Why I Left my MLM for Plant Therapy Essential Oils

Why I Left my MLM for Plant Therapy Essential Oils

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I used to think high quality essential oils were only in MLM, but then I found Plant Therapy!

Brutally honest confession time: I used to be *that* crazy essential oils lady.

You know the one. The one who not only hasn’t talked to you since high school, but suddenly contacts you, thoroughly convinced that every problem in the history of the world is due to someone running out of their frankincense essential oil.

Foot odor? I’ve got an oil for that.

Dandruff? There’s an oil for that too.

Did you eat too many donuts? There’s a fat-busting oil for that will clear that right up, no personal responsibility required!

Your foot fell off? Eh, rub some oil on it, you’ll be fine.

If I was like this to you, just know that I am deeply, 100% sorry to have been so clouded by all the oils I was using to realize that there are other ways to effectively use and enjoy essential oils that don’t involve revolving your life around them.

Don’t get me wrong, I still absolutely love essential oils and use them frequently. They were key players in my unassisted home births with Tristan and Dean, especially my black pepper essential oil, which helped alleviate the tension in my back from back labor like a dream!

Common Ways to Use Essential Oils

As a stereotypical hippie, I love to wear a patchouli blend when I work. It helps get me into the Zone Of Concentration, especially on days where there is so much to do that I have trouble focusing on just one task at a time. It’s in a roller ball, already diluted, so I dab a bit onto my inner wrists and the back of my neck.

I’m also big on diffusing essential oils to help cleanse the air and lift our moods. Lemon and orange are well known for their cleansing properties as well as their positive effects on emotions. (Check out my favorite diffusers here and here!)

But after a few too many posts by some popular multi level marketing essential oils groups (including the group that “grew” me), Peter and I agreed that it was time to leave the world of the MLM essential oils group and find a new and independent brand for our supplier.

Why I Left My MLM for Plant Therapy Essential Oils

You guys, let’s be honest. It’s really hard to remain honest in any field, but especially in the health and wellness field, when you have skin in the game. And especially when you could stand to make anywhere from $30-$200 commission from selling a starter kit, you start to learn how to get really good at convincing people that what’s really standing between them and the health of their dreams is this $500 kit.

I won’t lie, I did it too, but I also started to realize that there was this urgency to “fix” everything with oil among my team, including things that cannot be fixed with an oil. For instance, I received a text once, “which oil would you use to fix sciatica?” The answer: that’s a structure-function problem, caused by the structure (muscles/bone) inhibiting the function, causing numbness and tingling. This is a problem which can be alleviated by using a variety of approaches targeting the correction of the structure, like chiropractic, massage, and stretching. Not by rubbing an oil on it.

So when I stumbled upon Plant Therapy essential oils, I knew I had found a brand I could trust.

Five Huge Plant Therapy benefits:

  1. High Quality and Purity
  2. Kid safe blends
  3. Trained and certified aromatherapist on customer service
  4. Inexpensive
  5. Realistic expectations
  6. Safer general practice for the community vs lots of safety rules/regulations

Quality and Purity of Plant Therapy Essential Oils

Part of my sales speel doing in-home “classes” was all about how our MLM oils brand did so many tests for purity and quality of the therapeutic characteristics of the oil. This information was supposed to set us apart, so imagine my surprise (and joy!) to learn that Plant Therapy uses the same tests to test the quality of each batch of their oils, using the same standards.

Where Does Plant Therapy Get Their Oils From?

Sourcing of oils has always been a huge deal for me. If you possess a basic understanding of gardening, you can probably understand that you can grow the same type of tomato plant in different environmental conditions, with different amounts of sunlight and water, and end up with tomatoes that taste entirely different.

So naturally, when you’re talking about oils and their potency, their environment has much to do with that aspect of quality. Plant Therapy partners with farmers from all over the world, which allows them the freedom to determine who exactly has the best growing conditions for the particular chemical components they want to highlight.

