Young Living vs. doTERRA: Which Company Is Best?
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One of the big questions out there in the essential oils world is which company is better; Young Living or doTERRA.
Since these two companies are the big giants in the essential oil industry, and they both claim to be the best, it makes sense that this is a a pretty common question.
But it’s not necessarily an easy one to answer.
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Why Experience with Young Living and doTERRA
When I started using Young Living Oils, I was pretty excited about the results I had. But soonafter, I started having second thoughts.
And while I was doing some investigating, some different things popped up about both Young Living and doTERRA that made me wonder about of them. And I started either company was really as good as each claimed to be.
It was hard to sort through all of the information, but here are some of the concerns that came to my attention. This isn’t everything that I found out, but it’s a lot of it. (Basically I’m not writing everything because well, some companies like to sue people and I don’t need that in my life.)
Concerns About Young Living
Reputation and Ethics
First of all, Young Living was pretty much the first on the block. They literally made essential oils mainstream and I think there’s something to be said for that.
However, there are some pretty not-so-savory things on the internet about D. Gary Young. Of course, the internet can be full of truths and lies, but I still think these things might be worth paying attention to.
Dr. Stephen Barrett has written a load of unsavory things about D. Gary Young. In fact, this information is a lot of what gave me pause when I initially was looking into signing up with YL. Their Thieves Oil worked great for me, but I really didn’t like what I was reading.
Now, I do have my concerns about Mr. Barrett–mainly that he’s basically a “anti-alternative therapy,” so that might be part of why he criticized Young Living so much.
However, his writings about Young Living and Gary Young leave something to ponder And that’s even more so in light of what else I found…
(UPDATE – All comments by Mr. Barrett against Gary Young appear to have been removed.)
OSHA Violations
I found this interesting entry referring to Young Living OSHA violations. I didn’t find any by the other oils companies, although I didn’t look all of the essential oils companies up, since there are just so many.
Now, Young Living is the oldest oils company, so they’ve had more time for there to be violations, and all of the violations appear to be of the same incident.
Of course, OSHA violations don’t mean that a company is bad. If they cleaned up their procedures correctly, then possibly their new procedures are now better than ever.
Non-Indigenous Plants
A good number of Young Living’s farms are located in the U.S. I think that’s fine for a company being more “in control” of their product, but not great if you follow conventional wisdom that plants grow best (and have the best therapeutic qualities) when they are grown in their indigenous locations (where they are supposed to grow naturally).
If you read through the comments of Best Essential Oils Parts 2 & 3, you’ll see that Young Living reps tout the fact that YL farms are in the U.S. as being an advantage–that it gives Young Living control over the whole process.
Maybe, but other companies like doTERRA and most of the other companies I’ve looked into have their oils sourced from wherever the plants grow naturally for higher quality.
Inaccurate Product Claims
In the literature that I got from Young Living when I signed up, there were Thieves® Oil brochures. The brochure mentioned this study was done that apparently addressed the superior therapeutic value of the oil.
I looked up the tests online to see what they were all about because I was curious to see the exact results and found, however, that the study was done on generic Eucalyptus Oil and not on Thieves Oil.
So it seemed to me that the company was saying that it was proven that their Thieves® oil was proven to be effective when what really was the case was that Eucalyptus, one component of Thieves®, was proven to be effective.
In a sense, that’s fine, I guess. But I still was confused and reached out to their headquarters.
This was their response:
Thank you for your email. Unfortunately we cannot comment on any
research articles or provide this information as it would be in direct
violation of FDA regulations. You may want to contact Life Science
Publishers at 1-800-336-6308 or www.lifesciencepublishers.com and Sound
Concepts at 1-888-285-6317, 801-225-9520 or
www.essentialproductinfo {dot} com. These companies both carry several
items or research that contain useful information concerning essential
oils and supplements and may be able to assist you further.
Possible Chemical Smell
When evaluating oils from different companies, I purchased oils from Young Living, doTERRA, Mountain Rose Herbs, Aura Cacia, and 2 other companies. We tried some of the oils and also and did a Smell Challenge with my not-so-specially-trained Smell Testing Panel (a.k.a. my family).
This wasn’t some super strict official test, but we noticed that Young Living was singled out as having a chemical (synthetic) overtone.
