8 Tips for Buying High Quality Essential Oils
As a botanical perfumer who is committed to creating the most luxurious, alchemical, and potent natural perfumes possible, I’ve spent years learning how to discern high quality, real essential oils from the fraudulent ones.
4 Ways Essential Oils and Natural Products are Adulterated
Far too often, essential oil suppliers will adulterate their oils by:
Cutting more expensive oils with less expensive ones
Adding synthetic aroma molecules to supposedly pure essential oils
Replacing the named oil with a totally different oil than what’s listed in the description
Selling purely synthetic, fake versions and true botanicals
8 Tips for Sourcing Authentic and Pure Essential Oils & Natural Products
Luckily, it’s actually pretty easy to avoid buying fake oils once you know what you’re doing! Here are the top 8 things I look for when sourcing quality oils:
1. The Price
Every essential oil is extracted from a different amount of raw plant material, and the more material it takes to make a drop of oil, the more expensive the oil will be.
Tips:
Every oil should have a different price—in other words, neroli and pine should not cost the same amount.
Oil prices should generally fall within a certain price range. Compare prices at several different companies—if anything is way less than average, it’s likely fake.
Knowing general pricing for aromatic groups can be helpful, too. A few guidelines here:
Citruses and fragrant trees tend to be on the lower end of prices
Flowers tend to be on the higher end of prices
Rarer plants (often those that are only grown in certain areas) tend to be on the higher side
Common fragrant plants (such as mint, cinnamon, clove, and lavender) tend to be more affordable as well
2. Botanical Names
Always look for the botanical name of the plant in question—the one written in latin. It should match the plant name on the bottle. This probably seems obvious, but I’ve seen plenty of mismatched common and botanical names on websites.
Tips:
Make sure the latin name matches the common plant name on the listing or bottle.
Make sure the latin name is the variety you’re looking for—lavandula angustifolia is quite different from lavandula latifolia cineolifera or lavandula x intermedia grosso.
If an oil doesn’t have a latin name, don’t buy it.
3. Extraction Method & Part Distilled
Most reputable suppliers will include the part of the plant the oil is extracted from, as well as how it was extracted in their product description. If this is missing, take it as a warning. After all, juniper berry essential oils is quite different from a juniper oil extracted from leaves and twigs!
Tips:
Look for “Extraction Method”—Most oils are steam distilled, but not all. Citruses are often cold pressed, absolutes are solvent extracted, and CO2s are done with a regular or supercritical CO2 extraction.
Look for the “Plant Part”—Does the oil come from wood, fruit, flower, etc?
4. Country of Origin
Different countries produce different varieties and qualities of essential oils, so seeing the country of origin can give you a clue as to the quality of the oil.
Tips:
Make sure there is a single country of origin listed. Blends from multiple countries tend to be of lesser quality (though not always).
No listed country signals likely synthetic origins.
5. Cultivation
Cultivation refers to how a plant was grown—is it wildcrafted, organic, or conventional? Seeing this listed is a good sign in general.
Tips:
Make sure the cultivation method is likely to be accurate. For example, have you ever seen basil in the wild? Nope, wildcrafted basil isn’t likely.
Some plants are rarely, if ever, organically cultivated, whether because it’s unnecessary (as with many trees) or financially difficult (as with many precious flowers).
Organic cultivation tends to be more expensive than conventional, so you can double check your pricing here, as well.
6. Company Transparency
Good oils come from good businesses. Do you know who owns the company? Where they’re located? They’re return policies?
Tips:
Find the company’s about page. Look for specifics—like who founded the company, why they started, and their philosophy about the oils. Avoid generalized pages that might never say more than “We specialize in high quality essential oils.”
Look for clear shipping and return policies, as well as contact information.
Do they offer 3rd party testing reports? Look for “GC/MS batch-tested” and the ability to request these reports.
7. Non-Existent Oils
Some plants, fragrant though they may seem to us, simply don’t produce enough essential oils to be extracted. Other plants don’t actually have strong scents, but companies use their names to describe synthetic aromas (think “cucumber-melon” for example). Make sure the oils you’re searching for actually exist!
Tips:
Many “food” smells cannot be botanically extracted, so they are almost always synthetic—cucumber, melon, apple, cherry, apricot, plum, and raspberry, to name a few.
Many flowers are almost impossible to extract aroma from. The following are almost always synthetic—gardenia, lilac, wisteria, any lily, honeysuckle, freesia, hyacinth, and “white florals”.
Plant names are often given to synthetic scents when the plant in question doesn’t actually have much of a fragrance—bamboo, papyrus, or willow for example.
8. Company Ethics
The way a company operates can say a lot about whether or not you want to support them, even beyond the quality of their oils.
Here are a few things to consider:
Does the company sell both “natural” and synthetic oils? I’ve found that companies who are truly committed to naturals have better quality oils. Plus, if they sell both, there is likely adulteration behind the scenes.
Does the company sell animal products? Many perfume suppliers still sell things like civet oil, which is obtained from a small wildcat through an extremely cruel and painful process. I try not to support any companies that perpetuate animal cruelty.
Does the company sell endangered oils? Many plants are at risk because of the demand for their precious oils. I try to find companies offering sustainable alternatives to the most threatened species. For example, while Indian sandalwood is endangered, Australian sandalwood can be a more sustainable alternative.
Does the company support safe use of essential oils? An ethical company will name warnings clearly—not for use with children or while pregnant, or with certain medications, for example. Watch out for companies that tell you to take essential oils internally (you can with some, but it’s a delicate dose), or that encourage you to use a ton of the oil at a time (the oils are precious, and a little goes a long way!).
There you go! 8 helpful tips for buying high quality essential oils. Happy shopping!
