Essential oils have been exploding in popularity for a while, and they're now readily available at many local stores. Many of these drugstore or big box store essential oils are extremely inexpensive compared to other brands. Why is that? Does cost matter? What is really the difference between cheap and expensive essential oils?
Understanding Labeling of Essential Oils
The first thing to understand is that the labeling on essential oils is not regulated. Companies can pretty much put any claims they want on their labels. Words like "pure," "certified," "natural," and others on the label are just marketing terms, and companies don't have to do anything to prove the truth of these terms.
Wholesalers
I often say that most essential oils on the market are the same, and I'll tell you why. Almost no essential oil retailer actually creates their own oils. They don't grow or harvest the plants, and they don't distill them.
Instead, they buy the oils already made from a wholesaler and just put their own label on the bottles. There are numerous wholesalers out there, so all oils may not technically be the same, but if two brands are purchasing their oils from the same wholesaler, they are selling you the same oil, regardless of the label. You have no way to know.
Furthermore, you really have no way of knowing the practices of the wholesaler, and it may not even be producing the oils itself – it could just be buying single oils from different producers and offering them in one place. Because of this, finding out what the production practices are is nearly impossible.
Synthetic or Adulterated Oils
Because of the lack of regulations on labeling, companies can sell pretty much anything they want and call it an "essential oil." The number I've heard by many experts in the field is 5% – that's how much of the bottle must be actual essential oil.
The other 95% of that bottle could contain carrier oils, fragrance oils, fillers, preservatives – basically whatever the company wants. These other ingredients are cheap. Raising, harvesting, and distilling plants, especially if done without chemicals, is not cheap. You can (and should) assume that cheap oils are not pure oils.
Also, many inexpensive essential oils have pretty much the same price on all their oils, whether it's orange, lavender, peppermint, frankincense, or rose. That's another key warning sign of adulteration or synthetics.
Oranges produce quite a bit of essential oil, but roses don't. The exact amount of oil production varies, but for a rough comparison, it takes around 50 oranges to produce one ounce of orange essential oil, but it takes 60,000 roses to produce one ounce of rose essential oil.
If you find rose oil for cheap or for the same price as orange oil, assume it's not real.
Raising plants and distillation
This topic is far too involved to go into here, but so much goes into producing essential oils from caring for the plants to distilling the oil, and each step can affect the final product.
Just a few factors that can affect the quality of the oil include:
- Health of the soil the plants grow in
- Methods of weed and pest control
- Timing and method of harvest (for certain plants)
- Pressure used during distillation
- Duration of distillation
It takes a lot to get all these factors right, and doing it right doesn't come cheap. For instance, hand weeding is far more expensive than using chemical herbicides. Distilling for a longer time at a low pressure costs more than distilling at higher pressure for a shorter time.
Additionally, some distillers will practice solvent extraction, which uses harsh chemicals. You don't want chemicals in your essential oils any more than you want them coating your food. Only use essential oils that were steam distilled or cold pressed (in the case of citrus oils).
Cheap oils generally have shortcuts taken during the process, and that will affect the quality and therapeutic benefit of the final oil.
Sourcing is Key
To sum it all up, I look at essential oils much like I look at meat, produce, household cleaners, skin care, and more. The more information I can know about how they're sourced, and the more that process aligns with my ideals, the happier I am.
Many companies try to make their products sound better than they are, including something called "cleanwashing," and essential oil companies are no different. They will use words on their labels that make them sound good but actually mean very little.
It's important to look beyond these marketing terms and find out as much as you can about the process of creating the essential oil.
What to Look For
These are a few of the questions I recommend asking when choosing an essential oil company:
- Does the company do distillation or just purchase wholesale oils?
- If they distill, do they also have a part in growing the plants themselves?
- How much control does the company have over how the plants are grown?
- What are the distillation methods? Do they practice full distillation (getting all the benefits of the plant) or partial/fractionated distillation (which is faster and cheaper)?
- Do they steam distill and cold press, or do they use toxic chemicals in a solvent extraction?
- Do the oils very in price?
The answers to these questions will give you a good idea of how trustworthy the company is and whether they produce quality oils.
What I Use as Health Professional and Studying Aromatherapist
Following my rule of knowing as much about sourcing of a product as possible, the company I chose was Young Living. It remains the only essential oil producer I've found that is involved in every part of the process from planting the seeds to distillation. They also have the knowledge and laboratories to test their oils multiple times during the process and have learned things like how long to distill Cypress to get all 200-some beneficial constituents from the plant versus the 20 that most other companies have.
Some other companies give vague explanations of their sourcing, but you can actually visit Young Living's farms around the world and watch the process. That level of transparency says a lot to me.
Their oils aren't bargain basement prices by any means, but the quality is worth it when you get real benefit from them.
If you'd like to experience them yourself, you can use this link with the code ShareYL for a discount and my personal assistance with any questions you may have.
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