Can Your Essential Oil Company Back Up Their Big Claims? Part 2

I received a comment on Part 1 that has prompted me to finally post my Part 2 & I will respond to this comment. Their comment is in blockquotes throughout this post.

Oh dear. I do not think Ameo is a serious competitor first things first. I think they have a really clever marketing team that is pulling a fast one on a lot of people but I don’t think they can seriously stand up to Young Living. The reason I did not specifically mention this company is NOT because I think my readers are too stupid to figure out who I’m talking about but because I don’t want to be sued. It has happened to bloggers voicing their opinion or posting their research with other companies in other industries. I work part-time as a nurse I don’t have a lot of money and the little I do have I don’t need tied up in court fees to defend my first amendment rights so I was trying to play it safe and only mention their CERTI-5 “difference” (read-trademark!) so that my readers, who I know are amazingly brilliant men and women, could use their powers of deduction to find out what company I was referencing. I mean I linked to the trademark which states the company name so let’s not assume I was trying to hide what company I was talking about. You won’t see me mention doTerra much either. It’s not because I think both companies are quick to sue anyone but they obviously have legal teams for a reason and I don’t feel like spending my time and energy defending myself.

First of all as I wrote about in my earlier post and as you concede above Young Living does the same tests in fact they perform an Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography test on top of all the other test Ameo does. I didn’t see that test listed under Ameo’s Certi-5 difference. As I mentioned in the other post this is a piece of equipment that cost YL 100k here is an excerpt from Gary Young’s blog…

“The main differences between GC and LC is that GC uses a gas mobile phase, while LC uses a liquid mobile phase. Mobile phase refers to what is pushing the sample through the system. Another difference is that a GC focuses on light, volatile compounds, while LC focuses on heavier, larger compounds that don’t necessarily show up in a GC.It’s taken me many years to get that instrument because it costs so much money. That one instrument cost over $100K. I didn’t need to do that. I could have taken a bonus. But yes, I did need to do it for each of you so that you know when I say your oil is pure, it’s not a guess and I’m not standing up here telling you a bunch of lies. It’s a fact. I’ve invested in your present and in your future.”

Second, let’s talk about this Cell Active & Permeable nonsense. First what is permeable “(of a material or membrane) allowing liquids or gases to pass through it.” What Ameo probably means, and is hoping their consumer is too dense to realize their wording is incorrect, is that their oils are capable of permeating cells. Again, thank you Ameo for treating us like idiots. I’m sorry to burst your bubble friend but permeating a cell has more to do with size and nothing to do with the quality of the essential oil. Cell permeability has more to do with the cell in question than the essential oil. As long as we are talking about the same essential oil let’s say lemon essential oil then if your brand A is capable of permeating a cell then brand B will be too.

Here is a study via PubMed where they are studying essential oils and their ability to penetrate skin.  It doesn’t mention if they used Ameo I’m assuming not since the study was published in 2012 and Ameo was launched in 2014.  Again this statement from Ameo is a marketing ploy and it has nothing, zero, nada, zip to do with the quality of the essential oil. If I go down to my local grocery store and buy lemon essential oil then it will penetrate my skin & be ‘cell permeable’ too just like Ameo’s, and just like Young Living’s. The difference is how the oil was obtained, distilled, grown, harvested etc. The only thing I could find in reference to how Ameo essential oils are distilled is one sentence from their website, “The distillation techniques used to extract Améo Essential Oils incorporate the latest and greatest practices, technology, and equipment.” Hmm, funny how they go into so much detail about the tests they run on the oils but they seem to be quiet silent on how they are obtaining those oils. A quick Google search returned a ton of videos from Young Living on their custom stainless steel distillery.

Young Living does not own the patent to therapeutic grade. They have their Seed to Seal guarantee and their essential oils are the highest quality due to their commitment to growing, custom distillation techniques, and their complete oversight into their partner farms. Ameo made up a marketing term ‘clinical grade’ and trademarked the term ‘Certi-5‘ and threw a bunch of SCIENCE at us hoping we wouldn’t dig too deeply into their science terminology. They saw an opportunity to make money and they moved right in. My issue is with their marketing techniques. Attempting to fool or trick the average person into thinking that SCIENCE has approved your essential oils as clinical grade is just preying on those without the knowledge to see through those claims or those new to essential oils without a proper background to see that all of those fancy terms can’t show you if the company had control of the plant from the seed to the seal like Young Living does.

I’m not even sure where to start with this. It’s true I could probably find dirt on any topic, company, or person if I wanted. I don’t. Listen dear readers when I tell you I researched a TON before choosing Young Living it is not a lie or my own clever marketing term it is the absolute truth! I read all the negative articles and the MLM bashing. I wasted, in my own opinion, time trying to find another company that owned their own farms and had anything resembling Seed to Seal. I could not find it. As a nurse and as a consumer I know and have seen the side effects of drugs, pharmaceuticals, etc and how important it is to research before blindly using products based on testimonials or marketing terms. From what I learned about essential oils I wanted to be sure that the plants themselves were monitored before distillation. While I love Young Living as a company I originally purchased a starter kit through them for their high quality oils not out of some fanatical devotion to the company. It took me a couple weeks/months to figure out Young Living is a great company with great ethics and devotion to their customers. I was a little hesitant from all that I had read but I have found none of it to be true and am pretty pleased with the decision I made.

I don’t think they are ‘copying’ Young Living. If they were copying they would be more concerned with purchasing land and growing their essential oils than with all the tests and clinical grade nonsense. I think they looked at Young Living and doTerra and cherry picked the best of both companies repackaged and relabeled everything and held it up to the masses saying “We are new and better we have clinical grade!” Once you look it all over with a discerning eye you realize they are no different than any other essential oil rebottler and they cannot stand up to Young Living’s Seed to Seal guarantee. If a company comes along that owns over 6 farms and has complete control of their partner farms, is as dedicated to the purity and quality of their essential oils such as Young Living I would consider them. I would look just as closely at them as I have with doTerra, Ameo, Plant Therapy, NAN, and yes even Young Living got a harsh look through my skeptical world view-but I would consider them. It has taken Young Living 20+ years to amass the land and distilleries they are constantly on the hunt for new and innovative techniques so I doubt a new upstart could burst onto the scene with 6+ farms and custom distillation methods which is why I think Ameo went this other route of trying to fool/trick/deceive us into thinking clinical grade is an actual thing and that it is somehow better than CPTG or therapeutic grade. In my mind it does not matter how many tests you run on your essential oils if you don’t have complete control over the harvest then I want nothing to do with your company. Yes the tests are important but they don’t tell me enough about where the company is obtaining their essential oils and how those oils are farmed.

And yes, again, here is another thing that Young Living does: third party testing. From the Young Living website, “Young Living never accepts diluted, cut, or adulterated oils. To guarantee consistent quality, our oils are tested in Young Living’s own internal labs, as well as in third-party facilities, to ensure that they meet stringent specifications, exceed international standards, and contain the optimal levels of natural bioactive compounds.” (emphasis mine)