Episode 63: Five Special Oils

doTERRA: Everyone has their favorite oil. The one that you connected with instantly and has become your go-to in almost every situation. Talking to someone else about their favorite oil can give a fun insight into their personality, as well as give you some fun, new ideas of oils to try. So that's exactly what we did today. 

Welcome back to essential oil solutions with doTERRA, the podcast where you'll hear exciting, useful, and simple everyday uses for essential oils from experts in the field. If you like what you hear today, rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen. We always appreciate hearing from you. Today, we're excited to talk to Laura Jacobs about a few of her favorite oils and how she uses them in her daily life.

Laura, thank you so much for coming and joining us today. 

Laura Jacobs: Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. I can't imagine talking about anything more enjoyable than essential oils. 

doTERRA: So my first question for you is more of a general question. What is aromatherapy and how can I use it?

Laura: Aromatherapy is inherent in its name: aromatherapy, right? So that means therapy that's conducted through the use of aromas. And, you know, that could sound like kind of a loose term because could you call your air freshener that you plug into your living room aromatherapy? You could, right? 

But in it's pure or, you know, in its more original intention, it would be about using the aromas of plants, not synthetics, to actually perform some act of therapy on the human body.

Now because we're, again, using the word aroma, then we would be thinking more about inhalation or experience where you're breathing in or smelling some kind of an aroma.

Interestingly enough, though, your whole body smells in some way, shape, or form, so anytime you're around aroma, and it's being, you know, permeated into an environment. 

doTERRA: Wow, that is incredible. And these smells have such a power to influence your environment, and make it customizable, and make sure that it's working for you. 

So I want to ask you about how to create a few different types of environments in our homes or workspaces, wherever we might need them. So what oils do you recommend to help create a positive environment?

Laura: You know, typically you're going to lean into more of a citrus or a mint is what people are going to think as being more uplifting, or invigorating, or refreshing. So if you're going for that kind of a move, that would be the two families I would look to first. And, of course, flowers. I shouldn't leave the flowers out. They’re of course like, “Smell a flower.” Right? So those three (flowers, citrus, and mint).

doTERRA: Perfect. And do you have a particular favorite that you like to go to for a positive environment?

Laura: You know, that's sort of like asking a mother what her favorite child is. And I would tell you that I see my oils as my friends. And so if I want a certain experience, I mean, I think to myself, “Which one of my friends has the right personality to bring the right environment?” And I'm going to select more from that paradigm. 

Although it's very natural to just say what do I love the smell of? So if you're just asking me what I love the smell of, it would be, like, our Beautiful blend, or our Whisper blend, or certain flowers. You know, you just have certain things. 

And then I would go on, and on, and on. I would say, “Oh yeah, but I like this one and this one.” It really just depends on what I'm trying to create, and that's what I love. I look at my oils like a box of chocolates. I think each one could have an imaginary mood listed on its lid. 

And it'd be like, “OK, in this moment I want to fill this. So I'm going to grab this friend, and we're going to create that kind of an environment together.”

doTERRA: And that sounds so fun, all of these options and just endless possibilities for creating that environment. Can you tell us a little bit about Spearmint essential oil and its ability to help with your positive environment?

Laura: Yes, you know, Spearmint is a little bit of a newer member of the doTERRA family, versus, like, our long, steady, forever friend Peppermint. And so when we—it's fun to watch our doTERRA family with acquisition of new oils and the perplexity that can come across someone's face of like, “What do I do with another mint?” 

And so, when it comes to Spearmint, I mean, first of all, have you chewed peppermint and spearmint gum? They don't have the same flavor 

doTERRA: Right. 

Laura: And so, you know, because both of those oils are labeled for internal consumption, you're going to have a different flavor experience.

So Spearmint is actually a ton of fun to use in cooking, especially like a summer beverage. You know, when you think of something really refreshing. Peppermint’s more pungent or sharp maybe in its minty-ness. 

Whereas Spearmint is a little bit softer. It's a little bit gentler. They both have tremendous capacity to help with digestive disruptions or discomforts, shall we call them. So your mints are always going to be settling and easing to any sort of digestive experience. They're also very cooling but, again, and looking by contrast between, I think, again, contrasting Spearmint to Peppermint helps understand it better.

doTERRA: Right. 

