Dr. Mona sits down with cosmetic chemist and science communicator Jen Novakovic, founder of The Eco Well, to debunk common myths surrounding essential oils and explore their true limitations in family care. They dissect the “natural is automatically safer” narrative, address fear-based marketing, and clarify how to approach these products responsibly.

Key Takeaways

• The “Natural” Myth: Natural ingredients are not automatically risk-free, and essential oils carry genuine risks, including skin irritation and allergic reactions.

• Unregulated & Illegal Claims: Many multi-level marketing (MLM) reps and social media influencers make illegal medical claims that essential oils can treat or cure serious conditions like asthma, cancer, or fevers.

• Limited Scientific Evidence: While some studies explore potential therapeutic uses (like tea tree or lavender), the high concentrations required often increase the risk of skin sensitization compared to proven, traditional treatments.

• Fear Marketing & Chemical Vilification: Marketing strategies frequently exploit fear of synthetic fragrances and chemicals to promote essential oils, even though regulatory safety backing for these claims is often missing.

• Responsible Usage: Essential oils can be used for light, low-risk purposes—such as aromatherapy for relaxation or mild insect repellents—but should never replace evidence-based medical treatment.

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00;00;00;04 – 00;00;23;16

Dr. Mona

Welcome back to the follow up. It’s Doctor Mona, and this is a series on the PedsDocTalk podcast, where we revisit a past episode in less time than it takes you to read the ingredient label on that essential oil bottle in your cabinet. Spoiler it will not tell you what you actually need to know. I’m rerunning this one because essential oils keep popping up in my DMs.

 

00;00;23;16 – 00;00;48;02

Dr. Mona

Parents asked me if lavender oil is safe for their toddlers bath. If tea tree oil will clear of eczema, or if they should be diffusing something instead of giving ibuprofen or acetaminophen for fever. The questions never stopped, so neither should the answer. So personally, I actually use essential oils, but I also know their limitations. Essential oils got popular because they are marketed as natural.

 

00;00;48;04 – 00;01;17;02

Dr. Mona

Putting that in quotes and natural got a reputation as automatically safer. But that’s not automatic. Natural does not mean risk free and safe does not mean magic. The essential oil industry has done a great job selling a feeling of safety and a much weaker job. Backing that feeling up with actual safety evidence. Today’s guest is Jen Novakovic, a cosmetic chemist and science communicator who founded the Eco Well, a science education platform for the beauty and wellness industry.

 

00;01;17;05 – 00;01;51;13

Dr. Mona

Jen has spent her career pulling apart the claims that sound convincing, but do not hold up under a microscope. And essential oils are exactly her lane. We get into why the marketing around essential oils lean so hard on fear of chemicals and synthetic ingredients, and why that fear is not backed by the actual research. The real risks of using essential oils, including skin irritation, allergy reactions, and the danger of MLM reps and influencers making illegal medical claims about curing everything from asthma to cancer and what both of us actually recommend.

 

00;01;51;13 – 00;02;21;20

Dr. Mona

If you want to use essential oils responsibly in your home like myself. Remember, if you love this followed, go download the full episode wherever you get your podcasts and make sure to share it on social media and tag. PedsDocTalk, the PedsDocTalk podcast and the echo. Well, the echo well when you do a big series is also coming this fall, so make sure you’re subscribed to our channel so you don’t miss that exciting announcement.

 

00;02;21;23 – 00;02;29;23

Dr. Mona

We’re talking about the popularity of essential oils, but also some of the risks behind it. Why do you think they’ve become so popular?

 

00;02;29;25 – 00;03;04;16

Jen Novakovic

Yeah, I think there’s two factors in cosmetics. So maybe I’ll start there. There is this push for natural, and a push against synthetic fragrance. So people view essential oils as their natural, quote unquote safe, which is contentious. May or may not be the case. Likely. Isn’t the safer alternative for the synthetic fragrance in your products. And people are so scared about the catchall phrase fragrance that they don’t know what’s in it.

