The difference between taking a deep breath in a room that was recently sanitized using traditional cleaners (harsh/synthetic/don’t-breathe-too-deep/am-i-getting-cancer-from-this?) versus being in a room I just cleaned with my own DIY-essential oil version is immense. The essential oils are so blissful, and not just because they smell good, but because they are legitimately healing—the beneficial properties of plants and flowers have been studied and handed down since the *actual* dawn of history.
I started using essential oils in my mid-twenties around the time I was working on my ebook, I Don’t Buy That. I was becoming more and more acquainted with how many extra chemicals and toxins are in the everyday products we use (food/body care/cleaning/etc) and was starting to make my own versions instead.
I was delighted to find my homemade versions not only worked as well, but actually BETTER than their chemical counterparts. But, being a person who cares about beauty and atmosphere, I wanted to take it to the next level. My products NEEDED to smell AMAZING, and synthetic fragrance was out of the question.
So, I went to the source—the original sweet-smelling herbs and flowers and plants. In other words, essential oils. It was just a matter of deciding on a company I could trust completely.
Thinking I had found the ultimate DIY ingredients thrilled me, but my journey with essential oils was only beginning. Once I started using them and experiencing them, I became more fascinated and aware of the medicinal/therapeutic benefits (which are many) and I fell even more deeply in love.
(Watch the blog for more tips about how I love to use essential oils! Example: Lavender calms me down, and is now permanently intertwined in my brain with bubble baths, laying my head down on my pillow, and closing my eyes and letting tension ride out with my exhale. Thanks, nature, for that.)
While there are some decent brands out there to choose from, I was very intentional about not working with a multi level marketing company. I’m turned off by minimum monthly orders and the inflated prices necessary to keep an entire hierarchy of people profitable. I already have a business. So do my clients. I just want to buy, and share, great quality products that wholly improve our lives. I’m not looking for another job.
Finding Rocky Mountain Oils (RMO) was a seriously EUREKA moment. The company hit every point on my checklist.
RMO satisfies my high expectations for pure essential oils at a reasonable cost, and they are a company that stands behind their product quality as well as offer a simple, customer focused, expertly designed user experience.
NAILED IT.
Why use essential oils?
I feel like you know this already, so I’ll be brief. Plants, herbs and flowers have been used for centuries for home remedies and to make life smell a little sweeter. Essential oils are exactly what they say—the essence of a plant’s fragrance, reduced to a concentrated oil that carries the aroma and properties of the plant it came from.
When you use essential oils, you get:
- No chemicals
- Sourced from nature
- Peace of mind over the synthetic alternatives
Why I recommend Rocky Mountain Oils
If you know me, you know I’m thorough. I didn’t just blindly stab at a Google search result and say, this is it! After doing my own research about the different companies and narrowing down my list, I actually got on the phone with an expert at RMO to grill him about their manufacturing methods and how they stack up to the competition. If you’re not interested in the nitty-gritty, feel free to skip to the next section.
Here are the highlights about what I learned through this process:
RMO sources oils directly from farmers and distilleries, and keeps a super close watch on quality throughout their entire process. For those of you familiar with the industry, RMO merged with Native American Nutritionals, who also had a great reputation for highest quality Essential Oils. They excel at sourcing oils and maintaining extremely high quality standards.
They’re currently the only direct-to-consumer company offering full transparency on quality. Every bottle has lot number, and you can see the third-party lab test results for the purity of the oil, to know what they’re selling is what you’re getting (not synthetic scents or other fillers to help the seller save a buck).
Other companies might be adding chemicals and other adulterants to dilute the oil—to make it go further, for example, or enhance the strength and longevity of the natural smell. But then you’re smelling the chemical enhancement (with whatever unknown side effects it carries), not the plant or flower essence you wanted.
In order to prevent this in their own line of essential oils, RMO tests the quality of the oil before agreeing to buy from a farm or distillery, and again when it comes to the bottling facility to make sure it matches. I was told RMO rejects 7 or 8 out of 10 tests because the oil doesn’t meet the level of quality or it was distilled incorrectly. (And you can bet those rejected batches of oil don’t get thrown away—they get sold to another, less choosy essential oil company to be sold under a different brand that doesn’t have such stringent standards. Often the lower prices you see are the result of this.)
The final lab result for oils that pass the test can be viewed for each and every bottle you buy, as I mentioned above. If a product is out of stock on their website, it’s because of this thorough quality control process—they’re taking the time to get a sample, send it to a lab, assess the details, buy the oil, and test it again to make sure they’re bottling the same lot and quality as the sample.
The other important factor, to me, is the cost of the oil. Obviously the highest quality oils won’t be the cheapest on the market, but because it sells direct to consumers (instead of multi-level marketing, or MLM), RMO oils often cost 20-40% below their MLM counterparts. Cha-ching! Decision made.
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Essential oils are a great item to have in your home for making DIY household and body care products—plus, they make a great gift for the health-conscious, luxury-minded people all year long—either on their own, or mixed into a sweet-smelling DIY gift (for some Rosy Blu ideas, click here and check out the sugar scrubs!)
Click here to shop RMO essential oils
My own favorite essential oils
(Which also happen to be three of the most affordable options, and are great for beginners!)
Lavender—I go through more lavender than any other essential oil. Lavender relaxes you and promotes rest, unwinding and sleep. Plus, the smell comes straight from the garden of Eden, I swear. I like to drip generously into my bathtub, or rub it on my hands after washing them, so I can carry the scent with me.
Lemon—Nothing says squeaky-clean like the smell of fresh, natural lemon. That’s why lemon essential oil is my favorite choice for homemade cleaners, like my super-simple 3-ingredient all purpose cleaner (found in I Don’t Buy That).
Cedarwood—A grounding scent. It’s safe to use directly on skin (but test for yourself first). This is one essential oil that I’ve bought elsewhere, and smelled with my own nose the chemically smell of additives and impurities (which incidentally, reminded me of the hamster cage I cleaned when I was a kid. The good quality stuff from RMO smells MUCH better.)
Click here to shop RMO essential oils
Some links on this post are affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase I get a little cash. Feel free to google them if you’d rather not use my links. All opinions are my own, and I’d be recommending RMO no matter what.
