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How to Buy Essential Oils
Within this article, I loosely
refer to all the volatile aromatherapy oils including essential
oils, absolutes and CO2s collectively as "essential oils."
 Poor quality oils (oils that have been distilled
from poor crops, have been handled improperly, are old, etc.) or
adulterated oils (oils that have chemicals or other oils added to
them) lack the therapeutic benefit of good quality oils. Additionally
essential oils that have been adulterated can cause harmful side
effects, or at best provide only minimal therapeutic benefit.
Below are tips that can help you select vendors
of pure, high quality essential oils:
- Watch out for words such as “fragrance oil,” “nature
identical oil,” or “perfume oil.” These words indicate
that what you see is not a pure, single essential oil. Many vendors
label fragrance oils (that can be combinations of essential oils
and chemicals or just plain chemicals) and perfume oils as “aromatherapy.”
Countless vendors of strictly fragrance oils have written me to
ask for advertising of their “aromatherapy oils.” Beginners
need to watch out for these vendors who inaccurately use the alternative
medicine term aromatherapy for their own sales gain.
- The term “pure essential oil” is overused in the aromatherapy
industry. Pure essential oils can be distilled from poor quality
crops, be sitting in someone’s inventory or on a store’s
shelves for years, be stored in a way that damages the oils, or
be mishandled by vendors so that oils are accidentally mixed during
bottling. So, don't get overly impressed by a vendor that labels
their oils as "pure."
- Avoid oils that are sold in clear glass bottles as the clear
glass can allow light to damage the essential oils. Instead, buy
oils that are stored in amber (brown) or other dark colored glass
bottles. Some vendors sell oils in aluminum bottles. Aluminum
is said to be acceptable if the inside of the bottle is lined.
- Avoid buying essential oils in plastic bottles as the essential
oil can dissolve the plastic. In turn, the dissolved plastic will
contaminate the oil.
- Avoid buying essential oils that have a rubber eyedropper bulb
in the top because the oil can dissolve the rubber dropper and
become contaminated.
- Seek out vendors that promote that they test all their oils,
supply samples that you can try before you buy, and that give
you confidence in their knowledge (often by providing detailed
information on each oil they sell and provide other aromatherapy
information that instills confidence).
- If you are comparing online vendors, send e-mail to them asking
questions that you have. If you don't have any, think of something
to ask so that you have a reason to write them. Find out how helpful
and knowledgeable they seem. My biggest rant about aromatherapy
vendors is that very few have good oils as well as good customer
service.
- Watch out for vendors that sell all their oils for the same
price. This doesn’t mean the oils are not pure or of good
quality, but it often does. Neroli, Jasmine and Rose, for instance,
should cost a lot more than geranium and Ylang Ylang. A good quality
patchouli usually costs more than eucalyptus. The basic citrus
oils such as grapefruit, lemon and sweet orange oils are some
of the least expensive oils.
- When buying essential oils locally, watch for oils that have
dust on the top of the bottles. This is an indication that the
oils have been sitting around. As time passes, many oils lose
their therapeutic properties, and their aroma diminishes. The
bottles should be sealed so that the oil couldn't be contaminated
by other cutomers. Be sure they have tester bottles of the EOs
so that you can sample the oils.
- Try to avoid buying oils from catalogs or Web sites that don’t
list the essential oil’s botanical (Latin name), country
of origin or method of extraction. I’ve bought good quality
oils from companies that don’t bother listing this information,
but I often wonder why any truly knowledgeable vendor would not
realize the importance of including this information. For instance,
there are multiple varieties of Bay, Cedarwood, Chamomile, Eucalyptus,
and so on. Each has different therapeutic properties. The country
of origin for oils is also important because the climate and soil
conditions can affect the resulting properties of the oil. Is
that rose oil steam distilled or is it an absolute? Any good aromatherapy
vendor should realize the necessity for providing this information,
so I can only assume vendors that don’t bother to include
it are lazy, unknowledgeable about the importance of supplying
this information or buy their oils from different distributors
and don’t want to have to update their catalogs/web sites
anytime they find a different source.
- Organic oils may be superior to non-organic oils. Read
the Organic Essential Oils article
for more information.
- Be careful when buying essential oils from companies that primarily
sell to the food & beverage or perfumery industries. Some
vendors that primarily sell to these industries may have different
goals in the purchase and sale of their essential oils than the
goals of vendors that sell therapeutic-grade oils specifically
for aromatherapy use. The restaurant and perfumery industries
desire essential oils that have a standardized (consistent) aroma
or flavor. The oils sold by these sources may be redistilled to
remove or add specific constituents (natural chemicals found in
the oils). These re-distillations or adulterations may harm the
therapeutic use of the oils. If desiring to buy from such a vendor,
inquire first to ask about their methods.
- Most of us need to watch how much we spend. It’s very tempting
to buy essential oils from the companies that sell them for the
lowest price. Price alone isn’t an indication of quality,
but it can be. Knowledgeable vendors that spend countless hours
locating quality oils, pay the expensive fees to test their oils
and provide free samples upon request should rightfully be charging
more for their oils than retailers that stock oils that they’ve
sourced from the cheapest sources.
- When choosing to try a particular vendor, place a small first
order and ask for additional samples (don't ask for a sample of
everything, honestly ask for 2-4 samples of oils that you are
sincerely interested in purchasing). The goal is to find out if
this is a vendor that you are pleased with without wasting your
money on large orders that you might not be happy with.
- It is costly and time consuming for vendors to provide samples
and some vendors receive an overwhelming number of requests for
free samples. Some vendors do need to charge a small fee for providing
samples, and this should not reflect poorly on the vendor.
- Be cautious about purchasing oils from vendors at street fairs,
craft shows, festivals or other limited-time events. Many of these
vendors are selling products as a hobby, and unfortunately some
vendors at these events may know their customers have no recourse
against them after the event is over. This is not to say that
there are not highly reputable sellers at such events, but this
is a caution for beginners who are not able to reliably judge
quality at first.
- Network with other aromatherapy lovers by joining one of the
aromatherapy mailing lists or clubs on the Internet. Networking
is a great way to learn about the companies that more experienced
aromatherapy consumers prefer to purchase from.
- As you begin shopping for essential oils, make it your priority
to support the companies that support AromaWeb. AromaWeb's
advertisers support AromaWeb's mission to be an invaluable online
informational resource that provides in-depth aromatherapy information.
Visit the Web sites of AromaWeb's banner advertisers and the advertisers
within AromaWeb’s Global Business
Plaza and Local Business
Plaza. Although AromaWeb cannot make any endorsement for these
companies and there is no implied guarantee of the quality of
the products they sell, AromaWeb will never knowingly accept advertising
from any company that is suspected of being unethical.
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