Anne Knows Oils

O, Douglas Fir!

Mon, 29 Nov 2021 03:21:55 -0800

“O, Christmas tree, O, Christmas tree, how lovely are your branches...” If my blog post could carry a tune, you’d have that 19th-century German holiday song in your head, which could easily be referring to the Douglas fir tree. This particular species, named after Scottish botanist David Douglas, must be a very special one because it is often chosen to be adorned with lights and ornaments as a Christmas tree. How appropriate for us to be taking a look at dōTERRA® Douglas Fir essential oil during this season leading up to Christmas! The age-old debate between real and artificial trees aside, those who prefer real trees will soon be able to enjoy both the tree and its oil side-by-side in your living room. You’ll literally be bringing nature indoors, and as we’re about to see, that’s a particularly beautiful thing in the case of Douglas Fir.

A beautiful canopy of these coniferous trees cascades down the hills of New Zealand, almost like a giant tsunami. The problem is that virtually nothing else can grow down at ground level beneath this rather invasive cascade of conifers. In fact, the Douglas fir tree grows twenty-five times faster in New Zealand than in its native home of North America, revealing just how aggressive plants can sometimes become when introduced to a new environment. The Douglas fir is so prolific in this island country of the southwestern Pacific Ocean that it’s become, well...a pest. Enter dōTERRA, the company that ever enjoys taking a piece of nature that would otherwise be wasted and turning it into something useful to preserve its intrinsic worth. The trees are harvested at about 5-7 years of age, before they produce cones; and the young, fresh needles and branches produce a uniquely lovely essential oil. Because of the excellent chemistry resulting from young harvesting, the aroma of Douglas Fir differs from that of other conifers such as...Read More

Easy as Pie

Fri, 19 Nov 2021 14:30:27 -0800

If there’s ever a time of year to make, share and enjoy a homemade pie, it’s that time of year called autumn, when your part of the globe undergoes magical changes in nature’s color and crispness. But the ironic thing about the idiom “easy as pie” is that not all of us do, in fact, find pie easy to make. Rolling out crusts, peeling and coring apples, and watching so as not to over-brown a delicate pastry in the oven does not exactly fit the “easy” description for a portion of the population. Because holidays should be more about sweet times and gratitude than stressing out about culinary performance, our aim today is to make things a bit easier in the entertaining department while enjoying the benefits of our dōTERRA® oils in the process.

Have you ever popped a can of pre-made pie filling into your shopping cart with a twinge of guilt, wishing you could have avoided all that aluminum and extra corn syrup if only you knew a quick way to whip up your own filling in a snap? Today is your day, my friend!

To make your Homemade Apple Pie Filling, you’ll need:

• 5 cups apple slices, peeled

• 1/4 cup water

• 3/4 cup brown sugar

• 1/4 cup flour (substitute with gluten-free flour if needed)

• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

• 3 tablespoons butter (or dairy-free substitute such as coconut oil)

Victorious Laurel Leaf

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 16:41:55 -0800

Take courage. Boy, do we all need to hear those two words, especially when the challenges of life seem overwhelming and insurmountable! If you’ve spent any length of time around dōTERRA® people or products, you’ve likely gathered the general idea that nature contains a huge variety of aromas that speak to our deepest emotions. Not only that, but the chemical constituents behind these pleasing aromas affect the mind and body in tangible ways. So, in a world that seems to require more confidence and boldness from us every day, we have good reason to seek out those oils that encourage us to take heart and run the race like a victor. If all this positivity appeals to you, join me on a journey right now to the lush region of the Mediterranean, native home to an exclusive oil called Laurel Leaf.

At least two uses of laurel, a warmth-loving evergreen shrub, are commonplace enough to help us draw a connection to something familiar. Laurel leaves, recognizable in the traditional wreaths of victory worn on the heads of ancient Greeks after athletic games, still symbolize rank and achievement; and they’re known as bay leaves in the culinary world. Isn’t your grandmother’s tried-and-true chicken soup recipe flooding back to your mind at the mention of the bay leaf? While the laurel leaf itself flavors soups and stews nicely, Laurel Leaf essential oil is renowned for refreshing and cleansing with an invigorating aroma. Let dōTERRA Laurel Leaf cleanse both your skin and the most used surfaces in your home; it’s that gentle and powerful at the same time. To apply Laurel Leaf to the skin, add a drop to your moisturizer, shower, or massage. To clean house, pop a few drops of Laurel Leaf into a spray bottle with water (toss in a drop of Lemon, if you’re feeling in the mood) and get to freshening every stale surface in sight!

A New Shade: Pink Pepper

Wed, 27 Oct 2021 02:34:57 -0700

How do you feel about the color pink? A popular favorite among girls and women, pink typically symbolizes tenderness, delicacy, and beauty, as well as the underlying fierce strength with which a delicate beauty can face challenges head on. In the US, the month of October is breast cancer awareness month; so you might even see a fire engine painted temporarily pink in honor of all this color symbolizes.