Laura: And Spearmint, again, is cooling. But what if I'm working with a small child, and if I were to place Peppermint on their chest, it might cause them to go “Oh!” Right? And then that's not really helpful, you know, because we're supposed to be opening airways, not closing them. 

And so Spearmint would be a gentler version of that. It's also cooling, just like our Peppermint. So if I want to open airways, ease digestion, and cool down, Spearmint is going to be right up there in its capacity, but it's going to approach it in a little bit more of a gentler way than our Peppermint. And so it may not feel as, shall we say, sensational on the skin. So I think they're very interchangeable. 

But the other thing about your mints, and again, Spearmint is right there, and it's just such a delightful aroma and it just tastes so good, is for invigoration. 

doTERRA: Right. 

Laura: Your mints have a way of sort of spurring you on and helping you feel like, “I can do this.” 

And so Peace, our Peace blend, when they were looking to blend a mint family member into that blend, Peppermint wasn't chosen, Spearmint was. And so, you know, when we're looking at our Motivate and our Peace blend and we're looking at what are the jobs we hired them to do, then there are calming aspects to oils like Spearmint as well.

doTERRA: Interesting. I would never have thought about that. That's amazing. 

Laura: And again, that's a personality. 

doTERRA: Right.

Laura: So, like, OK, I'm being a hothead. I'm feeling stressed. You know, blah, blah, blah. I'm just not feeling like myself, and I need to get on my game. So then, I'm going to grab that Spearmint and maybe pair, I think your Peppermint or Spearmint pair extremely well with a citrus. And again, that's where that summer beverage comes in. 

doTERRA: Right. 

Laura: Because mint and the citrus. But that's a really commonplace plant, blending thing for a human being to lean into because it does exactly what we want it to do. It calms us down, but while it also helps us get on our game and get moving forward. 

doTERRA: And I love those recommendations. I think that's amazing. And I want to go home and try Spearmint in every aspect of my life now. 

Laura: By all means, at least lick it. 

doTERRA: So moving on to our next type of environment. What do you recommend to help create a restful environment? 

Laura: Again, oils. My goodness, there's so many you can hire to do this job for you. And there's so many favorites. 

And of course, there's singles. You know, you've got Roman Chamomile, for example, and Lavender, which are just king, you know, king oil choices in this category of restfulness. 

What's also fun to look at with essential oils is the synergy of blending them. So you think of personalities. Like you and I, we are each different people. We have different talents, and we can each, like, totally bring it. But when we get together, oh my goodness, there's a synergy and a well-roundedness that comes by combining talents. And so, I really like blending for the purpose of restfulness because you can hire a well-rounded team. 

So, of course, Serenity, you know, outside of Lavender, being like the ultimate essential oil that everybody thinks of as being calming and restful. When it comes to the doTERRA family and it comes to, you know, who who's like really primo in this department, our Serenity blend is just bar none. And it's so beautiful. It smells amazing. 

It actually blends well with other singles and blends. 

doTERRA: Interesting. 

Laura: Which just fun. Like, Serenity and Balance together is a really fun combination. I even have a team member who taught me to blend, check this out. This will just be like, what? Serenity and Lemongrass. 

doTERRA: Oh, wow. 

Laura: Like, I mean, Lemongrass is kind of like intense, shall we say. But when she invited that, I'm like, “Well, who would've thought?” You know? But it's actually quite an amazing blend. You can do Serenity and Motivate. You can do Serenity and Lime. So again, you can, it's just like our Spearmint/Wild Orange conversation, you can use it on its own or you can use it with other singles and blends. 

But Serenity, I can promise you, will always do the job you hired it to do. It's a peaceful, restful, calming blend, specifically formulated for more of a nighttime experience. Now, there are times that you could certainly pull it out during the day, and that might be when you're combining it with Balance. 

So maybe you’ve got, like, a situation on your hands where your mind is whirling and your to do list won't stop talking to you, and it's still talking you in the middle of the night. And you're like, “Hey, I'm trying to sleep here.” So Serenity is really good at really helping to nurture, which is why we also have our softgels.

doTERRA: Right.

Laura: And the kind of activity we're trained to nurture for nighttime. So this one is beautiful. It has some amazing oils in this blend, like the Roman Chamomile that I mentioned, like Lavender that we talked about. It's got Vetiver, Ylang Ylang, Marjoram, Ho Wood, a little Vanilla in there, and a little Hawaiian Sandalwood. So it's just a beautiful, really unique smelling blend. 

doTERRA: Right.

