Why Buy Good Quality Essential Oils

Before we discuss why to buy and use high quality essential oils, let's first define what are essential oils in the first place. People who are only starting now using oils that smell nice might not have an idea that there is a big difference between pure essential oils that are naturally distilled from live plants and so-called fragrance oils, which are synthetically made in laboratories.

Real essential oils are said to be live. They contain the life force of the plants they are extracted from. When using these oils for aromatherapy the life force of these oils is transmitted right to our body and mind, making us and keeping us well.

For many years now chemists have been trying to reproduce essential oils in laboratories, and so far the only thing they've managed to do is getting the smell right - and in many cases not even that is genuine enough - we can tell the difference. None of the many healing properties of good quality essential oils are present in fragrance oils.

When I first started using oils several years ago, I admit, I also bought cheap oils from the local supermarket and used them in oil burners to make the room smell nice. It did, however soon after I've realized that I was spending money on something that did not do anything more than that...smell nice.

This is when I started to learn about aromatherapy and why using pure essential oils is vital for our health and well being - and I never looked back since!

(image credits: wikipedia)

It is a fact: essential oils are more expensive than fragrant oils. Moreover, the prices of essential oils differ from oil to oil.5 ml of lavender oil cost much less than 5 ml of rose or jasmin oil and there is a good reason for it.

So what should you watch out for when buying essential oils for aromatherapy uses?

1. Price - usually fragrant oils (regardless of the plants they try to imitate in their smell) have the same price. So you will find jasmin, rose, lavender and lemon oils at the same price. Big red flag!
2. The wording on the bottle - names such as 'fragrance oils', 'perfume oils', nature identical oils'. These are indeed fragrance oils and in most cases they don't have even a drop of the real thing in them!
3. Oils sold under the wording 'therapeutic grade essential oils'. This is in fact a  pet peeve of mine. There is no such thing as a therapeutic grade oil. All the high quality, natural essential oils are therapeutic by the very nature of the chemical composition of the oils themselves. There are two specific MLM companies who have coined this terms, and now more and more suppliers are using this hoping that people will buy their oils because they are 'therapeutic'. Red flag again, right here!
4. If the oils are sold in plastic bottles or light (transparent) bottles, the supplier is either not genuine or has no idea of the proper storage of essential oils. Pure essential oils should be stored in dark (amber or dark brown) glass bottles and should have a cap that perfectly fits the bottle without letting any air inside.
5. Never buy oils that are specifically made for the food or perfume industry. These oils have been adulterated (chemically modified) so that they all smell the same from batch to batch. These oils no longer have the therapeutic properties that a whole, unadulterated oil contains.

Even between pure essential oil batches there are differences in quality and therapeutic properties. This is why before buying  your essential oils, you need to do your research and buy from trusted sources. An honest and decent supplier of aromatherapy oils will be able to help you with more information about the oils they are getting, including the country of origin, the part of the plant used and the condition of storage (and age) of the essential oils.

Here are some of the important factors that affect the quality of essential oils - even from batch to batch:

• County of origin
• Part of the plant used
• The type of soil the plant was growing in - soil fertility
• Altitude
• Water quality
• Temperature and climate conditions
• Method of cultivation
• The distillation equipment used to get the oil from the plant
• How the oils were stored (essential oils hate warm air, being exposed to sunlight and get oxidized when stay too long in touch with air)
• Any adulteration of the oils

All these affect the chemotype of the essential oils Chemotypes are basically differences in the chemical structure of the seemingly same types of plants. For example there is a difference in the healing properties of lavender grown in China, vs France, England or Czech Republic.

If you found a great supplier of your essential oils (even if you found them through Amazon), keep buying from them instead of always trying new sources. You will be rewarded by always getting exactly what you expect to buy: 100% pure essential oils in their unadulterated condition that have been perfectly stored.