To think pink with dōTERRA®, picture a shower of pink berries falling from a heavily shaken tree, then laid out to dry in the sun. The lovely berries are handled and tossed into the air for separation and cleaning, resulting in what appears to be a flurry of pink snow. Then the peppercorns are scooped into bags to be distilled the very same day they were picked, to preserve their optimal oil content. Combine this quick harvest turnaround with the fact that nimble men and women must physically climb the large pink peppercorn trees to shake off the berries, and you’ve got quite a labor intensive process behind Pink Pepper essential oil. This fast-growing evergreen tree can grow to be up to 45 feet tall and wide! That’s a lot of height to scale and branches to traverse to free those peppercorn berries.

Having envisioned the shape of a peppercorn, Black Pepper oil has probably crossed your mind. What’s the difference between it and Pink Pepper? Well, although they’re not botanically related and are chemically quite different from each other, they can at times be used interchangeably. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can certainly try swapping out Black for Pink in the Pepper department while preparing meats, sauces and the like. Pink Pepper will be more subtle, and could offer a refreshing change while still maintaining those healthy digestive benefits you’ve come to expect from Black Pepper oil....Read More

Pertaining to Pets

Mon, 18 Oct 2021 02:29:09 -0700

If you’re a pet owner, you’re used to thinking about how the products you use in your home impact the health and well-being of your four-legged friends. You make decisions about what to safely feed your pet, as well as what kind of house and garden plants you keep, because you love them so much! But many people don’t realize that certain dōTERRA® essential oils, sourced straight from the earth, can provide natural solutions for animals as well as humans. While there are some oils that are discouraged for use with dogs and cats, there are many others you can safely incorporate into their daily lives. For a good-sized dog, you might use Cedarwood, Myrrh, or Frankincense to promote a healthy coat; let Clary Sage or Lavender calm an excitable or anxious personality; or use Peppermint to help keep tiny pests away. It’s rather mind-blowing that our go-to oils for human applications, such as Ginger to aid digestion and Lavender to soothe the skin, can in many cases offer similar support to dogs!

Even someone who’s been oiling for years may have yet to try a recipe for homemade dōTERRA doggy treats. Hey, there’s a first time for everything! To prepare Breath-Boost Biscuits for your best canine friend, you’ll need:

• 2 cups flour

• 1/2 cup oats

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 2 bananas

• 3 eggs

• 2 tablespoons peanut butter

If one could smell the color green...it may well be the smell of this particular tree. The fresh, woody aroma of the cypress tree is enough to make you believe you are delightfully lost in a forest of evergreens. If you’re wondering where exactly you may have observed a cypress tree, visualize those two stately conifers in the foreground of The Starry Night, the famous oil painting by Vincent Van Gogh. It was certainly a big moment for the cypress when Van Gogh decided to focus his artist efforts on it! Cypress trees have long been used as lovely landscaping in cemeteries, so chances are you’ve laid eyes on them plenty of times, perhaps without knowing what you were looking at.

Proceeding from a tree that has come to be known as a symbol of both mourning and hope, dōTERRA® Cypress has an aroma well-suited for times of loss and transition. Sourced sustainably in Kenya, Spain and Morocco, each bottle packs an exclusive blend of two distinct varieties of cypress oil, distilled from a total of about nine pounds of cypress leaves. The power of aromatics to transport us to magical places is perfectly demonstrated by this lively, herbaceous oil! Cypress is frequently used in spas and massages, not only for its refreshing fragrance but for its plentiful benefits to the skin. Add one or two drops to your facial toner to help improve the skin’s appearance, or combine with Lavender and Sandalwood for even more healthy skin support. To promote circulation, massage feet and legs with Cypress - a great idea just before your daily run. Those sweet balsamic undertones also make Cypress a popular feature in colognes and aftershaves. Pleasant, woody, and romantic? We’ll take it!

Diffuse, massage, or inhale, but keep your methods of enjoyment to the outside of your body; Cypress essential oil should not be...Read More

Steadfast Copaiba

Sun, 26 Sep 2021 16:58:35 -0700

Towering over the Amazon rainforest stands a giant with centuries-old roots. The copaiba tree grows slowly, ultimately reaching more than one hundred feet in height, and within it flows a sticky treasure that’s been tapped for widely diverse applications for hundreds of years. This copaiba oleoresin resembles maple syrup in the way it is collected from the tree, and the process of distillation by heat leads to dōTERRA® Copaiba essential oil.

Copaiba is a valuable tool in your hands to support whole-body wellness. For a mega massage that will leave your muscles and joints wondering where these oils have been their whole life, combine Copaiba with Frankincense and Oregano in the measure of one to two drops each. Dilute with a carrier oil; the Oregano makes this mixture hot! And for some serious support in the slumber department, Copaiba combines beautifully with two other nighttime stars: Vetiver and Lavender. Use these three oils in the diffuser blend below, or turn them into a relaxing bedtime massage applied to the feet or back.

