It's Beginning to Smell a Lot Like Christmas

One of the best parts of the holiday season has to be the wonderful smells.  Some of my favorites are cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg,- probably because they remind me of gingerbread cookies!  In the past I've used a variety of scented candles, room spray, and potpourri, but this year I am so excited to use my diffuser and essential oils to keep the house smelling like Christmas. 

I ordered a bottle of Christmas Spirit blend last month, but it has not arrived yet so I have been mixing up some of my own blends.  The possibilities really are endless and it is a lot of fun experimenting.  I've been involving the kids and having them make up their own recipes too, which they are thoroughly enjoying. 

All Purpose Soothing Balm & Diaper Lotion

Have you started (or finished?!?) your holiday shopping yet?  This year I am endeavoring to make as many gifts as possible and I am excited to have found some great ideas using essential oils. This first recipe is something I have been making for a few years now and is pretty much considered a necessity around here.  

When my kids were babies I cloth diapered them and one of my greatest frustrations was finding a diaper lotion that was both cloth diaper safe as well as effective.  After a lot of searching I found a natural brand that met my criteria, but it was *very* expensive.  The ingredients were fairly simple though and after a bit of experimenting I was able to develop a recipe that I was happy with and worked well for us.

Thieves Essential Oil

This article is the third in our "Living the Essential Life" series by Danielle McElroy.  Danielle is an oil enthusiast who enjoys living the natural life with her cat in a cozy cottage in the Boonies.  We are very fortunate to have Danielle as a part of our team applying her excellent research skills to the field of aromatherapy and essential oils.   

It's November and this month Young Living's Canadian promo items are all from the Thieves line-- just in time for cold and flu season.  You can get FREE Thieves products with any order of 190 PV or more.  (For more details check out Young Living Thieves Free Promo Items).  This is going to make a lot of folks happy out there because Thieves products are a huge favorite due to their effectiveness and versatility.

If you've never tried any of the Thieves products yet, you are probably wondering, “What's all the fuss about?”  and, “Why the weird name?”  For newcomers, here is your crash course in Thieves.

Thieves Household Cleaner

If you have been using essential oils for any amount of time, then you probably already love the thieves oil blend. But have you heard about Young Living's amazing, all-natural, non-toxic, and highly effective, Thieves household cleaner?

When my sister first told me about it I remember rolling my eyes (we were talking on the phone). While my mouth was saying “wow, that sounds really great”, my mind was thinking “there is no way that I am ever going to spend $30 on a bottle of cleaner”.  

The funny part was that I had transitioned to all natural cleaners years ago and I’ve actually paid $30 for a bottle of cleaner more than once.   I actually had quite an embarrassingly large collection of expensive, and mostly only partially used, natural cleaners in my kitchen and laundry room.  

Oregano Essential Oil

This article is the second in our "Living the Essential Life" series by Danielle McElroy.  Danielle is an oil enthusiast who enjoys living the natural life with her cat in a cozy cottage in the Boonies.  We are very fortunate to have Danielle as a part of our team applying her excellent research skills to the field of aromatherapy and essential oils.   

Also, in case you missed the announcement on our Facebook page yesterday, the winner of the Quick Reference Guide to Using Essential Oils is Rebecca!   

Oregano oil is a natural health remedy that has enjoyed a lot of popularity in the last decade with the general public.  Oregano is high in cavacrol, a phenol which has received a lot of scientific attention for its antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal properties in the lab.[i]  Used therapeutically since ancient times and also in Chinese medicine, oregano is seen as a virtual powerhouse of health. 

Mint Chocolate Chip Milkshake... and a Winner!

First of all, since I am sure you’d all love to know, I would like to announce that the winner of the 15ml bottle of Young Living Peppermint essential oil is Lizabeth.

Congratulations Lizbeth, we will be contacting you shortly to get your contact info so we can send you your oil.

Since we are on the topic of peppermint oil anyway, I thought it would be a good idea to share one of our favorite milkshake recipes because it uses this amazing oil, which not only tastes yummy, but is also thought to be an appetite suppressant and to support healthy digestion. 

Blog Launch Giveaway #3

I had plans for a more in-depth blog post today, but they were interrupted by some cranky kids.  So I am just going to post quickly about our next giveaway so that I can get back to rubbing them down with Peace&Calming and hoping they will go to bed early.

This week we are giving away a copy of our of our favorite oily books - the Quick Reference Guide for Using Essential Oils by Connie and Alan Higley.

