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Which Essential Oils are Pure or Synthetic?

Are doTERRA Essential Oils Synthetic? Are doTERRA oils pure or synthetic?Where did this rumor come from? You can't believe everything you read on the internet. Even with our website, don't take my word for it but search around. There's been a lot of rumors about doTERRA since they first started. They shook me up. Ever since I've chosen to use and promote doTERRA Products, I had to know for myself if it is a product that I can put my name behind. It can be alarming to hear news. While some distributors are dogmatic in defending their company. I took a different approach. I continued to share the oils, and waited patiently for the truth to come out. This is why I waited over 2 years to write an article. I think of the following proverb:

Truthful words stand the test of time, but lies are soon exposed.

I asked myself, "Have these oils helped my friends and family?" The answer is "Yes", so I continued to share despite the rumors.  I signed up with doTERRA in 2010, so I've heard inconsistencies in the rumors. They changed over the years. I've heard rumors such as:

  1. doTERRA stole trade secrets (such as a supplier list), so they can purchase oils from the same place as a competitor
  2. doTERRA receives inferior low quality oils. doTERRA is unaware because they work with brokers rather than the suppliers directly.
  3. doTERRA oils are synthetic or have synthetic additives.

Rumor 1 is easily dismissed. Smell the oils and it's obvious they aren't the same

Rumor 2 is dismissed as there is evidence that doTERRA works directly with suppliers. You can check out videos. Some are friends in Hawaii talked with one of the suppliers here. I will go over Rumor 3, which started 5 years after doTERRA has been around.  When did these rumors start? These rumors started in 2013. The first "unbiased" lab reports that stated "doTERRA" essential oils had synthetic components was published. Facebook Screenshot An Owner of a competing essential oil company shared info on his page on May 29, 2013. He has thousands of facebook followers.

The Website he "stumbled across" was fabricated and this incident/post was staged .

The rumors spread fast through social media, Facebook as the president and owner of a competing essential oil company shared a website that he ran into. Thousands of followers shared the information via facebook, email and blogs. It is important to know the history of this fiasco and how doTERRA cleared its name. Certified Syntehtic Website

Who started the rumor? The original website certifiedsynthetic.com has been taken down. Thanks to the Wayback Machine (an internet archive site), I was able to glean some information. The author is anonymous and has provided the "lab results" "for the well-being of the public", encouraging doTERRA competitors to share the information and telling doTERRA consumers that they were betrayed. The "results" they posted alleged that doTERRA Peppermint Essential Oil had synthetic components. The website owner information was not publically listed in the WHOIS registry. Fortunately, doTERRA's legal team did a thorough investigation. They contacted the lab and found that an executive employee of a competitor essential oil company sent an unlabeled non-doTERRA sample to them. They also found that the site belonged to the same employee. This employee worked for the man who posted the results on his Facebook page. (See Image Above)

 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. -One of my favorite scriptures

Take a step back. No matter how you look at it, this was bad. The whole situation was STAGEDIt was basically a smear campaign. Rather than living at peace and focusing on bettering their company, the competitor chose to attack and degrade doTERRA (which does nothing to improve their image or brand). It is not good business practice. Definition of Confidence Trick Definition of Confidence Trick[/caption] In a way, the incident has the same characteristics of a scam or a confidence trick played by con men. The mark/target was people like me, people that love to read and gather information. This includes both doTERRA distributors and potential doTERRA customers. The employee was the shill, someone who purposely gives onlookers the impression that they are independent by the con man. The person who orchestrated all this was the president and owner of a competing essential oil company. Fortunately, it was poorly executed, as everything was traced back to them. doTERRA filed a lawsuit against the competitor company. The Message was Clear: Please conduct business in a professional, civil, and ethical way. The competitor company rebutted with a counter suit. It was hard to deny the fact that they were behind the website attempting to defame doTERRA. Instead, they insisted that what they said was true that doTERRA oils were synthetic and they alleged that different types of oil were synthetic. This was both scary and exciting! It was scary because if the competing company was right in saying the oils are synthetic, I have to reconsider my career. I was exciting, because if doTERRA comes out ahead, we would have a record explaining that the allegations were false and doTERRA oils are pure and natural. [caption id="attachment_333" align="aligncenter" width="754"]GCMS of Peppermint Essential Oil This is an analysis of doTERRA Peppermint Oils.

It is free of synthetic components.

Experts note that the levels of some of the components are high and do not match typical, average, or common "standard/normal" profiles of peppermint essential oil.

For example, eucalyptol aka 1,8 cineole is high. All that indicates that our peppermint oil is uncommon.[/caption] Lawsuits can take a while. Litigation started in the summer of 2013. The process involved bringing in outside experts familiar with plant chemistry. Fortunately, doTERRA has a sample of each batch of oil and the test results of each back, in order to protect itself from lawsuits like this. There was a lot of evidence supporting doTERRA. The results came back in 2014. The lawsuits were dismissed and the competitor withdrew their negative claims regarding the purity of doTERRA essential oils.  doTERRA oils are pure and natural. After that was announced, I attended the doTERRA Convention. There was a surprise, the suppliers of Peppermint Oil were there. They showed us a video, from where the oil was from and how it's made. Let us remember that there are people and faces behind these oils. People who work hard to grow and harvest them. People that work hard to package and distribute them and people that use them and promote them.

Here is the video:


When we are talking about qualities of the oils, we must be careful on what we say because by talking about the oils. What we are really talking about, are the hardworking people behind them. doTERRA oils are pure, potent, and natural. It is a quality that our family stands behind.

Holan Nakata



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