The Ethics of Unadorned Essentials
If you have enjoyed the sweet aroma of the rose, the invigorating scent of peppermint, or the verdancy of coriander, then you know essential oils.
Essential oils are a liquid concentrate of the unadorned aromatic molecules of a plant. These oils have the distinctive aroma and flavor of the plant of origin. This nourishing liquid enthusiastically absorbs through the membrane of our skin to bless mood, mind, and body. Sincere, generous, and immeasurable plant life!
Every plant oil is a botanical miracle. When several oils are skillfully combined, the mosaic effect of thousands of plant compounds bursts forth with an intelligence and life force that defines every Libations creation.
Purity
All Libations botanicals are authentic and pure and distilled only from the named plant matter. We call our essential oils Hi-Fi oils due to the distillers' faithful and accurate adherence to the master plant. All of our Hi-Fi oils are distilled from either wild crafted or organically grown plants. Our wild crafted plant matter is collected from the plants' natural habitat in lieu of a farm. We avoid offering botanicals from rare or threatened species of plants growing in the wild to discourage their disruption and disappearance. Our organic oils originate from plants cultivated without synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, or herbicides.
To amplify the potency of the aromatic essence in the plant being distilled, our harvesters gather the part of the plant needed for the oil at the ideal time of day for each plant. An ancient and artful distillation method further ensures that the maximum amount of compounds and trace elements are captured in every drop. Most of our oils are distilled with nothing more than pure water.
Our ‘absolute’ oils are a unique type of extraction used required by a few plants that that need a solvent to liberate the aromatic molecules from the plant’s cellulose. The solvent is cleanly removed after distillation.
Singles, Carriers and DIY Advice
Some people prefer to blend their own botanicals, and we offer single note essences and carrier oils to empower creative mixing. We are happy to offer good-mixing tips and encourage wise experimentation. Most of our Libation bottles and lids can easily be washed and reused to contain your own creations before they are recycled.
Better than Good: Libations Manufacturing Quality Assurance
The FDA maintains a quality assurance recommendations check-list for the food, drug, and cosmetics industries called the Good Manufacturing Practice. The GMP check-list includes guidance on all areas of business: record keeping and controls, manufacturing facility suitability, equipment appropriateness, personnel and training, processing standards, laboratory hygiene, the storage and handling of products and ingredients, and customer service administration. Participation in the GMP is voluntary, and Living Libations adheres to its industry recommendations and our quality control exceeds the recommendations.
Living Libations Legitimate Labeling
We practice legitimate labeling, and we put the ingredients list right on the front of the bottle as an invitation to be read. We make each formula with care and attention, and we want Libations lovers to easily find and understand what is in each product.
Free from artificial and synthetic colors, preservatives, fragrances, and petrochemicals, every component of a Libation is an active ingredient. We preserve purity, space, and resources by offering full potency products without fillers or diluters. Our essential oils and supercritical extracts are highly concentrated, and with some of our botanicals, a whole plant is required to create a single drop of oil.
As a family and as the creators of Libations, we are totally gluten free. All Libations are gluten-free. Oat straw (Avena sativa) is also known as milky oats. Our certified gluten-free oat straw is an herbal infusion of the green, unripe stem or straw of the oat plant, and the seeds, which are the cereal grain, are not included in the infusion.
Our Libations creations are as raw as possible. All of our fatty oils are cold pressed and completely unheated. There is no such thing as a raw essential oil because they are produced by steam distilling plant matter. Libations oils are produced using a long and slow distillation at the lowest temperature possible.
Clever, Cunning Catchwords
Beware of the natural-speak catchwords that line the labels of many "health" products: natural, eco-friendly, cruelty-free, pure, non-synthetic, certified organic, and A-grade ratings. (If you say too many of the words together you may feel as though you should be sitting in a forest playing a harp while drinking herbal tea and discussing your aura with a rabbit.) These phrases are devoid of scientific foundations or official regulations, yet they are frequently used to market products that cannot fulfill the producer's promises.
Discern What's Real
All brands of essential oils are not equal. Due diligence is needed if you want only really pure and authentic botanical oils. Many distributers and marketers use terms such as “Grade A,” “therapeutic grade,” and “aroma-therapeutic grade” to describe their oils. Yet, these are words without meaning. No organization, association, or commission monitors the purity or quality of essential oils, and there is no universal essential oil grading system in place. Be aware.