Canopy of Stars

2 drops Copaiba
2 drops Vetiver
2 drops Lavender

You’ve probably heard of CBD, right? Well, Copaiba oil shares some key similarities with CBD while retaining a separate identity all its own. Chemically, the resin of the copaiba tree produces the highest level of beta-caryophyllene (BCP) known in nature. BCP has cannabinoid-like properties, yet in this case it does not originate from the cannabis plant. Instead, this powerful chemical comes straight from our steadfast giant in the rainforest. With zero chance of showing up on a...Read More

Recipe Face-off: Chocolate vs. Pumpkin

Sat, 18 Sep 2021 04:45:23 -0700

Autumn is inching nearer, and her biggest fans are whipping out their collection of fall-flavored essential oils to celebrate. For these devoted followers, it’s all about Clove, Cinnamon Bark, Ginger, and Wild Orange with pumpkin everything; and they truly have my best wishes as they commence celebrating! Chocolate lovers, on the other hand, have no set time of year to dive into their richest fantasies. The time to indulge is always now. It is, of course, possible to enjoy both pumpkin and chocolate together; but to dramatize this face-off we aren’t including any of those recipes.

Let’s get rolling with a rich protein snack by which you and your taste buds can experience dōTERRA® Copaiba; and be sure to stay tuned later this month for an in-depth look at this exotic Amazonian oil. Copaiba’s cell-supporting superpowers will be ever so easy to take advantage of when packaged into these powerful bites.

To make Chocolate Copaiba Protein Bites, you’ll need:

1 cup raw cashews
10 dates, pitted and soaked
1/2 cup hemp hearts
1/4 cup nut butter of choice (nutella, almond butter, etc.)
3/4 cup protein powder, either plain or chocolate flavored
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup cacao nibs or dark chocolate chips
5 drops dōTERRA Copaiba, or to tastefall

Vetiver In Focus

Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:26:23 -0700

Ring! The moment that bell sounds to signal school is back in session, students of all levels enter the gateway to important new paths of learning. In addition to writing instruments, textbooks, tablets and syllabi, they also need to gather up all their mental clarity in order to focus on the task ahead. Which dōTERRA® oil should you reach for to support the mind in these new endeavors? Reach for reassuring Vetiver first. When blending oils for the purpose of helping you pay attention and concentrate, valuable Vetiver deserves a place as the base aroma on which you build. Sure, go ahead and drop in a splash of your favorite oil, whatever it may be, to help perk up your mood; but to promote serious focus, Vetiver is your first-string player.

The enduring nature of this essential oil seems to stem from its very creation. The roots of the hearty vetiver plant, which appears above ground as a thick green grass, grow straight down into an equally thick underground tangle. This subterranean root bunch is distilled to create the essential oil, which has an uncanny ability to balance and root the emotions. When we sense we are deeply rooted, we are able to feel more serene, opening up the mind to better focus on the task at hand. Interestingly, the vetiver plant provides a stabilizing effect to the soil around it by preventing erosion; and in much the same way, sweet and smoky Vetiver essential oil helps to stabilize our human emotions!

Now let’s get to applying this calming oil to increase our ability to focus. Topical application of Vetiver is a particularly great place to start for helping young ones who tend to struggle with attentiveness. Know someone who has a hard time concentrating and following directions, often falling into distraction and fidgeting? Simply roll Vetiver onto the skin, place a...Read More

Freshly Minted Blends

Thu, 26 Aug 2021 02:44:18 -0700

With so many minty aromas to choose from, how’s an oiler to know which one to use and when? While there’s a great deal of freedom to simply follow your nose and let it do the deciding, it’s a smart idea to explore the three big mint aromas and learn a few tips to help you decide what their specialties should be in your life and home. In no particular order, the three minty oils we’ll look at in this showcase are sweet Spearmint, classic Peppermint, and warming Wintergreen. While not a member of the mint family within the plant kingdom, Wintergreen is actually a member of the mint aroma family in the world of essential oils because of its minty, evergreen aroma. Go figure! While these three aromas clearly share the chewing-gum-flavor claim to fame, they certainly aren’t interchangeable as essential oils.

As discussed earlier this month, thanks to some markets offering a special promotion, dōTERRA® Spearmint is the mint you want to lean on when a gentle burst of freshness is called for. It’s recommended for work, study, or really anytime uplifting refreshment is needed. To pump up the invigorating intensity level, reach instead for your reliable bottle of Peppermint. And Wintergreen oil is the warming, soothing one that stands apart from the other two in that it is solely for external use. While Spearmint and Peppermint can spice up a smoothie or dessert in a lovely manner, Wintergreen oil wouldn’t be caught dead in the kitchen! Instead, it would be a sensible ingredient within a topical massage blend. Even so, be extra careful with Wintergreen, especially around little ones, because it comes from one of only two plants that contain a powerful chemical component called methyl salicylate. Remember that as you get to mixing and experimenting with your mints!

Lest anyone feel overly intimidated by...Read More