Essential oils are highly concentrated natural oils extracted from various plant species. These oils contain the “essence” of the plants they come from. It is this essence that locks in the scent and therapeutic properties.
For thousands of years, essential oils have been used around the world, to treat various diseases and improve health. Today these oils are very popular due to the many cost-effective benefits they offer. There are dozens of commonly used essential oils, with each having its own smell and health benefits.
Essential oils are most often used in aromatherapy wherein they’re inhaled. Another common way to use these oils is to mix them with a carrier substance like a nut oil. This type of oil mix can be massaged into the skin. The best quality essential oils are known to help with problems like:
- Inflammation
- Congestion
- Headaches
- Nausea
- Viruses & fungus
- Memory loss
- Skin issues
- And more ailments and concerns
When you’ve decided to use essential oils, it’s important to choose a brand carefully. Why does brand matter? Because not all essential oils on the market are of good quality.
Two of the most trusted brands of essential oils are Edens Garden and Young Living. Both of these brands offer pure essential oils that go through 3rd party testing. And they both set high standards for themselves and their partners. We’re doing an Edens Garden vs Young Living comparison so you can decide for yourself which brand to use. Ready? Let’s go!
Edens Garden
This California-based company was founded in 2009. The goal of this brand was to be a different type of essential oil company. The founders wanted the oils to be pure and economical.
Since its start, Edens Garden has grown its product list to hundreds of essential oils. In addition to oils, they also sell diffusers, kits to create oil bends, body soaps, salt soaks, and lots more.
Quality & Transparency
All Edens Garden essential oils are 100% pure therapeutic grade. This means the oils are natural and holistic. They don’t add any bases, carriers, paraffin, or other additives to their oils.
Edens Garden essential oils are sourced from organic farms. There are no pesticides, synthetic chemicals, GMOs, herbicides or fertilizers used during any stage of the growing or distillation process.
This company has relationships with farmers the world over. The oils it sells are extracted from plants that were grown in their indigenous location.
Edens Garden has third party experts conduct GC/MS testing on its products to guarantee quality. The brand offers consumers a database to read these testing reports. The team at Edens Garden is proud to offer cruelty-free products. That means the products have never been tested on animals.
How Edens Garden Sells its Oils
In its quest to cut out the middleman, Edens Garden sells directly to customers through online sales. This is why this brand says it can keep its prices so affordable. Unlike other essential oil companies that use the Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) selling method, Edens Garden likes to keep it simple.
When you browse the Edens Garden website, you’ll see what they mean about keeping things on the simple side. It’s super easy to navigate the clean, uncluttered site. It’s just as easy to find what you’re looking for. The buying process is simple and direct. Just click on the product you’re interested in, add it to your cart, and checkout.
Rewards Program
Eden Garden offers a straight-forward customer loyalty program. It works like this: For each $1 you spend, you get 1 point. When you earn points, you can redeem them on a future purchase.
The Edens Garden points are called “Aroma Notes” and not points. This alternate wording can be confusing to a new customer, but it is what it is. To start collecting Aroma Notes, all you need to do is sign up for a free account and start shopping.
Customer Care & Return Policy
Edens Garden is proud to be a customer-first company. It offers fast responses to customer inquiries. The company offers a 30 day, no-questions-asked return policy. The Edens Garden team can be reached via telephone or email. The customer service department is open Monday through Friday, 7am-3pm PST.
Young Living
Founded in 1993, Young Living is a Utah-based company. This brand is known the world over as one of the oldest and largest essential oil distributors. Since the late 1990s, Young Living has grown by leaps and bounds. It sells single essential oils, blends, body care products, diffusers, and much more.
Read more: 7 Best Organic Body Washes
Quality and Transparency
Young Living prides itself on establishing the standard known as ‘therapeutic grade’ essential oil. This brand sells 100% pure, natural, uncut oils that maintain their vital therapeutic potency.
Young Living essential oils are not organic. This means that pesticides or herbicides may have used when growing the plants the oils come from.
Young Living implements high standards when choosing the farmers and distillers they work with. The company has a code of “Partnership Principles” it adheres to. It follows every bottle of essential oil from the time the seed is planted until the bottling process is complete.
Every batch of Young Living essential oil is put through rigorous testing. This company has its own scientists that do the researching, testing, and creation of the oils. The brand conducts GC/MS testing. It also conducts other tests like combustibility, densitometry, viscometry, and microscopy.
How Young Living Sells its Oils
Unlike Edens Gardens, Young Living is a multi-level-marketing company or MLM. The brand recruits people to sell their products. Those who sign up have access to varying types of memberships and incentives.
If you’re not familiar with how an MLM works, here’s a quick rundown. For example’s sake, let’s assume the person who’s going to be a Young Living distributor is named Mary. When Mary signs up as a distributor, she’ll sell essential oils to someone we’ll call Susan.
Now that Susan is interested in the essential oils, she decides to start making money as a middleman too. Susan then sells further down the pipeline to her friend, who’ll we’ll call Jean. And Jean will sign up as a distributor too through their initial contact who is Mary. This nested structure then continues to build a team of distributors and sub-distributers for Mary.
This multi-level marketing business is starting to make sense now, right? Since the levels can run deeply, many people can get a cut off of what you pay for the Young Living oils you buy.
Since it’s an MLM company, you can’t just visit the Young Living website and buy what you need. Instead, you have to find a Young Living distributor either online or off.
Rewards Program
In order to earn rewards with Young Living, you have to sign up for an account. Then you must order at least $100 worth of products on a distributer’s website. But that’s not all. You also must sign a rewards agreement that states you’ll place orders monthly.
Once you sign the agreement and start placing orders every month, you’ll be able to tap into the brand’s rewards and bonuses. The company’s Essential Rewards program allows members to earn points they can use toward free products. Points can also be redeemed for reduced shipping fees, priority orders for low-stock items, and more.
Customer Care & Return Policy
Young Living has a return and refund policy in place. If you return an unopened product to a seller within 30 days, you’ll get a full refund via the original payment method. If you return an opened product to a seller within 30 days, you’ll get a full refund via Young Living credit.
If you return an opened or unopened product to a seller after 30 days and up to 80 days, you’ll receive a refund via Young Living credit. If you return an opened product, the amount of credit you’ll receive will depend on how much of the product you used.
Price Comparision
Because these two brands sell their products in two different ways, we’re dedicating an entire section to price comparison. With Young Living, there are several “middle-men” who need to make money off a sale to an end-customer. This pushes the price up of each individual essential oil bottle.
On the other hand, Edens Garden is a non-MLM. This means there’s no need for marking up or hiking prices. Because Edens Garden sells directly to the customer, the brand is able to keep its prices low.
You can conduct your own real-time price comparison test between the two brands. First, visit Amazon and search for ‘Young Living lavender essential oil 5 ml’. Jot down the lowest price you can find. Then head to the Edens Garden website and find the same size bottle of lavender essential oil. Inevibitily, the Young Living oil will cost several dollars more. Get it? It’s the MLM structure that pushes the prices up on Young Living essential oils.
View Eden’s Garden Essential Oils, here.
View Young Living Essential Oils, here.
Conclusion
Of course you want to get your money’s worth when buying and using essential oils. You also want to buy pure oils that aren’t full of harmful chemicals or additives.
Both Edens Garden and Young Living essential oils are pure. If buying organic oils is important to you, then Eden Gardens is the brand to go with. Otherwise, it’s just a matter of deciding which brand offers the oils you want at a price you’re willing to pay.
