What’s all the fuss about essential oils?
The use of essential oils in today’s world is commonly referred to as Aromatherapy — a new name for a centuries-old practice that blends the science of scent and the essence of pure plant life to promote health, healing, beauty and vitality. If you’re not quite sure what we’re talking about when we mention essential oils, let us give you a brief explanation about what essential oils are.
Plants are quite literally chemical factories. Essential oils are the secondary messengers of the defense-system of aromatic plants. These oils protect the plant from invading organisms and microbes; help it heal from wounds; carry nutrients to the plant cells, just as the immune cells do in the human body; attract certain insects and repel others; and so on. These oils also have many health-enhancing properties to assist the human body in its regenerative process.
How do we know about essential oils?
The Chinese may have been one of the first cultures to use aromatic plants to promote well-being. Later, the art of distilling essential oils from plants began with the ancient Egyptians, who used the oils for many different ceremonial and healing purposes. The Greeks learned a great deal from the Egyptians, but Greek mythology credits the gift and knowledge of perfumes to the gods. The Greeks also recognized the medicinal and aromatic benefits of plants. Hippocrates, the Greek healer who is commonly called the “father of medicine,” is known to have used essential oils for both aromatic and medicinal benefits.
Physicians around the world, especially in France, have been treating patients with essential oils for a variety of health issues for quite some time. They’re creating excellent results without the side effects of today’s allopathic medicine.
Is it safe to use essential oils?
The beautiful thing about the use of essential oils is that they can be used safely without any secondary stresses to the body as often occurs from NSAIDs, pain relievers, or other over-the-counter medications.
Science is now beginning to confirm what the ancients knew so well — essential oils, the pure “essence” of a plant, provide both psychological and physical benefits when used properly and with wisdom.
What are the benefits of using essential oils?
There are many actions that essential oils can create within the body. Each individual essential oil possesses its own unique variety of therapeutic abilities. These may include, among a multitude of others, such properties as anti-inflammatory benefits, pain relieving ability, antibacterial or antiviral action, digestive support, cellular detoxification, expectorant action, and antispasmodic capability.
Therapeutic essential oils from TRUessence can be used in so many preventative and pleasurable ways:
- Supercharge your immune system and fight illness and disease.
- Provide your body with the raw materials and energies needed to assist in repair and healing.
- Indulge in a relaxing massage or unwind with a hot, soothing bath.
- Relieve a headache or ease aches and pains.
- Lift your spirits, calm overly-rambunctious kids, or set a romantic mood.
- Quiet your mind or energize your day.
- Chase away mice and the things that “bug” you.
- Disinfect your environment and protect your family.
- Add flavor to your food.
- Flavor, oxygenate, and purify your drinking water.
The list is endless....
Where do essential oils come from?
Out of all the thousands of plants in this world, only about 300 actually render essential oils. The essential oils of aromatic plants are stored in special cells, ducts or glandular hairs, and are located in many different parts of the plant such as flowers, blossoms, fruit skins, seeds, stems, leaves, roots or bark. As a result, the oils can encompass a wide range of aromas and tastes. They can be tart and tangy, as are oils from the citrus family of lemon, orange, tangerine, grapefruit, mandarin, and lime. They can be warm and spicy, like the oils of cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, ginger, black pepper, cardamom, or cumin. The oils can be wonderfully floral as are geranium, rose, and lavender. They can be powerfully herbaceous, like oregano, basil, dill, rosemary, sage, tarragon, and savory. They can be fresh and minty, as are peppermint and spearmint.
What’s the difference between perfumes and essential oils?
Essential oils contain the true essence of the plant they were derived from. It is important to be crystal clear here in distinguishing that perfume oils, also known as fragrance oils or “fragrances”, are not the same as essential oils. Perfume oils and fragrances contain unnatural chemicals and do not provide the therapeutic benefits of pure essential oils. As a matter of fact, many fragrances or perfume extenders can actually be toxic to the body, particularly to chemically sensitive people!
Aren’t essential oils greasy and messy?
Although the name ‘essential oil’ implies an oily substance, in fact, essential oils are not oily or greasy. We tend to associate essential oils with fatty oils such as olive, sunflower, flax, grape seed, sesame, avocado, etc. Essential oils don’t contain any glycerol molecules – the molecules that give fatty oils their characteristic slippery texture and leave a greasy residue.
Distilled essential oils contain no fat, whereas fatty oils are 100% fat. Rather, essential oils are composed of hundreds of constituents that may have a combined antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, antiseptic and immune-stimulating effect. Most essential oils are clear, but some oils such as patchouli, orange and lemongrass are amber or yellow in color. Others such as blue tansy have a blue cast to the oil.
So exactly how is it that essential oils work?
The Sense of Scent: Essential oils affect people first through their sense of smell. Your sense of smell is actually the most rapidly responding of all your senses; it’s the source of all moods, emotions, creativity and motivation; therefore, scents affect each immediately. How can that happen? Take a moment and think about it — the smell of freshly-baked pumpkin pie can elicit responses in one’s body within seconds. Is your mouth watering yet?
The mouth may begin watering, a sense of warmth can pervade the body, and emotions tied to past family events may quickly come to your awareness — all from the scent of fresh-baked pumpkin pie. Through the beautiful aromas of various essential oils, an overall sense of well-being can be created or enhanced.
Topical Application: When essential oils are applied topically, almost instantaneous absorption occurs through the skin, moving into the blood stream, then to the deprived area. Swelling decreases, blood circulation returns, the pain is diminished, and mobility is restored.
It has been reported that when applying essential oils on the bottom of the feet, the constituents of that oil will travel to every cell within 20 minutes of application. Oftentimes, it’s possible to even smell certain oils on someone’s breath within seconds of applying them to the skin!
