If you decided to educate yourself in the subjects of Aromatherapy and essential oils and you’re ready to try this organic-based method of treatment combined with a new way of life it’s more than natural to start shopping for your own products and to ask yourself what’s the best place to buy essential oils from.

If this is your first time purchasing essential oils it’s normal if you got confused because the overall process might get frustrating at first. Surfing hundreds of Internet pages with companies talking about how their product is the best turns you into a skeptic so we below managed to set aside a few hints that actually make sense when making your purchase. Let’s see what you should be aware of when looking for a good place where to buy essential oils from.

What am I using the essential oils for?

The first question you need to ask yourself is what exactly you need the oils for. If you want to make homemade decor products like candles or use this type of products for fragrance only then you’re safe to purchase basic Aromatherapy fragrance or food grade oils.

These oils are not expensive at all and are obtain through the process of distillation while using synthetic solvents. This is perfectly safe if the substances don’t get in touch with your skin or your body. Paying more for a product that is not used for any type of Aromatherapy treatment is not worth the effort and instead you should pay more only when you plan on making homemade products that will touch your body.

Also, be sure you are aware of the grade possessed by the essential oil you intend to purchase. If you want to purchase a product for your family or for animals we suggest you use 100% pure therapeutic grade oils. Therapeutic grade oils are obtained through stringent distillation and safe testing procedures with the final product being obtained without any solvents involved.  Only a few companies in the world are able to produce this type of oils despite have a few thousands that claim to pursue the same business practice.

Basically there are two types of factors that qualify an essential oil for the therapeutic grade: environmental factors and physical factors. Environmental factors relate to where the plant was grown, the soil type, what type of fertilizer was used and all details related to factors that get in contact and influence the plant directly. On the other hand physical factors relate to timing of the plant being harvested, how the plant was distilled, how the oil was bottled and all the technical details.

The distillation process can make a huge difference as well. Usually obtained through steam distillation, plants can be exposed to different methods during this technique. We can mention water, water/steam distillation and straight distillation here. Each method comes with different results, obviously.

Water distillation relies on the plants are boiled in hot water with the steams being extracted out of the compound to produce the final essential oils. Water followed by steam distillation is another method where plants are simply exposed to hot water and steams before the oils are extracted.  The steam and the oils are captured out to produce the essential oil.

Straight distillation involves exposing the plants to steam pressure and then extracting the essential oils out of the final mix. Just to give you a quick example, lavender essential oil is obtain through this method. The actual size of the recipient and the material that is made from along with the rest of the parts involved in the process will have a direct impact on the quality of the final product as well.

The chambers where being plants are stocked are best to be made of a metal that doesn’t interfere with the overall process and the distillation process that’s being performed vertically is able to make the best essential oils with no risks of burning the plants. Copper and aluminum are best to be used in this process because these metals will not react with the plant material and the company is going to be able to obtain a good quality for their product. Follow the additional specifications below to identify a company that can supply you with quality essential oils companies.  

Price – where can I get essential oils cheap?

This is a tricky one if you want to buy essential oils online. On one hand we are taught that a high price means good quality but that is not always the case when retailing a product. High prices can also mean a high commission placed by a 3^rd party and a low price can actually mean a low quality, naturally.

What we need to be aware of in this situation is finding a company that offers a price somewhere in between for their products. No one has money to throw away, and it’s highly accepted to pay a little more for good customer service and high quality but a company that produces its own products will find a way to find to reach a fair price for their products because they can’t afford to stop the production process and keep essential oils on stock for long periods of time.

A company that handles a 3^rd party position will always invest more in salespersons and multi-level marketing because this is their exact role in this whole situation. They need to move as much essential oil as possible because this is the key to their profit. It’s true that a big company will take good care of this aspect as well but usually good business comes with a great balance between the commercial aspect and the quality of the product.

Some background research on your company

Most of the times the truth is hard to handle and it this case it doesn’t get better either. A lot of companies that claim to sell organic products of their own are actually purchasing everything from a good (or bad distributor) and adding a certain percentage for their profit.

