Focus on: Wintergreen

Before I dive into the benefits of Wintergreen, I just want to state the obvious: Everything you buy comes from somewhere!

Essential oils are big business, and as a whole, it is a pretty ruthless business, where plagiarism, fraud (many oils don’t contain any natural oils but artificial fragrances in a carrier oil) and exploitation are rife:

Every drop of pure essential oil I use has been crafted in the land the plant grows best, and often harvesting it is the only income source available to the local community.⠀

Take Wintergreen for example. It grows in the foothills of the Himalayas, making Nepal and China the sole regions of the world with endemic, wild-harvested Wintergreen. ⠀

To harvest It, mostly women must travel through steep, muddy mountainsides, collecting leaves from the shrub. After the raw material is hand-collected, harvesters bring the leaves in large baskets carried on their backs to the distillation unit where they get paid by weight.⠀

DōTERRA’s co-impact sourcing strategies mean that people in the industry get a fair wage, have a safe work environment and are paid on time.

Nepal’s 2015 earthquakes had devastating effects: nearly 9,000 people were killed and over 8,200 schools and 1,200 health facilities were damaged or destroyed. ⠀⠀
The earthquake was global news, but now, years later, it is easy to forget that many families who lost everything are still working to rebuild their lives.⠀

dōTERRA does not just source and produce therapy grade oils. As of 2019, the dōTERRA Healing Hands Foundation has donated nearly $2 million for earthquake relief aid and community-benefitting social impact projects.⠀

It means that, with every bottle of Wintergreen that we buy and use, we actively make a positive impact.

Wintergreen was actually also the first oil where my GP husband admitted to me that essential oils just might be a little bit more than a fou-fou fad:

Its active ingredient is methyl salicylate, which is closely related to aspirin and has analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties.⠀

For this reason, people on blood-thinners or with an allergy to aspirin must not use it topically and it does come with a child-proof cap to emphasise that this oil should be used with caution. ⠀

It is an incredibly powerful asset to our natural medicine cabinet:⠀

I diffuse wintergreen or apply a drop topically in a carrier oil for painful conditions such as headache, nerve pain such as sciatica or carpal tunnel syndrome, general lower back pain and menstrual cramps. ⠀

It has a sweet herby aroma, and surprisingly in manufacturing is used to flavour sweets, teas and pharmaceutical products. ⠀

It is a warming oil, and blends well with other oils - try diffusing it with Basil, Bergamot, Lavender, Geranium or Peppermint in your home.

To get yours, click here.