What Is The Young Living Essential Oils – Scam? (my true experience)

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Introduction

Wondering What Is The Young Living Essential Oils is all about? Is it a Scam or is it Legit? Well, you have come to the right place.

In the past, I have been introduced to Young Living Essential Oils. Heck, I had even joined them. But after a few years, I left the organization.

In this review, I will share with you what Young Living Essential Oils is all about, the pros and cons, my personal experience and what I think of this corporation.

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Young Living Essential Oils – The Overview, Rankings, Pros & Cons

Name: Young Living Essential Oils

Owners: Gary Young

Website URL: www. youngliving. com

Price: Starter – Free, $67 per month or $497 for 3 years

What Are the Pros of Young Living Essential Oils? ✔️

• Wide range of products
• Promotes health and nutrition products but questionable
• Low cost to start your business … Initially

What Are the Cons of Young Living Essential Oils? ❌

• High costs to keep doing the business … in the long run (read article for more details)
• No training
• Very little support
• No website to build your business and sell the products

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What is Young Living Essential Oils All About?

Young Living Essential Oils is a Utah based MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) company selling essential oils and related products. What is MLM? Read my other article about MLM to find out.

The company was founded by Gary Young in 1993. He is a true believer in the healing power of herbs and plants. As such, also the power of essential oils.

One of the outstanding features of the products is the distillation process that produces the Young Living Essential oils. They are processed in a slow steam extraction procedure. This creates pure oils effectively, without any unwanted adulteration.

The business opportunity offer here is to become one of their independent distributors, and promote and sell their products.

What Are Young Living Essential Oils Products?

Basically, there are four product categories. They are as follows:

Essential Oils and Blends that has essential oils, essential oil blends, roll-ons, massage oils, collections, dietary essential oils, and accessories.

Healthy and Fit is a category with multivitamins, antioxidants, age-based nutrition, joint & mobility, system solutions, liquid wellness, weight management, energy & stamina, and healthy snacking.

Personal Care offers products that are anti-aging, hair care, oral care, body care, life balance, and kids care.

The above categories claim to have the following properties:

• Physical and psychological benefits
• Improves immunity to many ailments
• Relieves pain naturally
• Antimicrobial benefits
• Relieves inflammation
• Reduces stress and anxiety
• Helps relieve insomnia
• Rejuvenates skin
• Safeguards against influenza and common colds
• Eases digestive order
• Improves circulation

Then lastly there are the Diffusers Accessories comprising Diffusers and Tools as well as Books and Literature.

Is Young Living Essential Oils an MLM?

I remember the first time I was introduced to Young Living Essential Oils. It was at a place that offered free meditation.

Before the meditation started, the facilitator offered the Young Living Lavender Oil to everyone.

Just a whiff or a drop or two into the palms then dabbed behind the ears would help to relax us, she said. And would enhance our meditation experience.

Did the Lavender Oil really help? I could not truly say. After all, the dim lights, quiet environment, and soothing music were conducive enough to facilitate meditation.

After the meditation, people of course were curious about the essential oil. And that was when the facilitator started to promote Young Living Essential Oil.

She would invite those interested to attend a friendly and informal talk about all the products.

The Lavender Oil was the bait, and we were all hooked. At the friendly and informal talk, she introduced Young Living Essential Oils, and signed all of us up as her downline.

So, there you have it. This was one of the ways they recruit people. Basically, this is still an MLM. As a distributor, you can sell direct to customers, but you can make more money (potentially) when you recruit people to join and become your downline. Just like what this distributor did.

There are pros and cons inherent in this type of business. You can read the pros and cons listed above.

How Much Does It Cost to Join Young Living Essential Oils?

The Basic Starter costs $40. That is the minimum for you to join Young Living Essential Oils. There is also option to purchase the Basic Starter Plus that costs $75, or the Premium, which is $160.

* Note – prices can change over time. Best to find out from their website for current pricing

The above kits has business cards, brochures, printed literature to educate people on the benefits of their products. Sounds like a lot but really there is nothing much.

I don’t remember the business cards. There were only a copy or two of brochures and printed literature. You have to scan and print more on your own. This is additional business costs.

Plus, don’t forget – You have to make a minimum amount of monthly purchases of Young Living Essential Oils products in order to qualify for any commissions.

To me, this was the hard part. I mean, besides money spent per month to upkeep the account, how many essential oils does one need and how much of it can we use up in a month?

How Does One Make Money from Young Living Essential Oils?

As mentioned, you can sell direct to customers. As distributors, you get 24% discount on all products. Every customer you sell direct to, you earn that 24% amount. That is quite a hefty profit. The problem is the ability to sell direct to consumers, and the cost to do so.

Alternatively, and this is what all MLMs prefer, you recruit people as downline and receive commissions and bonuses from people who are in your downline.

The compensation plan at Young Living Essential Oils is complicated, as with any MLM. Here is a summary of what you can earn:

Earn Commission from Downlines

Distributor gets 8% of sales from the first level of people recruited. Then 5% from the people recruited by the first level. They also get 4% on the third level, that is the people recruited by the second level.

What is a downline? What does MLM truly mean? Read my post about What is MLM to find out more

Fast Start Bonus

Distributors get 25% commission during the first three months if the people they recruited make purchases.

