I was suckered into the doTerra essential oils "thing" about 8 months ago by a customer of mine. I don't think she "suckered" me on purpose, I think she was just passing on what she had been taught. I didn't become associated with doTerra to form a business of it, I wanted it for my own use. While at her office working on her computer I was suffering pretty badly with my once-a-year-for-45-days allergies. I was snorting, coughing and sneezing and she brought me a "cocktail" she had made with Lavender, Lemon and Peppermint essential oils (EOs). She sprayed it on a Kleenex and told me to hold it over my nose and breath deeply. Honestly, after about 5 minutes I was noticeably better. It's always better when you don't drip nasal fluid on a customer's keyboard. But I digress.
Back to my point: why do I feel that I was suckered into using doTerra if it works? Well, I recently had a reason to start looking for some more EOs that I didn't have here at home. While looking over the doTerra website (http://www.doterra.com) I, for the first time, noticed the registered trademark symbol next to the phrase Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade that they prominently display on the site and all of their marketing. Hmmmmm.....
So I started digging a little deeper. Yep, right there on their website it says:
*CPTG Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade® is a registered trademark of dōTERRA Holdings, LLC, and represent internal standards of quality assessment and material control. The CPTG testing protocols require the use of independent laboratories for CPTG standardization and quality testing. The CPTG protocol is not administered by government or industry regulatory agencies and does not imply regulatory approval of dōTERRA products.
What!? You mean that the CPTG moniker is nothing more than a marketing term thought up by the doTerra folks? Yep, again. It seems that there is no such thing as certified essential oils because there aren't any recognized organizations or agencies that certify essential oils. An interesting and very informational article about this topic is the "The ‘Therapeutic Grade’ Essential Oils Disinformation Campaign.” by Cropwatch Organization. Click here to read the entire article.
Well, that started my research and I found out quite a few other things, too. Things like doTerra consultants routinely recommend the internal use of EOs which contradicts the respected advice and scope of practice recommended by Aromatherapy and Herbal associations, organizations and health care providers (including both mainstream and alternative medicines).
There are other points that I found that are unsettling, but I'm sure you know how to use Google so I'll leave the rest of the points up to your research and ultimate decisions. But another point that I'll bring up for your enjoyment is pricing. I started looking at other outlets of pure essential oils. Two that I found are:
- www.mountainroseherbs.com
- www.auracacia.com
hat's when the blood pressure started rising (what EO should I take for that?). Here'a few examples of EOs that I have purchased at doTerra and that are also available at the other two sites listed above. I'll list the EO and the pricing (d for doTerra, m for mountainroseherbs and a for auracasia):
- Peppermint (.5 oz.)
- : $27.33
- m: $7.50
- a: $7.19
- avender (.5 oz.)
- : $28.00
- m: $10.25
- a: $9.83
- emon (.5 oz.)
- : $13.33
- m: $5.50
- a: $4.39
hese three EOs form the "Beginner's Trio" pack from doTerra. You can get the pack for $66.67 from them. While at mountainroseherbs and auracasia those three EOs together would cost you $23.25 and $21.41 respectively.
Let's look at a couple more examples:
- Myrrh (.5 oz.)
- d: $69.33
- m: $23.50
- a: $18.00
- Frankincence (.5 oz.)
- d: $93.00
- m: $20.25
- a: $22.71
I think you're probably starting to see a trend here. The gouging, uh, I mean pricing differences between doTerra and the other two sites is what prompted this post. As a small business owner I get the whole "have to make a profit to stay in business" thing. But taking advantage of your customers and, quite frankly, ripping them off is inexcusable.
If doTerra works for you, as it DID for me, I'm happy for you. I'm going to, hopefully, get the same results for much less money elsewhere. Remember: Google search is your friend. Except for when it saves your search history, location data, site data, provides targeted advertising, .....