Hi, I’m Nancy.

I live on a ranch in South Dakota, the kind of place where the seasons set the schedule and the work doesn’t much care what your plans were. I grind my own wheat. I keep animals fed in weather that would send most people back inside. And somewhere along the way, I became the person friends text when they can’t sleep, when a headache won’t quit, or when they just want to know which oil to actually buy.

I didn’t start out knowing any of this.

Years ago, essential oils felt like a club everyone else had joined without me. There were a hundred bottles, a thousand opinions, and a lot of people very eager to sell me a kit the size of a toolbox. I wanted something simpler. I wanted to know what to use, for what, and how — without a chemistry degree or a sales pitch attached.

So I learned the slow way. One oil at a time. What worked, what didn’t, what was worth the money and what was just pretty packaging. I paid attention to how things actually fit into a full, ordinary life — because that’s the only kind of life I have.

That’s what Oils First is.

It’s not a catalog and it’s not a lecture. It’s the everyday, real-life version: the oils I reach for first, the blends that genuinely make a room feel better, the small rhythms that have held up through long winters and longer days. No hype. No overwhelm. No pressure to become a different person to use them.

I write for women who are done being talked down to — who don’t want the hard sell, just an honest friend who’s already done the figuring-out and is happy to share it.

If that’s you, I’m so glad you’re here.