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Why we choose not to use essential oils

Valued at 24 billion dollars in 2024, the essential oils industry is not as "natural" and "organic" as they claim.  Here at Leah's we trust in the power of the plant, not the unnatural concentration of VOCs being sold as essential oils.  Here's why:

Image by Alexander Grey
Hands with essential oil
Oil Dropper Close-Up
Lavender Fields
Oil applied to skin

Essential oils are not essential to our products

Plants are powerful!  The volatile oils in plants have the potential to help or harm.  Over the last 20 years we have seen an explosion in the essential oils industry.  Few have thought to step back and question it, and others have felt the harms of it.  While essential oils can be beneficial in some instances, there are many dangers involved with their uses.  Plants that produce volatile oils (the ones you can smell, think rosemary or basil) were never meant to be concentrated in the amounts that are currently being used for.  Here at Leah's Naturals we choose not to use essential oils for 3 main reasons:  

  1. They are wasteful.  Did you know that it can take over 100 pounds of a plant to produce 1/2 ounce of essential oil?  In 2024 the EO market was valued at 24 billion dollars.  

  2. They are not "safe".  Essential oils are volatile plant compounds that can have a lasting effect on the central nervous system and can be deadly to pets.   Marketed as "organic" and "natural" they are anything but.

  3. They are unnecessary.  People like to talk about essential oils and their benefits like there is no danger or downside.  Plants make scent to either attract pollinators or defend against predators.  Many essential oils are essentially insecticides.  Sure, there is benefit to plant compounds that are anti-fungal or anti-bacterial, but in the concentration they are in, this is like using a black box antibiotic for the sniffles.  Plant medicine is perfect just the way it is.  It does not need to be concentrated far above levels never seen in nature

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No shade if you love essential oils and use them safely.  We too, will use them on occasion if the situation calls for it, just not in our products.  If you'd like to learn more about the dangers and science of essential oils, consider April Graham's book "Essentially Deadly, The Unspoken Dangers of Essential Oils".

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