If you’re happy and you know it, chances are you’re diffusing Young Living citrus essential oils. If you could do with some help on that score, today’s post will show you how.
The botanical family of Rutaceae is home to citrus oils, and as families go, they love to party.
These essential oils are all fabulous for uplifting your mood and bringing good cheer. If they were human beings, they’d be sauntering along, whistling a happy tune. Start using them and hopefully, that will be you.
When you think of citrus, the obvious ones spring to mind: orange, grapefruit, lemon, tangerine, mandarin and lime.
The source of essential oils in these fruits is their peel. Steam distillation is the most commonly used method of extracting essential oils. But that method doesn’t work for all kinds of plant material. Sometimes, a different method is needed in order to capture this ‘lifeblood’ of the plant. And so it is with citrus peel.
Instead, the rind is cold-pressed (sometimes referred to as cold-expressed) to obtain the essential oil with all its delicate, life-energising compounds intact. Needless to say, it’s imperative that the fruit for this purpose be completely free of pesticides, herbicides and any other residues so that the purity can genuinely be trusted. Be sure to check out the credentials of whichever essential oil brand you’re using so you can have confidence when using them. Being such concentrated substances, you want to be certain it’s only goodness that’s concentrated, not questionable unwanted incidental or added extras.
Not all oils are created equal. Far from it. Quality varies immensely, so please ensure you are choosing a brand with complete transparency from seed to seal, such as Young Living. Discover why we love them so much in this short video.
When it comes to botanical names, it’s rather easy to spot citrus oils as they all start with Citrus, being the same in both botanical and common nomenclature. For instance, orange is Citrus sinenses, grapefruit is Citrus paradisi, tangerine is Citrus reticulata.
So skimming further through botanical names, we start to find others you might not be so familiar with. Let’s take a quick stock of these and their extraction methods:
- Bergamot (Citrus aurantium bergamia) cold-pressed from the rind; also vacuum-distilled in order to create a Furocoumarin-free version which is a safe process that reduces the compounds that are skin-sensitising when exposed to UV
- Neroli (Citrus aurantium) an absolute from flowers of the bitter orange tree; absolute extraction is used in the case of extremely delicate blossoms and petals. While technically known as an absolute, for practical purposes, you’ll usually still find it called an essential oil
- Petitgrain (Citrus sinenses) steam distilled from the leaves and twigs and yes, by Jove, you’ve got it: the same botanical name exactly as orange essential oil, because they come from the same tree, just different parts of it
- Yuzu (Citrus junos) a more exotic citrus than the ones you’ll find at the markets (unless you live in the Orient); for all its exoticism, however, it is still cold-pressed from the rind
Choose any of these oils for diffusing and direct inhalation and you’ll be finding yourself feeling like blue skies on a sunny day, even if outside the weather is grey — or your mood started out that way.
This will also connect you up with The Good Oil Team for our personal support and coaching. We'd love to help you on your journey to vibrant well-being the natural way!
Any questions? Please get in touch via our Contact page.
Young Living essential oils are so pure, you can add this liquid sunshine to food and drink when their label clearly states it’s safe to do so. Not all oils are meant to be used this way, and not all brands are of the impeccable purity and quality needed to even consider it, so do be prudent and only proceed with this when the labels say you can.
The citrus oils that can be ingested make beautiful taste sensations to take the ordinary to the sublime. A couple of drops of Young Living Orange or Tangerine essential oil stirred into your morning porridge before serving will transform a potentially-dull breakfast routine. Salad dressings, desserts, smoothies, oven-baked fish …. You’re only limited by your imagination.
When it comes to applying these oils to your skin, citrus oils in general are photosensitive.
This means that sensible caution needs to be used if you are applying them or blends that include them. The general rule of thumb is to avoid sun exposure on those areas for a good 24-48 hours after applying. Just check the labels to be sure and don’t let it stop you enjoying their benefits on your skin, which are many and varied. Next time you’re looking at the labels of natural skincare products, you’ll spot lemon and grapefruit appearing often for their cleansing and balancing properties.
And there are great wraps for citrus when it comes to overall wellness. You might have seen the term ‘limonene’ cropping up quite a lot in health spheres. This constituent is being researched for a number of different potential benefits and uses. We’ll leave you to look into that further, but safe to say limonene won’t go astray if you happen to be exposed to it. And most citrus oils that come from the peel are pretty rich in this compound, ranging from around 30% at the lowest end of the scale up to 90-97%* for tangerine. Yowsa! Here they are from highest to lowest:
- tangerine
- orange/grapefruit
- mandarin/yuzu
- lemon
- lime
- bergamot
If you don’t know where to start when ordering, consider first up lemon oil (because it’s such an amazing and versatile oil, you’ll want to use it every day; more info here) and Young Living Citrus Fresh™ blend, which includes orange, tangerine, grapefruit, lemon, mandarin and spearmint. It’s gorgeous in the diffuser and stimulates creativity as well.
Essential oils are potent, so as always, please follow directions on the bottle and the usual guidelines for safe use of authentic essential oils.
So there you have it. Get some citrus oils into your life and you’ll be so potentially cheerful, you might need to come with a warning that you could be annoyingly optimistic. But to quote a favourite expression of a friend of mine, for problems such as this, we should pray.
This will also connect you up with The Good Oil Team for our personal support and coaching. We'd love to help you on your journey to vibrant well-being the natural way!
Any questions? Please get in touch via our Contact page.