Laura: And you just can't go wrong with this choice. 

doTERRA: And it really is like you said. It's such a beautiful smell. From the time you open the bottle it just fills the room, and you can feel yourself kind of just exhale and just feel ready to lie down and get a little bit more rest.

Laura: I love that. I love you said, that's going to be my new nickname for it. It's going to be the exhale oil. Right? Because so much of the time we're trying to take life in, but you got to let it out. Or you don't have room to take it in again. 

doTERRA: Right. 

Laura: So we’re kind of going around, holding our breath through the day. And I love that at the end of the day, it's like put a period on your day and invite exhale, like the day is over. 

doTERRA: Yeah. 

Laura: When it comes to application, of course, diffusing Serenity is going to be, because it smells so beautiful. 

But start putting it into your environment or on your body like 30 minutes before you're wanting to fall asleep so that that chemistry is already working with you and relaxing you. Otherwise, you may be needing to spend a half hour with it once you lay down. And that's fine. But I really prefer to use my Serenity about 30 minutes before I want my head to hit the pillow so that I'm already unwinding. 

doTERRA: And that is amazing, and then when you go to bed, you're ready to go to bed. I think that's wonderful. So moving on to our next environment, what oils do you recommend to create an encouraging environment?

Laura: So once again, doTERRA has no shortage of opportunities to feel encouraged. You know, one blend that's called our Encouraging Blend is our Motivate blend. And that's probably one people are more familiar with. 

However, at this time, we should talk about a blend called Citrus Bloom because it's a lesser-known member of our family. And once again, notice the pattern here. We're combining things like citrus oils. 

And in this case instead of going for a mint, so with the Motivate it's more of an emphasis on the citrus and the mint combination, whereas with Citrus Bloom, we're really tapping into more of the flowers and the citrus combination. So this particular one is Wild Orange, Grapefruit, Lavender, oh, and there's that Roman Chamomile again, and Magnolia. 

Oh my gosh. Can we talk about Magnolia? It’s the most glorious flower. It's actually kind of fascinating. So when you talk about encouraging, I really think it's important to look at the wisdom that's already contained in the plant. So by the time an orange tree made an orange, it's mastered that. Right? 

It actually knows how to bring things, check this out, to, I'm going to say the word wrong on purpose, fruit-ion. Right? Get it? 

doTERRA: Yeah. 

Laura: So Wild Orange and the plant, and the tree, and the flower, and the whole combination knows how to bring things to fruition. So it's already mastered that wisdom. So every time you look at a plant, a flower, or whatever, look at what it's already mastered how to do because it's like this sage wisdom that you're now bringing that knowledge into your environment, into your body, because that chemistry already knows how to enact that result.

So when you bring an essential oil into your world, or a blend, you're bringing in the sage wisdom of a plant that has existed and mastered its existence over generations. Like, it's been practicing how to be amazing. And so, like, it's got it down. 

doTERRA: Yeah. 

Laura: So when you bring that into your world, your body is like hey, you're suddenly like brilliant. Right? So with Magnolia, I look at that flower and how it blossoms, and it's kind of shy in how it approaches life. So it's got these beautiful, long petals, and it's all closed up.

And then as it opens up, magnificently and broadly, so the leaves, you know, or the petals open up broadly. And then it exposes its center. It reminds me of how sometimes we're shy about opening up who we are. But with encouragement and light, like the sun in our lives, with encouragement, then we choose to open up, and we choose to share broadly who we are. 

So when I look at Citrus Bloom, I don't just look at hey, I got some citrus, you know, and some flowers in here. I look at what's the behavior they already know how to do. So when you pair like Wild Orange and Grapefruit with a Magnolia, you've got these two citrus oils that are really good at bringing things to fruition, and you're pairing it with a Magnolia that's all about opening up and broadening and widening and exposing who you are.

Do you see how the citruses encourage you to bring yourself to fruition? That is like the ultimate encouraging blend. And just in case that makes you nervous, thinking about being the best version of yourself well, hey, we got Lavender and Roman Chamomile on board to keep you calm while you're being invited to blossom. And so, it's a beautiful combination of oils. And so the oils are just magnificent at helping us be the best version of who we are.

doTERRA: That is such an incredible sentiment that I will never forget. 

