Take a look … take a closer look … let’s talk about millilitres content?
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You seem to have 4 bottles of 5 ml each. What is the problem?
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Hi @Cooeestar, welcome to the community and advising of the size of the essential oil bottles in the dōTERRA Family Essential’s Kit.
Having a price of $166.67 for 50mL (the Family Essentials Kit) is a whooping $3300L. It does appear to be snake oil or fools gold.
There is no scientific evidence that essential oils work as claimed by many of the oil retailers. Some studies have indicated a subtle effect, but it is unknown whether there is a direct result of a causal effect or a placebo effect. Any ‘reported’ or subtle effects are very low when compared to the medicines they are purported to replace.
Choice has also covered some of the marketing/sales tactics of Doterra in the past:
and one may wish to read this article before departing with their hard earned cash.
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The word scam springs to mind.
as does this one from their page discussing purity, without the extra C
There is nothing essential about ‘essential oils’ and the price charged for them makes them rather non-essential for me!
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Refer to photograph, here’s the thing I do not have 5ml in each bottle.
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I cannot tell that from the photograph. How do you know that you don’t have 5 ml in each? Did you measure the contents using an accurate volume measure or did you assume that because they are not filled to the brim you didn’t get 5 ml? It is quite possible that you have 5 ml in 8 ml bottles. I am not saying that is necessarily value for money but that looking at the bottles doesn’t answer the question one way or another.
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If one has paid a extremely high price for the oil, measuring it means one will lose part of a millilitre in the measurement device through left over residues.
The two on the left, the meniscus is at the same level in the bottle, likewise with the two on the right. The ones on the right the meniscus is slightly higher, but these could have a slightly different internal diameters.
Taking a photo doesn’t prove a volume…only measurement on calibrated equipment would. There are two many variables to determine from a visual inspection if the volume is 5mL, >5mL or <5mL.
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These are industry standard 5ml bottles.
As we know liquid volume measurements are the same i.e. 5ml of any liquid given in the same bottles will show the same level or fill line across all bottles. It is possible to observe these differences when reviewing the photograph.
I would appreciate your listing of those refereed Journals that you have you searched to have written what you have as quoted below please…
At $3,300/litre every drop matters. Having sufficient reproducible accuracy in domestic equipment to measure it would be rare. On the other side, what accuracy is the bottling machinery? If each bottle were only a drop under 5ml and few if any were over by that drop, the profit margin would increase significantly! It seems surface tension alone could deliver meaningfully different P/L at 5ml ‘serves’ at $3,300/litre.
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I am wholly unaware now and during my research of any party plan as quoted below - frankly I’ve not seen anything of the sort advertised nor any reference to same across any social media of which I receive notifications from many differing sources.
Perusing the topic it appears you have a firm opinion on the product and your topic is only about the different fill levels in the bottles.
Regardless of anything else for us lay people it is not obvious whether your left two bottles are 5ml, or the right two are 5ml. If the right 2 are the 5ml and underfills were common, you could reasonably complain to the manufacturer and the regulating agencies linked in this page.
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Yes I’d read that article prior to purchasing essential oils and found it typically general in nature written to an average consumer audience. The take home of course for the average consumer audience was
“We don’t want to say that no one should use Doterra ever, but people should definitely be more critical,” he says.
Adamo says consumers need to ask questions, look critically at the evidence and consider the qualifications of the person providing the information.”
Personally and professionally I was surprised that the article was not as far reaching as it could have been however as I said it was written to a specific audience. I reviewed the FDA and a multitude of sources including many refereed Journals with search returning actual papers.
John Hopkins University Medicine Department offer this summary…
Although people claim essential oils are natural remedies for a number of ailments, there’s not enough research to determine their effectiveness in human health. Results of lab studies are promising — one at Johns Hopkins found that certain essential oils could kill a type of Lyme bacteria better than antibiotics — but results in human clinical trials are mixed.
There is some evidence that essential oils have antibacterial and antifungal properties, but lack concrete evidence they provide the aromatherapy benefits claims by companies like dōTERRA. It is worth noting that the antifungal and antibacterial properties of essential oils is plausible as these oils form part of the plant biochemical processes which have evolved to provide plants with resistance to bacterial and fungal infections.
The article also states…‘Some studies indicate that there’s a benefit to using essential oils while others show no improvement in symptoms.’
In relation to a journal article looking at the aromatherapy ‘benefits’ of commonly used essential oils, this one provides useful information …
This paper concluded…
within-group analysis showed complex correlations between subjective evaluations of substances and objective performance, indicating that effects of essentials oils or their components on basic forms of attentional behaviour are mainly psychological.
In simple terms, this means oils used for aromatherapy purposes have a placebo effect. Is this wrong, well, if a person uses essential oils for aromatherapy purposes and believes there is an perceived benefit, as long as the users is happy with perceived benefit, their smell and the price paid, so be it.
Is it right that those selling these oils, at extraordinarily high price to make huge profits for their owners, do so with misleading claims that they work, no.
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For those who suffer hay fever like allergies, just the slightest hint of floral aroma can be a big turn off.
