Short answer: no. Desiree does not recommend substituting oils in her blends or protocols.
Why Not
Every plant has its own signature, even the ones that look interchangeable.
When Desiree builds a blend she is working with three things at once: which part of the plant the oil comes from, its temperature, and its flavor. Bark, flower, leaf and seed all behave differently. Temperature runs from freezing cold through neutral to extremely hot. Flavors combine, so a single oil is rarely just one note.
Peppermint and Spearmint are the clearest example. Both are mints. Both open the lungs. Both are pungent and drying. But Peppermint is cooling and Spearmint is warming, and that one difference is enough to work against what a blend is designed to do.
Swapping an oil does not get you a close approximation. It gets you a different blend.
What To Do If You Are Missing An Essential Oil
Wait until you have everything before you make it.
Leaving an oil out is not a smaller version of the blend, in the same way that leaving out the baking powder is not a smaller version of the cake. Get the oil you are missing, then make it properly.
Then order the oil. Desiree uses doTERRA exclusively. Our guide is here: Where To Buy Your Essential Oils
The One Exception
If you are in a live workshop with Desiree and you are missing an oil, ask her. She will sometimes work with a substitution in that setting, because she is there and can adjust for how the energy is moving.
On your own, with a written protocol, that adjustment is not available. Use the oils as written.
Read More From Desiree
She covers this properly, with better examples, in Why Essential Oil Substitutions Aren't Ideal & What to Do Instead.
If You Want To Understand The Method
Desiree blends through a Chinese Medicine lens, which is where the temperature and flavor thinking comes from. If you would like to learn it and build your own blends, our guide is here: Learning To Blend Like Desiree
Still Have Questions?
Start a live chat, or email [email protected].