compounds. Without the exact blend of naturally-occurring plant chemicals, an essential oil can lose its beneficial properties and fail to produce the desired effect.
Young Living Therapeutic Grade (YLTG) means that every essential oil Young Living distills or sources has the optimal naturally-occurring blend of constituents to maximize the desired effect. Young Living is able to make this assertion because of our strict cultivation process—illustrated by the Four Ps—that guarantees the optimal potency of every Young Living essential oil.

The Young Living Promise: Plants - Preparation - Purity - Potency

Plants

An oil's potency can be affected not only by selecting the proper plant to cultivate, but also by where the plant is grown, the quality of soil in which the seed is planted, and even the time of day it's harvested.
Young Living has extensive experience selecting the correct species of plant for desired oil potency, planting under optimal conditions, using ideal soil and natural methods to encourage growth, and knowing the precise time to harvest each crop. Only those plants that produce the most active and widest array of therapeutic compounds are selected.

Young Living has over 70,000 sq.ft. of
greenhouse space for starting plants

Preparation

Once the optimal soil, plant, cultivation, and harvesting conditions have been adhered to, the plants must be distilled properly in order to meet YLTG standards. Young Living uses a gentle, proprietary technique for steam-extracting the most potent essential oils, which remains unmatched throughout the essential oils industry.
To meet YLTG distillation standards proper temperature must be maintained throughout the distillation process, and pressure, length of time, equipment, and batch size are strictly monitored.

Purity

YLTG standards prohibit the acceptance of any diluted, cut or adulterated oils. Every product Young Living produces—essential oils, oil blends, nutritional supplements, or personal care—meets strict purity standards.
Every batch of essential oils is subjected to rigorous, state-of-the-art analysis at the Young Living chemistry lab. Using some of the most advanced equipment in the world, our scientists subject every batch of essential oils to Gas Chromatograph and Mass Spectrometer testing, and heavy metals analysis. Oils that exhibit even the slightest hint of possible adulteration or tampering are rejected.

Potency

The culmination of the preceding three stages, Potency means that the naturally occurring compounds contained in each essential oil product are of the highest and most consistent bioactive levels. Without strict adherence to the YLTG standard in the Plant, Preparation, and Purity phases, the final product would not have the necessary potency to create the desired effect.