Why Doterra Essential Oils ?

For more information on my criteria for choosing my essential oil supplier, go to:

How to get Theraputic-grade Essential Oils.

To tell you the truth, I was skeptical of doTERRA when I was first introduced to it.

- Is this a big multilevel marketing scheme? (Why use Network Marketing in your business? link)

- Why are the oils so expensive?

- Why are the advocates so fanatic? (Why using essential oils daily will change your life ? link)

- And anyway, I don't have the money for this, I can find something just as good for a better price? ( Attracting abundance link)

5 years later, and after hours of research with a large variety of bottles of essential oils from different suppliers, I found myself still smelling empty bottles of doTERRA oils I was gifted while others sat there barely touched. Why?

After experimenting with oils, and healing my unhelpful beliefs about money, I began working on my aroma therapy certification with Aromaquatisme and am finally able to understand the qualities I require from my supplier of essential oils. I have experienced the quality of life that doTERRA oils have given me, from rapid healing to emotional equilibrium and mental clarity, if you've ever used pure essential oils you will know what I'm talking about (if you haven't, contact me for an experience) but if your mind still needs to understand why they make you feel so d*mn good, here's why:

The study of epigenetics suggests that our DNA duplicates itself in its highest or lowest expression based on our environment. If that is the case for our genes wouldn't that be true for plants as well? Of course it is, we all have experience of how a plant grows in its ideal conditions but even more miraculously it thrives on positive emotions. Check out the experiment done on bully a plant video. This demonstrates in order to have the best quality essential oils all factors of its production should be observed.

DoTERRA Co-impact sourcing

Organic plants
Environmentally responsible
Ethically responsible
Process of extraction
100% with No alterations
Complete testing
Education

Organic plants

Producing quality essential oil starts with choosing quality land, soil, and seeds. Considering factors like the climate of the geographic location, the best time of year to plant, harvest, and more.

DoTERRA has a program that sends researchers around the world to find local growers of essential oil plants that comply with their charter of quality growing practices to partner with. DoTERRA provides local farmers with ongoing education from quality seeds to best farming practices. They prepay the farmers so that the plants are not picked too early and are at their prime when harvested. DoTERRA doesn't offer non-bio options, they are committed to the pursuit of what's pure (their tagline) and their impact on the environment.

Environmental Responsibility

Environmental responsibility is the ethical obligation companies have to protect natural resources, avoid pollution, and reduce other forms of environmental harm.

As a large company, there is a lot of scrutinies to make sure DoTERRA focuses on methods that promote biological perseveration, utilizing resources that may otherwise be wasted, using harvesting and extraction methods that minimize carbon footprint, and not harvesting endangered species. This is displayed by their limited stock; certain oils are only available as special editions due to their scarcity, equally certain oils are sometimes out of stock at certain periods because of a limited quantity of quality plants available in certain seasons. Equally, they don't offer essential oils for plants that are endangered.

Product Availability List

Ethical responsibility

Ethical responsibility is the ability to recognize, interpret, and act upon multiple principles and values according to the standards of each country within the supply chain. As many oils are cultivated in Third World countries, the company must actively supervise the supply chain to make sure all participants in the process are remunerated properly. This is responsible for the highest vibration of the essential oil.

DoTERRA produces 150 essential oils sourced from over 45 countries. sourcing map

They created the term co-impact sourcing to make sure they are improving the lives of people throughout the supply chain.

Their sourcing guiding principles are:

Generating Jobs: Reducing poverty by creating and sustaining jobs
Fair, On-Time Payments: Consistent, fair payments to producers, including prepayments
Building Supplier Capacity: Supporting farmers, producers, and distillers through training and financial support
Sustaining Long-Term Partnerships: Multi-year contracts with growers and distillers based on solidarity and respect
Fair Labor Conditions: Healthy and safe working environments free from harassment and discrimination
Promoting Co-Ops: Respect the right for all employees and producers to join and form co-operatives
Environmental Stewardship: Promote energy-efficient technologies, renewable energy, and waste minimization
Facilitating Community Development: The dōTERRA Healing Hands Foundation ® helps support community development projects by sourcing communities such as schools, health clinics, training facilities, and clean water systems

DoTERRA has a team that audits their supply chain to check if they comply with their principles:

Processes of extraction

IN ESSENCE...

- Rather than being synthetically manufactured in labs, essential oils are extracted from plant materials through removal methods that are suited to the specific plant part containing the oils.

- Essential oils are the liquids that are isolated from plants when introduced to solvents – they are liquefied versions of the plants!

- Popular extraction methods include: Steam Distillation, Solvent Extraction, CO2 Extraction, Maceration, Enfleurage, Cold Press Extraction, and Water Distillation.

- The method of extraction affects essential oil quality by way of pressure and temperatures applied.

- Some extraction methods are best suited to particular plant types and parts; for example, Cold Press extraction is better than Enfleurage for obtaining oils from citrus fruit peels, because the peels need to be pierced and squeezed, which is not achievable through Enfleurage.

doTERRA uses 3 extratction methodes

Steam Distillation is the most common method for collecting

essential oils. In steam distillation, water is boiled and the resulting

steam passes through the plant material. The steam carries the

essential oil from the plant into a collecting tube, where the steam

is cooled and condensed back into water. Because essential oils are

lipid soluble (meaning that they mix readily with other oils), they are easily separated from the water.

Cold Press is a method that doesn’t involve heat. Cold press

extraction is used exclusively with citrus fruits because it is a way of

extracting oil from the outermost layer of the fruit’s peel. The fruit is

passed across sharp rasping cylinders that abrade the surface of the

peel to break open small essential oil-containing sacs. Water is then

sprayed over the fruit to collect the essential oil. The resulting watery

mixture is then filtered and centrifuged to separate the essential oil

from the water.

Solvent Extraction can be used on every type of plant material, but

is most commonly used on flowers that are too fragile to endure

the conditions required for steam distillation. The plant material is

washed with a solvent to dissolve out the fragrant compounds. The

resulting mixture is then filtered to remove the plant material, and

then the solvent is removed using vacuum distillation. The yield

of this process is a thick, waxy material called a “concrete.” The

concrete is processed again in a similar fashion but with a different

solvent. After another round of vacuum distillation to remove the

second solvent, a pure mixture of only absolute remains. Common

absolutes extracted by this method are Jasmine and Vanilla.

Podcast episode: episode 196 how essential oils are extracted

No Alterations

To be of optimal quality, an essential oil must be

100% natural (i.e., not denatured by the addition of any chemicals),

100% pure (i.e., not mixed with any other essential oils having similar characteristics) and

100% integral (meaning that the totality of the molecules contained in the distilled plant have been collected during the distillation process).

Here are the tests doTERRA uses to ensure essential oil purity:

Organoleptic testing
Microbial testing
Gas chromatography
Mass spectrometry
Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR)
Chirality testing
Isotopic analysis
Heavy metal testing

To know more about these testing processes check CPTG testing process

Chemical composition analysis

There are a host of requirements that essential oil manufacturers are required to comply with in order to sell in the EU from correct labeling to a technical dossier. For details check the link in the sources

All essential oils are required to test the chemical composition of each batch of oil and share the results with their customers in the form of a batch code either on the bottle or package.

Doterra's batch code is situated at the bottom of each bottle alongside its best-before date.

To find out the chemical composition of your oil type your batch code in the search engine: https://sourcetoyou.com/en/quality-reports

If you would like to know why you need to know which components are in your essential oil take a look at this wheel to see how different components are linked with different reactions in the body and how the chemical composition gives an indication of what benefits these oils may provide.