When I first started with Young Living I thought I was sourcing some essential oils for my personal use. It seemed like a simple enough transaction – I pay money, I receive oils, I use oils on my body to help myself.

I had no idea of what an amazing adventure this journey was to become. Not only have I fallen in love with the Young Living oils and oil-infused products and had many “WOW!!!” experiences with them, I’ve also found a family within the global Young Living community. These oils attract in such beautiful, heart-centred people, that I’ve formed many wonderful friendships within this community.

If you’re nodding as you read this, then you’re well on your way with your own Young Living journey. Yet, there’s another very exciting aspect to this journey, and that’s the opportunity to visit our Young Living farms and partner farms around the globe.

I’ve lost count of how many farms I’ve visited (it’s at least 14 around the globe, some of them multiple times). Each farm has its own plants and its own story. Every farm is a unique adventure, and touches my heart with both the care and enthusiasm of the people who work on the farm, and also the sense of peace on the land.

This week I’ve just returned from my fourth visit to our Australian Blue Cypress partner farm, the Outback Botanical Reserve and Distillery located in Darwin. 

In today’s bulletin, I want to bring you on this adventure with me. Before we go to the farm, check out this video of a river cruise we went on at Darwin’s Adelaide River, where we watched crocodiles jumping out of the water for their morsels of meat. Enjoy!

How a devastating cyclone became an incredible gift

I love the story behind Blue Cypress, Callitris intratopica, also known as the “Australian Cypress Pine”.

This is an Australian native tree that grows in the Northern Territory – a beautiful conifer that can live for over 200 years. Because its wood is naturally termite-resistant, it was used for many years to build houses (from the early settlers, right up until the 1970’s). It became such an important timber to the building industry that a designated forest reserve was established to protect this important resource.

However, the destiny of Blue Cypress dramatically changed on Christmas day in 1974, when Cyclone Tracy devastated the township of Darwin. The cyclone killed 71 people, and destroyed more than 70% of buildings and 80% of homes in Darwin. 30,000 people were evacuated and many never returned.

After the storm had passed, Darwin was rebuilt – this time using steel framed homes. The abandoned Blue Cypress plantations stood as sentinels to a closed chapter of history…until one man (Vince Collins, pictured below) discovered the amazing essential oil that is contained in its wood.

With the help of a grant from Young Living’s Partner Farm Initiative, Vince was able to build a distillery and begin production of Blue Cypress essential oil – a unique production process he had already patented.

The Outback Botanical Reserve and Distillery became one of Young Living’s earliest partner farms, and that close connection continues to this day. There are 500,000 Blue Cypress trees on the plantation. Curious to check it out? View the Gunn Point Plantation from Google Earth.

An accidental discovery

Vince was initially using the Blue Cypress plantations and chipping them to make garden mulch. He bought the trees for 20 cents each! The locals who bought it loved the unique smell of the mulch, so that inspired Vince to have it analysed at the Wollongbar Agricultural Institute in the Northern Rivers (close to where I live in Byron Bay).

Instead of just sending the heartwood down to be analysed (because it’s the heartwood that contains the essential oil), Vince sent down a whole log which still had the bark on it.

He expected the scientists to remove the bark before testing, but they didn’t. They distilled the whole log in February 1995….and to everyone’s amazement, the essential oil that came out of it was a deep cobalt colour, rich in a compound called Guaiazulene.

The guaiazulene is formed when the essential oil of the heart and sapwood touches the bark, and a catalytic reaction occurs. Without the bark, there is no blue.

From sapling to fully grown tree

Let’s start by introducing ourselves to the trees themselves. At 1 year of age, the Blue Cypress tree sits at about 5 cm (2 inches) in height (see bottom left pic below). It grows incredibly slowly, and that’s because of the weather in Darwin. This little sapling must survive up to 9 months of the year without any water (during the dry season). Its fine needles mean it loses very little water (compared to say a Eucalypt tree), so it’s well adapted to the climate.

Blue Cypress trees can be harvested once they are 25 to 30 years old and about 15 metres tall, although the trees being distilled when we visited the farm were 70 years old.

The trees need to be handled very gently during the harvesting process. They can’t be dragged on the ground (as this dislodges their bark), so specialised equipment is used.

The branches are cut off and the needles are removed before chipping. In case you’re wondering why that is, it’s because we don’t want the essential oil from the needles to get mixed in with the essential oil from the heartwood, because the needles contain the compounds L-limonene and alpha-pinene, which are skin irritants.

By not having those compounds in the essential oil, Blue Cypress oil is able to be listed as “non-irritating” to the skin.

Such care goes into production of this essential oil

Watering trucks are used to wet down the logs after they’ve been cut. This ensures the bark stays attached to the hardwood rather than separating out. Water is also sprayed during the chipping process, so that any dust created from the chipping stays with the wood chips (because this is actually wood dust from the bark, and is needed for that catalytic process).

The Blue Cypress wood chips are then loaded into a stainless steel basket, and covered with a thick layer of bark. This basket is placed over a steam chamber, which boils for the next 72 hours.

The essential oil is extracted from the heartwood using this process of steam distillation, and both Guaiazulene and Chamazulene are natural plant chemicals which form the distinctive cobalt blue hue, when the heartwood oil touches the bark during steam distillation. Azulene comes from the Spanish word “Azul” meaning dark blue.

