Essential oil frustration (what are we buying?)

Ok. I have done exhaustive research on the topic of essential oils and I am left feeling almost as confused as when I started. Due to the absolute high cost of oils (ridiculous if you ask me), a lot of "lower grade" or adulterated oils have appeared, while still claiming to be unadulterated! The only hint to know if an oil is in its purest and best form is to hound the vendors who rarely seem to know what they are even talking about or what product they have. You can probably sense my frustration in the way I articulate my post. The few main things I have learned when selecting the best essential oils is:

1. Ask for organic certification (trust no vendor)... because if they lied to you, then you are lying to your customers (assuming your selling).

2. Ask for CPTG (certified pure therapeutic grade) certificate. Here is what "doTERRA", an essential oil supplier who claims to have a CPTG, says about CPTG:

"A CPTG®, certified-pure-therapeutic-grade essential oil is one that is both complete in its chemical constituents, giving it a rich, deep aroma, and kinetically alive and able to raise the frequency of the human body, restoring balance and normal function to weak body systems. This is important, because the oil's fragrance, frequency and chemistry all contribute to its unique therapeutic effects. If any of these properties is compromised, as a result of poor production practices, an essential oil cannot rightly be called CPTG®, certified-pure-therapeutic-grade. "

Taken from: https://secure.eznettools.net/D305742/X367200/refs/therapeuticGrade.html

The problem is is that I have discovered other online articles that have attempted to instruct those seeking essential oils that there is no such thing as a CPTG certification. That no governing body controls such mysterious certification and that anyone can claim to have a CPTG EO. If anyone has any knowledge of whether this is true or not, and if not, can post the regulatory system involved with policing such a certification, I would greatly appreciate it.

3. The farm from which the EO is coming from and how they process the essential oil. Nobody wants to post this information about their essential oils, which is very frustrating for someone looking for a high quality product. One has to beat the internet for hours and hours seeking every vendor one can comparing prices.

Mountain Rose Herbs has Lavender - .5 ounces for $12.65 [i][url]http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/learn/eo/lavender.html[/i][/url]

doTERRA has lavender - 15ml or about .5 ounces for $28.00
https://secure.eznettools.net/D305742/X367200/products/singles/lavender.html

Each claims to be organic certified. But the price is 2.21 times higher with doTERRA. You will also notice if you do more price checks online for the same oil with organic certifications, most are even cheaper than Mountain Rose Herbs. What gives? I feel like it should be illegal to sell EO without having ALL the tech data posted! Does anyone have any thoughts on this? I want to use the purest products for my bars, but if I were to buy Lavender at 56 dollars an ounce, my bar cost would rise from $1.00 to $4.00!!! NO WAY!

In Europe, they are required to provide all of the technical data to customers..... so.... buy from the EU or move here would be possible solutions .

Seriously, though, if a vendor won't give you the information you need, don't buy from them, and tell them why. Maybe they will change the way they do business if enough people do this.

Organic EOs are beyond my budget.

For non-organic (and some organic), New Directions Aromatics and Liberty Natural are very reputable and have a huge selection. Essential Oil University also has high quality, uncut oils, but has shifted its customer base to higher volume accounts. If you qualify for their minimums, EOU might be a good option.

I have found prices at NDA, LN, and EOU to be very reasonable.

I have also been happy with Brambleberry EOs; many are listed as safe for lip balm. Adobesoapworks has a nicely priced but limited range of EOs. I have also gotten quality EOs from Soapmakingresource and Diana's Sugar Plum Sundries.

I have also bought good quality oils from Camden Grey. I have heard that some people have had issues with their products and CS in the past but my experience has been consistently good.

I have heard good things about, but have not personally bought EOs from: The Sage, 1RawPlant, Anatolian Treasures, and Eden Botanicals.

I don't think it's that difficult to get high quality uncut oils at reasonable prices. Lavender EO can be obtained for $56/lb, no need to pay that for the ounce.

I don't think that aromatherapy grade is necessary for soap as I'm not personally convinced the therapeutic benefits survive the saponification process. There are multiple opinions on the subject, your mileage may vary.

If a supplier evades your inquiries for more information, move on. Many suppliers have the MSDS available for download right on their sites.

If you are using essential oils for aromatherapy rather than just fragrancing then organic and therapeutic grade are of less interest.

If the EO is being cut, it would be nice to know what they are using to create it.

Something you could do is look for someone in your area who has a press capable of expressing EOs and knows how to use it. That way you could simply get plants from local farms and have them express them for you. You could even get one yourself, I looked into getting one once, from what I remember they weren't even that expensive they just required a lot of learning. Depends how serious you are about it.

One reason doTerra oils are so much more expensive is how they are sold - by multi-level marketing. So the price is higher because lots of folks are getting their cut. I agree it is hard to know just what we are truly buying because of the hype, misinformation, contradictory information, etc. about essential oils.

The original post is a couple of months old, but as I understand it there is no such thing as "theraputic grade", that is pure marketing BS.

As others have said, whether you are using it for fragrancing or for aromatherapy, buy from a reputable supplier like those mentioned.


Whoops, a couple YEARS old!

Essential oils are a frustrating business. Unfortunately, until there is a system of standardization in place I think we will have to continue this frustrating road. Using organic oils in soap is going to add a lot to the price of soap, so unless I keep my soap recipe really simple and inexpensive I'm not going to go there yet. I trust my soap supplier on eo's (at a good price for soap making) because they regularly provide quality products and are very transparent as a business. If I want therapeutic grade eo's then I look elsewhere. I really think this is also a get what you pay for sort of thing, so I don't necessarily go for cheapest. Mountain Rose, for example, has a business model that is going to result in higher prices because they are aiming for supporting local farms and high quality products. Doterra does run a number of purity checks on their oils which is going to add to the cost as well. I really think you have to look closely at a company and how they operate to get a fuller sense of their product as well. I have used oils from both places and have been happy with them. I hope you will find some peace on the subject
Cheers!
Anna Marie

As a side note- I do see that Mountain Rose Herbs has info on their organic certification through a group accredited by the USDA. Have you contacted them about their tech data? I would be interested to know how they respond. I can tell you for a fact that here in Oregon organics are taken very seriously

doTerra and Young Living are so full of poop, I wouldn't put stock in anything they have to say.

pamielynn said:

doTerra and Young Living are so full of poop, I wouldn't put stock in anything they have to say.

