Natural Health - Essential Oils on a Budget

Before my pregnancy with Cora, I can honestly say I don't recall ever hearing about Essential Oils. During a prenatal with my birth doula, Susan, she mentioned EOs several times and we had a discussion about the different oils she may use during labor and we made sure I didn't have an adverse reaction to any of the scents before labor. I distinctly recall not understanding at all what the heck these silly 'voodoo oils' (as John fondly refers to them) were supposed to do to help during labor. I figured that it couldn't hurt and if it helped during contractions then I was all for it! 

As I soon learned, these oils were invaluable. It took me several months after my first encounter with them to make my first purchases, but I haven't looked back since!

Recently Essential Oils have become all the rage. There are a host of natural remedies floating around on Pinterest and I've seen lots of non-"crunchy" bloggy friends rave about finding EO's and all the wonder they are. I would estimate that 90% of the people I hear talking about EO's are recommending or using Young Living Essential Oils. While I have nothing against this Multi Level Marketing Company, I simply cannot swallow the price that they suggest their products are valued at!

Essential Oils went from a neat concept to something I'm working to incorporate into our daily lives as like many others, our health care costs have sky rocketed! This year our insurance plan changed from your typical health care plan where you pay your $30 or $40 copay and move on, to a plan where we pay full price for our visit until we reach our deductible for the year (praying we don't have cause to reach that deductible!). On average that price tag just to walk into the doctors office runs us about $150! We sincerely think twice and three times before we go to the doctor now. Essential Oils have given us the ability to heal ourselves naturally, with elements that God gave us without having to resort to the more extreme ways of modern medicine. 

Saving the day again was my doula, Susan. (She is my crunchy momma inspiration!) She has been using EOs for years and was running into the same price tag issue I was. She uses Butterfly Express Essential Oils and highly recommends them. I was really skeptical at first, everything I'd heard from both Young Living and Do Terra distributors made it sound like if I used another company that had "lesser quality" oils I was risking our health. Let me say, I don't doubt that using oils that are laced with pesticides and who-knows-what could have adverse effects. 

What I didn't realize is that there is no governing board for quality control on Essential Oils! (source) They market that they are "Certified Pure Theraputic Grade" or "100% Theraputic quality" so silly me, I believed them hook line and sinker. Surely there was no one that rivaled their quality, right?

Wrong! There are other companies out there that offer quality oils that are safe and effective and Butterfly Express is one of them! I did a quick run down of prices of the oils I was wanting/needing from Young Living verses Butterfly Express and was amazed at the difference.
(Note that I was comparing Butterfly Express' Retail prices against Young Living Wholesale Prices!)

Oil	Butterfly Express	Young Living (Wholesale)
Theives/Deliverance	16.63	33.75
Peppermint	7.44	21.5
Lavendar	7.44	23.5
Lemon	6.13	11.25
Valor/laMellinia	21	21.75
Peace and Calming	15.75	32.75
Purification/lePurify	12.25	18.75
Pan Away/le Paine	12.69	74.5
Frankincense	21	71.75
Joy/le Heart Song	18.81	39.75
Stress Away/le Intention	9.19	29.75
Grapefruit	6.56	16.75
Harmony/le Unity	21.88	64.75
Total	176.77	460.5

Do you see that? A difference of $283.73!

I'm certainly not knocking on Young Living. They have a great product. I absolutely love their Thieves Household Cleaning line and so far I can only find that through Young Living. I just really want to encourage you to look at your options if you are finding the price tag a bit hard to swallow as I do!

If you're just starting out with Essential Oils or not sure where to begin, I started with 3 oils. Two single oils and one blend - Peppermint, Lavender and Deliverance (all Butterfly Express brand) . I've used quite a bit of the Peppermint and Deliverance but I have used the fool out of Lavender! John who was is an even bigger skeptic than I was has even been converted, primarily over the effectiveness of Lavender Oil! Deliverance is Butterfly Express' blend that is comparable to Young Living's Thieves blend or Do Terras On Guard. 

Lavender Oil has been great this summer with the rash of bug bites and stings that go with the season. It's also been a great help in soothing Cora at night before bed. My next purchase will be Peace and Calming/le Tranquility to diffuse at bedtime with Cora! We were at a class about EO's recently and Cora was with me. She had already had her nap for the day and should have been wide awake but throughout the class I noticed that she seemed lethargic and sleepy. It wasn't until later that someone mentioned that they were diffusing Peace and Calming that I realized why she was acting that way! I can't wait to see how effective it is at night when she's supposed to be sleepy and calm! 

Do you use Essential Oils?

What brands do you like/use?

After writing the majority of this post (it's been sitting in my draft folder for the better part of 3 months...) I've stumbled on an EO company I'm interested in trying - Edens Garden. I'm reading some mixed reviews (I've not yet found a bad review of Butterfly Express) but their prices are unbeatable! Have you heard of them? What are your experiences with them? 

**I am not a doctor or a health care professional. This post is not intended to diagnose or treat any ailment or illness. It is simply a product recommendation based on my own personal experiences. I am in no way compensated for mentioning any of these companies. I am not a representative of Young Living Essential Oils, Do Terra Essential Oils or Butterfly Express Essential Oils.**