Thieves Cleaner

Thieves cleaner can be used for a number of things.

What is in Thieves cleaner?
Thieves cleaner contains ingredients obtained from renewable plant and mineral sources. It also contains vegetable based surfactants that are compliant with Green Seal and EPA Design for Environment standards. It contains Thieves and lemon oils for extra cleaning power.

Suggested use:
There are suggested dilutions listed on the label. Also shake the cleaner well to optimize it's powerful effects.

How others use Thieves cleaner:
Debbie says:
*Use it for cleaning the cat litter boxes. It's much safer than bleach and has a more pleasant scent.
*Spray kitty dishes to keep them clean and sanitary. This also helps keep kitty healthy.

Angel says:
*Use it to clean the bathroom.
*Use it to do dusting. The results last longer.
*Use it to clean those tough baby messes or other messes out of the carpet.
*Use it for those high travel and heavy grease areas.

Holly says:
*Use it in the dishwasher to help get dishes cleaner. You can make your own detergent to make your dish cleaning process even greener and use less chemicals.
*Use it in your laundry to help get your clothes cleaner and smelling fresh. You can make your own laundry detergent to help reduce the use of chemicals on your clothes, which can lead to your clothes wearing out faster.

Melodie says:
*Use it for a facial cleanser. It isn't harsh or oily...just right for skin.

Thank you to all who participated in this. If you have suggestions leave a comment I may use you for another post.

Where do companies get their essential oils from?

Each company is different on where they get their essential oils from. Some companies will grow the plants needed on their own farms, some contract out to farms, and other buy them from a third party vendor. The problem with not knowing where the essential oils are coming from is you don't know how the oil is made. In some instances it could take a plant a while to go from harvest to distillation if they do not distill on site. You don't know how the fields are kept and what is used on them. The best thing to do when researching essential oils is to go to each company's website and see if they list where their oils come from. If the site does not list it, I suggest calling the company and asking. This article is a great article to read and have on hand when starting to research, "12 Questions to Ask an Essential Oil Company" http://heavenscentoils4u.com/articles/twelve-questions-to-ask-an-essential-oil-company/.

Young Living prides itself on their exclusive Seed to Seal process. The Seed to Seal process allows Young Living to ensure quality from the seeds (picking the right seeds for planting), cultivating (making only organic and positivity touch the fields), distillation (ensuring that no chemicals are used in process), and seal (each batch is test before it gets to the buyers. If one little thing is off they will toss the entire batch.) Young Living is able to uphold the Seed to Seal process because they own their own farms, have partnership farms, coop farms, and qualified vendors.

How does Young Living keep their farms?
Young Living only farms on land that never had pesticides, herbicides, or any other chemicals on them. They use only organic herbicides on the fields. Each field has their own compost yard. The plant material that is not used during the distillation process is put into the compost yard. Nothing goes to waste from the plant during the process of getting the oils. Approximately 5 million tons of compost is used on Young Living farms annually. The soil is injected with fertilizer that contains microbes, enzymes, and liquid from worm castings. The weeds are kept under control by workers pulling them or hoeing by hand. The workers that work the fields are not allowed to go work the field with a negative attitude, anger, or while using foul language. I find the latter a very interesting fact. Here's a fun fact- aromatic plants require a pH balance of 7-7.8 (which the farms make sure that's what the soil is at).

Benefits of owning their own farms
Most Young Living farms have a distillery on site to ensure the plant materials do not sit and lose their beneficial qualities. Owning, having exclusive partnerships with other farms, and distilling on those farms allows Young Living to have complete control of every step of the Seed to Seal process. This ensure the products deliver purity and efficacy to members (or those purchasing the products). Here's another fun fact- plant materials can be distilled up to four times, by doing this it changes the aroma and benefits of the oil. Young Living only uses the first distillation as that is the most potent, most aromatic, and provides the most benefits.

Young Living Farms
Earlier I mentioned that Young Living owns their own farms, has partnership farms, coop farms, and qualified vendors. Young Living's qualified vendors must abide to Young Living's stringent and demanding Seed to Seal process. Young Living thoroughly and rigorously test every batch of essential oils that are provided by these vendors. If they are not up to Young Living's standards they will not be used. Young Living also sources many essential oils from coop farms. These respected growers work exclusively with Young Living. These growers also adhere to the strict Seed to Seal process. As an investor in these farms, Young Living closely monitors the quality and authenticity of the botanical matter and oils.
The partnership farms Young Living uses are partially owned by Young Living and independent growers. The partnership farms also have to agree to the strict Seed to Seal process. These farms are carefully vetted for compliance, this allows Young Living to support local independent farming while upholding their absolute commitment to quality.
The farms used by Young Living essential oils are all over the country. The farms only grow what is indigenous to that region. This allows for the best plants to be used. Young Living, though headquartered in the USA, owns farms all over the world and are continuously looking for more to keep up with the supply and demand. The following are where Young Living's farms are and what they grow on them.