Each essential oil has specific components that make it distinctive and authentic, and there are published standards defining these profiles. Various countries, including the US, have published pharmacopoeias that outline exacting chemical and physical standards for hundreds of botanical oils. There is also a universal standard for most botanicals maintained by the International Standards Organization (ISO).
The ISO and the pharmacopoeias are not regulating bodies or purity-police. No one holds distillers or distributers to the published standards or monitors for quality. A bottle labeled as “organic, therapeutic, Grade A rosemary oil" may not contain any rosemary at all! It may be oil components from a peppermint plant grown with fertilizer that is tinkered with in a laboratory until it smells a little bit like rosemary but is missing all the benefits provided by authentic rosemary oil.
It is very important to know your source.
Global Responsibility is a popular marketing trend and for this we are deeply grateful. Living Libations rigorous standard of purity honors the health and preservation of forests, lakes and rivers, farms, the people who cultivate and distill for us, our families, our neighbors, and our clients.
For over 20 years we have nurtured personal relationships with artisan distillers and family farmers around the globe so that we may secure authentic oils and extracts that are purely and fairly produced. Many of the highest quality plants and flowers used in plant oils are indigenous to the developing world, and the people native to those regions learned from their families the ancient craft of distillation. We can track the source of our oils from the plant growing in the field to the oil arriving on our doorway. It is our pleasure to observe fair trade practices so that our skilled farmers, harvesters, and distillers are safe and earn a fair wage for their labor and goods.
Essential oil yields vary from year to year depending on weather patterns, plant growth and health, and even political stability in some regions. As with wine, some years are just better than others. All of these factors influence the availability and the price of the botanicals we use.
Animal Attraction
Almost all Libations are vegan. There are a few products that include ethically harvested and produced beeswax: the lip glosses and balms, the perfume balms, Maidenfern Blushing Balm, and Jai Baby Balm. Sundew Transdermal Vitamin D Crème contains vitamin D from lanolin, which occurs naturally on the wool of woolly animals, such as sheep.
Animal Testing is and always has been a non-issue for Libations creations. Botanical oils have blessed and benefited humans for all of recorded history, and this is copious proof of their safety and effectiveness.
There are ancient and contemporary accounts of people using botanicals to treat, clean, and bolster the health of their pet and farm animals. The use of plant oils with animals is outside of our area of expertise, though, so we refrain from making recommendations. We can recommend the following books:
Essential Oils for Animal by Nayana Morag
Holistic Aromatherapy for Animals: A Comprehensive Guide to the Use of Essential Oils & Hydrosols with Animals by Kristen Leigh Bell
Our Living Ethic of Nature, Beauty, and Being
Beauty is everyone’s birthright as a blessing of nature. It is the effervescent insignia of the divinity in our souls. Beauty endures with time. It cannot be pursued, purchased, or put on. Tending to Beauty is simple; step into it and liberate it from vogue inclinations, marketing madness, and artificial facades.
Beyond the limits of linear business thinking, Libation's beauty is the deep action and integrity of Nature. Each Libation is an invitation to wonder and wander from finite beauty to an open field of grace. It is about being the connoisseur of your life, living as deliberately as nature and nourishing the discernment of the senses.
The bounty of nature's beauty endlessly illuminates our entire insides, and the nectar of plants is an ever-offering gift that magnifies Beauty. Libations plays with the possible ways nature may be inhaled, stirred, soothed, and imbued.
Every Libations creation presents itself to reignite one’s being. Our creations kaleidoscope nature’s essence from a web wider than wonder and invite the cosmic intelligence of botanicals into an outpouring of delight.
Our Libations proclaim, "Let light pour through the door of every parched and perked pore. Engage with the pure plant poetry that sparks your cellular effervescence."
Revivified, our cells dance diamonds on a sunlit lake.
Attentive awareness grew our creations, mixed with a dash of play! Libations is here to enchant: to enhance the ambiance, to flora the aura, and to mist, bathe, infuse, diffuse, amuse, and shower sweet-selves with blessings bestowed from rhythms of nature. Nature knows divine.