GOOD. Oils · Sunlight from the peel

Lemon

Name: Lemon
Brand: doTERRA

Cold-pressed from the peel, and you're wide awake in a second: fresh, clean, ready for the day. The bottle that lives in my kitchen drawer and by the sink.

🍋 Citrus limon · fresh & clean

What it does

One bottle takes the peel of dozens of lemons, cold-pressed without a drop of heat: the peel is rasped until the tiny oil glands burst and the oil runs out. doTERRA's Lemon comes from the femminello lemon around Mount Etna in Sicily, and from southern Brazil, where Italian emigrants brought their citrus craft with them in the seventies. What you smell is pure peel, nothing added.

Lemon is packed with limonene, the fresh compound you catch the moment you peel one. In your diffuser that scent lifts a room in one go, brighter and clearer; plenty of people switch it on when the morning is slow to start or the afternoon focus dips. Around the home it's also a powerful natural degreaser: a few drops lift sticky label residue, marker pen and greasy fingerprints off stainless steel with ease.

In the EU, Lemon is an approved food flavouring, so it can go into your glass of water or a dressing too, one drop is plenty (citrus is strong). A glass of water with lemon is a morning ritual for a lot of people: lemon has long been used to support the body's own cleansing processes, the kidneys and digestion. And when it's cold outside and your throat wants a little attention: a drop in a mug of hot water with a spoon of honey, sipped slowly.

Emotionally, lemon is the oil of the fresh start: clearing the air, windows open, 'right, let's begin again'. Exactly the scent you reach for when your head feels full and grey.

Your own fresh all-purpose spray

Fill a spray bottle with water, a good splash of cleaning vinegar and 15 drops of Lemon. Shake before use and you'll wipe your countertop, chopping board and tap with a scent that freshens the whole kitchen, without synthetic perfume. Test a corner first on untreated wood or natural stone.

Why this one

CPTG-tested for purity

Every batch independently tested. Pure oil, exactly what's on the label, and nothing else.

Carefully sourced

The right plant in the right place, at the right time. You can smell the difference.

Versatile to use

Aromatically in your diffuser or diluted on your skin. One bottle, many moments.

A little goes a long way

Pure and concentrated, so you only need a few drops. One bottle lasts a long time.

How to use Lemon

1.Aromatically: 3-4 drops in your diffuser for a fresh, clear room; lovely in the morning or at your desk.

2.Around the home: a few drops on a cloth lift glue residue, marker pen and grease off stainless steel and glass.

3.In your water: one drop in a glass of water, a fresh morning ritual, or through your dressing (use glass or steel, not plastic; citrus attacks plastic).

4.Cold days: for a tickle in your throat, a drop in a mug of hot water with a little honey, sipped slowly.

5.On the skin: well diluted, and always out of the sun afterwards (see the small print below).

Where it comes from

Click a pin for the sourcing story.

