Essential Oils storage

Something I always wonder about is how people store their essential oils?  

I love that they are so compact, but as such they can get misplaced and lost in the fray pretty easily if you don't have a system for them. 

It's important to note that these oils come in a dark bottle for a reason.  Light will start to break them down.  For this reason, it's not ideal to store them in direct sunlight.  

I usually keep a few bottles in my purse, and I'll share my pics for that in another post, but for now I want to share with you how I keep them in my home.  

My family uses the oils on a daily basis.  I like to have them visible and accessible.  I'm also very fond of country and "farmey" decor, and had a few of these old barn board ladders that I have picked up at craft shows over the years.  As soon as I had my oils in hand, they moved right onto the ladders!  

I'm a big fan of practicality and I think the oil bottles are lovely looking on their own.  They're not right in the middle of the livingroom, but they're easily accessible, not in direct sunlight, and they take up no room at all this way!

This ladder hangs right at the top of the stairs in the hall outside the bedrooms where anyone can get to it anytime.  I started out with a wee ladder in the bathroom, but soon outgrew that, and as Murphy would have it, someone was in the bathroom whenever I absolutely NEEDED a bottle of oil. 

The bottle with the black dropper on top is my FCO (fractionated coconut oil), which I most often use as a carrier oil, or for making dilute blends of my own.

Same ladder different rungs. :)

The original tiny ladder in the bathroom.  I keep a few duplicates here that I tend to use in the morning while I'm in the bathroom anyway.

And my newest place for some of my most active oils is in the bedroom on this lovely crystal Selenite stick shelf I made this week! 

(I can really hardly say that with a straight face.  I can't really claim to have 'made' the shelf.)  All it took was a few 1.5" L brackets screwed into the wall and the selenite sits atop them. You can't screw into the selenite of course, as it would absolutely crumble, but I like that I can lift it off for cleansing.  It does stay put on top of the brackets without any difficulty.  I had planned to use just a bit of sticky tack to hold it firm, (placing it between the selenite and the bracket) but it really isn't required. 

I'm learning more and more about crystals, and when I found this beautiful selenite stick HERE I saw how flat it was, and it's just the PERFECT width to hold both the 5 mL and 15 mL bottles.

Whether or not you believe in the power of crystals, the selenite is a beautiful way to display the oils!

So, besides a pencil case when I'm heading out of town to see family and they want to check out some new oils, and a few wee bottles tucked into my purse, this is how most of my oils are stored.  The active ones are always on either a barn wood ladder or a selenite stick shelf, and any backups I have are in a box, safely in a closet, waiting to come out and jump on the ladder. :)

I would love to see your oils storage!  Upload a photo to Pinterest, and link it here in the comments!

Stay tuned tomorrow for the August Promotions!

I am a Young Living Independent Distributor, which means I buy my essential oils at the wholesale price rather than the retail price. I save 24% off retail, receive discounted shipping, and can earn free products through the Essential Rewards program as well as the ability to earn commissions. 

If you would like to become an Independent Distributor, I would love to sponsor you!  You can click HERE and enter 2066298 in the “Sponsor  and Enroller ID” boxes. 

I am always happy to answer any questions!  Email me at thepureoil@gmail.com

Canadian Product Guide and a sale on Canadian Premium Starter Kits!

Today I just wanted to take a minute to hook you up with the 

Canadian Product Guide

This is the current guide.

But....I can also share with you a link to the Brand NEW 2015-2016 product guide!!

CLICK HERE

It's the best resource for Canadians interested in Young Living to have a look at, and get an idea of the oils Young Living offers, as well as their other products, such as Ningxia Red!

Also a quick link for those who are familiar with Young Living in Canada to hook you up to
just the stuff that is BRAND NEW to the Canadian order! 

Check out the newest additions to the Canadian order HERE.

One of the things I love best about Young Living is that they are committed to making things easier for Canadians to get their products.  Now OTG orders ship from Canada, get to us faster and they are working on getting more and more of their products licensed for sale in Canada...which means not only that they will be sold in CANADIAN DOLLARS (big deal these days with the exchange rate (Canadian to USD) hovering at 30%), but also because an independent distributor can re-sell anything licensed for sale in Canada.  This means if someone is not ready to jump headlong into Young Living, anything in the Canadian product guide can be purchased through a Young Living distributor without having to sign up for a wholesale account.  

(With a wholesale account you save 24%)


The starter kit is such a great value, worth over $300
The cost of the premium starter kit ordinarily comes to just under $210 shipping and taxes all included

Right now the current Canadian Starter Kit WITH Valor and Peace & Calming is on SALE,
 bringing the cost down to under $195!

That's an incredible deal!


