Essential Oils - A primer

Welcome to the Raindrop Technique Education Series! If you want to learn more about Raindrop in general, especially what to expect in a session, be sure to check out my first blog post on the Raindrop Technique.

Before we dive into each individual essential oil or blend that is used in the Raindrop Technique, I want to offer some generalized information on essential oils that you’ll find useful when reading the posts on each individual essential oil/blend. I am also providing some information that will be useful if you choose to use essential oils at home for yourself or your family.

What Are Essential Oils?

So what are essential oils? Essential oils get their name from the Latin quinta essentia, which means “fifth element.” The fifth element represents spirit. Thus, essential oils are the “spirit” of the plant. 

Essential oils are the volatile (easily evaporated) aromatic compounds of a plant and may be extracted from the root, stem, flower, or foliage of the plant. They are highly concentrated oils consisting of 200 to 500 bioconstituents (components). Typically, an essential oil is extracted through steam distillation or hydrodistillation, with very few citrus essential oils created through cold-press extraction. 

Essential oils are highly concentrated forms of their plants’ potent properties and it can take an incredible amount of plant matter to get a single 10mL bottle of essential oil. For example, it takes about 40 kilograms (88.2 pounds) of rose petals to make 10mL of rose essential oil, making it one of the most expensive essential oils on the market. 

Essential oils are very different from vegetable oils, including olive, coconut, canola, and avocado oils. Vegetable oils are made using mechanical or chemical extraction methods, typically crushing or pressing the plant matter to expel the oils. These oils are composed mostly of fatty acids, giving them a greasy feel, whereas essential oils are mostly made up of volatile compounds.

What Makes an Essential Oil Pure and Therapeutic?

A few different things can impact an essential oil’s purity and therapeutic properties. How it is distilled, what part of the plant is used, where the plant is grown, including soil and air conditions, and when the plant is harvested all impact the essential oil’s effectiveness. The part of the plant that is used to create fragrance oils may be different from the part of the plant used for essential oils; similarly, the way a plant is distilled into an oil may be different when the desired outcome is a pure essential oil versus a fragrance or cooking oil.

Now, I must state here that there are no industry or government standards regarding the use of the term “therapeutic” or “100% pure” when applied to essential oils. When I use these terms to describe the essential oils I use in the Raindrop Technique, I am referring to the quality and chemical makeup of the essential oils used. I choose essential oil companies that engage in safe and sustainable growing, harvesting, and extraction methods who publicly share their third-party testing results of the individual oils.

There is no law that states an essential oil must be 100% that oil stated on the bottle if labeled “100% pure,” so it is vital that you obtain your essential oils from reputable companies. It has become all too common to scent a bottle of a carrier oil (e.g., sunflower oil) with a few drops of essential oil and call it “100% pure.” While that bottle of lavender oil you picked up from Walmart might be just fine, do you really know how it was grown, harvested, distilled, and if it is 100% lavender or mixed with another oil?

Chemistry of Essential Oils

Now, recall that essential oils consist of hundreds (roughly 200-500) of bioconstituents. Each essential oil has a unique combination of these bioconstituents. And, as mentioned in the section above, a lot can impact the makeup of an essential oil. For example, a lavender essential oil made from plants grown in France can have a different chemical composition from lavender grown in Utah. But don’t worry–chances are good that whatever effect you are hoping to achieve with the lavender essential oil you can get from either plant origin. Will there be some differences? Sure! But unless you are after a very specific, narrowly occurring chemical composition that is only found in lavender plants grown in a specific location under very specific conditions, you’re going to get what you’re after with your typical essential oil sold by reputable retailers.

The modern day pharmaceutical and perfume industries have discovered how to isolate specific compounds from different plants and essential oils, as well as how to create synthetic versions of many. While this is all well and good, I would argue (as well as a growing body of scientific research) that isolating compounds from the whole dilutes the therapeutic impact or changes it altogether. Of course, due to the varying composition of essential oils due to factors I’ve listed above (e.g., location, environment), researching the impact of a specific essential oil on a particular condition or the body’s systems as a whole can be tricky. 