Does that mean there were synthetics added?
Not necessarily of course, but we still didn’t care for it.
Country of Origin
As of the 2018 update of this post, all or many of the oils from Young Living do not have a country of origin indicated on the site.
Illegal Sourcing of Oils
In 2017, Young Living was caught illegally sourcing Rosewood and Spikenaard oils between 2014 and 2016.
However, this whole topic is very confusing because apparently Young Living turned themselves in and there are more details to consider.
Odd Spiritual Associations
Since originally writing this post, a pretty significant thing happened within Young Living causing many to accuse the company of being influenced by the occult.
You can see more information about this issue here and here.
But suffice it to say that the controversy surrounds a book called My Word Made Flesh which was sent out to some high up in Young Living.
The book was cowritten by Robert Tennyson Stevens, a self-help guru who runs a company called Mastery Systems. The books’ co-writer is Vonn Harting, a Young Living Royal Crown Diamond, and Mary Young (Gary Young’s wife) wrote the forward.
The book has been scrubbed from the internet, but you can read about the concerns in those articles above.
One such concern is apparently a passage that encouraged people to basically do a “seance with oils” in which they would repeat “I am the resurrection and the life of my lineage.” Of course, in the Bible, Jesus calls himself “the way, the truth and the life,” and says “no one comes to the Father except through me.”
Since the book is now gone, it’s hard to verify the contents, and perhaps the people who put it out now realize their error and have turned away from this kind of thing, but the whole thing was very troubling.
Concerns About doTERRA
One thing I really like about doTERRA is their educational resources, and also, their oils smell great.
But their great smell is part of what concerns me.
Crystal Clean Smell Claim
My first concern is this. A lot of doTERRA reps (and corporate employees as well) say something like, “You’ll know it works by its smell.”
A quote from doTERRA’s website: “A 100% pure therapeutic-grade essential oil should have a balanced, broad fragrance profile and should smell crystal clean.” I don’t know about you, but I don’t know what “crystal clean” means.
And is “crystal clean” what you want your oils to smell like? I’m not sure about that.
Organoleptic testing is something that many essential oil companies and experts do, but it’s harder for the typical consumer to do. And it’s quite possible that a consumer will be aiming for something more pleasing rather than what an oil should smell like.
Claims About Peppermint Oil
Essential oils are distilled by putting plant parts and water in a distiller and under low pressure and low temperature, you distill the essential oils out of the plant.
They travel down a tube and into a vat, along with the steam. The oil collects on top of the water and is removed and then you have essential oils.
The most coveted, most expensive (and thought to be the most therapeutic) oil is that which is collected during the first part of the distillation period, which is called “first distilled.”
This “first distillation” apparently only applies to ylang ylang and possibly peppermint oil.
DoTERRA’s peppermint smells good enough to eat–as in “candy cane” good. So yummy, in fact, that if you have kiddos in the house, you’d best keep it out of arm’s reach.
But is that a good thing as far as quality goes?
Most peppermint essential oils smell like the peppermint you find growing out in nature, which is herby and not like a candy cane.
Candy-cane-smelling peppermint is apparently, according to several sources, possibly from a redistill. The oils are either redistilled, or some components are taken out to give the oil a clean pepperminty candy smell. (Source).
The other possibility is that someone did something else to the peppermint oil to reduce the herby smell.
Note that there’s a LOT of controversy about distilling peppermint, but something doesn’t make sense here.
Is doTERRA’s Peppermint a Complete Distill?
Here’s the response I got from doTERRA stating that their peppermint oil is a “complete distill”:
You can let her know that our Peppermint uses complete
distillation. There is 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and complete and we use complete. (Source: my email.)
So if in fact, the first distillation of peppermint oil is the most valuable (and there is really a first and later distillation of peppermint), then their peppermint oil might not be top quality.
If there is truly no such thing as more than one distillation of peppermint, as many say, then why is doTERRA stating that there is a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and complete distillation of peppermint? Possibly it was an error on their part.
The most disconcerting thing to me about the whole issue was that I could never get solid information from doTERRA themselves about WHY their peppermint smelled the way that it did.
