FAQ

That's a great question! Honestly Essential is a family project and business. Cecilia Salvesen, the brains behind the oils, blends, books and business is a MASTER Aromatherapist with 26 years of experience under her belt. She's had several major Essential Oil companies approach her to formulate their blends and brands and has taught and trained many alternative health practitioners. She is also my incredible mother with zero online marketing savviness (It's true, she won't deny it). So that's where we stepped in! Her health and essential oil store, based in Orem, Utah, is outgrowing itself and now needs a little nudging in the online spectrum so we created this website to grow the business.

Cecilia is one of the best in the industry and has the portfolio to prove it (more on her can be found HERE). But she wants to provide her refined expertise in oils to everyone who is interested, without any hooks or contingencies. So, yes, we want to sell you the best of the best oils but we also want to help provide you with the best of the best info (and the correct info) in the oil industry. Cecilia Salvesen knows her stuff and wants you to know it too. So Honestly Essential Oils is more than an online oil store, it's a relationship between you (the customer) and us.

 

So glad you asked! Let me tell you a quick story about how large factories work. Years ago, when Cecilia was calling carrier oil manufacturers and asking about their food wheat germ oil, one of the suppliers asked,

"What do you need it for?"

 

When she told him about the nature of her business he nonchalantly replied,

 

"Ah, yes! Well then you really just need the animal grade grapeseed. It's a lot cheaper and all the other major companies we deal with order that one." Her reply was,

 

"No, I want the food grade wheat germ, thank you."

 

When it comes to small businesses we have complete control over the quality of oils we sell and use to make our products. The essential and carrier oils that make up Honestly Essential products are certified organic, kosher or vegan. This is important for many reasons, the most important being STRICT quality control. If you'd like to read the more tedious info on the processing and refinement of essential oils and why organic, kosher and vegan matters, you can read that HERE (and we hope you do take time to read it. It's eye opening and important when it comes to understanding quality).

 

Not only is the quality control and certification key to the quality of the Honestly Essential brand, but each oil, blend and lotion is poured, mixed and created by Cecilia herself to create the most effective products Aromatherapy has to offer. Our goal is to give you the best of the best from the best.

When you test the purity of an essential oil, an unbiased, outside regulator/certifier is a trustworthy agent to do this. When a company tries to pass off inhouse testing as it's primary quality controller or as the equivalent to an outside government certification, you should probably be concerned. For example, pretend you are traveling and you come across a guy on the side of the road selling meat. You ask him if it's fresh and he guarantees you it is. When you ask, "How can I be sure?" And he replies, "because I said it is," do you take him at his word and buy the meat? After all, all you have is HIS word, no one else's and as far as you can tell, he just wants to make some money. Perhaps the meat is fresh and okay to eat. But wouldn't you like someone else making sure that what he's telling you is, in fact, true?

 

This applies with oil quality and control. In house testing IS important, but outside testing and certification is KEY to quality control. These standards and guidelines hold oil companies to a high standard as well as holds them accountable when they don't meet those standards. Currently, some of the strictest certifications are USDA, Kosher and Vegan testing and if they meet these testing standards then they, absolutely, meet therapeutic grade standards.

 

Well CPTG is actually a trademark, not an actual standard of testing. It's a legal term that only one essential oil MLM company is allowed to use. I'm not sure if this company actually does rigorous in-house testing or not but if there were actually a CPTG standard that others could actually mimic and then meet its same criteria, they still wouldn't be able to call their oils CPTG because of the Trademark. It would be like me opening a clothing store and calling it Prada. I'd practically be asking for a lawsuit.  If I'm being 100% honest, I applaud this company's marketing strategies. It's kind of genius, really. Just not the kind of genius we want to emulate at Honestly Essential. 

 

We know what you’re thinking: “Another essential oils company?” We get it. Everywhere you look, it seems like someone is trying to get you to use some essential oil. There are a lot of good reasons, oils can solve a lot of everyday problems without a lot of the cost and side effects of medications, or the scary chemicals in conventional health or cleaning products.

 

Truth is, essential oils and aromatherapy have been around since the ancient civilizations of Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The proud tradition of aromatherapy has benefited humanity for centuries. In recent years, however, there has been a resurgence of interest in the healing abilities of oils.

 

This is generally a great thing, but it has raised some troubling aspects as well. Some opportunistic corporations and individuals have swooped in to take advantage of this increased interest, and they have brought questionable practices with them.

 

What do we mean by that? We’re talking about questionable product sources, even more questionable prices, not enough education in product knowledge and unquestionably aggressive business practices.

 

Everyone suffers when oils are contaminated, prices are inflated, and relationships are turned into business prospects. Without immediate and powerful changes, the world will soon stop trusting anyone involved with essential oils, and everyone will miss out on their wonderful benefits.

 

Our mission is to bring integrity back to essential oils and aromatherapy. We do this by sourcing the best possible oils, giving them fair prices, and treating our customers like family. We will not lie to you, offer you a product that we would not be happy to use ourselves, or try to convince you of a business opportunity. We just want to spread the goodness of essential oils and make aromatherapy a profession to be proud of. 

 

You can sign up for our emailer/newsletter that will send you product information that is relevant to your daily life. Part of using essential oils is knowing how to use them and we want to help you with that. We will also send you information on our latest sales, discounted packages and specials that we will be having in the shop.