There is so much more that could be covered on the chemistry of essential oils, but for the sake of simplicity and comprehension, I will let you do your own research if you want more detailed chemical explanations of essential oils.

Selecting Essential Oils

Let’s briefly discuss how to select essential oils. As I’ve mentioned already, just because an essential oil is labeled or marketed as 100% pure or “therapeutic grade” doesn’t mean it hasn’t been diluted, adulterated, or created synthetically. Thus, selecting an essential oil should include ensuring the product is, in fact, 100% pure. How? By doing your research. 

Here are some good questions to ask when researching an essential oil company:

• Check out third party reviews of a company–does it have a good reputation? 

• Has it been scrutinized for sketchy business practices? 

• Does it contract with a third party to test its essential oils for purity and potency, or do this on its own (third party is more reliable)? 

• How frequently do they have their essential oils tested (One test years ago does not guarantee today’s product quality)?

Personally, the companies that I purchase essential oils from include Young Living and Revive. I do have some general concerns about some of Young Living’s business practices (primarily their multi-level marketing practice), but not their quality of essential oils. There are certainly other companies out there that would “check all the boxes” for a quality essential oil, so don’t dismiss a different company just because I don’t currently use them.

Using Essential Oils

Use of essential oils should be done cautiously and with appropriate safety precautions in mind. As I’ve already mentioned, essential oils contain hundreds of different constituents and are incredibly potent and concentrated forms of the plant they are distilled from. This means that they may have undesirable effects, depending on how they are used. I recommend researching what a variety of reputable sources state are appropriate uses of the essential oils you wish to use.

Some essential oils, such as Bergamot, can cause photosensitivity, meaning that applying this essential oil to your skin and then exposing your skin to sunlight could result in burns. Other essential oils can be a skin irritant, such as Black Pepper or Oregano, if not diluted properly or applied to sensitive skin. Some essential oils may irritate your lungs or sinus passages (via inhalation) if, again, inhaled directly rather than diluted. 

Ingestion of essential oils, while potentially safe in small quantities, depending on which essential oil ingested, is not typically recommended by experts (many essential oils companies promote ingestion of essential oils, in spite of expert advice). Also, most essential oils are more effective when administered topically or inhaled than when ingested. For example, if you were to use peppermint oil to aid indigestion, you would have a better effect if you massaged a little diluted peppermint oil onto the stomach rather than ingested the peppermint oil. Whereas drinking peppermint tea made with the leaves will have more effect for indigestion than rubbing those leaves on your stomach. 

Ultimately, I recommend doing your own research on how to use each essential oil, and not to rely on just one source or expert when determining how you can use it safely. I’ve found that oregano essential oil can be applied to the skin without irritation, as it is used in the Raindrop Technique, in spite of many experts recommending that it never be applied to the skin. But I also must caution that every individual’s reaction to an essential oil will be slightly different. You may find that you are sensitive to some oils that are generally regarded as very safe and non-irritating, or that you can tolerate topical application of oils that most people find irritating to their skin. 

Taking the time to learn your own body, what it is asking for and what essential oils (if any) it would like added to its support regime, is a wonderful way to enhance your personal growth and connection to your body. I’ve found spending time in meditation asking my body what it wants/needs has resulted in far better results than when I rely on external sources of information and advice. 

Resources

Encyclopedia of Essential Oils: The complete guide to the use of aromatic oils in aromatherapy, herbalism, health and well-being. Julia Lawless. Thorson’s Publishing, 2012.

Essential Oils Pocket Reference (6th ed.). Life Science Products and Publishing, 2014.

Fundamental Chemistry of Essential Oils and Volatile Organic Compounds, Methods of Analysis and Authentication. Nicholas J Sadgrove, Guillermo F Padilla-González, Methee Phumthum. Plants (Basel), 2022 Mar 16;11(6):789.