• Highland Flats, Naples, Idaho, USA- this farm grows and distills Idaho balsam fir, western red cedar, pine, Idaho blue spruce, and other conifers.
• Mona, Utah, USA- this farm grows lavender, hyssop, clary sage, peppermint, and goldenrod.
• St. Maries, Idaho, USA- this field grows lavender, melissa, and tansy. This field is where Gary Young purchased his first farmland and where Young Living started. These 200 acres have never before or since been exposed to harmful, modern farming techniques.
• Fort Nelson, British Columbia, Canada- this farm grows black spruce, ledum, yarrow, and other botanicals. This farm will soon be distilling these also. The distillery is currently being built.
• Guayaquil, Ecuador- this farm grows eucalyptus blue, ylang ylang, chocolate, dorado azul, and ocotea.
• Iquitos, Peru-Young Living has purchased 3400 acres of wild Amazon Rainforest where they will build a distillery and research wild crafting of native plants and trees.
• Simiane-La-Rotonde, France- this farm grows lavender, lavandin, rosemary, calry sage, and einkorn grain.
• Salalah, Oman- this farm grows sacred frankincense. Young Living is the first and only company to obtain permission to distill and export this precious essential oil.

Resources used for this post are heavenscentoils4u.com and ylpure.com/evesgarden. Always remember to do your own research and find answers yourself.

History of Essential Oils

Some people think that the concept of essential oils is a new concept. The use of essential oils has been around as long as man has, but we just forgot about them and relied on modern therapies. Essential oils are now making a resurgence with people wanting to make cleaner, healthier choices.

The history of essential oils date back to when God created man. He created the heavens and earth, day and night, plants and animals, and Adam and Eve. He also created a garden, the Garden of Eden. In this garden he gave Adam and Eve every kind of plant and animal needed to survive. The plants not only provided food, but also shelter, clothing, and wellness. Yes, that's right wellness. In the last blog I stated that essential oils were like the life essence of a plant. It gets extracted from its roots, stems, leaves, fruits, flowers, and seeds. This life essence of the plants provided wellness to Adam and Eve. The bible makes reference to essential oils 200 times. God provided those in biblical times with the knowledge of how beneficial these oils can be. The three wise men brought Myrrh and Frankincense to baby Jesus. Why? Not only was Myrrh and Frankincense worth more than gold and silver, but they provided lots of benefits.

Lets go into other parts of the world. A Greek historian, Herodotus, recorded that at the yearly feast of Bel, 1000 talents' weight was offered to the great alter of Bel in Babylon. Pliny the Elder, a Roman historian, complained that "by our lowest reckoning India, China, and the Arabian peninsula take from our empire 100 million sesterces every year, for aromatics." Diodorus of Sicily wrote of the abundance of Frankincense in Arabia and how it "suffices for the service and worship of gods all over the world." It is reported that Napoleon enjoyed a cologne made of neroli and other ingredients. He enjoyed this cologne so much that he order 162 bottles of it. Crusaders brought back to Europe a solidified essence of rose after conquering Jerusalem. Hildegard of Bingen, a herbalist, used herbs and oils extensively for their benefits.

The reintroduction of essential oils came in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During World War I the use of aromatic essence in civilian and military hospitals became widespread. Since 1907, many doctors researched and studied the benefits of essential oils. Some even went as far as to test on themselves. Many books have been written on aromatherapy and essential oils and many ground breaking discoveries have been made. All these discoveries and studies on the benefits of essential oils have gotten us to where we are today.

Information for this post was found in Essential Oil Pocket Reference 6th edition by Life Science Publishers, Surviving When Modern Medicine Fails by Dr Scott A Johnson, and Healing Oils of the Bible by David Stewart PhD.

What are essential oils?

What are essential oils?

Many may think that essential oils are just fragrances to help make a room or something smell more pleasant. But they can do so much more. Many people have heard of massage therapists and others using essential oils in aromatherapy. They can be and this post will explain why they are used often for aromatherapy.

