In July 2024 I had the joy of attending YL30, Young Living’s 30 year anniversary combined with their International Grand Convention. One of the product workshops that I had the privilege to attend there was by Rex Kidman, Young Living’s Research & Development Scientist and essential oil formulator.

What I learned from him was absolute gold, and I’m so excited to share it with you here.

When I first joined Young Living back in 1998, in my naivety about essential oils I was thinking of just buying their single oils, and then make the blends up myself from the product listings that Young Living provided.

I’m soooooo grateful that I never followed through with that decision. I remember buying Clove oil and Young Living’s Immupower oil blend in my first order, Abundance and Awaken blends in my second order, and the Essential 7 Kit in my third order (which contained Panaway, Joy, R.C and more).

Once I experienced Young Living’s blends and how potent and effective they were for me and for my clients, I never looked back. It was just so much easier to buy their blends than to try and make them up myself from scratch.

What I learned in Rex Kidman’s talk showed me that I definitely made the right decision. Blending oils is truly an art form, and you’re about to find out why.

Did you know?

• Modern perfumery goes back to 1889, when synthetic vanilla (vanillan) was first created. 
• Each time a single essential oil is added to a blend, it’s called a “pour”. Did you know that it takes 78 pours to make Young Living’s Awaken oil blend? That’s a whole lot of single oils! That’s because Awaken is a master blend comprising 5 other blends – Joy, Harmony, Dream Catcher, Present Time and Forgiveness.
• When Young Living creates a blend, it’s not just a case of adding a certain number of drops of each single oil to come up with the formula. The order in which the oils are added makes a HUGE difference to the final scent.
• It’s also not just about adding the oils in a certain order. The oils in the blend need time to “settle” after they’ve been mixed. This settling time also impacts the aroma, and Young Living has very specific protocols about how this is done. 

The Art of Blending by Rex Kidman

Rex says: I started working for Young Living in February 1994. I began in their commissions department, and was initially hired to solve a commission problem on their computer. But one day Gary Young (the founder of Young Living) pulled me into his office. He said “Rex, I don’t think we have you in the right place.” He told me he didn’t know where he wanted me, but he knew he wanted to keep me.

A couple of weeks later he came and tapped me on the shoulder, and asked me to follow him into his lab. At that time, I barely knew Gary and I didn’t know anything about essential oils. And I definitely didn’t have any lab experience. 

When he took me into the lab, he said, “I want you to make a quart-sized batch of Joy oil.” He gave me instructions on how to do this, and I went ahead and made it. 

I was very nervous and scared. I must have read over those instructions many times. A thought occurred to me: “If you never start you will never finish”, so I began. 

After about the third oil, I noticed I began to relax and started to realise the oils smelled pretty good. As I put the rest of the oils in one by one, I started smelling each one. To this day, I still enjoy the smell of each of those individual oils.

Anyway, I finally finished the Joy blend and let’s just say the spiritual and emotional impact of that blend brought many tears to my eyes. 

I didn’t understand essential oils enough at that time, but I did understand what I felt inside, and I will say 30 years later I still enjoy and love that experience. 

After a few minutes, I remembered Gary had said that when I finished I should come find him. I was still fighting back the tears. I opened the lab door at the exact same time that he did. We were standing about 5 feet apart. Gary asked me why I thought I was still struggling with the tears, and couldn’t answer him. He said, “I think I have my answer”, and walked away. 

After a few minutes I got myself under composure and found Gary. I told Gary if that was the only time I had that experience, I was so “in”. Fortunately for me, I had a similar experience each time I made the original set of blend formulas that Gary gave to me (which was at least 20 or more blends). 

My experience that day opened for me a world that I never knew existed. I knew the oils smelled good. I knew they had properties. But there was something more….something that touched me in my heart. That began an experience truly beyond what I thought was imaginable. The oils became my friends and still to this day, 30 years later, that friendship continues every single day. 