Kid Safe Blends

One of the main arguments I heard against essential oils was about which oils were “safe” to diffuse around children. This is a huge topic of debate no matter which company you use. Plant Therapy has taken the debate out of their company by offering specific “kid safe” blends for diffusing and in roll-on form, so there is no question about which oils to use or not use around your children.

*Note: While my MLM company assured me that all oils are safe to use on or around children, and that any complications from oil usage is rare, the nurse (and let’s be honest here – scatterbrained mom) in me is thankful to have a simple and safe option I can use without worry.

Aromatherapist on Duty

Another safety aspect I like about Plant Therapy essential oils vs other essential oil companies is that the customer service department is staffed by certified aromatherapists. While MLMs often offer some basic training, anyone can sign up and offer their services as an “oil expert” and start spreading information, without any oversight (which is truly scary!). Having trained and certified aromatherapists on staff to answer your questions is an extra layer of safety for your essential oil journey, as it creates an outside standard of safety knowledge.

Inexpensive Pricing

Part of my “sales training” with my MLM essential oil company was the idea that “you get what you pay for,” meaning that cheaper oils = lesser quality. Once I took a step back and objectively examined every claim from the MLM oils against Plant Therapy, I realized one profoundly important bit of information: The oils actually cost around the same.

Get Fast Free Shipping at Plant Therapy Today!

Multi-level marketing means that the payment structure is based on the amount of “levels” underneath you. Meaning that you make money not only on who you sign up, but who they sign up, who those people sign up, and so on and so forth.

In order to maintain such a business and bring in any amount of profit, this means that the product itself has to be priced more expensively. Makes sense, right?

This explains why a 5ml bottle of Melissa essential oil is $180 retail (or $135 if you have a wholesale account) with my former MLM, but only $74.95 for a 5ml bottle of Plant Therapy’s certified organic Melissa essential oil.

Realistic Expectations for Usage Results

Essentail oils are awesome. Using plants as a medicinal alternative is often quite effective, and it’s natural to want to share your incredible successes with avoiding the doctor’s office and treating your ailments at home with your oils. Thankfully, the FDA cracked down on using certain verbiage relating to what kind of claims you can make regarding the benefits of essential oils. Some seem silly (you can’t say “this will help your headaches”), but it helps protect against more radical claims (“this will heal your cancer”).

Personally as a nurse, I’m more interested in how something will help your body function better, so I prefer information in this way anyway (“this oil helps decrease inflammation in the body,” “this is a calming oil that helps you relax,”).

Related: What You Need to Stock Your Natural Medicine Cabinet

Safer for Community at Large

You are always going to have people using products unsafely, no matter what they are. There are people who are going to try to eat only kale and think they are helping their body, when the community at large recognizes that kale is a compliment to a healthy diet, not an entire replacement for it.

This is one reason why I appreciate that Plant Therapy does not recommend internal use for their essential oils. Another huge topic for debate, essential oils for internal use have research and opinions on both sides of the argument. Both major MLM companies recommend some of their oils for internal use, but there are so many variables when it comes to their safe usage. I stopped recommending oils for internal use for others years ago, simply because there are so many nuances in everyone’s individual medical history that influences the safety of any natural supplements, much less essential oils. Plant Therapy keeps safe essential oil usage simpler for everyone by limiting the recommended routes of administration.

If you’re coming from one of the two popular MLM essential oils companies, Plant Therapy even has a very helpful “compare” chart, where you can find the PT blend most like your old favorites. This is such a huge time and lifesaver if you’re switching companies!

If you are ready to try out Plant Therapy essential oils, use this link to save 10% off your first order with code 10OFF60.

Did you find this helpful? I would so appreciate you sharing this for your future reference!

I used to think high quality essential oils were only in MLM, but then I found Plant Therapy!

how I save money on essential oils without sacrificing quality
how I save money on safe essential oils
Thanks for sharing!
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18 Comments

18 Comments

  1. Rebekah

    I love plant therapy! We’ve been using their kid safe blends for a few years now, especially when everyone has colds turning croup-ish.

    Reply
    • Mrs. Crunchy

      So great! I love their kid safe blends!

