Oil Origins: Of Riches and Resins

It’s about time we talk about riches. Not gold or physical wealth, mind you, but the rich treasures of the earth—essential oils! Every essential oil has its place, but there’s no group of essential oils that encompasses “riches” like the resins. Rich in both symbolic and monetary value, resins have been valued throughout history as even greater than gold.

What Are Resin Essential Oils?

These precious essential oils come from the resin—a sap-like substance with a high viscosity—of the trees from which they are sourced. The trunks of the source trees are either tapped or “bled” by skilled harvesters to extract the resin, which is then distilled into essential oils with profound properties. Resin essential oils are most often characterized by their warm, spicy, and woody aromas.

There are only three resin doTERRA essential oils, but they are some of our best known and most loved: Copaiba oil, Myrrh oil, and Frankincense oil. We’ve gathered them all together in a single post so you can get to know each one better and better understand the differences between them. While their related origins give them some similarities, each resin essential oil offers a distinct aroma, flavor, and collection of incredible benefits.

Copaiba Oil

Copaiba essential oil is the newest face among the resin oils, but it’s already become a doTERRA favorite. The copaiba tree flourishes in the rainforest habitats of Central and South America, where it has the potential to grow to more than 30 meters high. When skillfully tapped, these trees produce a resin which is then distilled into a gentle but mighty essential oil, much like the tree itself.
 

Copaiba essential oil has a mild, woody aroma and offers numerous topical benefits to the skin and home. Diffuse for a grounding and peaceful aroma, or wear as a unique personal fragrance. Copaiba oil also offers gentle cleansing, soothing, and moisturizing benefits to the skin, and can be used to complement your skincare routines to promote a clean, healthy-looking complexion.

Why choose Copaiba oil?

Copaiba essential oil offers powerful benefits to the skin while supporting your regular skincare products with its gentle, enriching aroma and skin-soothing benefits. Compared to the other two resins, Copaiba oil’s scent is more subdued, but has uniquely uplifting aromatic notes when diffused in the home.

Learn More About Copaiba Buy Copaiba Now

Frankincense Oil

We can’t talk about riches without thinking of royalty, and Frankincense oil—the king of essential oils—is as royal as they come! Frankincense has been regarded as one of the worlds most prized substances since ancient times. Its narrow, twisting Boswellia trees are commonly found growing on rocky, mountainous regions of East Africa and the Middle East, where the trunks are methodically “bled” by local harvesters for the precious tears of hardened resin that seep from shallow cuts in the bark. Preserving the lifespans of these priceless trees is one of the most important global initiatives of the doTERRA Co-Impact Sourcing® program.

Steam distillation of the Frankincense resin produces a powerful essential oil. Frankincense essential oil has a profoundly peaceful, relaxing, earthy aroma, and provides a warming sensation to the skin. Its unique chemical makeup gives Frankincense oil additional topical cleansing benefits and can be used to help maintain proper moisture levels in the skin for a glowing complexion.

Why choose Frankincense oil?

Frankincense essential oil’s relaxing aroma and skin-soothing properties make it an ideal essential oil to couple with a massage. While Copaiba oil also has benefits to skin, Frankincense oil has unique benefits that can support the healthy look and feel of skin, nails, and mouth when used topically.

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Myrrh Oil

Myrrh essential oil joins the ranks of Frankincense oil when it comes to its long history of use and value. The source of Myrrh oil is a small, thorny, shrub-like tree, which produces tears of resin in a way similar to the frankincense trees. The myrrh resin is steam distilled to produce a beautiful essential oil with a richly peaceful aroma and numerous applications.
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Myrrh essential oil has a smoky, woody scent that can be diffused to create a peaceful atmosphere in the home. It can be added to both oral and skincare for its topical cleansing properties, and also provides a skin-soothing sensation when used with massage or regular moisturizers. Myrrh essential oil is also a powerful tool to use in aromatherapy.*

Why choose Myrrh oil?

While Myrrh is as historically treasured as Frankincense oil and has a rich, earthy aroma characteristic of all resin oils, Myrrh essential oil has profound and unique applications in aromatherapy. Myrrh essential oil can be used in aromatherapy to help relieve colds and cough, symptoms of eczema and dermatitis, and minor skin irritation, cuts, bruises and burns.*

*NPN: 80060962

Learn More About Myrrh Buy Myrrh Now

Whether you are already familiar with these resin essential oils or this was your first introduction, we hope we’ve given you more reasons than ever to love this unique group of essential oils.  We’ve often found that what really matters in life can’t be measured in riches, but can be supported by resins!