The commitment is to purchase only $50 every 12 months to maintain your wholesale membership and 24% discount off the retail prices. There are other perks if you find you want to build your oil collection, including monthly promotions and the Essential Rewards program where you earn points to spend on product if you commit to ordering $50 monthly and you also get discounted shipping.
There are other potential bonuses with ER that are optional, such as earning free additional diffusers!

There is never any pressure to build a business, but there are opportunities for those interested to earn commissions and work from home.

I am a Young Living Independent Distributor, which means I buy my essential oils at the wholesale price rather than the retail price. I save 24% off retail, receive discounted shipping, and can earn free products through the Essential Rewards program as well as the ability to earn commissions. 

If you would like to become an Independent Distributor, I would love to sponsor you!  
You can click HERE and enter 2066298 in the “Sponsor  and Enroller ID” boxes. 
I am always happy to answer any questions, feel free to email me!
thepureoil@gmail.com

Delicious Oily Asian Noodles

I have been turning to my essential oils more and more in the kitchen these days!  

I'm especially enjoying making some very simple quick dishes that are still super yummy!

I make up the sauce for this, and keep it in a jar in the fridge.  In fact, it's amazing served cold, I think I like it even better cold than when I've had it served hot.  

There are a million ways you can alter this recipe, and in fact I used this recipe I found on Pinterest from A Small Snippet as inspiration for mine.  Many people have tried her recipe and made loads of tweaks, but here I'll share mine!  

I named my version Delicious OILY Asian Noodles, because of the essential oils in them.  The sauce is actually not excessively oily as both the honey and the peanut butter emulsify the oils really well.  It thickens up quite nicely in the fridge. Sometimes if I leave it in the fridge for a few days I can see a layer of oil at the top, but just shake it up!  

Letting it sit in the fridge mingles the flavours for an even better taste.

I don't cook wheat noodles anymore since our daughter had to go gluten free over five years ago, and of course with a sauce such as this, rice noodles seemed the way to go anyway.  My inspiration recipe uses wheat spaghetti though, and you can certainly use regular noodles if you don't have, or aren't fond of the rice noodles.  

Oh. So. Good!!!

Delicious Oily Asian Noodles

Ingredients:

Rice noodles cooked according to package directions.

(I like a very fine, thin noodle, but a pad Thai noodle would be equally as yummy!)

Sauce

½ cup toasted sesame oil

¼ tsp crushed chilies (or more to taste, but ¼ tsp is a very mild heat)

¼ cup peanut butter

¼ cup soy sauce

½ cup honey

1-3 drops *ginger essential oil (I use Young Living.  Make sure the EO is safe to consume.)

1-3 drops lemongrass essential oil (I use Young Living.  Make sure the EO is safe to consume.)

To make sauce add toasted sesame oil and crushed chilies to a sauce pan.  Warm over medium heat about 2 minutes (use more chilies if you like it HOT!)  Run oil through a strainer to remove chilies and compost them.   Return the chili infused toasted sesame oil to the same saucepan and add the next three remaining sauce ingredients with heat off.  Stir to melt peanut butter and honey and incorporate.  Once it is all incorporated and cooling a bit, add in the Ginger and Lemongrass essential oils to taste. 

The essential oils just take the flavor over the top!

Serve  sauce over noodles and top with crushed peanuts if you wish. 

This dish is very good warm, but I prefer it served cold.  Toss sauce with noodles and refrigerate until cold.

*The ginger essential oil is only available through the US order, not the Canadian order at this time.

Recipe inspired by http://asmallsnippet.com/2011/03/spicy-thai-noodles.html

And here's a closeup of the Yum!

How have you used essential oils in your kitchen?

I am a Young Living Independent Distributor, which means I buy my essential oils at the wholesale price rather than the retail price. I save 24% off retail, receive discounted shipping, and can earn free products through the Essential Rewards program as well as the ability to earn commissions. 

If you would like to become an Independent Distributor, I would love to sponsor you!  You can click HERE and enter 2066298 in the “Sponsor  and Enroller ID” boxes. 

I am always happy to answer any questions!   thepureoil@gmail.com

Comparison of Lemony Scents

I just had an Essential Rewards order arrive this morning, and there was one brand new to me oil among the bunch!  

JADE LEMON

This is newly available in the Canadian order, and was out of stock when I had it in my order the first time around.  Originally it was in an exotic scents collection that was available only through the US Not For Resale (NFR) order, but is now available as a 5 mL single in the Canadian OTG order.  It retails for $16.45 and wholesale cost is $12.50 Canadian (10.75 PV). 