In one video, one of the founders of doTERRA stated that their peppermint smelled amazing because it was from Washington. However, other peppermints are sourced from Washington as well, so that can’t be the reason, unless all of them from Washington have the same scent.
Then later, someone else from the company (I’m forgetting if that was someone from headquarters or a representative) said that the smell was different because their oil is distilled only from the leaves and the flowers.
Despite trying for a long time, I never could get a solid answer about this.
So why does their peppermint smell different and is it higher or lower quality? I don’t know.
Ylang Ylang Not Top Quality
doTERRA prides itself on selling the top of the line quality oils. Their ylang ylang, however, is a complete distillation. Some may say that this is a matter of preference, but in the essential oils industry, the first distill of ylang ylang is more valued and therefore, a higher priced oil.
To their credit, doTERRA is transparent and does call their ylang ylang a complete distill on their website.
Ylang Ylang first distill (which is referred to as “extra”) is typically considered to be the quality of oil that is most sought after and is of highest therapeutic quality.
Ingredients Not Listed
Thanks to Kitchen Stewardship, I realized that doTERRA didn’t used to disclose all of the oils in their bug repellant blend. We’d used this to treat itchy mosquito bites (and my son liked it), but not including ingredients on a label is a big problem.
(UPDATE – Thankfully, doTERRA now discloses the ingredients of their Terra Shield blend.)
DoTERRA’s Frankincense Is Lower Quality
I often get questions about doTERRA’s pricing for their Frankincense Oil as to how it compares to other brands, with people citing that doTERRA’s appears to be less expensive.
The reason for this has to do with the composition of doTERRA’s Frankincense Oil. Most companies sell either just one variety of Frankincense Oil, or several varieties, but doTERRA’s Frankincense is, at least as of Aug 2016, a blend of different varieties (source).
Following are the types of Frankincense in their blend:
– carterii (typically the least expensive)
– serrata
– frereana
Sacred Frankincense is typically one of, if not the most expensive varieties of Frankincense oil, so if you compare doTERRA’s Frankincense to another company’s Sacred, doTERRA’s will likely come out to be cheaper.
No Organic Certification
One of the things that bothers me about doTERRA is that they don’t have any certified organic oils. I’ve been told that it’s too hard for them to get that certification from all of the countries that they source from. Emily Wright says:
The reason for this is because we source from so many developing countries. The certification requirements and availability differs from country to country. Some countries don’t even have a certification offering.
I get it that sourcing organic oils can be hard, but many other companies are doing it so it can’t be that hard.
Maybe I’m wrong, but that is the way it seems to me. I’ve looked into organic certification before and it wasn’t as expensive as most companies (those without certification) make it out to be.
Lack Of Country of Origin Transparency
As of the 2018 update of this post, all or many of the oils from doTERRA do not have a country of origin indicated on the site. This is interesting especially since the company and/or its reps repeatedly say that they can’t get organic certification due to it being hard to get it in the countries where their oils are sourced.
I heard from a reader that there is a source map for doTERRA oils, but I couldn’t find it. I did, however, find one page that shows sourcing for Spikenard and Petitgrain.
The map shows that their Petitgrain Oil is sourced from Paraguay. Other companies have organic Petitgrain from Paraguay so their claim about organic oils being too hard to source just doesn’t seem to make sense.
Minimal Oil Selection
When I first wrote this series, doTERRA had very few oils so if you were looking for a company that could be a one stop shop, then it wasn’t really a great option.
They’ve increased their selection over time, but Young Living still has the advantage here.
Young Living and doTERRA Source from the Same Companies
This concern applies to both companies. Sine both companies claim to have the best oils, I think it’s odd that both Young Living and doTERRA appear to have the same source for at least some of their oils.
Here’s the evidence for this.
Bio Young Aromas
Look at the following sources and see that Bio Young Aromas is the supplier to both companies.
https://www.seair.co.in/us-import/i-doterra.aspx
(Sadly it appears that the information about Bio Young is not showing at that link now unless you pay to see it.)
Here, however, is a link showing other purchases from Bio Young by doTERRA.
Here are some Bio Young Aroma purchases made by Young Living.