Wereldkaart met de herkomst van de doTERRA-oliën

Lavender 🌍 Bulgaria doTERRA’s Lavender grows on the high plains of Bulgaria, on fields run by family farms that have passed the craft down for generations. The flowering tops are harvested in summer and distilled close to the field; through Co-Impact Sourcing the growers get guaranteed purchase and fair prices. View Lavender → Turmeric 🌍 Nepal The rhizomes are harvested by hand by farming families in the hills of Nepal and distilled locally. Co-Impact Sourcing provides steady jobs and fair prices in a region where paid work is scarce. View Turmeric → Frankincense 🌍 Somalia · Oman · Ethiopia doTERRA's frankincense is a blend of several Boswellia species from Somalia, Oman and Ethiopia. Harvesters make careful cuts in the bark; the resin crystallises over a few days into beads, the tree's 'tears'. Every supply chain is audited against the FairWild standard. View Frankincense → Wild Orange 🌍 Brazil Sourced from hundreds of small farmers in southern Brazil, where the climate is ideal for citrus. The oil is cold-pressed from the peel; it takes around 154 oranges for one 15 ml bottle. View Wild Orange → Ylang Ylang 🌍 Madagascar · Nosy Be From growers on the island of Nosy Be, off Madagascar's north-west coast. The star-shaped flowers are hand-picked and distilled within 24 hours, so the rich, sweet aroma is preserved. View Ylang Ylang → Cedarwood 🌍 United States From the south-eastern USA, from Juniperus virginiana. A lovely detail: doTERRA distils the oil from sawdust and offcuts left over from timber processing, giving waste a second life. View Cedarwood → Magnolia Touch 🌍 Southern China The magnolia oil comes from southern China, from the white champaca. The delicate blossoms are hand-picked early morning or late evening and steam-distilled. View Magnolia Touch → Shinrin-Yoku 🌍 Japan (Hinoki) A blend with no single origin: oils from around the world come together. Its heart is Japanese, with the signature note Hinoki, the cypress of Japanese temples, inspired by shinrin-yoku, forest bathing. View Shinrin-Yoku → Peppermint 🌍 USA · India Sourced in the Pacific Northwest of the USA, from a family farm spanning generations, and in northern India (Uttar Pradesh). The steady, wet climate gives a high menthol content. View Peppermint → PastTense 🌍 Nepal A blend of several oils. Its most remarkable sourcing story sits in the wintergreen: wild-harvested in the mountains of rural Nepal, naturally rich in methyl salicylate. View PastTense → Deep Blue Stick 🌍 Nepal Built on the Deep Blue blend. Its main component, wintergreen, is wild-harvested in rural Nepal, where women climb the steep mountain slopes and communities manage their forest areas together. View Deep Blue Stick → Fractionated Coconut Oil 🌍 Philippines The carrier oil comes from the Philippines, from the coconut. Fractionation leaves only the light, liquid part: colourless, odourless and miscible with any essential oil. View Fractionated Coconut Oil → Lemon 🌍 Italy (Sicily) · Brazil doTERRA's Lemon comes from two places with the same roots: the femminello lemon around Mount Etna in Sicily, and southern Brazil, where Italian emigrants brought their citrus craft with them in the seventies. The peels are cold-pressed; what's left over goes to bio-compost for electricity. Through Co-Impact Sourcing, growers and cooperatives work with guaranteed purchase and fair prices. View Lemon → Tea Tree 🌍 Kenya · Australia doTERRA's Tea Tree grows in two places: in Australia, where the Melaleuca comes from, and in Kenya, where smallholder farmers grow the shrub on land that once yielded little. The leaves are steam-distilled locally. Tea tree earns up to five times more there than maize, and for every kilo of oil a share goes into a development fund the cooperatives run themselves. View Tea Tree → Copaiba 🌍 Brazil (Amazon) Copaiba comes from the resin deep in the trunk of the copaifera tree, along the Amazon in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. Harvesters drill a small hole and tap the resin like maple syrup; one tree can live up to four hundred years. doTERRA helped the harvesters with protective gear, training and a cooperative of their own, so they earn more and stay in charge. View Copaiba → Oregano 🌍 Turkey doTERRA's Oregano is wild-harvested in Turkey, where the plant blooms in summer, by a network of hundreds of small farmers. The aerial parts are steam-distilled into one of the most concentrated oils there is. View Oregano → Lemongrass 🌍 India doTERRA's Lemongrass comes from India, from smallholder farmers often with no more than half a hectare of land. The grass is steam-distilled locally, and the spent grass then fuels the boiler; nothing is wasted. By placing distillation stills in the region, doTERRA gave the farmers a valuable crop to add. View Lemongrass → Cardamom 🌍 Guatemala · Honduras doTERRA's Cardamom comes from Guatemala and Honduras, where it grows in the shade of tall trees. The seed pods are picked, dried for around thirty-six hours and steam-distilled. In Honduras the Poverty Stoplight project helps families work their own way out of poverty; one of the farmers built a house with running water from it. View Cardamom → Eucalyptus 🌍 Australia doTERRA's Eucalyptus radiata comes from Australia, where the tree grows naturally and reaches up to fifteen metres tall. The leaves are steam-distilled, giving the fresh, invigorating oil known for its high 1,8-cineole content. View Eucalyptus →

Fancy giving it a try?

You can order Lemon on its own, or, and honestly I always recommend this, set up your own account and get 25% off.

View Lemon Start with 25% off

About that 25%: with your own doTERRA account (free, no compulsory orders, cancel monthly) you pay the wholesale price on everything. Order more than once and the account pays for itself right away. I'd just do it; you order the same and simply pay less.

Essential oil, for aromatic and diluted topical use. Keep out of the eyes, inner ear and sensitive areas. Store out of reach of children. If you're pregnant, breastfeeding, have a medical condition or take medication, please consult your doctor first. Not a medical product; not intended to prevent, treat or cure any disease. Lemon is cold-pressed and naturally contains furocoumarins (including bergapten), which make the skin sensitive to UV light. Apply lemon oil only well diluted and then stay out of direct sunlight and sunbeds for at least 12 hours. Internal use only with the EU version suited to it.