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Yes they are!

agreed

Do any of you know of any testing/studies done on soaps that contain EO to determine if their medicinal values are still present in the finished soap? Even with hand milled soaps the EO would evaporate over time correct? While they may not be altered in anyway by heat- still though considering the money that you invested and spent to add the EO in the first place and then they just up and go away went away makes me wonder if its worth it to add them to any soaps. I can see a base such as body butter. Does anyone else feel this way and see where I am coming from. This is actually one of my big mental struggles I got going on regarding my soap making. While I use EO for medical uses I am not so sure I see the point in using them in soap that is being washed down the drain. Seems like a waste. I do love a good peppermint soap and they are great for after workouts too and pain in general but other ones I struggle with. Sure Rosemary and Tea Tree have their places too and could help acne. I'm a penny pincher and well I have to be so I would love to have these exotic soaps for me to bathe with but really when it comes down to the end of the day as long as I got clean that was my entire goal right?!

This is a question some of us would love to know the answer to....
Cheers!
Anna Marie

soapballs said:

Do any of you know of any testing/studies done on soaps that contain EO to determine if their medicinal values are still present in the finished soap? Even with hand milled soaps the EO would evaporate over time correct? While they may not be altered in anyway by heat- still though considering the money that you invested and spent to add the EO in the first place and then they just up and go away went away makes me wonder if its worth it to add them to any soaps. I can see a base such as body butter. Does anyone else feel this way and see where I am coming from. This is actually one of my big mental struggles I got going on regarding my soap making. While I use EO for medical uses I am not so sure I see the point in using them in soap that is being washed down the drain. Seems like a waste. I do love a good peppermint soap and they are great for after workouts too and pain in general but other ones I struggle with. Sure Rosemary and Tea Tree have their places too and could help acne. I'm a penny pincher and well I have to be so I would love to have these exotic soaps for me to bathe with but really when it comes down to the end of the day as long as I got clean that was my entire goal right?!

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The classic utilitarian struggle. :think: :thumbdown:

I'm erring on the side of looking at FOs for soaps and EOs for non-wash-off products. That said, it appears that there is not much cost difference between EOs and FOs from my supplier which makes it a moot point - if I'm not saving much money, I'll just use the EOs instead.

I use EOs in CP soap because they smell good and make me happy. The cost is comparable to FO, with some exceptions. I assume that any medicinal benefits might be compromised, but I keep my % low so nobody gets harmed.

I have wondered about the pureness of EO since I began thinking about distilling some Ylang Ylang and citrus we have at a farm. I started reading the yield you get per pound of plant material, that made me doubt that what it is being sold is not uncut. The plantations would have to be huge.

Has anyone had the opportunity to distill any EO and compare it to commercially sold EOs? Is there really a difference?

I will probably try it, and also plant some lavander, since my brother will be producing honey, bees will have the nectar and I'll have the oil. But that will take some time.

People get way to hung up on pseudo science. I don't bother with organic anything anymore. It's simply not worth it when you look at the hard science. Most of it is, in fact, greenwashing. So many different certifications - self-regulated at that. And they really bring little to no advantage to the table. However, most people don't know about that and simply have knee-jerk Chicken Little alarmist reactions to things. If you using organic EOs you're very literally washing money down the drain. I recently came across a fantastic article on this topic - organics, not EOs - on Slate.

http://www.slate.com/articles/doubl...r_kids_you_don_t_need_to_fear_pesticides.html

That'll be a big eye opener for some of you. And that's based on a big Mythbusting article on Organics from Scientific American.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com...101-organic-farming-conventional-agriculture/

You'll never look at the Organics industry the same way. So unless you have a client list that demands the best and money is no object, use some common sense and skip the organics.

According to Robert Tisserand the properties remain. The scent molecules may be damaged by saponification however since essential oils are not true oils and are therefore non-saponifiable they remain intact through the process and the therapeutic properties remain intact as well. The other consideration is that since these are unsaponifable the bond with your superfat which is why it is recommended to not use more than 3% in soap with a few exceptions like lavender.

I think some of the benefits might be retained, especially in hot process. Most of the chemicals in essential oils which are known for being medicinal (linalool in lavender, menthol in mint, cineole in eucalyptus, santalol in sandalwood, etc.) are also the chemicals that give the essential oils their scent - it seems to me if you can smell them, they're there. But on the other hand, maybe they turn into something fragrant, but useless. I don't think a study has ever been done on this. I'd really like to know if using EOs in soap is just a waste of money.

efeoli said:

I have wondered about the pureness of EO since I began thinking about distilling some Ylang Ylang and citrus we have at a farm. I started reading the yield you get per pound of plant material, that made me doubt that what it is being sold is not uncut. The plantations would have to be huge.

Has anyone had the opportunity to distill any EO and compare it to commercially sold EOs? Is there really a difference?

I will probably try it, and also plant some lavander, since my brother will be producing honey, bees will have the nectar and I'll have the oil. But that will take some time.

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I was actually thinking of trying to distill some orange peels, because they have such a high oil yield. I doubt I'd get more than a few drops (especially without a real still, I'd probably do it on the stovetop) but it would still work for the experiment.