As stated in most readings, essential oils are the aromatic components and volatile liquids which are found all around us in nature in seeds, roots, flowers, stems, trees, shrubs, fruit, and other parts of the plant. The oil is usually extracted through distillation. These are also known as the life essence of the plant.

Essential oils are very complex due to their chemistry which may consist of hundreds of different compounds. Essential oils are more potent than their dried herb counterparts because they are highly concentrated from the distillation process. It takes a large volume of plant material to produce a small volume of oil, for example it takes 5,000 pounds of rose petals to produce approximately 2.2 pounds of rose essential oil.

The distillation process is equally as complex as essential oils and also can determine how effective the oil will be. Each oil has its own special length, temperature, and pressure it can be distilled at. The number of distillations can also determine the grade of the oil. The most pure and authentic grade oils will come from a first distillation. There are some that use the second, the third, and/or even the fourth distillations just so they can get more oil. These oils are going to be less effective.

What's the difference between essential oils and other oils?

It is important to understand the difference between essential oils and vegetable oils. Vegetable oils are oils such as corn oil, olive oil, and peanut oil. There are many more types of vegetable oils beyond these three. Vegetable oils can clog pores and tend to be greasy. They offer little to no benefits. These oils can oxidize and become rancid over time. Most essential oils, as long as the are stored properly, are pure, authentic grade, and are used correctly will not turn rancid. Oils that are higher in plant waxes, such as patchouli, vetiver, and sandalwood, if not distilled properly or are introduced to heat for an extended length of time can become rancid or effect the benefits.

There is much more about what makes an oil an essential oil and what determines their benefits. I'll cover this information in a future post as it will need to be broken down into smaller pieces to even begin to understand their complexities. If you would like to learn more about essential oils I would suggest looking at the following books: Essential Oils Desk or Pocket Reference 6th edition published by Life Science Publishing, Surviving When Modern Medicine Fails by Dr. Scott A. Johnson, or Healing Oils of the Bible by David Stewart, PhD.

About Me

My name is Holly. I am a breast cancer survivor. I was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer Sept 30, 2013. I was only in my early 30's. I underwent very aggressive treatment because the form of cancer I had was very aggressive and rapidly growing. Within probably 2-3 weeks I underwent tons of testing and then started chemo. I was on Cytotoxin and Adramycin for four treatments and then Taxol for four more treatments. I was going through chemo every other week for four months. As soon as I was done with chemo and four weeks out from my last treatment I went through a bilateral mastectomy. Following the mastectomy i had to go through physical therapy so that I could get in position to start my radiation treatments. Once my radiation treatments started I had to have 33 treatments done. I finished the treatment portion of my cancer adventure in may of 2014. I have recently gone through a very long and extensive surgery for reconstruction. I still possibly have at least one more surgery to go before I can put this cancer nightmare behind me. I will say that I am not glad I had to go through cancer, but I am very appreciative of the journey. I am glad that it was me who had to go through this instead of someone who may not have been strong enough to fight it. I believe that God had put me on that journey to make me closer to him, make me stronger, and put me in the position I am in today.

After my radiation treatments ended I had some radiation burn a couple spots worse than others. I reached out to a fellow breast cancer survivor to ask for her advice. She recommended that I get some lavender essential oil and mix it in with what I was already using to hydrate my skin. I had been using a mixture of Aquaphor, pure vitamin E oil, and pure aloe, then added in the lavender oil. Radiation burn takes months for the redness to go down, by using this mixture it only took me 2-3 weeks. Since the lavender oil worked so well I started to research essential oils and their benefits. When dealing with cancer you see a ton of studies of what could possibly be causing cancer. After reading quite a few of these studies it became aware to me that most carcinogens were chemicals. These chemicals are very prevalent in our everyday world around us as we digest them, put them on our bodies, and we inhale them DAILY. I decided that I wanted to start living cleaner so I researched ways to do so. Suggestions were to eat organic foods, fresh fruits and vegetables, and decreasing the toxins and chemicals as much as possible. While I was researching I kept seeing what the benefits of 100% pure, authentic grade oils could bring me. I started to research where I could purchase these high grade oils. The name that kept popping up was Young Living Essential Oils. I researched their company and grew to really like it. I decided that I would become a member and start using the oils. I have now been using the oils and other products since August and am loving what they do.

I tell you all the above so you have a background for this blog. My intent is to post about ideas and tips on how to reduce toxins and chemicals in our lives.