 

00;03;04;19 – 00;03;51;11

Jen Novakovic

That’s a large topic that I’m happy to dig into more, but they feel safer with this essential oil that they view as safe. Alongside that, you have the growing trend of like the supplement sector, and people opting for natural remedies, a growing, trend for aromatherapy. And I really think what really catapulted the essential oil space was us, doTERRA and Young Living, catching especially, like moms who had an audience within their communities to go and talk about essential oils and talk about purported health benefits.

 

00;03;51;13 – 00;04;23;24

Jen Novakovic

And like there has been some shady things that have happened that really are not compliant to regulations, which is a large topic in there in itself. But now there’s all of these messages online, from these MLM reps to the everyday person about essential oils will cure, all will fix. I mean, I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen things go so far to say essential oils will cure cancer and things like that, but they’re just like up on social media.

 

00;04;23;24 – 00;04;48;00

Jen Novakovic

So that certainly was a part of the trend. So I would say those three points and obviously like there is also, growing body of evidence related to essential oils, there’s a lot of interest for the use of essential oils therapeutically. So that’s also a part of that. And I think it’s a really interesting space and research. It’s really great to see.

 

00;04;48;02 – 00;05;19;01

Jen Novakovic

But alongside there’s also some shady things that have just elevated essential oils to what they are today. These products are technically, cosmetic products. So that means that they must comply to cosmetic regulations. And so the so brands cannot make therapeutic claims, otherwise it will render the products a drug. So saying something will cure cancer, prevent cancer.

 

00;05;19;05 – 00;05;54;10

Jen Novakovic

I’ve seen people talk about cinnamon essential oil being like an alternative to metformin things like that. I’ve seen it all. Like those are drug claims. And so the brand itself shouldn’t put this information and any of their consumer facing literature. Now, like these MLM reps are also consumers. So there’s some really gray area because I’ve seen the literature from doTERRA and Young Living giving this information to the reps, and then they go out and put it out into the zeitgeist.

 

00;05;54;16 – 00;06;22;13

Jen Novakovic

So these claims are illegal. And so the reps are first accountable for the claims that they’re making related to the products, in the same way that if an influencer on social media is talking about a cosmetic product and making all these therapeutic claims, they are also on the hook if, like regulatory authorities can catch them and like hold them accountable, realistically, it’s going to be more on the brands.

 

00;06;22;15 – 00;06;45;12

Jen Novakovic

So brands are also by having these claims out there by their MLM reps or influencers, but MLM reps in this case that are non-compliant to the regulations, they can be caught up and they could get into they could get into trouble for the claims that are illegal. So that’s the shady area. They are like full stop illegal.

 

00;06;45;12 – 00;06;47;15

Jen Novakovic

They should not be making these claims.

 

00;06;47;18 – 00;07;02;12

Dr. Mona

And I see that all the time. I mean, you’re perfectly right how the marketing kind of goes, which is scary for, you know, from the medical side is what you just said, you know, this is a cure for cancer. But not only are they saying, just say use another example like this is a cure for, you know, whatever.

 

00;07;02;12 – 00;07;22;24

Dr. Mona

This is like a cure for my child’s asthma. Just giving an example. Okay. And then they vilify other medicines that are actually stuff that pediatricians or, you know, a pulmonologist may prescribe and say, this is toxic for your child, but look at my product. This is something really great. Buy it here. Use this link. And I see so much of that marketing on social media.

 

00;07;22;24 – 00;07;38;12

Dr. Mona

I see so much of that sort of, you know, natural living. And they put a little emoji of like a leaf, you know, and I’m like, what is this natural living? I mean, we all we all gotta live in nature. I don’t, I mean, it’s such a movement. And again, these kind of buzzwords kind of with the clean beauty, which is what we mentioned earlier.