- https://portexaminer.com/trade-data/bio-young-aromas-co-ltd-young-living-essentials-oils/banqsha5283692/
- https://portexaminer.com/trade-data/bio-young-aromas-co-ltd-young-living-essentials-oils/banqsha5290941/
Kunshan Toxen
doTERRA and Young Living have both purchased from this company.
Here is a link showing Young Living purchases from Kunshan Toxen.
And here is a link showing doTERRA purchases from Kunshan Toxen.
Not sure what to make of this but it’s interesting information.
So, which essential oils company is better when it comes to Young Living vs. doTERRA?
Conclusion
I think that both companies have some good points, but there are a lot of things that make me concerned about both of them.
I guess, if I had to pick, I would go with doTERRA, but I personally think there are better essential oils companies out there.
I don’t think that all Direct Sales / MLM companies are bad, but in general a lot of MLM products just don’t hold up to the hype surrounding them.
My decision is to choose to buy our essential oils elsewhere.
My Preferred Source for Essential Oils
I hope to revisit this topic in the near future, but for now, you can see what happened when I started looking to find a quality essential oils company that I wanted to purchase from.
I started this whole series after spending some time working with both Young Living and doTERRA, but I left both of them and went in another direction.
– Which Essential Oils Company is Best? – Part 1
– What a Good Essential Oils Company Should Have – Part 2
– Which Essential Oils Company is Best – Troubles with the Oils Industry – Part 3
– Are Multi-Level Marketing Oils Worth It? – Part 5
– Distillation, Bias, Vomit and Personal Attacks – Part 6
To find out which essential oil company I went with at the end of this search, read this post:
– Announcing “the Best” Essential Oils Company – Part 7
I plan to revisit this topic in the future and hope to have additional options that you can feel really good about buying.
The Best Essential Oil Safety Book
Whatever essential oils company you choose, you need to know how to use them safely. This book by Robert Tisserand, is THE book you want to have about essential oils safety.
Hands down.
Essential Oil Safety by Robert Tisserand
This is widely considered to be THE book on essential oil safety, written by Robert Tisserand who is regarded as one of the most highly respected essential oil experts in the world.
While it's mostly (of course) about safety, the book also covers essential oil composition, adulteration, usage, and more. Lots of solid information that any essential oil enthusiast will enjoy.
Free Essential Oils Report and Newsletter Access
To get more information on the company that I chose, get this Free Report on 10 Things to Know About Essential Oils Before You Buy, you’ll get more essential oils information as well as access to my newsletter with updates, healthy living deals, new posts on essential oils, and more.
Between Young Living or doTERRA, which do you like?
Or do you buy oils from another company?
RE: Young Living vs. doTERRA–Which Essential Oils Company is Best? Series-Part 4
I see this article was updated most recently in April 2022. In section 6, “Country of Origin,” you wrote: “… I heard from a reader that there is a source map for doTERRA oils, but I couldn’t find it.”
I just wanted to share a link to a “doTERRA Sourcing Map,” which appears to be dated November 2022 (i.e. several months after your last update):
https://sourcetoyou.com/assets/downloads/doterra-sourcing-map110222.pdf
This is from the “doTERRA source to you” website. In addition to the link above, you can find this map by scrolling down to the very bottom of any page on the website, where you will see a “Resources” link; if you click on this link, it will take you to a page featuring this map (labeled “NEW!” — along with articles on the company’s “co-impact” sourcing program and two specific — presumably “new” — source-countries, Albania and India).
[The aforementioned “Resources” link is sandwiched in-between the fine print regarding copyrights and trademarks and another section entitled “Terms and Conditions.” (Doesn’t exactly jump right out at you.)]
There is also a section on doTERRA’s “Global Botanical Network” under “The Journey” tab (subsection, “Growers”): Here you will find a graphic depiction (courtesy of Google) and a link to what I believe is an earlier version of their sourcing map. It says “Download Global Footprint Map – JPG” (although it’s actually a PDF, not a JPG):
https://sourcetoyou.com/assets/doterra-sourcing-map092321final.pdf
They claim this “network” includes “… farmers and essential oil producers … skilled partners around the world … optimal supply chain for production, distillation, and distribution, enabling doTERRA to supply … essential oils …”
Thanks for that info! I just added some more info to the post this week about sourcing and hope to add more in the future.
Thanks again!