Edens Garden vs Young Living Essential Oils

If you’re just starting to learn about the many essential oil brands available, chances are you’ve heard about Young Living Essential Oils, and/or Edens Garden Essential Oils.

Quite often when a new brand of essential oils is introduced, the question pops up: “So how does this brand X compare to Young Living essential oils?”

Young Living has established itself as a big leader in essential oils quality. Everyone who thinks, hears, sells, or buys Young Living essential oils seems to think that they’re the absolute best quality of oils anyone can purchase, and that possibly no other essential oil brand is comparable.

Don’t get me wrong, I do think Young Living essential oils are of good quality. What I disagree with, is the idea that they’re the only ones offering a quality product. 

After 5+ years learning about essential oils, and now recently starting my training to become a Certified Aromatherapist, I’ve definitely come to realize that there are many amazing essential oil brands available, and you do have choice on where you shop while not having to compromise quality or other ethical principles that may be important to you.

For those of you who are specifically interested in comparing Edens Garden and Young Living, this article here is a direct comparison of Edens Garden vs Young Living essential oils.

In addition to that, this article also serves as an overview of an MLM (multi-level marketing) essential oil company such as Young Living, compared to a Non-MLM company, that is Edens Garden.

Biggest Differences Between YL and EG

In summary, here’s how Young Living essential oils and Edens Garden oils are different:

1. Company Structure

Young Living Essential Oils makes no secret of the fact that they are a Multi-Level Marketing company.

What is an MLM you might ask? MLM is a company structure where someone signs up as a “wholesale” distributor (YL calls them ‘Independent Distributors’), and then sells oils to their friends. Let’s call this first person Person A. If now Person A sells to Person B, and Person B has friends that also want to buy oils, Person B can start making income as a middle-man as well. Person B would then sell further down the pipe to their friends (Person C), by signing up through their initial contact (Person A) to become a distributor as well. This nested structure then builds a team of distributors and sub-distributors for Person A.

You can see how the term “Multi-Level” here now starts making sense. The levels can be indefinitely deep – so who knows how many people make a cut off of what you pay.

The issue I see with this structure, is that if there has ti be room for everyone to make commissions for their efforts of recommending oils to their friends, inevitably the end product has to be marked up quite significantly to allow for all these middle-man payouts. And that’s my issue. The product is too expensive for what it is, just because people along the way make an income % off it.

Edens Garden is exactly on the other end of the spectrum. They are a Non-MLM company that conducts straight-up business as usual.

They make a product (essential oils), and sell it to the consumer (us). There are no multi-tiered middle-men, salespeople or ‘Independent Distributors’ involved.

As a matter of fact, Edens Garden has been voted the #1 Non-MLM essential oils company for multiple years in a row. Good job EG!

2. Pricing

With what we’ve learned about Young Living vs Edens Garden’s company structures in my first point above, I can explain this second point quite easily: With Young Living, there are multiple middle-men needing to make money off a sale to an end-consumer – this jacks up the price of the individual essential oil bottle.

When a company sells directly to the consumer like Edens Garden does, there is no need for unnecessary mark-ups or price hikes. The cost as such is then more fairly calculated by what it actually cost to obtain the essential oil you buy, rather than by how much it takes to market said bottle of oil to the end-consumer via a channel of stacked friends and friend’s friends of ‘Independent Distributors’.

A Quick Price Check

* Prices on Amazon.com at time of writing and subject to change without notice.

** Young Living oils are bottled in either 5 mL or 15 mL. I chose the price of the 15 mL bottle as a base, and then I calculated 2/3rds of it to match the 10 mL size of Edens Garden’s bottles.

For the most up-to-date price information, please have a look at the product listings below:

Edens Garden Lavender- Bulgarian Essential Oil- 100% Pure Premium Grade, Undiluted, Natural, Therapeutic, Aromatherapy, The Best for Diffuser, Skin, Humidifiers, Kid Safe 10 ml (.33 fl oz)

$15.95

Edens Garden Peppermint Essential Oil- 100% Pure Premium Grade, Undiluted, Natural, Therapeutic, Aromatherapy, The Best for Diffuser, Candle, Laundry, Hair 10 ml (.33 fl oz)

$14.95

Edens Garden Lemon Essential Oil- 100% Pure Premium Grade, Undiluted, Natural, Therapeutic, Aromatherapy, The Best for Diffuser, Laundry, Humidifiers, Kid Safe 10 ml (.33 fl oz)

$13.95

3. Advertised ingestion

Lemon Essential Oil

Edens Garden’s official stance on using essential oils internally is one of education and clarification to the public. They do NOT recommend consuming essential oils internally without first booking an in-depth consultation with your medical care provider (doctor), plus discussing the matter with an experienced aromatherapist in your area.

Why so much caution you might ask? Undiluted, pure essential oils are highly concentrated substances. When you eat these directly, they come in direct contact with some of your vital organs like the interior lining of your mouth, the tongue, your esophagus and stomach. The essential oils consumed will attach to the mucous membranes of your internal organs, which could lead to irritation and possible damage¹.

On the other hand, Young Living has a Vitality™ dietary essential oils line that is labeled safe for ingestion. How can they do this, you ask?

The U.S. FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has a category for substances added to food called GRAS: Generally Recognized As Safe. This designation is given out by one of two ways

1. Through experience, based on common use by a significant enough number of consumers.
2. Through testing using scientific procedures. ²

This is where most people stop asking for more information. To me, GRAS does not actually mean that it is safe to use in any which way, or for anyone. It’s “generally” recognized as safe, based on most people’s experience, but that does not mean “always and for everyone”.