 

00;07;38;18 – 00;07;57;04

Dr. Mona

But it’s like, I really natural. I mean, there’s no way, unless you’re living in the woods and, you know, sourcing your own food and, you know, hunting, not everything is really natural. So it’s it’s really frustrating because of the claims. And, you know, from a physician standpoint, like I said, I mentioned Facebook groups when they go on and talk about, hey, your child has the flu.

 

00;07;57;11 – 00;08;14;12

Dr. Mona

Yeah, don’t worry about, you know, taking X, Y and Z or listening to your doctor. Here’s an essential oil to take. Now I will say, because I think it’s important, and I know we’re not going to talk about real benefits or anything because there really is no literature to support. Benefits of essential oils I have used essential oils in the past, but for nothing very serious.

 

00;08;14;17 – 00;08;33;24

Dr. Mona

I mean, I’ve used it as an insect repellent and I’ve used it as a pediatrician for children with anxiety that were older as a smell. Right? Like to smell it because it kind of as a psychosomatic sort of psychological placebo effect, kind of help with, relaxation. But it was never used for treating physical ailments or things like that, you know.

 

00;08;33;24 – 00;08;45;05

Dr. Mona

And that is what the concerning thing is, is that we don’t know, you know, and I think you can agree that there is no scientific literature, like you said, to support any safety or efficacy. Correct?

 

00;08;45;07 – 00;09;18;04

Jen Novakovic

Yeah. Well, I will say the evidence to support its use topically, and that’s the research that I’m most familiar with is limited. So there has been a study comparing benzoyl peroxide and tea tree. This was back in 1990. So bear in mind this was quite old. And I was comparing 5% tea tree oil and 5% benzoyl peroxide. And both had impact for reducing inflamed and non inflamed acne lesions.

 

00;09;18;06 – 00;09;45;13

Jen Novakovic

Now like a challenge is 5% is a very high usage for essential oils. And so when you’re using them at such a concentration then you run into risks of allergen city and emergency. But this was back in 1990. And I haven’t seen that compelling of evidence since then. And then I’m also looking at, review, looking at the effect of lavender essential oil on wound healing.

 

00;09;45;13 – 00;10;21;07

Jen Novakovic

So there is a potential impact for improving wound healing now, like there’s also an impact with like intensity and urgency. So there’s that there’s also many other proven ingredients that have a lot more compelling research in my opinion. There is research on various essential oils. Right now I’m looking at lemongrass essential oils for, fungal treatment. Now, bear in mind these would fall under the umbrella of drugs.

 

00;10;21;13 – 00;11;01;26

Jen Novakovic

So like a lot more research needs to be done for them to, like make any of the claims. Because the issue is like a lot of these studies are using high concentrations that wouldn’t be sustainable on a long term basis due to irritants and allergy issues. So there is a limited amount of research, but there are other ingredients with far more evidence to support them with a lot less from what I can gather, risks associated with them because by nature, essential oils tend to be irritating and like potential allergens like.

 

00;11;01;26 – 00;11;23;07

Jen Novakovic

Not to mention, there are other risks associated with essential oils. But to answer the question, there is a limited amount of evidence, but in my opinion, not compelling enough to gravitate towards essential oils over more tried and tested ingredients.

 

00;11;23;09 – 00;11;44;18

Dr. Mona

And that’s your follow up. Just a small dose of the real, relatable and eye opening conversations we love to have here. If you smiled, nodded, or had an moment, go ahead and download, follow and share this episode with a friend. Let’s grow this village together for more everyday parenting wins and real talk. Hang out with us on Instagram at the PedsDocTalk podcast.

 

00;11;44;26 – 00;12;00;10

Dr. Mona

Want more? Dive into the full episode and more at PedsDocTalk.com. Because parenting is better with support. And remember, consistency is key. Humor is medicine and follow ups are everything. I’m Doctor Mona. See you next time for your next dose.