I was curious about this oil, because I absolutely love the Lemon oil, and I wondered how it could be worth the extra cost. (Lemon 15 mL is $17.11 retail or $13.00 wholesale in Canada (11.25 PV)

I watched this video and was interested to see how it differed from my fresh scented lemon that I love so much. I figured there was only way way to find out for sure if it was worth the extra cost!

So, I put a bottle on my latest order, and as it turns out, it's a really delightful lemony lime scent and taste!

  

Here's my pretty little bottle of Jade Lemon. :)

But, how does it compare with a mix of regular 'ole lemon and lime?

I think the Jade lemon is a more mellow scent and taste than I get by combining regular lemon and lime oils together.  I still love the regular lemon and lime together, and for a stronger flavour that's still the way to go, but the jade lemon is lovely for sure.  It seems to me to be a milder, more mellow scent, that is somehow softer than what I get when combining lemon and lime.

In fact I have it diffusing upstairs right now, and the kids are quite fond of the uplifting scent.

You can certainly get a similar scent by using your regular Lemon and Lime, so if you don't have Jade lemon, or it comes out of stock again, I think this is a reasonable substitute, but I am very glad I have the original Jade Lemon as well.

In my opinion, if you're as smitten with the oils as I am, it's worth the cost to get at least one bottle to experience the scent and see for yourself. 

Now how about the other lemony scents?  

If you're just looking for a lemony scent to wear, or use as an air freshener, or for diffusing, you have several options.  All of the above offer a lemony scent, but they're definitely not all equal!

My personal favourites for a lemony scent are the first two in the photo, lemon and jade lemon.  

Jade Lemon is the newest addition to my lemony collection.  It's by far the most costly, but I think it's also the most complex.  I love the mellow flavour and scent, and deem it worth the extra cost to have some on hand, though I won't replace it in my daily water.  I look forward to experimenting with it some more.  Please share with us any special ways you use it!

Lemon is definitely an all-purpose oil for me.  It's affordable and has so many uses, I usually have one on every Essential Rewards order.  I always have a few ahead of me because I can just never run out of it.  I use it for everything from taking stubborn labels off of bottles I want to keep (it's a FANTASTIC de-gummer, and I love that I don't have to be buying Goo Gone anymore!) to flavouring meals and my water, using as a bathroom spray or diffusing to uplift the spirits! 

This is the oil I spike our home made lemonade with too. 

(Recipe to follow in a future post)

Citronella is best known for its bug-repelling properties.  Years ago I worked at White Rose (remember them?).  We used to sell Citronella plants in the garden centre, and of course the citronella candles in metal buckets flew off the shelves.  This is a testimonial to how well citronella gets the job done when it comes to bugs.  Tiki torches are most often fuelled with Citronella infused oils for burning.  Citronella however is not for eating, and is for topical and aromatic use only.  I find it to be more pungent than the other lemony options, so I tend not to use as much of it except outdoors in the summer.  I just happened upon this interesting article; I thought I'd link up here.

Citronella oil banned from bug spray?

Lemongrass is an oil I won't be without, but It's not my go to for its scent when I want to diffuse, and I won't be wearing it as a perfume anytime soon.  It's more pungent...maybe greener smelling?  Makes sense since it's a grass! lol  Lemongrass is a must as far as I'm concerned for use in the kitchen if you love Thai food.  I'll give you a sneak peek of a post coming later this week!  ;)

I also tried the lemongrass in THIS tasty drink and absolutely loved it!  I think I prefer the lemongrass to the regular lemon in the Lemony Thai Iced Tea. 

Here's a quick breakdown on cost**:

Oil                                                 Retail Cost               Wholesale Cost                          *PV      

                                                (Canadian Dollars)        (Canadian Dollars)

Jade Lemon 5 mL	$16.45	$12.50	10.75
Lemon 15 mL	$17.11	$13.00	11.25
Lemongrass 15 mL	$17.11	$13.00	11.25
Citronella  15 mL	$29.61	$22.50	19.50

*PV stands for Personal Volume, the measure of points Young Living uses for Essential Rewards and promotions.

**As of July 27, 2015

I hope this helps distinguish between the lemony oils we have to choose from.
I love having so many options, and I really appreciate each of them for their own reasons.  

Which lemony oil is your favourite?

I am a Young Living Independent Distributor, which means I buy my essential oils at the wholesale price rather than the retail price. I save 24% off retail, receive discounted shipping, and can earn free products through the Essential Rewards program as well as the ability to earn commissions. 

If you would like to become an Independent Distributor, I would love to sponsor you!  You can click HERE and enter 2066298 in the “Sponsor  and Enroller ID” boxes. 

I am always happy to answer any questions!  Email me at thepureoil@gmail.com