      Reply
    • Sha

      Hi,. My name is Sha. I’m using YL for a couple of years. But recently I start searching other brand of Essential Oils which is not under MLM company.

      Luckily I found your sharing. Its make me feel I’m doing the right thing. Thank you so much ❤️

      Reply
      • Amanda Kintz

        I’m so glad you found it helpful! Thank you for reading 🙂

        Reply
  2. balanceandblessings1

    I love this post! I am a Licensed Massage Therapist who has worked at several places that encouraged the use of essential oils, and plant therapy is by far my favorite! I originally grew up using young living, which I still love, but it is not as affordable for everyone.

    Reply
    • Mrs. Crunchy

      Thanks so much! I have several friends who love YL too. 🙂

      Reply
  3. Tiina

    Can you still make money by selling these? Or are just just using these for yourself?
    I need to be honest, I’m interested to start selling essential oils but I’m confused of all brands.

    Reply
    • Mrs. Crunchy

      Plant Therapy is not a network marketing company, no. Theseare my affiliate links, and so I do make a small percentage from oils purchased when you click on these links, but it’s not the same pay scaleas with an MLM company.

      Reply
  4. necwrites

    At the very least, I have to thank the MLM party that put essential oils back on my enthusiasm radar. It sent me into the vortex of the industry online–whoa, are there ever a LOT of companies pedaling oils. There was so much to wade through, I almost gave up on finding a reliable source. I ended up with Plant Therapy all over my Christmas list (what an excellently fragrant Christmas it was).

    Reply
    • Mrs. Crunchy

      Yes! I am very thankful for being introduced to essential oils and the potential uses for them through my MLM, but I’m thankful to Plant Therapy for going the extra mile for their customers. 🙂

      Reply
  5. wholeistic21

    I absolutely love your honest account of essential oils, I too was a doTerra advocate but wasn’t too keen on selling my organs to be able to afford them 🙂 Plant therapy is an amazing company and I agree that its a bonus having certified aromatherapists on the other side of the phone

    Reply
    • Mrs. Crunchy

      “Selling my organs” hahaha YES! So happy you connect with this! 🙂

      Reply
  6. bridget2par

    Thank you for this honest post. I use essential oils in my products that I sell and have always had moral/ethical issues with MLMs so when I found Plant Therapy, I was a bit unsure if it was too good to be true. I love them so far and it is good to read that they are such a trustworthy company from other customers.

    Reply
    • Amanda Kintz

      So glad you found value from this post, thank you for your comment! 🙂

      Reply
  7. Jan D

    will you please soon have a selling organ in the EU, because I see that one of the MLM companies are very very agressive selling there way out to expensive oils here. the case is that if I order from you in the US I take risk that it gets stopped in the custom and I have there to pay, so it will become even more expensiver that the other oils on the MLM market

    Reply
    • Amanda Kintz

      Hi Jan! I don’t work for Plant Therapy, but I do see on their website that they ship internationally, and sometimes the customer fees are paid, depending on the country. Unfortunately I can’t speak for any possible future plans for them to have international warehouses or anything, but their support team is very helpful and might have more information for you. Thanks for reading!

      Reply
  8. Anis

    I found this post is very helpful.. I just started my account with one of the MLM company here but at the same time I do my research on essential oil products and try to see what’s best. I’m interested with Plant Therapy but unlike MLM company so far they don’t offer this opportunity of business to the market hence I’m quite hesitant. I do recommend Plant Therapy to those asking but at the same time I wonder how do I generate income (business) from this. I’m a housewife but I graduated as physiotherapist and health admin so that’s why I do some extra work wondering and searching for related journal which lead me Plant Therapy. Wish me luck =)

    Reply
    • Amanda Kintz

      Plant Therapy offers an affiliate program, but unlike MLMs it is not meant to be a replacement income opportunity (though I suppose it can be for bigger influencers). But I appreciate that it is not a big money-making opportunity, because it allows space for the trained aromatherapists to give safety advice and training that is consistent across the company.

      Reply

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