Dear Oily,
Help! I think I’m almost out of Lavender essential oil, but I’m not sure. How can I tell? When should I order more?
Sincerely,
Almost Out
Dear Out,
This is a serious problem. You do NOT want to run out of Lavender oil (or any oil, honestly). Look what happens when you do!
That’s a video of my friend Jo. She was having a serious moment because she *gasp!* RAN OUT OF LAVENDER. I can relate. Running out of essential oil is terrible!
The problem is, oil bottles don’t have a fuel gauge like a car does. There’s no meter to track your oil use or little light flicking on to let you know that you’re running on empty.
Fortunately, you have me! My husband was once an auto-mechanic, and I have used his expertise to develop an Essential Oil Gauge to make sure you never have to suffer from a lack-o-lavender.
First step: let’s figure out how much oil you have left in your tank.. I mean bottle.
The Oil Gauge
We don’t need no stickin’ oil meter! Why would we? We have Young Living’s new labels to make it super duper easy to see how much oil is left because of the awesome transparent window on the front of the bottle. Yeah, it’s the best feature ever.
When you hold your bottle up to the light, you should be able to easily see how much oil is left.
If you have the older labels, you’ll have to take an extra step and peel the label back a bit until you can see the bottle itself. Fortunately, the labels are meant for peeling back so this isn’t really a big deal.
How Many Miles Do I Have Left?
Now that you can see how much oil you have left in the bottle, you just need to predict how soon you’re going to need to refill.
Let’s keep up the car analogy: Do you wait until your car is running on fumes and risk being stranded on the side of the road with the nearest gas station twenty miles away OR do you fill up even before that little light comes on?To figure out how many more miles an oil bottle will get me, I decide on what “level” my oil bottle is at. Basically, I’m determining if I’m running on full or if I only have a quarter tank left.
These are the levels I use (check out the corresponding picture to see what I mean by each one):
- Sealed
- Full
- Semi-Full
- Half
- Low
- Empty
- None
I know most cars only need their oil checked every three to six months, but I check the levels of all my essential oils every month!
Fill ‘er Up
Once I know how much of each oil I have left, it’s time to figure out which ones I need to “refill”.I like to refill all my regular oils (ones that I use on a daily basis like Lavender or Peppermint) when they are nearing the halfway mark. I do not want to be stranded on the side of the road or anywhere else without these! For oils that I don’t use as often, I wait until they are in the low range or even approaching empty before ordering.
So there you have it: how to make sure you don’t run out of oil and have to hitch hike your way to the nearest gas station for an emergency refill.