Bioelectric Activity: This electric activity is a coherent and harmonic balance of energy, which helps maintain life. At a cellular level, a person does not live or die all at once, but rather one cell at a time. If our diet is lower in frequency than the body, the cell’s ability to live is in jeopardy and can die. The death of cells creates a place for toxins, which then creates a host for disease to thrive. Using essential oils may elevate the body’s frequency. When elevating the body’s frequency, disease no longer has a supportive environment.
Ingestion: Essential oils possess subtle energies able to interact with the body’s own energy system to promote wellness and healing. Many oils taken internally will support the immune system, the detoxification and cellular health needed for a vibrant life.
What makes TRUessence Essential Oils so unique?
With a commitment to essential oils that is “true,” TRUessence, a division of ForeverGreen International, set out to work with the very best. Forging a partnership with essential oils expert and master aromatherapist Alexandria Brighton, TRUessence brings to the world only the most pristine organic and/or wildcrafted pure therapeutic-grade essential oils. Hence, TRUessence!
While there is no rating system for assuring quality, you can recognize the pure, pristine nature of TRUessence essential oils by their unadulterated aromas, the clear energies of each bottle, the assurance of quality on file for each and every batch, as well as the assurance of Alexandria Brighton. Her 25+ years of master blending and global aromatherapy work stands behind the efficacy and quality of each and every bottle.
Make no mistake about it … there is a distinct difference in the quality of essential oils in the marketplace. We are aware of no other essential oils on the market which will garner the same benefits as TRUessence Essential Oils. EVERY other essential oil line that we have researched and studied has been compromised in one way or another by:
- being extracted with hexane or other toxins;
- being steam-distilled with chemicals in the steam to enhance the amount of oil that is extracted;
- being adulterated with synthetic oils, synthetic extenders, and other potentially health-compromising synthetic ingredients;
- being extended "in a base of..." various kinds of fatty oils (almond, sunflower, etc.), thus diluting or even negating the therapeutic value of the oils;
We cringe when we hear people say that they’re in a hurry to get the essential oil they need, so they run to the store and get it—or that they found the oil ‘cheaper’ at a bath store or local health food store. They may have found an essential oil a bit cheaper, or a bit quicker . . . but at what cost? At what penalty to their body? And will it really be effective? It’s likely that the store-bought essential oil won’t be as effective, and it is possible that it may even be toxic!
So can you clarify exactly what it is that you offer?
TRUessence provides only 100% pure, premium organic or wildcrafted therapeutic-grade essential oils. They contain nothing artificial, nor have they been grown or extracted with synthetic, harmful, or chemically-based fertilizers, pesticides, or solvents. They contain no nut oils, extenders, or synthetic additives which diminish or counteract their therapeutic action.
They are carefully selected with the utmost importance given to botanical species, country of origin, growing conditions, harvesting and extraction method, and even which part of the plant is used. Each of these factors greatly impact the quality and therapeutic properties of the essential oil.
Essential oils from TRUessence are cruelty-free; they have not been tested on animals, nor are animal products used in any way.
All TRUessence Essential Oils and blends have been sourced and formulated by Alexandria Brighton, one of the foremost authorities in the field for over 25 years. She is an internationally-certified aromatherapist, formulator, and educator on essential oils.
As a result of her commitment to providing only the highest-quality, most pristine therapeutic-grade essential oils, Alexandria has, over the years, forged long-standing personal relationships with some of the finest and most ethical distillers around the world. She has traveled to India and the Himalayas in search of oils produced by small distillers whose dedication and artistry are such that their precious oils will never see mass commercial markets. Her relationships with both national and international medical aromatherapists and researchers provide her with the most up-to-date information on both the use and safety of essential oils for aromatherapy.
Alexandria now brings her expertise 'home' to TRUessence and ForeverGreen to share her life’s work and passion—much of which has never before been taught. Through teleconferences, workshops, seminars, and cutting-edge training modalities, Alexandria will share her life’s work with essential oil devotees across the globe.
What about purity and quality assurance?
To be classified as “pure,” government regulations require that essential oils need only be 52% pure. To us, that’s not pure! When we state that TRUessence Essential Oils are 100% pure, you can be assured that they are 100% pure … not 52%, not 75%, not 99% pure. 100% pure.
TRUessence Essential Oils are stringently sourced from providers who meet Alexandria’s strict standards of quality control—from seed to bottle. A representative sample of each lot is tested before purchase. The country of origin and specific botanical species of each oil must be known for proper evaluation, as differences in plant varieties and geographical location will impact the composition of, and constituents in, the oil.
The ability to trace the origin of the oils is of utmost importance to TRUessence and ForeverGreen. Recognizing that essential oils are used in a multitude of ways—from cosmetics to aromatherapy to food products and nutrition—it is imperative that only the most pristine therapeutic-grade oils be sourced for TRUessence. The food industry’s GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) Guidelines mandate lot traceability, and these guidelines are an integral component of the company’s quality control system.
TRUessence defines each different type or species of essential oil with its own unique item number. Records are maintained for each batch and, where applicable, organic certification is on file. Nowhere will higher standards be found than with TRUessence Essential Oils.
Every lot is tested using GC/MS (gas chromatography/mass spectrometry) and flame ionization detection to verify its chemical composition and ensure that it is all-natural and completely free of synthetic additives or extenders, with the most stringent controls in place for quality assurance. Physical testing includes aroma, refractive index, specific gravity, optical rotation, and closed cup flash point. Test results must be maintained within a very specific acceptable range for each oil or it is rejected.
As geographical location and plant species produce unique characteristics in the oil, and natural variation is inevitable with any truly natural product due to weather conditions and other factors, these tests ensure that TRUessence Essential Oils are 100% pure and natural, and that their quality can be counted on to be consistent with every bottle.
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