What sets Young Living apart from other essential oils? I get this question a lot.
The vast majority of essential oils from other companies are extracted using high heat, high pressure, and chemical solvents. Although the final product may still contain the aroma of the plant, these harsh processing methods destroy the therapeutic qualities of the oils.
Using lesser-quality oils for therapeutic purposes is never recommended and can be extremely toxic. Since essential oils are the concentrated essence of the plant, any contaminants in the soil or on the plant will become present in the oil. Quality matters when you are looking to get therapeutic results!
WHAT DOES THERAPEUTIC-GRADE MEAN?
The key to producing a therapeutic grade essential oil is to preserve as many of the delicate aromatic compounds within the essential oil as possible. Most of these elements are very fragile and are destroyed by high temperature and high pressure.
Young Living distills oils at minimum pressures and temperatures to gently coax the oil and all of its compounds into the finished product, even though significant money, time, and labor can be saved by distilling at high pressures and high temperatures, like many companies do. High pressure/high temperature distillation may produce an oil with the fragrance compounds of an oil, but not with the beneficial compounds. Young Living never uses solvents to finish off the distilling process as many companies do.
Farms
FarmsYoung Living owns and operates four large farms in Utah, Idaho, France, and Ecuador, all of which were clean and free of chemicals for at least 50 years before Young Living agreed to buy the land. In fact, the land in Idaho had never been farmed before Young Living.
Beyond Organic
Young Living oils are beyond organic - they farm on land that has not been polluted with herbicides, pesticides, and chemicals for at least 50 years. USDA Certified Organic standards only require 3 years. Read more here.
No chemical weed killers are ever used.
Seed Sourcing - never from hybrids, always no-GMO seeds, and are hand picked from the healthiest looking plants each year.
Strict guidelines are followed for cultivating, harvesting and distilling each plant in order to optimize the available chemical constituents in the resulting essential oil. Plant material is harvested at the optimum time, distilled without solvents or chemicals for a precise amount of time, at a precise amount of pressure (low temps and low pressure) which are set SPECIFICALLY for each and every plant.
Young Living essential oils only touch stainless steel or glass during the distillation process. Young Living uses specially designed and built cone-shaped, vertical distillers. The only ones in North America.
Testing and Quality Control
Young Living also has an expertly staffed, fully equipped laboratory for testing oils including a gas chromatograph, a mass spectrometer, and other equipment whose value adds up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Young Living also has small labs on their farms to test the plants right from the field as they mature to determine the exact season and time of day to harvest the crop for the best oil. This is necessary because plants change their chemistry throughout the season and throughout the day, varying from week to week and hour to hour. Young Living is also the only company to submit their oils to AIRASE for purity testing. Read more about AIRASE here.