I like the idea of being able to relax quietly in a room with soft flowing water sounds and subtle natural aromas. Meditation is apparently about creating the right environment. There is a wide range of scented infusion products and devices in the market for those wishing to recreate the great outdoors in the punitive indoors. Some relatively inexpensive solutions include having a potted lemon myrtle or other aromatic scented native. Crush the leaves fresh or dried for a great aroma release.
For the present, simply walking 25m, 50Mbps, or more into our great back yard achieves the same effect. The ‘essential oils’ which to be 1,000% honest are only essential for plants are all available for free when I step outside. The variety is far more diverse than any bottle of plant juices, although somewhat seasonal. The background sounds and rhythms do depend on the time of day. More variety. Nothing like a chorus of 100 striped marsh frogs to help you touch the real world and feel good.
They often fall into back yard swimming pools. Do good ensuring there are a couple of places around the edge of the pool and at the skimmer box so that they can escape Armageddon. A piece of shade cloth or branch etc hanging over the pool edge into the water etc …
P.S.
In considering plant based oils and extracts, many ‘essential oils for plants’ serve the purpose of discouraging the plant from being eaten or attacked. Many are highly toxic to all animal based life forms. Hardly essential in a human sense.
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Where is the line on the bottles at the 5 ml mark? If there isn’t one how do you know where the 5 ml level is?
I understand that a machine made bottle will be very close to the same size and shape and so the same level on each would be close to the same volume of contents. What I don’t understand is how you know that those where the level is lower are less than 5 ml. As you haven’t measured the content it is also possible those with a higher level are more than 5 ml. How did you rule out this possibility? It could be that some are a bit low and some a bit high, or all of them are low, we just don’t know.
Have you complained to the vendor about short measure? What did they say? There are established principles in consumer law about correct weights and measures and if you could show good evidence that you have been shorted on such a pricey product you would have a good case for redress. But you don’t, all you have is the supposition that because the levels in the bottle are not the same some are short.
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I am the same with some scents. Even walking through the cosmetics section of a department store poses problems.
Many essential oils have the reverse effect on me and exuberate the symptoms they purport to alleviate. Hayfever which is often triggered tends to increase stress levels (as it impacts on ones wellbeing) and also sleep.
Everyone has different ways of dealing with modern day pressures, and many of these solutions are physiological rather than physical. There are also often medicine/medical solutions as well.
Some find exercise works (others don’t), a cold shower, a glass of something, fresh air, watching a comedy, going for a walk/holiday and the list goes on.
While these activities may have a perception to ‘alleviate’ symptoms, it doesn’t deal with what is causing the problem. If problem could be reduced, consumers would not be turning to the internet, word of mouth of friends/marketing teams etc to try a magic elixir to solve all one’s problems.
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I’d also be concerned at the use of the labelling on each bottle ‘pure’. How does anyone prove the accuracy of that statement?
The source product is supposedly expensive to produce. The plant extracts are known to readily mix with other plant based oils, EG a neutral vegetable oil. Diluting the ‘pure’ product with another ‘pure’ plant based oil would seem a quick way to save on production costs.
Many common aromatic products are sold in a diluted form with a carrier, that may also be considered ‘pure’. The product label has ‘pure essential oil’. It does not say ‘pure citrus lemon oil’. Semantics, are often the saviour of dodgy marketing?
‘Oil’ can also describe a mixture and not need the plural oils as a label. EG ‘diesel motor oil’ is a blend with numerous additives.
Given citrus based plant extracts (one of the original essential oil marketed products) have traditionally been produced very cheaply by cold pressing, it seems a little odd that they are considered a premium priced product. Many extracts are also highly flammable, (low flash point) hence small bottles and diluting with a less flammable plant extract might be a safe norm too!
P.S.
I have nothing against consumer desires to purchase fragrant plant extracts, or how they are used. Providing it is safe to do so. Whether the market fairly prices the product, or it is a product that is 10% production cost, 40% marketing costs, 50% profit we don’t know. Hopefully astute consumers never purchase foreign sourced or imported products, and the money spent on ‘essential plant oil’ extracts all stays in Australia, for Australian tax to be paid. Happy aromas.
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As long as the Eucalyptus Oil or whatever other oil they are trying to sell eg peppermint oil is used in a mix, and was “pure” then the statement/label that says “pure essential oil” on the bottle is allowed. They haven’t stated what percentage of the contents is that “pure essential oil” or indeed if it is a mix of other “pure essential oils” as well…it is puffery, if they had said the “contents are 100% pure eucalyptus oil” or whatever other oil they wanted to sell they might be able to be held to account.
In regards to the ml in each bottle our NMI allows in a single item a maximum shortfall of 5% so for 5 ml it allows 0.25 ml less. However on average (lets for example say 10 bottles) then they must come to 5 ml. If 9 of those bottles each only had 4.75 ml and one had 7.25 ml (extreme example I know) they would meet averaging requirements.
The bottles in the picture are smallish, so small variations might appear quite large when zoomed in on, yet when seen in their normal size appear less impactful. Nor do we know which is an accurate 5ml measure (as has been noted further up in the topic), so comparing differences in these bottles may just be a variation between more than 5 ml in some and 5 ml in others or some that are slightly less than 5 ml but still within compliance and others at or above 5 ml. The only way to be sure is to have the contents lab tested for volume.
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