Having the opportunity to be personally trained by Gary was a beautiful experience. When I was with him in the lab, I didn’t see a company President. I saw a mentor and a friend, a teacher and an educator. He was a father figure to me as well, as I’d just lost my own father.

We agreed he would teach me, because in those early days I didn’t know how to do any of the blending.

And you know what he said to me when I told him he’d need to teach me? He said, “Is that it, Rex? That’s the easy bit!”

One thing that Gary taught me is how to love the oils and let them love me back. This experience has unfolded to me so many great joys.

Formulating with Gary was an absolutely beautiful experience.

The biggest part that was so humbling to me is the amount of trust he put in me. I remember as if it happened yesterday, when he handed me his book of formulas in 1994. I said, “What are these?” and he said, “These are my formulas. If you are to work here in the lab, you need to have these. Under no condition is anybody other than Mary and I to see these. Do I make myself clear?” 

I replied “100% Gary – you have my word of honour.” And he said, “I know.”

Today, these formulas are under lock and key, and only the employees who need to see that information are allowed to see them. And so Gary taught me how to make the blends, the tinctures, and the personal care products. In those early days we were pouring out of quart sized bottles and gallon bottles of essential oils. But Young Living has grown so much that we are now using 25 gallon drums!

As I stood by Gary for 25 years helping him as he formulated every blend that he made, I can honestly tell you that the love, the appreciation, the respect, the admiration that Gary had and has for each of you went into every blend he did. I know this for a fact because I felt it each and every time. 

To say that was a beautiful experience is a gross understatement. Gary was an absolute master of blending. And he always had a process. There were certain steps he’d go through before we’d sign off on that blend and make it ready for you. These are the steps:

Step 1: Determine the purpose of the blend

Gary always had a purpose in mind when he made a blend. One day he asked me, “Rex, have I ever told you why I made the Valor blend?” He never had.

So he shared with me that in 1990 he was having some legal challenges with the IRS, and he decided that he was going to handle his own case.  He told me, “The night before I was going into court, I was petrified. So I took a bath with Valor oil. And the next day, as I stood before the judge, I’ve never been so scared in my life.

But inside, I had this feeling of courage, of strength, of Valor. And I knew I could do it.” And Gary won that case. And he told me “As I walked out, it was such an exhilarating feeling!”

Rex said: I had made Valor thousands of times in the lab at that stage, and I was with Gary every time there was a reformulation of Valor. The only exception was when Rosewood was removed, and I was with Mary for that reformulation.

So now whenever I put Valor on, not only is it a pinnacle blend, but it reminds me of Gary. It was his personal blend whenever he was in a difficult situation and needed some courage, and he would reach out for this oil blend that he knew and trusted.

Step 2: Create a list of oils that meet that purpose

When we create this list, we’re not worried about how many oils are on that list, because it will always get refined. It can be as long as we need it to be.

When Gary chose that list, it couldn’t help but be based on his 30+ years of experience with essential oils and all the many modalities he’d investigated in order to heal his body after he was paralysed in that logging accident.

He understood the body, how it works, the chemistry of the oils, and the research. So I would stand next to him and he would write down the list of oils.

I don’t have that same extensive knowledge of healing that he had, so I turn to research to help me create that list of oils.

Step 3: Send that list to our sourcing department

We’d then send that list of oils to the sourcing team, and they’d say “yes” or “no” according to its availability. And mostly it was a “yes”.

In the early days we never had to worry about an oil being unavailable. I remember the first time we were formulating a blend, and Gary wanted to use Ocotea, and I had to tell him we were out of it.

He got out his phone, spoke to the farm manager in Ecuador, and got him to send 40kg.

What Gary didn’t realise was that the 40kg had been sent several months earlier and it was already used up. So occasionally there would be a situation where he needed to come up with a second or even a third choice of oil in a blend, if his first choice wasn’t available. 

Gary would say to me, “Rex, it doesn’t matter if you have the best smelling or best functioning oil in the world, if you can’t get it, it doesn’t matter. If there’s a problem, let me know, I’ll come in and we’ll work through it.”

