Week of Wellness: Modern Essentials Workshop

Last Wednesday evening, over 100 essential oil enthusiasts joined AromaTools employees to learn how Modern Essentials provides genuine compliance, genuine ease-of-use, and genuine education.

Genuine Compliance

Throughout the years, AromaTools has provided the most accurate and reliable information about essential oils. Within the last year, AromaTools has made many changes to Modern Essentials, including updating the images, adding cutting-edge research, and expanding the science and application section. Some of these changes were made in an effort to help Wellness Advocates comply with the U.S. Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994. This law is regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the body of government that holds regulatory power over dietary supplements (which essential oils are considered).

The U.S. Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 states that a dietary supplement may not be labeled with health claims. A label can mean the actual label attached to the product or any publication that is considered to be a part of the packaging or selling of the supplement.

Published educational materials about dietary supplements, like Modern Essentials, are not considered to be labeling claims if they are true, generic, fair, and balanced, and, “if displayed in an establishment, is physically separate from the dietary supplement” (SEC. 403B. (a)(4)). As a truly independent, third-party publisher, we have worked hard to make sure that Modern Essentials is true, generic, fair, and balanced. If you are selling essential oils, you are responsible for maintaining the separation to ensure you are not using Modern Essentials to make claims about your product or the brand you represent. The best way to maintain separation is to separate education of essential oils from the marketing of an essential oil brand.

To maintain this separation, top essential oil advocates:

• Avoid making or advertising health claims about a specific brand of essential oils based on the research and common essential oil uses contained in Modern Essentials to sell essential oils.
• Allow individuals to try essential oils and discover the amazing benefits for themselves from their own use and research.
• Keep business and sales meetings about specific brands or trademarked products separate from educational events.

Education Class Ideas:

Use Modern Essentials to help you prepare for classes on the below subjects:

• Essential oils 101 (use this fun game to help others learn about the basics of essential oils!)
• Essential oils supporting health
• Essential oils and pets
• Essential oil safety
• Cooking with essential oils
• Essential oil purity
• Cleaning with essential oils

Educational Party Ideas:

Use Modern Essentials to help you prepare for fun parties on the below subjects:

• Essential oils spa night
• My favorite essential oil recipes
• Essential oils for school
• Essential oil summer kit
• Essential oil hot chocolate social

Marketing Class Helps:

• Avoid mentioning health claims when selling a specific brand of essential oils.
• If a class member asks a question about a specific health claim, answer the question using body system statements (“lavender supports the immune system”) rather than health statements (“lavender is beneficial for sore throats and colds”). Body system information for single essential oils is located in the Single Oils section of Modern Essentials, and information about other products is listed in the Appendix of Modern Essentials.

The following resources are great to hand out or use in a marketing class:

• Modern Essentials: An Introduction to Essential Oils Tear Pad
• Modern Essentials: Essential Oils and Blends Quick Usage Binder Chart
• Modern Essentials: Essential Oils and Blends Quick Usage Chart
• Modern Essentials Living
• Slim & Sassy®/Family Physician® Kit Tear Pad
• Emergency Oils Tear Pad
• Basic Oil Trio/On Guard® Tear Pad
• Lifelong Vitality Supplements Tear Pad
• Essential Oils for Mood Regulation Tear Pad

Genuine Ease-of-Use

Since developing the intuitive, easy-to-use format of our Personal Usage Guide, we’ve seen many attempts to imitate it. We believe you will agree that the original is still the best.

But don’t just take our word for it. Here are a few genuine reviews from the past month:

• “Everything is explained very clearly and makes it almost impossible to make a mistake in deciding what you need.” –Linda from Hickory, PA
• “This is an excellent resource for essential oils that I will use often and share with many friends and family.” –Kathleen from Dickinson, ND
• “Love it! Clear, easy to use, helpful resource.” –Esther from Florence, WI

Genuine Education

Throughout Modern Essentials, we have added easy-to-understand explanations of how essential oils interact with the body, are tested for purity, and are extracted from plant material.

In the Personal Usage Guide and Single Oils sections, we have included detailed explanations of the most recent and cutting-edge articles about essential oils. These explanations describe what kind of research was conducted within the article. For example, in vitro (Latin for “within the glass”) describes an experiment that was conducted on living cells, usually within a petri dish or other controlled environment. On the other hand, in vivo (Latin for “within the living”) describes an experiment that was conducted on a living organism, like rats or flies. Research conducted on humans is also included in Modern Essentials.

Using Modern Essentials to teach others and yourself about essential oils will help you to better understand the oils and how they can benefit your life. The material included throughout the book is written to help you learn more about using essential oils properly and most effectively.

If you would like to teach others about this information, you are welcome to use the PowerPoint presentation we created.

About the Presenter

Analisa Edmonds is the Publications Project Manager for AromaTools. She has worked extensively with the 6th Edition of Modern Essentials. Specifically, she wrote “How Essential Oils Interact with the Body” and “Ensuring Essential Oil Purity and Quality,” both included in the Science and Application section of Modern Essentials. She studied Neuroscience at Brigham Young University and loves researching how essential oils can influence the different structures of the brain.