Ever since I wrote the blog post Warnings dōTERRA & Young Living Won’t Tell You I have been inundated with questions about my own personal essential oil usage. This FAQ post is meant to address the most common questions I receive daily about aromatherapy.
Do you sell essential oils?
No. I sold my company in 2011.
Where do you buy your essential oils?
I buy my essential oils from Essential Wholesale. This is the company my husband and I founded and sold. I buy both single notes and essential oil blends. I continue to buy my essential oils from Essential Wholesale because I know that their standards, testing procedures, and quality control are all stringent. They sell at wholesale to the public with no minimum order and no membership fee. And for all the skeptics out there—I do not make a kick back or profit from any referral to Essential Wholesale. I’m just being honest about where I buy my essential oils for my family.
Do you still use essential oils?
Yes, but I always dilute them and never consume them. Here are a few sensible articles that explain why I haven’t jumped on the bandwagon of undiluted and internal usage: Robert Tisserand interviewed on ingestion, dilution and other safety issues, Why is Essential Oil Dilution Important?, Essential Oils and Eye Safety, Various Myths busted in notes of Essential Oil University on Facebook, To 10 Worst Injuries from Essential Oils 2014 of Part One and Part Two.
Do you recommend any undiluted usage or consumption of essential oils?
No, never, no matter what—even if they are supplements or capsules or recommended by a friend, video, blog, book, or consultant.
What should I do if I am injured by undiluted essential oils?
Read What to do When Injured Using Essential Oils. Report any essential oil injury to the Atlantic Institute of Aromatherapy. At the FDA you can use several resources: Your Guide To Reporting Problems To The FDA or Report Unlawful Sales of Medical Products On The Internet or Consumer Complaint Coordinators – Report A Problem or Medwatch Online Voluntary Reporting Form. The FTC also has a process to FILE A COMPLAINT WITH THE FTC and doTERRA has a process to report compliance issues to the company via email.
Which book of your aromatherapy books is right for me?
- The Art, Science and Business of Aromatherapy for $14.99 is the best choice if you are in the business of aromatherapy.
- The Art and Science of Aromatherapy for $8.99 is the best choice for people simply interested in learning more about aromatherapy.
- The Essential Oil Safety Guide by Robert Tisserand for $94.95 (Not my book, but it is worth the investment if you are serious about aromatherapy)
How do I dilute essential oils?
I cover this topic in my books, but you can find an online weights and measurements chart and an industry standard scenting guide on EssentialWholesale.com.
Can I ask you aromatherapy questions?
I sold my company in 2011 and am no longer involved in the industry. If you have specific questions about aromatherapy and essential oils I recommend that you email Kathy Steinbock. She is the staff aromatherapist for Essential Wholesale & Labs.
I want to become a certified aromatherapist. What school do you recommend?
I was certified as an aromatherapy through AromaStudios. I’ve taken continuing education courses from Sylla at the Atlantic Institute. You can find a full list of recognized schools from the Alliance of International Aromatherapists.
I want to become a registered aromatherapist. How do I find out more?
Go to the Aromatherapy Registration Council to learn more.
The following answers are for my haters. I never imagined the backlash and attacks I would get from posting about the safe use of essential oils. Believe it or not, I still get hate mail from the blog from July of 2014.
Why did you turn off comments on Warnings dōTERRA & Young Living Won’t Tell You?
All of the questions had been asked and answered multiple times. It was a waste of time to continuing answering the same questions over and over again. If you have questions please refer to the comment section of that blog post for answers.
I left you a comment on another blog post and you didn’t approve it? Why?
I have a comment policy for KaylaFioravanti.com. I reserve the right to remove any comments that: “. . . is unlawful, obscene, defamatory, threatening, harassing, abusive, slanderous, hateful, or embarrassing to any other person or entity as determined by Kayla Fioravanti in its sole discretion.” Unfortunately many consultants have chosen to use obscene language, threaten me and other commenters and attack in a hateful manner. I have chosen to no longer engage in these sorts of comment threads. Since I closed comments to the original thread these aggressive and hateful comments are now being posted on other unrelated posts. I reserve to the right to delete them wherever they appear on my website.
I sent you an email and you didn’t answer it. Why?
I do not feel obligated to even read hate mail or answer it. If the email starts out with a personal attack, uses obscene language or asks the same questions I have already answered in comments I liberally use the delete button without even finishing the email. I also do not read emails that come through my contact page that use a fake email address, use an obviously fake name or is signed anonymously.
Did you post Warnings dōTERRA & Young Living Won’t Tell You or the follow up posts FDA Action Against dōTERRA & Young Living and Twelve Signs of a Cult to gain fame?