Member Starter Kit Bonus

Distributors get $25 for every one they manage to sign up, and they buy the Premium Member Starter Kit.

Generation Leadership Bonus

There is this ranking called Leadership, and when a distributor achieves that, they get 6% monthly commissionable sales made by Young Living Essential Oils.

Rising Star Team Bonus

When your whole team achieves a set of specific requirements, you get this bonus. How much? This is not clear.

Generation Commission

When you reach the Silver ranking, you get an additional 2% commission on certain sales stemming from your group. When any team member also achieves the Silver status, you get a bonus of 3%.

Diamond Profit Sharing Pool

The Diamond level earns you shares of 0.5% from Young Living’s commissionable sales.

Is There Any Training and Support at Young Living Essential Oils?

Many MLM does very little to help the distributors to succeed. Young Living Essential Oils is no different. When I first joined, I felt that lack of help and support from them. The facilitator was of not much help, too. She was more keen on signing up new people for her downline than to help her downline succeed.

Sure, you can buy the starter kit. But honestly, I have bought it before. It is just a set of oils that you are encouraged to use and experience so that you can sell better. And, as mentioned above, there is a set of brochures that you will have to either scan and distribute as soft copy or scan and print your own for your business.

There is no much training provided. No courses to teach you how to set up your own website for your new business. No courses to teach you how to promote the products offline and online.

There is no training on how to recruit people and build your downline as well as support them so that they will succeed. If you don’t have the tools to succeed, how are you going to lead your team to success?

Were There Any Complaints of Young Living Essential Oils?

As with any business, there will be some complaints. I am saying this to be fair. Even to Young Living Esssential Oils.

Some complaints can be due to people being misinformed on how to use the products correctly. For example, drinking it instead of applying it.

Also, like any product, results will vary from using the products. They may work on some people. They may not work on some people. Some may even have bad experience from using the products.

Personally, I never had any problems with the products. At the same time, to be honest, there were also never any real true benefits from using the products. What I experienced from the products, I found in later years to be able to experience the same from other essential oil products.

Were There Any Controversies with Young Living Essential Oils?

There was some controversy here. Some reports have proposed that Young Living Essential Oils uses synthetic fragrances. You can Google to research on this. Listen to both sides, and make up your own mind about this.

There are also reports on how some sites selling the products make untrue claims such as the oils can fight Ebola. Again, you can Google and research on this. You will see proof of this.

Plus, investigations by Dr Eva F Briggs, M.D. have found Gary Young’s background and claims to be questionable. Her reports from her investigations are available on the Internet. Just search for it.

FDA Warning

They have received a Warning Letter from FDA in September 22, 2014.

The warning letter mentioned some of Young Living Essential Oils were promoted for conditions that cause them to be drugs under section 201(g)(1)(B) of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. This was because Young Living had promoted them for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of disease.

Can You Succeed with Young Living Essential Oils?

Besides the concerns and issues mentioned above, what about the people who tried this business? Did they succeed?

This is a common problem with MLM. It is a well known fact that only 3% to 4% of the people who join an MLM organization succeed and make enough to do it as a full time career.

Most would try, and find themselves paying more to the MLM business than earning. That was what I realized after a few years with Young Living Essential Oils. I cut my losses and made a quick exit.

What Others Say About Young Living Essential Oils?

Here are some videos of people, and their views of Young Living Essential Oils. You can search on YouTube to learn more truth about this company.

Shocking Video! This lady (a former Young Living member just like me) found out that Young Living uses Mink Oil in this product! Watch the video now!

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What Is The Young Living Essential Oils – Scam? (my true experience)

Timotheus Final Thoughts

So, after all that has been said, the important question now is – is Young Living Essential Oils legitimate? Here is my verdict.

VERDICT: Legit, but …

You may be surprised by my verdict, right? After all I have said against the business, why did I still say they are legit, and not a scam?

Well, first of all, there are tangible products. Products that people can buy. And they can build a business around these products. Also, Young Living is a business. Unfortunately, an MLM business.

And even more unfortunate, lately more and more of their bad business practices have been revealed (watch videos above). Plus, the issue with FDA.

But the true question here is – Can people succeed with such a business?

The answer from me is a firm – Definitely Not!

To me, these are all feel good products. There is no scientific proof that they really work. Also, as I have said many times before, to me, MLM is never the best way to start or do a business. And Young Living Essential Oils is a MLM company. (Read my article To Learn What is MLM? And learn why it is not a good choice to start or do a business)

The success rate of people doing MLM is low. As reported in my article about MLM, the failure rate is 95%!

So, should you join Young Living Essential Oils? – Definitely Not!

If you are like me, and not keen on MLM, or nervous about Young Living Essential Oils and FDA’s watch on it, here’s a better alternative:

You can join the Free Starter Package with just your email. No credit card needed for this Free Starter Package.

There is some free training as well as really powerful tools and features to help you do digital marketing for your online business.

If you have ANY questions about this review – What Is The Young Living Essential Oils – Scam? (my true experience), ANY at all, please submit your questions as comments below. I will be happy to help out.

I wish everyone great wealth and success.

Timotheus
Digital Marketer, Lecturer, Amazon Bestselling Author & Cancer Survivor