As I know myself and my medical history may be different than “most people’s”, so I wouldn’t even ingest YL vitality oils, personally.

Here’s just another tid bit of information: Young Living has in the past heavily advocated ingestion of their essential oils. The company even faced a lawsuit as well in regards to these advertising practices. It was their many independent distributors who got Young Living into trouble. Still to this day, if I chat with some of my YL friends, they won’t give up the notion that you can ingest YL essential oils. Their argument is, and has been, that the quality of essential oils is just so high that you cannot possibly do any harm to yourself.  Even as I write this my stomach is turning inside out. Please DO NOT DO THIS without caution.

Consult your local aromatherapist, give them a good overview of your overall health and health history, and make a case by case decision. If you do choose to use essential oils internally, ensure you use the Young Living Vitality™ line. For more information on ingesting essential oils, I also recommend you read my resource on how to use essential oils safely.

4. Oils sourcing

Young Living essential oils brand is quite proud to advertise their Seed to Seal® program. It is a program wherein they certify that their essential oils undergo multiple quality control checks, so they can really keep a close eye on every step involved in making that final bottle of essential oils in your hands.

There is a bit of a misconception floating around in today’s popular beliefs, that Seed to Seal® means Young Living owns all of their farms. This is not true! They do own some farms, but for the rest of their production line, they use their own careful selection of suppliers and partner farms. Just think of how many bottles of Lavender essential oil (a very popular oil) YL must sell in even just a month. There is NO WAY that all of this Lavender solely comes from U.S.-based farms and soil that Young Living can fully control.

The Seed to Seal® stamp is just what they call their own internal process of selecting said partner farms by their own methods of testing. It is indeed a honorable and valuable approach, but the fancy naming is just smart marketing. The idea of controlling farms and farm lands is of course so that you can know and better control how that soil is being cultivated and cared for. Essential oils being a product of nature, all of the surroundings that a plant grows in, have an influence of the end quality of said product. If the plants being cultivated and harvested are well cared for, the essential oil they yield will show this quality.

Really, Seed to Seal® it’s no different than doTERRA’s “C.P.T.G” (Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade) label, which is also just a fancy way to label their internal process for testing oil quality.

So – please don’t get caught up in smart marketing.

Edens Garden’s Method of Sourcing Essential Oils

When you purchase a bottle of Edens Garden essential oil, the oil will have been sourced from farms around the globe, where the plants yielding essential oils are growing in their natural habitat. Edens Garden does not own corporate farms, and they don’t make a stamp or label for their sourcing process. Still, Edens Garden sells 100% pure unadulterated essential oils free of synthetics, and also chooses sustainable practices wherever possible.

5. Rewards Program

Edens Garden’s customer loyalty program is pretty straight-forward: for each $1 you spend, you get 1 point that you can then redeem in the future on another purchase.

The bonus system for collecting points is a super easy one; most people are quick to understand it – minus the slight detail that points aren’t actually called points, rather they are called ‘Aroma Notes’. Minor detail, and even if you’re just getting started, why not sign up for the free account and start collecting points… err, ‘Aroma Notes’! It is like free money.

With Young Living, getting to a place of earning rewards is a bit harder. First, you have to sign up for an account and place an order of at least $100 value. Then, you sign a rewards agreement where you agree to place monthly orders. It’s at this point that you’ll be able to access rewards and bonuses. Yes, you can also just be a Young Living member without the monthly orders, but then you don’t qualify for rewards. In short – if you want rewards, you have to order monthly.

Comparison Complete for Edens Garden vs Young Living!

Compare Young Living to Edens Garden Essential Oils Online

I hope with the 5 points illustrated above, I have given you a good understanding of how Edens Garden works vs. Young Living. If you have been using Young Living for a while and are looking to switch, the following section is for you!

I know some essential oil blends are quite popular and people have started incorporating them into their daily lives. If you don’t want to go without your Thieves® or PanAway, please read on to find comparable blends from Edens Garden. Or follow this DIY Thieves® recipe here.

Most Popular Blends Comparison

If you love one of Young Living’s essential oils blends, and have been wondering if you can get something similar in other brands, this list here should help! While I was at it comparing YL and EG, I also found a lot of information on doTerra blends. So I’ve included them in this chart just because. I hope you don’t mind… And if you want, you can learn about doTerra here.

In Summary

Whether you’re already a Young Living fan, or already an Edens Garden fan, please don’t crucify me here. I have written a direct comparison of these two popular essential oil companies to help introduce essential oil beginners to some of the best essential oil brands that you can buy. Young Living and Edens Garden are substantially different enough that I felt this overview and summary article was necessary!

At the end of the day, using essential oils is a very personal choice. Not only during the shopping process of which brand you prefer, but also in the way of which oils you choose to purchase for helping with certain things. Each and every one of our body chemistry is different from one another – so please keep that in mind when comparing oils’ effectiveness and whether they work for you or not. Perhaps you don’t have to switch brand, perhaps you just have to find a different oil for your ailment.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my comparison of Edens Garden vs. Young Living. If you have any questions or comments to add, please feel free to do so in the comments section below. I love to hear your thoughts!

Further Reading

Edens Garden Full Brand Review

Young Living Full Brand Review

References

¹ Robert Tisserand Interviewed on Ingestion and Dilution of Essential Oils and Other Safety Issues

² U.S. FDA: Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS)