How to Save LOTS of Money on Essential Oils All the Time

I love essential oils.  I enjoy using them, and I use them A LOT.  There is just one problem:  I find them to be incredibly expensive! And if you are reading this blog post, chances are that you probably do too.  Luckily, essential oils don’t have to be expensive.  Did you know that you can actually save lots of money on essential oils, AND that you can consistently save money all the time?

The Cost of Essential Oils

But first, why are essential oils so expensive? And why is it that some oils are more expensive than others?  Take, for example, Rose Essential Oil.  The other day I was looking at a bottle, and it was roughly $240 for 5ml.  Yikes!  On the other hand, I have seen a bottle of Lemon Essential Oil for just $10.  So, what gives?

First, we have to consider how many plants or herbs or flowers it takes to produce a single bottle of essential oil.

Have you ever muddled some mint leaves to make a cocktail or zested a lemon peel? The tiny little beads of fluid that emerge are essential oils. Now think about how much time and effort and plant matter it would take to fill an entire 5ml or 15ml bottle. Just to give you an idea, take a look at the infographic below:

So if it takes a LOT of plants to make essential oil, why do I sometimes see cheaply priced oils in grocery stores and craft stores?

Well, there are a couple of answers to this.  One is that the essential oils you are seeing are meant just to fragrance a product or smell nice.  They are not high enough quality to be considered medicinal and should therefore not be ingested internally.  Often times, you’ll actually see a warning against ingesting them right there on the bottle.

Another reason they make be cheap is because they are diluted with another oil, such as jojoba oil or sweet almond oil.  In this case, there is very little of “the good stuff” in there.   Again, in this case, the oil should never, ever be taken internally.

A third way to make an oil cheaper is by doing a simpler extraction process.  Steam distillation is expensive because it is a lengthy process; extracting the oils through the use of chemicals is much faster but also results in a poorer quality product.  Poor quality or cheap oil= cheap price.

So, in the end, when you see a cheap essential oil, it’s because it is well,… a cheap oil.  It was cheaply made, contains little essential oil or was not tested enough to be used in a wide variety of applications.  I wouldn’t even call it an essential oil; rather, I would call it a knock-off.  Like a Prado bag.

So why would I use real certified pure therapeutic grade oils and not these knock-offs?

Honestly, the phrase “therapeutic grade” means different things to different manufacturers.  doTERRA, one of the two major essential oil companies, noticed that there wasn’t a commonly accepted standard for essential oils so they decided to establish one.  They call this “certified pure therapeutic grade” or CPTG for short.  If you want to read in great, scientific detail how CPTG testing is done, I suggest you go here.

If you are hoping to apply essential oils to your skin (even as a body fragrance), and especially if you plan on using them internally,  it only makes sense to use CPTG oils.  But what if you just want to make some candles?  Or all-purpose cleaner?  Does it honestly matter?  Well, if you had asked me this question just a couple of weeks ago, I would have said, “No, it doesn’t,” but that was before the documentary Stink.  Take a look at the trailer below:

I hope you’ll take the time to watch this movie. But, getting back to our question of, “Do you really need to buy CPTG oils if you are only going to use them aromatically?”, yes!  Yes, you do!  It totally matters.

So how do I save $$$ on certified therapeutic grade oils?

Before I explain how, listen.  Sometimes people read the below info, and they start to zone out or panic.  They think that it is too complicated or that they will actually end up spending more money than they will save.  That is simply not true.  So read through this entire post first.  And after reading all of it, if it still feels too complicated or intimidating, tell me and I will help you.

The first thing you need to sign up as a Wholesale Customer through doTERRA.  This is the equivalent to a membership to Sam’s Club or Costco.  It simply means that instead of paying the full amount, you now get your essential oils at a discount.  For example, instead of spending $32 for a bottle of Oregano, you’ll now only spend $24.

And just like at Sam’s Club or Costco, there is a membership fee associated with becoming a Wholesale Customer.  You pay $35 one time, and a $25 yearly renewal fee after that, to join.  (And if you buy an essential oil starter kit, this membership fee is waved.)  But here’s the thing, even if you just use essential oils on a semi-regular basis, you are going to more than get your money back. Really.

How else can I save?

The next thing to do, to save money BIG TIME, is to join LRP.  LRP stands for Loyalty Rewards Program, and it helps you to save even more.  Simply put, LRP is making the commitment to purchase something, anything once a month. Here are some of the perks of joining LRP:

• No minimum purchase (In other words, you just need to buy something to continue to be an LRP participant.  It doesn’t matter how small or inexpensive it is.)
• You can cancel anytime
• You get all of your shipping fees back to use for future purchases

So how does it work?

Go to doTerra’s site and once you sign up for LRP.  When you do that, you’ll be asked to create a monthly order template.  You can customize the order every single month, choosing only the products you want to buy. As you add things to your order, you’ll notice that every item has a points value (or PV) assigned to it.  So, for example, a $30 oil would be worth 30 points.  Once you complete your monthly purchase, a percentage of your overall points will be given back to you.  And the more months that you are a member of the Loyalty Rewards Program, the higher your percentage back will be.  Here is a breakdown of the percentages:

Now, the really awesome thing about these points is that you can use them to buy whatever you want.  Meaning what?  You are getting oils for free!  FREE!  For example, if I had 21 points to spend, I could use it on a bottle of Lavender, which is worth 21 points, and get it for absolutely nothing.  And what is even more amazing, is that you can use your points at anytime on anything.  So you can save last month’s points and spend them on this month’s purchases, or you can save them up and use them for Christmas or birthdays.

And there is more!  If you place a monthly order before the 15th of the month, and the points value is 100 or higher, doTERRA will thank you by sending you a free oil of the month.  This free oil is constantly changing, but it is consistently awesome.  Around Christmastime, it is usually a bottle of Frankincense. Recently, I got an essential oil blend worth almost a $100 sent to me for nothing.  See?  Those are some pretty expensive, CPTG oils, and I didn’t pay a penny.

To recap…

Saving money through LRP might seem complicated, but it really isn’t.  In a nutshell, it is earning points to use on free oils will also getting free shipping and even MORE essential oils for free.  How awesome is that?!?  So if you use essential oils, want to start using them, hope to grow your oil collection, or love to save money, then you definitely need to follow these tips!

And now I want to hear from you!  What do you love about essential oils?

 

 

 

 

 

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