Laura: You're never going to look at Citrus Bloom the same way. Right? 

doTERRA: I really won’t. That's the one I'm going to put on every time I need a little bit of help to be my best self, and I think that's beautiful.

Laura: Yeah, just to remind you to open up, expose the magnificence of who you are. Right? You have this divine nature that's inside of you that's just dying to be expressing itself. And when you put it in light, you know, in encouraging situations, then that invitation is nurtured.

doTERRA: Thank you so much for that. So I want to shift gears a little bit right now from this aromatherapy application to more of a topical application, specifically our skin. Our skin gets exposed to so much throughout the day. It's our bodies’ defense to everything we come in contact with. So what are some easy lifestyle tips that I can use to show some love to my skin?

Laura: So you know, I love that you brought up the defense mechanism that our skin is. I think of us kind of like a donut because you've got a hole down the middle. Right? And your gut skin is kind of really similar in its makeup to your skin skin. 

doTERRA: Right. 

Laura: And so your skin is taking it for you. Like, it's your shield, it’s your armor that's helping be that barrier between you and the outside world. And of course, it's being exposed by the sun and all kinds of things. And oftentimes, we're not that mindful of what we're actually putting on our skin. 

doTERRA: Absolutely. 

Laura: You know, I teach a philosophy of the body really ultimately only has two causes forever going awry. And that's one, there's too much of the wrong thing that it's dealing with. And you know, that can be like self-induced, meaning you're putting harmful things on or in you or you're just not getting your junk out.

doTERRA: Right.

Laura: You know, if you, like, burn calories there's waste, and it's got to go. So one breakdown then in the body and in health is we're just simply not—we have too much of the wrong thing, and the body is being overwhelmed by it. 

And the other is we need more of the right thing. So when you think of being exposed, topically into the skin, the first thing you want to ask yourself is “what am I putting on my skin consciously, and is it the best choice?” Again, I'm hiring every single thing I put on my skin to do a job. And did I hire the best employee or was I being cheap and, you know, hired something for a really low cost, only to realize it's going to cost me to make up for what I just put on my skin? 

So, you know, be mindful of chemicals and synthetics and things because your skin is a permeable barrier. So you want to be making the choice to put high-quality products and substances on your skin. 

Even think about your cleaning. You have your hands in chemicals. And if you think they're not going in you, I got news for you. They're going in you. They're becoming part of you. 

So we have such an opportunity, again, with essential oils too, I don't know, I kind of think of it like repentance. Like, I put some bad stuff on my skin or, you know, I put my hands in the bad things. So we have just this reparative aspect that we can offer, or, you know, pay. 

I grew up in California. I was a sun worshipper, still am. And at 57, it kind of shows. Right? So I've got some, you know, sun-exposure repentance to do there. So whatever the case is, and that's because my body doesn't have enough of the right thing to protect me from that sun exposure. 

So, when you look at our oils and using them on the skin, one of the things that's lovely is to really take advantage of doTERRA’s mindfulness in creating so many Touch products, that they're already, you know, I think it's all just—

OK. I already told you I'm 57, almost, not quite. I rounded up. But as a mom of grownup kids, and a grandma, and a girl who's a baby boomer, you know, who is born really close to Gen X, who's raising millennials, and so on, it's funny to watch the nature and the change of consumers. And one of the things we’re watching with, like, the millennial generation is they really like things already unpacked or packed for them. Right? 

So like, the fact that it's easy to grab a Touch is really advantageous. And so, the fact that we already have, you know, Frankincense and Rose, for example, packaged for us, ready to go, I mean I use them all the time. 

doTERRA: Right. 

Laura: You know, my mom was having a serious incident in her life on Sunday, and I happened to walk in at just the right time. And I'm telling you that the first thing I ran for was the Frankincense oil. And fortunately, in my scramble, what did I find? I found the Touch. And so, when we're working with skin sensitivities, and small children, or fragility, or a compromised health, or even infants, or the elderly, to be able to apply an oil in a Touch version is really, really helpful because it's already diluted.

So there's two advantages to a Touch. One, it's diluted. So our potential for skin sensitivity is mitigated. And we can feel so confident that it's already prepackaged for us. Right? And ready to go, ready to roll on. 

Number two, we've learned a lot about sustainability of oil. So there are volatile compounds, not violent, not to be confused, but volatile. So volatile, meaning, for example, they flash off easily. So they evaporate rapidly.

