Time and time again I am faced with DoTerra or Young Living distributors who come into our shop and turn their noses up when they see the price of our essential oils.  I have spent the last 13 years (as of this writing) learning about, researching, handling and using essential oils.  I am a Certified Clinical Aromatherapist, having to learn not only about essential oils and their properties (as well as do case studies on actual clients) but also about anatomy, physiology and how essential oils interact with the anatomy.

The last time I encountered a DoTerra rep, I asked them, “Where did you learn about essential oils?”  Their answer: DoTerra and ONLY DoTerra. They had done no outside research on their own about essential oils and prior to selling them for this multi-level marketing company, had no prior experience or knowledge of essential oils. I asked if they had any books by other authors about essential oils. They did not.

The only thing they could continue repeating was that DoTerra essential oils were superior because they are certified therapeutic grade essential oils.

“Do you realize that in the United States that essential oils are not regulated and certified by anyone? There is no regulatory board and certification board,” I said.

“That’s not true,” the DoTerra sales rep insisted. “DoTerra essential oils are certified therapeutic grade!”

So, ARE DoTerra essential oils certified?  Yes, they are — BY DoTerra themselves! The term certified therapeutic grade is a term that was trademarked by DoTerra. They even tell you this term means nothing and there is no regulations in place on their own website:

 Furthermore, there are no current regulatory standards for the descriptive use of the “therapeutic grade” for products labeled as essential oils. The CPTG Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade® mark represents dōTERRA’s own internal standards for sourcing and testing 100% pure aromatic botanical extracts using independent laboratory analysis.

So, by the “own internal standards” which basically means they regulate themselves.

So, WHY the price difference when it comes to DoTerra and Young Living essential oils versus our own Aromagregory essential oils?

We are NOT a MLM (multi level marketing) company! In order to be profitable, MLM companies must increase the price of a product greatly so they have room to wholesale to reps and wholesale again to the reps below them.

Example:  I want to start selling oranges. They cost me 50 cents each. To make a living, I am going to sell them to you for $1.00 each.

Enter the MLM company wanting to sell oranges.  They pay 50 cents for the orange. But, they want YOU and your friends below you to sell them, so they’re going to give you 25% off the retail price of the orange.  Then give you MORE is you sign up others to sell below you. How will they profit? Sell the oranges for $4.00 instead of $1.00.  How will they get away with this?  Easy – claim they are better than any orange in the world, superior in every way.  They even go a step further and call their orange “certified tastiest and healthiest”!  And the people wanting to make 25% of $4.00 believe it and spread the word to anyone who will listen.

Our aromagregory essential oils come from a respected essential oils supplier that buys directly from farms. The oils do go through the GC (Gas Chromatography) test and are 100% PURE essential oils. They have 25 years combined experience in the field of essential oils and, yes, have a PHD chemist consultant as well as a full time PHD staffer.

So, once again, WHY are our oils so much less expensive than the MLM companies? We buy great oils, bottle and label them and sell them directly to our customers — we don’t hire an army to sell the product and keep our profit up by tripling the retail price.

Gregory