Essential Oils: Quality vs. Expense

There seems to be confusion about what constitutes a good quality essential oil and about what expensive means when it comes to essential oils. I’ll solve the last question first. Expensive is a perception-based judgement that is affected by marketing. It may be expensive and/or it may be marked up, that depends on who you are purchasing from. Do your price comparison checking as with any other product. Oils may seem expensive because they are rare, grow in hard to reach places like the High Alps, and are imported (because we just don’t grow all plants here) and to me the fragrance is worth the price. You want that kind of expense, because it’s not expense, it’s what it costs. That’s what it costs to grow, distill, package, ship and handle great quality oils. It’s when companies like MLMs (Young Living) charge more because they want to make money, that you want to look out for.

Regarding quality, a high quality oil smells good. With essential oils, your nose is usually your best barometer. If it smells fresh, unadulterated, pleasant and poignant and you have a decent, maybe even educated nose, it will tell you all you have to know. According to Robert Tisserand’s article “Essential Oils: Premium Quality Yields Premium Results”. Published in Massage Magazine, March 2010:

“Essential oil quality is important in aromatherapy because poor quality oils may contain ingredients that render the oil less effective or result in adverse skin reactions. Essential oils contain more than 100 individual naturally occurring chemicals. Terms such as “therapeutic grade”, “pharmaceutical grade” or “food grade” have absolutely no meaning in relation to the quality of essential oils.” Quality is based on Composition, Oxidation, Contamination and Adulteration. Read more at http://bit.ly/EOilsQuality.

That’s it for now. Please enjoy our product, it is made only with the highest quality, all natural, unadulterated ingredients. Stay tuned for our next blog entry…