And he did, many, many times.

Step 4: Decide on the oils in the formula

Whoever formulates the blend is the one who always decides what oils go into that blend. Even from those very early days when I started with Gary, he would never sign off on an oil unless both of us were happy with it. There have been times for both Gary and me that we knew that something was missing from the oil blend.

One day when I was blending, I was having a shower and a particular essential oil popped into my head. I wondered why I was suddenly thinking about that oil, and then I realised it was the missing ingredient in the blend – the thing that would take it from being a good oil blend to an extraordinary one.

Step 5: Decide on the order of the oils in the formula

Once we’ve decided on the oils in the formula, the next thing is to decide on the order of the oils.

The order and methodology of the blend is proprietary and confidential. It’s the “magic” of that blend. 

Valor oil is a great example. One day I decided to make Valor oil “backwards”, reversing the normal order of ingredients. It was a completely different oil blend. 

Note from Artemis: In his talk,Rex passed around samples of Valor oil. 

Some were made with its normal order, and others were made by reversing the order of the oils that go into it, and the two blends smelled completely different! The one made in reverse I would never have picked as Valor oil (to me, it smelled more like Joy oil, with a sweeter fragrance and less earth to it).

Step 6:  Survey the samples and decide

When we’ve decided on the list of oils that would go into a blend, and we’ve decided on the order, we start to create samples.

Gary would always hand me a sample, and get me to smell it. Even in the early days, I knew when it was right, and when it wasn’t. I could feel it in my body.

Each time he’d do an adjustment or iteration to it, he would smell it and hand it to me, and ask me what I thought. He’d go back again and again until we were both 100% happy with it.

Once that happened, without fail, he’d bring it to Mary Young and Kelly (our Chief of Staff) and they would smell it.

We usually made several samples, and these were taken around and surveyed by at least 20 Young Living employees to get their feedback.

And that’s how we finalised a blend.

Prior to Gary’s passing, he’d do that final review and put his signature on the blend. Now, Mary does the final review and it’s her signature that goes on it, or it will be Jacob if it’s one of the ones we’ve created for the “Jacob and Kait” range.

Gary’s Wisdom

One day, Gary came to me. “Rex,” he said, “I’ve taught you everything you need to know about formulating. But the very last step I can’t teach you, because the way I do it and the way you do it are going to be a little different.”

He knew I had a challenge in my life at that time and he said to me, “What I want you to do is to go into the lab, and put together a formula that is going to help you with this challenge”.

Little did I know he was preparing me for the time when he would no longer be around to help me.

Once Gary passed away, I went to my boss and I said, “Now who’s going to create the blends?” And my boss looked at me and said, “You are!” I said, “Are you sure you want me there?” and he said, “You’re the only one who learned from Gary”.

Higher Unity is the first blend I created after Gary passed away.

As I made Higher Unity and went through the process he’d taught me, part of me was terrified. I was afraid of letting Gary down, of letting Young Living down, and I was afraid of letting myself down. 

I’m not the only one who creates our blend formulas, now that Gary is no longer with us. Scott creates the Jacob and Kait formulas. Mary created the Roots and Wings formulas. Dr. H.K. Lin created the Blue Relief formula.

I saw all the care and love and gratitude that Gary had for each of you. All of that went into every blend. When it comes to you, it’s nothing but the best.

As you experience a Young Living oil blend, and I see the effect it has in your life, it touches my heart so deeply…because I was there, and I saw Gary’s standard. Even though Gary has passed away, I still honour his standards, creating the best blends that I can for you. It’s a privilege and an opportunity.

But there’s someone else I want to thank, who’s been a part of this journey. My wife has enabled me to serve Gary and Mary 100%. In the 30 years I’ve worked for Young Living, she has never said, “Honey, you’re not spending enough time with me.” Instead, she tells me to take care of Gary and Mary, and she’ll be waiting for me when I get back home. That’s never changed, in 30 years.

How to order….

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