I had no intentions of this being a 2 part post, but since writing the first one I’ve thought of several other things I’d do different with oils in retrospect.

1. I would watch my bottle levels more carefully. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve failed to do this, run out of an oil, then had to wait for days for it to come in. I believe the new labels YL is making will prevent this. There is a little opening on some labels that let you see the bottle level. The way labels are now, you have to remember periodically to peel the label back and check to see if you’re almost out.

2. Not getting YL bottle fitments sooner. I tried 3 types of roller bottles before realizing the fitments work the best. Either the ball wouldn’t roll, too much oil would come out, or the ball was plastic and couldn’t be used with citrus blends. The fitments are metal, roll smoothly and are just perfect.

3. Writing off an oil because I didn’t like the smell. Joy, Vetiver, and Peace and Calming are three I remember hating when I first tried them, so they sat on the shelf for about a month. Then at the Thrive Conference I did a zyto-scan which lets you know which oils your body needs, and vetiver was the second listed, and a couple ingredients in Joy and P & C were listed as well. I also have since learned that it’s common to dislike oils initially and that dislike is often an indicator that your body needs that oil.

Another option for using oils that have scents you don’t like is to apply to your feet. Use a vita-flex foot map like the one below. It will show you where to apply!

4. Not signing up for Essential Rewards sooner. Once you have a premium starter kit and are a member, you are literally throwing money away by not signing up for ER. Young Living gives you back 10% of all you purchase to use toward free oils. No brainer!

I hope my mistakes can help save you time, money, oil, or perhaps help you give an oil a second chance if it didn’t work out the first try.

Memory. This is what got me into essential oils in the first place. I was on a quest to get my mom back, so that she could remember my little girl’s name, remember the conversation we had five minutes ago, and be there for us for years to come…I needed her…how could I do this life without her? I was so determined to help her. It became my life’s mission.

My mom unfortunately lost her battle before I learned what I now know about memory support. But I can take what I’ve learned and absolutely apply to support my own memory, which I don’t know why I’m embarrassed to share with you, but I am a classic textbook description of beginning stages of memory issues though no formal diagnosis.

I know we all have had moments where we accidentally put the cereal box in the fridge or look for our glasses, and lo and behold, they are on our face, but I was having so many of these moments that my sixth graders were regularly asking if I was ok.

I would work problem number one in front of my math students, but accidentally write a number from problem two. I would carry all my pencils back to my desk during the day and by block four have no pencils and no recollection of carrying any of them back there. A colleague even recently helped me download files to my desktop on a day I forgot to take my product I’m about to share with you, and when I asked her again if she could help me load the files because I didn’t have them yet, the worried look on her face even scared me.

It was a year ago this week that I sat in the Young Living conference, captivated, learning about a life-changing product called Mindwise. I started taking a child-size dose daily and within a week I immediately saw a difference. My confidence was way up because I could attend to conversations and catch 100% of what was being said instead of half. The Mindwise, along with my focus and brain fog rollers, plus Rosemary in my necklace seems to be the magic combination for me and I cannot say enough about what they have done for all facets of my life. I’m clear headed, a better teacher, a better friend and a more with-it mom.

I think the price tag scares some folks but my ER points cover it, and a bottle lasts me two months. If you have any need to support your memory whatsoever, please post your questions for me in the comments because I do consider myself quite knowledgable on the topic!
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MindWise™ combines exotic sacha inchi nut oil with a proprietary MindWise oil blend for a unique supplement that supports normal brain and heart function.* Harvested from the Peruvian Amazon, sacha inchi nuts are cold pressed to create a vegetarian oil with a high proportion of unsaturated fatty acids and an unmatched percentage of desirable omega-3 fatty acids (α-Linolenic acid). Medium chain triglycerides (MCT) and pure essential oils are added to complete the MindWise oil blend. The proprietary Memory blend features ALCAR, GPC, and bio-identical CoQ10, ingredients that have been studied for their beneficial health properties. Generous amounts of vitamin D3 and a unique delivery method create a premium supplement that supports normal memory function and overall cognitive and cardiovascular health.*

When I began using essential oils and actually began trying out some oils for myself and the girls, I did some really silly things just out of ignorance. Looking back, when I think of how much I wasted, careless mistakes I made, and safety issues I failed to address, it leaves me feeling responsible to share them with others.

I thought it could be helpful to write a post on mistakes I made as a rookie oil user to help prevent others from going through a bit of the learning curve that I trekked through.

Mistake 1: Wash your hands everytime you handle an oil. This prevents you from accidentally rubbing your eyes and getting EO in them (ouch! It really burns!) When you apply oils topically you can’t help but get them on your fingers and it’s easy to forget when you’re just going through your morning or evening routine…but don’t forget! I have done this more times than I care to tell you. If and when you do get an oil in your eyes, use coconut oil vs. water. Coconut oil works like a charm and gives immediate cooling relief.

Mistake #2: Too many drops of oil in the diffuser/trusting Pinterest for my EO education. Be careful when looking for recipes on Pinterest. They often times call for way more drops of oil in your diffuser than needed (3-6 drops is plenty!) or more drops than necessary in a cream or roller. More oils isn’t always better. I want to get my recipes from one of the other Joydroppers that I trust in our groups or from a reliable source like The Gentle Babies book.

Mistake #3: Not trying one oil at a time. I made the mistake of making a face roller that worked for a bunch of other girls, but made me break out. There were 4 oils in the blend and I had no way of knowing which one was making me break out. If I had tried one at a time, I could have saved precious oil and money. Costly mistake. Introducing one oil to your body at time is always good advice.

Mistake #4: Not using caution with citrus oils. I can think of 3 incidents where this happened for me.

One, I added lemon to my face roller to brighten my skin. I didn’t understand why the lemon wasn’t helping brighten my skin, but making it worse instead. It was because I was using citrus by day! I was using the roller by day, and lemon is photosensitive oil that can CAUSE sunspots and shouldn’t be used when exposed to the sun. Oops.

I would either apply citrus EOs at night, add carrot EO to my roller in the spring and summer months, or layer with sunscreen.

Two, I used thieves to make a hand sanitizer in a cheap plastic bottle and didn’t realize thieves contains lemon which will break down a cheap plastic. Within a couple months of use, my bottle started looking warped and the lid looked as if it was melting. Yikes!

Three, at a make and take workshop, my oily partner and I decided to add a drop of Orange EO to our orange juice that we were drinking from disposable plastic cups. The oil immediately started breaking down the cup before our eyes! Never will we put citrus in plastic again!

As I’ve learned more about citrus and the amazing things these oils can do for the body, that kind of makes sense. Citrus oils detoxify and help our body break down and digest our food and those same constituents were going to work on that plastic.

So absolutely be sure do use glass with citrus or blends containing citrus. I even make sure the roller balls in my roller bottles are metal or glass.

These aren’t easy mistakes to admit, but they all could have been avoided if I had been informed.