The name of the blend comes from an old story about a group of thieves who stole from the dying and the dead during the 1720 plague. When the thieves were finally caught and forced to expose their secret they admitted that they were perfumers who were using essential oils to protect themselves from the plague.
According to Mary Young, ‘Gary was fascinated from this story and spent hours in the British museum and library archives searching the stories until he came up with the formulation of the Thieves blend.
Today there is so much research available. Clove is our protector; Cinnamon, our purifier; Eucalyptus, our oxygenator; Rosemary, our balancer; and Lemon uplifts us with its invigorating and enhancing beautiful citrus fragrance. The brilliance is in the combination, which was Gary’s secret from which we all benefit.’
The Thieves blend was tested at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, in 1998, and the scientific documentation was published*
THIEVES® essential oil is a powerful combination of Clove, Lemon, Cinnamon, Eucalyptus Radiata, and Rosemary essential oils for an aromatic blend that fills any space with a rich, spicy aroma.
Diffuse this blend in a diffuser to keep yourself and your loved ones healthy!
Add a few drops to a spray bottle with water and refresh your bath room, toilette and your hotel room when traveling
Place a few drops on cotton balls and insert them into your shoes!
There is a complete range of products using the thieves blend, such as toothpaste (fluoride free), mouth wash, hand sanitiser, soap, dishwashing soap and house hold cleaner.
The house hold cleaner is a concentrate, which is meant to be diluted. If you keep the old bottles (or use a spray bottle from an old cleaner (preferably organic) you can make several different dilution for cleaning the house:
For windows, kitchen table top, tables, practically everything (for light degreasing)
1 cap of the thieves cleaner 2 to 3 cups of water (about 500 to 700ml)
For heavy degreasing and stains (e.g. stove top after frying, wash basins, bathroom)
1 cap of the thieves cleaner in 1 cup of water (about 250ml)
There are about 60 to 65 capfuls in the small size (426ml) Thieves house hold cleaner and you make about 60 bottles of 500ml cleaner with it. In Singapore organic house hold cleaner of that size cost between 5 to 10$. The bottle of thieves house hold cleaner concentrate is available for SGD38. This works out to between 0.63 to 1.26$ for a 500ml cleaner! You can save money by buying the thieves household cleaner even compared to commercial cleaners.
*Endnote:
1. Gattefossé, R-M, Gattefossé’s Aromatherapy. CW Daniel Company, LTD. First published in Paris, France, in 1937 by Girardot & Cie., 85-86.
2. Sue C. Chao, D. Gary Young & Craig J. Oberg (1998) Effect of a Diffused Essential Oil Blend on Bacterial Bioaerosols, Journal of Essential Oil Research, 10:5, 517-523, DOI: 10.1080/10412905.1998.9700958.