Thieves Cleaner Winners!

Congratulations to Melanie Bennett and Robyn Cabrera, the winners of our first giveaway.  Robyn and Melanie have each won a glass spray bottle of Thieves Household Cleaner.

Make sure you leave a comment on this post be entered to win a bottle of Peppermint Essential Oil.  We will be drawing the winner on Friday, Sept. 26.  

And, check back tomorrow because we will be announcing another great prize to be won.  


Thanks for stopping by, 

Blog Launch Giveaway #2

Peppermint Essential oil is one of our favorite and most often used oils.  It is a really versatile oil and is a great choice for anyone just starting out with essential oils.

Not only does Young Living peppermint oil boast a wide variety of therapeutic uses, it also tastes delicious.  (We can't speak to the taste or safety of ingesting any brand other than Young Living though!) We like to use it in peppermint chocolate chip milkshakes and peppermint ice cream.  It's also really yummy in coffee or hot chocolate.  It is highly concentrated though, so make sure you start with just one drop!

Essential Oil Deodorant Creme

Throughout the course of my childhood, my mom went on a few different “health” kicks that dramatically affected what was served for dinner and what kind of shampoo (or lack of) you could find in our bathroom.  I didn’t always appreciate her efforts though.  As a young teen I didn’t really care if they were full of hormone disrupting carcinogens, I just wanted pretty smelling lotion and shower gel.  And peanut butter with added sugar.

I particularly remember when my Mom read somewhere that antiperspirant was full of aluminum and possibly linked to breast cancer.   I now fully agree with her decision to switch to natural deodorant,

Joy® Essential Oil Blend

This article is the first in our "Living the Essential Life" series by Danielle McElroy.  Danielle is an oil enthusiast who enjoys living the natural life with her cat in a cozy cottage in the Boonies.  We are very fortunate to have Danielle as a part of our team applying her excellent research skills to the field of aromatherapy and essential oils.  

Who couldn't use a little more Joy in their life?  We love using the Young Living essential oil blend called Joy and since you can receive a free bottle of Joy as part of Young Living's September promotion for the Canadian market (see all the details here) we thought it would be the perfect time to talk about this amazing blend.   

Joy is a combination of a number of different essential oils, including: bergamot, rose, geranium, lemon, palmarosa, ylang ylang, jasmine, roman chamomile, coriander and tangerine.  Joy's fragrance is beautiful and uplifting, like walking through an exotic flower garden after a spring rain.  Not only does it smell terrific, Joy has a variety of practical health uses.  Here are a few tips on how to use Joy:

Welcome!

It turns out that starting a blog is a bit more involved than we expected and combined with the fact that *someone* is a perfectionist and couldn`t just use a premade template, this whole project has taken longer than expected. 

Things aren`t quite where we would like them and you might notice some minor changes over the next few weeks (months, years...) but we are really excited to officially launch Well-oiled Chaos as a place to share some of the things we have been learning and doing. 

You`ll notice that most of our (admittedly meager) content is at the moment focused on essential oils.  We love our oils and everyday we are finding out new ways that they benefit our health and well being.

All Natural Bug Repellent

Spending time outdoors is great.  Getting eaten alive by millions of blood sucking mosquitos, not so great.  Though we don't suffer from them here where we live, I would imagine that being attacked by black flies and other vicious insects in not enjoyable either.  Unfortunately Deet is not so great either, so must of us have reservations about slathering our kids in it.

Once again, essential oils come to the rescue.  After a lot of searching and some trial and error, I have found the following blend to be effective.  I did use quite a few different oils in it, but if you don't happen to have all of them on hand, you can probably eliminate one or two of the oils without too much impact on its effectiveness. 

Thieves Foaming Hand Soap

We are big fans of the Young Living Thieves foaming hand soap in our homes.  The kids love the bubbles and yummy smell so much that they actually like washing their hands, and sometimes even do it without being reminded.

Anti-bacterial hand soaps seem like a great idea in theory, I mean, who doesn't want to get rid of germs and bacteria?  Unfortunately most anti-bacterial hand soaps rely on chemicals such as triclosan to achieve their intended effect.  According to the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep data base, triclosan has a toxicity rating of 7, and the chemical has actually been banned for use in cosmetics in a number of countries.  The primary concern with triclosan is endocrine disruption and bioaccumulation, so its is not something that I want my kids putting on their skin (and possibly in their mouths) on a regular basis.