Yet these are only 2 of 160 compounds contained in this essential oil, many of which are as yet unidentified.

The steam distilled essential oil is then allowed to sit for 3 to 4 days in a cooled room or refrigerator. During this time the essential oil crystalises due to the presence of a natural compound called “guaiol”, becoming a solid crystal mass (see bottom left pic).

The crystal mass is taken out and broken up by a drill and a stainless steel mixer. It is then vacuum filtered using porcelain funnels into large glass bottles (see middle pic above).

This filtration process removes some (but not all) of the guaiol from the essential oil, so that the end product (our Blue Cypress essential oil) is liquid not crystalline, and still contains 10-23% guaiol.

If you look at the middle pic above, you will see two bottles that are in the process of being filtered (ie. the guaiol stays in the porcelain filter, and the essential oil drips down into the glass jar underneath). The longer it sits there, the less oil is present in the guaiol. This is why the porcelain container on the far left of the middle pic contains guaiol that looks whiter than the one next to it (as this one still has some essential oil in with it, so it’s still tinged with blue).

The essential oil that has filtered down into the bottle is placed into a stainless steel 500 litre Conical Mixer and blended. It’s then shipped to Young Living USA for bottling as a single oil, and for using in numerous Young Living blends and personal care products.

Did you know?

The uses of Blue Cypress oil

Blue Cypress essential oil is incredibly bioactive, and because of this it has a wide range of amazing properties. In fact, it overlaps a lot with Lavender oil in its uses (especially for the skin and for calming). I’m limited in what I can say here, as I’m not able to make therapeutic claims about this oil. Instead, do your own research online and through a good reference book.

Skin

Blue Cypress oil is wonderful for softening and toning the skin. Not only is it moisturising, but it also promotes the appearance of healthy-looking skin. Its antioxidant properties help to protect the skin, reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Add it to your favourite Young Living moisturiser, or use it to regulate excessive oiliness of the skin and scalp. 

Emotionally

Emotionally, Blue Cypress oil is soothing and relaxing, and a wonderful companion to a great night’s sleep. If you’re feeling stressed and anxious from challenging events in your life, this is the oil to reach for.

In his book Bush Sense, author Mark Webb states that “I have found Australian Blue Cypress oil particularly useful for grounding patients that are flighty, nervous or emotionally distraught. The calming, reassuring effect of this oil is immediate and long-lasting, like its scent.”

Combine Australian Blue Cypress oil with other oils like Cedarwood, Pine, Frankincense, Lavender, Lemon Myrtle and/or Ylang Ylang oil in your diffuser, to create exotic fragrances.

Joints

Blue Cypress oil is the perfect oil to rub onto your joints and tendons. Put a drop on your finger joints, your elbow or knee joints, and rub under the soles of your feet and around your heels – wherever you feel a bit creaky and needing some natural lubrication.

Maryanne Collins (Vince’s wife) has a lovely morning ritual where she mixes her Blue Cypress oil into a carrier oil like Young Living’s V6 massage oil. She rubs this mix into her feet, then up her legs, then up her arms. This is a great way to moisturise the skin, and move the lymph around the body. Our lymphatic system is a very important part of our immune system, so this simple massage brings multiple benefits to the body. You’ll even become a human diffuser, with your aroma, helping to calm people around you!!!

Easy Breathing

This is the perfect oil to rub on your chest during bushfire season, or whenever there is smoke or other pollutants in the air.

Sesquiterpenes

Blue Cypress oil is primarily composed of natural plant compounds called sesquiterpenes. These compounds carry oxygen around the body, including crossing the blood brain barrier. More oxygen in our blood means our entire body functions more optimally.

When our cells are oxygenated the way they are meant to be, we naturally access higher states of energy and brain function.

What’s intriguing is that as much as it supports optimal brain function, Blue Cypress oil is also very calming to the brain (reminiscent of the properties of Lavender oil).

Indigenous uses

The tree itself (not the oil) has been used for thousands of years by the Indigenous Australians. The Tiwi people of Bathurst and Melville Islands in the Northern Territory use an extract from the tree to wash their skin, to rub on their abdomen, and to protect them from those little annoyances that can be so common in the great outdoors of the Northern Territory (and I’m not referring to crocodiles, lol.)

Caution

Blue Cypress essential oil has many wonderful benefits. However, despite its non-irritating nature, long-term continual use of this oil can cause skin sensitivity in some people. It’s suggested you use it daily for 30 days, then rest for 2 to 3 months, then use it again.

It can be used neat on areas of the body that need some extra TLC, or diluted in Young Living’s V6 massage oil and massaged over the entire body for an all-over pamper.

Here’s how to order…

If you already have your own wholesale account with Young Living, you can order through the shopping cart on your virtual office, or via phone or live chat with your local Young Living office.

If it’s been more than 12 months since you’ve ordered, or if you’ve never set up an account, please reach out to the person who introduced you to Young Living.

You will need their member number when you place your first order.

If you have lost touch with them, or need any other assistance, we are here to help. Simply click on the button below, and we’ll be in touch to assist you and help answer your questions.