Understanding Grades of Essential Oils

The Essential oils in Young Living's collection are life-enhancing gifts from the plant kingdom, revered for centuries for their restorative properties to body, mind, and spirit.

Essential Oil Basics
Essential oils are the highly concentrated, volatile, aromatic essences of plants. Essential oils contain hundreds of organic constituents, including hormones, vitamins and other natural elements that work on many levels. They are 75 to 100 times more concentrated than the oils in dried herbs.

All the countries of the world provide essential oils, making aromatherapy a truly global therapy, and information on the specific properties of each essential oil can be found in any one of the hundreds of books published worldwide on the topic.

Understanding the Grades of Oils
There are significant differences between synthetic fragrance oils and pure essential oils. All Young Living Essential Oils are pure. There are 4 grades of essential oils.
Grade A oils are pure therapeutic quality and are usually made from organically grown plants, and are distilled at the proper temperatures.
Grade B oils are food grade, they may contain synthetics, pesticides, fertilizers, extenders, or carrier oils.
Grade C are perfume grade and may contain the same type of adulterating chemicals as food grade oils. They usually contain solvents which are used to gain a higher yield of oil per harvest. Solvents are not healthy.

Floral Water is a byproduct of the distillation process, a very high quality, IF it comes from a Grade A distillation process. Accordingly, it is a low quality if it comes from poor quality raw materials and/or poor distillations processes.
Synthetic fragrance oils may duplicate the smell of the pure botanical, but the complex chemical components of each essential oil created in nature determine its true benefits. In other words, synthetic fragrance oils will not have the medicinal properties; they are NOT suitable for aromatherapy.

Gems of Naturer
Pure essential oils, like precious jewelry or fine wine, are gems of nature -- the quintessential life force of aromatic plants, sometimes called the "soul" of the plant. People who truly appreciate the qualities of pure essential oils consider each drop a precious jewel to be savored, enjoyed and protected.

Essential oils are absorbed into the fluid surrounding the cells beneath the skin's surface for a variety of effects including deep cleansing, nourishing, rejuvenating and balancing. Essential oils also diffuse into the air to provide olfactory benefits.