This is how retailing works actually but you can avoid finding yourself in the situation of buying products from a 3^rd party just by accessing all the right information. If you performed your research, read all the online information you found about your company while sending them a few additional e-mails to ask details about their products you can move on to the next step: performing your research on the company’s reputation.

Look for online stories and reviews about the company in cause and what other clients have to say about their services. If the company doesn’t bother replying to you or they have fake reviews posted online (easy to spot) it’s safe to say that they’re not looking to make good business and are somehow the middle-man or they’re selling bogus products.

Good customer service to assist you buying essential oils online will always be part of a strong company and in this case the company in cause also needs to know everything about Aromatherapy and essential oils. All their answers need to be helpful and the customer service needs to be available to help you make all the right choices when you’re facing a market that has so many options.

Purity – where can I get essential oils with 100% purity?

So you passed the point of performing the basic research of Aromatherapy and you found a company that you like and made a purchase to create your own beauty products or to use the essential oils at home. The first thing you need to check in order to find out if the product you have is authentic is the purity.

The oil that you brought needs to be 100% pure and natural, therefore it needs to have 100% when it comes to purity. Essential oils companies can define themselves as “therapeutic-grade” or “organic” but that doesn’t mean those terms were not used for marketing purposes.

Instead for trusting the way that companies market their product you should read the label to see if there are any other components included in the final form of your oil. If so, your oil is not 100% pure and it’s safe to say that your product is not authentic and most likely not an organic compounds.

This means that either the product is fake or diluted with another substance and won’t have the desired impact on your body. Additives can harm your body and your health so it’s safe the return or throw away the products you just purchased. Chemical substances, synthetic oils, a mix of cheap and expensive oils or alcohol can be part of a phony essential oil so play it safe rather than risking anything.

Quality

Before buying your oils from a certain company you should consider asking them a few questions about the quality of their products. A very easy way to distinguish an authentic essential oil from a fake one is the way that the plants were grown before the oil was extracted.

Basically you can compare this to buying organic food from a local supplier instead of conventional food. Organic essential oil will have a way better impact compared to chemical-diluted oils and the way that plants are being grown before the oil is extracted can make a difference in your treatment. Write down an e-mail to the company of your choice and ask specific details about their growing fields or their supplier. Consider asking where and how the plants are grown before the distillation process occurs and if you get a shady reply be sure to look out for another supplier in the market.

As a matter of fact, the distillation process should be the second question to follow your initial e-mail. The best companies in the market alter their oils the least so that high concentrations remain intact with good therapeutic value. This means the oils are not exposed to additional pressure or heat. Small companies will pay attention to this process and provide you with a good quality product. Usually larger companies are the ones that focus more on the profit and opt for the quicker methods of distillation.

Smell

Assuming that you already made the purchase your fist sniff of the product needs to come with the exact same feeling of smelling your plants in a garden because essential oils are what flowers and trees have to offer their best bottled up in high concentrations.

Authentic oils will smell exactly as the plant used for extraction, nothing less, and nothing more. If the smell tends to be too good, or too sweet there’s a chance you’ve been tricked in buying oils that contain other chemicals.

If the smell persists in your room while the main source was taken away or covered, this also means that you could be facing a product that is not 100% pure. Bottom line, everything that doesn’t feel and smell natural is most likely a fake product or something that got in touch with chemical substances.

Additional details about EO companies

Other specifications you should be aware of when researching a company that sells essential oils:

• The company grows or purchases the plant material to distill
• No distillation of plants with traces of chemicals occurs
• Are actively involved in harvesting and distilling essential oils
• Are able to produce new brands of essential oils to their customers
• They care about the environment and they work with local institutions to make sure that their plants are not harvested illegally.
• They use steam distillation as their primary method of extracting the essential oils
• They conduct lab tests to reject certain plants and oils that to not meet high quality usage standards
• Their product comes in sealed bottles with instructions, caution, safety, oil volume and all the similar information being involved.