Quality essential oils are not a given
Buying essential oils is easy. But it is more difficult to buy really high-quality essential oils with the desired effects. There are many known cases of sellers who do not shy away from diluting essential oils and thereby reducing production costs and the quality of the oil. An unsuspecting customer thus loses many of the positive properties of the purchased oil.
Even in the case of sellers with really pure essential oils, the quality of the products is often different. Some brands offer essential oils at a low price, while others sell oils with great-sounding marketing labels that they have created themselves, but are not checked by independent certification companies.
Below, we have prepared 5 ways for you to identify high-quality essential oils and at the same time avoid falling for sellers with dubious practices.
Chemical analysis 🧪
Thanks to GC (gas chromatography - separation of gaseous and low-boiling liquid mixtures) and MS (mass spectrometry - elucidation of the chemical structure of molecules for chemical compounds), it is possible to accurately determine the chemical composition of the essential oil. The seller should provide information on the amount of individual compounds represented in the sold essential oil according to the current batch of the product. In this way, he can prove to the customer that the oil is regularly tested, and thus its quality is checked. Based on the chemical composition of the product, the customer can compare the given oil with the standard composition recommended by independent institutions, and thus verify whether the seller really offers high-quality essential oils.
Certified quality essential oils🏅
As with other products, we also recognize different types of certificates for essential oils. Organic certification means that there are no pesticides in the product. Food grade quality, on the other hand, refers to the possibility of using the oil internally. However, it is important to distinguish between generally used certificates, the control of which is carried out by independent certification companies, and the marketing claims of some sellers who have created their own quality standards and certify them themselves.
Quality essential oils and their price 💰
The price of an essential oil depends on the number of plants needed for its production. Therefore, the prices of individual oils often differ significantly. For example, one drop of pure rose essential oil uses many more plants than one drop of orange oil. Sellers whose prices for individual oils with different difficulty of extraction do not differ much, probably do not offer completely pure and therefore not high-quality essential oils. Also, too low a price is suspicious, as the costs of producing high-quality oil cannot be deceived. But this does not mean that the quality of the oil increases in direct proportion to the price of the oil. There are sellers whose marketing is built precisely on a high price that inspires exclusivity. Therefore, it is important to find a seller with reasonable prices that are neither too low nor too high.
Botanical name 📚
It is generally recommended to purchase essential oils from sellers who provide a great deal of information about the oils being offered. An important part of these resources is the botanical name of the plant from which the essential oil was produced. The botanical name makes it possible to accurately identify the species, variety and chemotype of the plant.
Part of the plant 🌿
Essential oils are produced from different parts of plants. For example, flowers, leaves, stems or roots can be suitable for processing. But often the oil obtained from two different parts of the plant also has different properties and qualities. When we hear cinnamon oil, we probably all think of the oil obtained from cinnamon bark. However, oil from cinnamon leaves is also known, the smell of which is almost not similar to the oil from cinnamon bark.
Although it may seem that finding really high-quality essential oils is not easy, as they say, those who seek will find. :)