No. I am so passionate about the safe use of essential ones that I dedicated an entire chapter to it in my book The Art, Science and Business of Aromatherapy which was published in 2011. The blog post was simply a FREE section of Chapter 10 from my book. I shared it due to the overwhelming number of people I was hearing from who were being taught to ingest essential oils and use them undiluted. Again this information was given away for free, no charge, no profit, and with no obligation to buy my book to finish the list. For those who chose to buy my book—thank you—and if you didn’t that is okay too. My focus today is as a wife, mother and author of 8 other books covering a variety of topics. I am not seeking fame in the aromatherapy world.
If you want to learn more about essential oil safety ask to join the Facebook group Essential Oil Consumer Safety Advocates.
IF YOU ARE CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING AN ESSENTIAL OIL INJURY PLEASE READ: What to do When Injured While Using Essential Oils.
Great info Kayla. I also love how you set boundaries for yourself.
It was a good learning experience all around, but especially for setting boundaries.
I am just learning about oils and found this super informative. I sadly didn’t do my research and did injest young living oils, thieves and lemon in my water for about a week now. What are the side effects to this. After reading I will just be using them topically with carrier oils. Is it okay to breathe the oils in? I really enjoy breathing in peppermint. Thanks so much!
Fantastic blog! I grow so weary of all of the false claims. Thank you for the resources, I will definately check them out.
Thank you! I think you will enjoy the resources — good fact based information with no sensationalism.
This is very informative. Thank you.
You are welcome.
Thank you for the information on oils. I especially like the information on myths.
In all topics I enjoy reading a good myth busting fact. Dr. P has a great collection of them.
Hey Kayla, That Warnings dōTERRA & Young Living Won’t Tell You blogpost is a reference. It is a standard bearer. Don’t ever feel bad about posting it.
I tried to work with you on it, as best I could. I’m sorry that you’ve taken so much heat, and sorry that no one has attacked me over it. I wish I could have taken some heat off you from it. I tried to do so, and get your back. But no one hated me enough for defending you, I guess.
Keep up the good fight, pardner!
You were incredibly helpful Paul! I would not have been able to keep the comments open as long as I did without your support. You engaged one of the most vocal of the commenters — he got so mad at all the support I got that I never posted his comments after number 18 and above. In his 18th comment he lost control, started cursing, attacking all my supporters and me. I cut him off by deleting future comments and blacklisting him. He continued commenting using different email addresses and IP addresses. I actually just deleted another comment yesterday from him that I hadn’t noticed earlier.
Thank you so much for having my back. It has meant so much to me. Sorry that in the heat of it all I didn’t thank you then. I am glad I have the opportunity now. You rock!
Thanks for being someone we can always count on to find the truth and to keep industry standards high. I worry about the damage that doTerra and YL will do to the field of aromatherapy.
Coming from you that means a lot.
Kayla,
Thank you for taking this stand and bearing the backlash.
I have never known how to respond to Young living and doTerra consultants. What makes them flaunt inexpertise? Next time I show this. You are a wonderful example for all us experts in Aromatherapy and inexperienced to respond to foolishness.
Thanks!
Hello! I found you through the blog post with the comments understandably turned off. 🙂 Thank you so much for sharing that information. I know very little about oils but I’ve had suspicions about following advice from any for profit companies that can financially benefit from my overuse or misuse of oils purchased from said companies. I’m going to read your book to learn more and to be safe, I will stop consuming them right away.
I began using cinnamon bark oil recently but I noticed it is on your list of oils to avoid. Bummer! But I’d rather be safe than have unfortunate effects. Is there any safe way to diffuse it or dilute it to apply topically? Or do you recommend I just get rid of it altogether?
Cinnamon is safe to diffuse. Robert Tisserand just wrote about cinnamon: http://tisserandinstitute.org/new-survey-reveals-dangers-of-not-diluting-essential-oils/
Glad to hear you are stopping the consumption of essential oils.
WOW,
I’ve known for awhile that a person can be smart-but people (as in a group or herd) can be and do dumb things.
95% of what you stated is just common sense.
I don’t understsnd why any one would get upset with you or what you had to say.
Please don’t let the “sheeple” ever get you down-what you had to say was important and had to be said by somebody, with big, wide “shoulders” to carry that load.
It seems to me that God picked you for that, and is helping you carry the load.
Thank you Nancy for your encouragement.
I’m going to buy your book on the science of it..:-) my daughter has cystic fibrosis. Some of the inhalants should work for her. I need more ideas. Thanks.
Thanks much for sharing your take on the issue of essential oils. I appreciate it very much.
Can you suggest me which oil is best for aromatherapy. And can attar perfume oils can be made be using as an alternative for kannauj attar.