So when you just slap an oil on your skin because you're trying to get an effect with the skin, if you don't take the time to rub that in, it's not fixed on your skin. It can flash off. So if you're just like quick swipe and go, a lot of it could, actually, as much as like 80 percent of it, could be evaporated instead of going into the place you want it. 

So by combining it with a fixative, like a carrier oil, a fatty substance, you are fixing it to the skin. You are preventing evaporation. And you're creating sustained absorption. Because the other side of a pure oil going into the skin is what does get in the skin will move right through the dermal layers and right into the bloodstream and start circulating in the body.

So if you have a desire to have an impact on the skin in a certain location and you want it to stay there and do its work—so if I want to work on my lovely, nearly 57-year-old face of the sun worshipping girl, right? Then I actually use Frankincense and Rose on my face everyday. 

doTERRA: Wow. 

Laura: But if I put them on my face and I don't fix them with a fatty substance, I'm not going to get the same sustainability of benefits to my face skin, unless it’s, again, combined with a fixative. So I just slap it on there, it's going to go down through the dermal layer, which is awesome. 

But I do think when we're looking at skin health in particular, whether it's face or otherwise, you're always going to want to look at putting your oil on—for the most part, I don’t want to use the word always, but for the most part—with some sort of fixative, which is why the Touch delivery system is so perfect for that.

doTERRA: And that is so incredible. And just the knowledge of, like, taking the time to really make sure that the oil is doing what you're trying to get it to do. 

Laura: Right. 

doTERRA: And that you're not losing all the benefits by being too hasty or not paying enough attention to it.

Laura: Yeah, mindfulness matters—

doTERRA: Absolutely.

Laura: When it comes to aromatherapy and essential oil usage is a little bit of mastery and artfulness to your methods can make a world of difference in your results.

doTERRA: That is incredible. So you mentioned using the Frankincense Touch and the Rose Touch on your face. Can you tell us a little bit about how you utilize them? You know, when you utilize them? How, in your routine, they work in? 

Laura: You bet. So I like the oils to go on first. I like them to have the first right, and then I layer stuff on top of it. Right? So again, just to fix them there. 

And I would say, like, I also use our Yarrow, but it's blue so I don’t put that on during the day while the blueness is going away. But I do like to use the Frankincense and the Rose twice a day because they're both so famous for what they do. 

So if I was thinking about, OK, what job am I hiring Frankincense to do. Well, it really specializes—it could sound like I'm saying the same thing over again with Rose because I could repeat myself and say it's really good with helping, you know, with cellular turnover. But they're not the same. 

If you look at the chemistry, you've got Frankincense, for example, that's very high in things like alpha-pinene, which is over here in our monoterpene hydrocarbon chemical category, if I want to speak like a chemist. 

And then Rose is really, really, high in geraniol, which is a very different chemical. And it's an alcohol. So they're both monoterpenes, but they're—one’s a hydrocarbon and then one's more of an alcohol. So they're very different chemically. You're going to reach for those things for different reasons. So when I want something to be magnificently like replenishing and repairing and restorative action, Rose is going to be like that. Right?

And it's very soothing. And, like, think of a rose petal and how gentle and soft, you know, that is. And so, it's so famous for its capacity to really help promote healthy-looking complexion, to be, you know. What's the right way to say it? Promote youthful-looking skin. 

You know, hey, some of us have wrinkles. Right? And then any kind of skin imperfection, it's just there to help reduce, shall we say, any undesirable. Right? That's where it really specializes. It's there to just help restore the suppleness of the skin, and to really support ridding the skin of the things that stress it out, and promoting—like—healthy collagen production, for example, and just really shows up and shines in that department. 

doTERRA: Well, that is so incredible. And I love the advice to keep that Frankincense and Rose with you, using it twice a day to make sure your skin is glowing at its highest capacity.

Laura, thank you so much for sitting down with us today and for sharing your incredible amounts of wisdom and knowledge about essential oils.

Laura: Well, thanks for having me, and it's always a delight to discuss, like I said, my best friends.

doTERRA: Thanks for joining us and congratulations on living a healthier lifestyle with essential oils. If you liked what you heard today, rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen. Also, if you want to try any of the products you learned about, go to doterra.com or find a Wellness Advocate near you to place an order today.