I frequently receive questions about why people interested in essential oils shouldn’t just go to Walmart and spend $5.99 on a bottle of Lavender. A year ago, that would have been me–the girl at Walmart spending less than $6 on essential oils. I get it; why spend more when you could spend less? In fact, I do almost all of my grocery shopping at Walmart because I’ve never had issues with quality. La Croix is La Croix whether I buy it from Whole Foods or Walmart.

That means essential oils are essential oils whether you buy them from Walmart or Young Living, right?

Almost. Essential oils are natural oils distilled from botanicals. Both companies sell oils distilled from botanicals.

But so much no! “Natural” is the key word here, and both companies seriously differ when it comes to the purity of their product. Did you know that Young Living uses 22 pounds of rose petals to make one 5ml bottle of Rose essential oil? Roses are light–now imagine how many roses it would take to have 22 pounds of petals. Now think back to your prom days and how much a bouquet of roses cost. Sounds expensive, right? A quick Google search will turn up all sorts of companies with their own far cheaper versions of Rose essential oil. These companies have to make money and if the botanicals to make the oils are expensive, you have to pay for them. Cheap oils don’t happen because a company is focusing on quality. Plants used to make Young Living’s oils are hand-picked to ensure the purity of the oil is not compromised so you get the safest and purest oils every time. Every single step of the process is overseen by a human to ensure that nothing is overlooked, and that is what sets Young Living apart. That is also why their oils cost more.

Thankfully, with only a few exceptions, the rest of Young Living’s oils cost less than 10% of what a bottle of pure rose oil does. A friend tells a story of her daughter ending up in the ER because she used cheap generic essential oils. Another friend had to use about 40 drops of a cheap health store brand of lavender essential oil to get the same strength as 2 drops of Young Living lavender oil. Essential oils are powerful and potent, and when used incorrectly they can be dangerous.

Walmart will not answer your questions about essential oils. They will not teach you how to use them or follow up with you to offer support. There are other brands out there, such as doTERRA, but no other company can offer what Young Living does—the Seed to Seal promise. The Seed to Seal promise ensures that you know exactly where you oils come from, how they are distilled and packaged, and you can see every single step from the planting of the seeds to the sealing of the bottles, even visiting Young Living’s farms if you’d like. Essentials oils are so potent they can burn your skin, burn through the lining of your stomach, stain clothing, and cause serious reactions–it is vital that the company you buy your oils from practices transparency in what is going into the oils and it is vital that you get the support you need to learn how to use essential oils safely and effectively.

Young Living provides all these things, and they also provide the opportunity to turn telling others about how essential oils have helped your family into a business simply by sharing. If your friend sees your Walmart oils and want to get more, will Walmart pay you for sharing? Last I checked, definitely not.

Young Living does. In all my research I have learned this: Young Living does a lot. They do transparency, they do the purest oils possible, they do generosity and education. They do free goodies too! In November 2016, if you reach a certain tier in their rewards program, they will send you a bottle of peppermint, Christmas spirit, myrrh, frankincense, and sacred frankincense, and in addition to all that they’ll give you $20 store credit. Walmart certainly does not do that! That is hundreds of dollars in free products–honestly, one of my favorite parts of Young Living is their generosity towards their customers. Every month, their promotions are different and I have scored all sorts of free products through them.

You want to choose a company that is transparent with their process and that focuses on quality, not a company whose priority is cheaply processing oils to keep costs down. These oils are for your babies, your loved ones, and yourself–choose a company you trust!

Read my story about getting started with essential oils here, and when you’re sold, slide right over here and I’ll tell you how you can get started!