The world of essential oils is enormous – and it is likely to confuse you when you have no idea where to begin. After all, you hear about oils such as lavender, tea tree, peppermint, eucalyptus, and so on, and even hear about some topical application oils, mist diffusion oils, and so on.
All these categories and types can be a mystery, and you may wonder what it takes to use one oil over the other. One thing you will learn as you explore these top essential oils is that none of them are the same, and you will not use them in the same way or for the same reasons. The good news is that you can get plenty of high-quality ones at sites like Aromatechscent.com, as long as you arm yourself with sufficient knowledge.
Considerations to have
You may tend to forget that the field of aromatherapy is a fairly recent one – most of what is known is due to research carried out in the last one hundred years or less. This is mainly due to the increasing trend of people moving away from the idea of using synthetic chemicals, and turning more towards using natural health and cleaning products – which in turn, makes essential oils more available in the market.
This brings a major problem though. Thanks to the wide variety that you can get, choosing the best oil are increasingly becoming a hard task. However, there are certain considerations you should factor in, which will help you make a more informed decision. They are:
The cost
This is the major thing you should remember when choosing an essential oil: do not expect the cost range will be the same. For you to understand this, you should remember that different oils will go through different processing methods, which alters their final cost.
For instance, 30ml of rose oil will involve the processing of 250lbs. of rose blossoms, and that is why getting pure rose oil involves a very high cost. There are many other oils that go through easier production due to their natural availability, but each oil will need a significant amount of plant matter to get small amounts of the extracts.
This implies that high-quality oils will never be cheap, and you should not expect them to be this way. Never allow yourself to be fooled by oils at cheap prices, discount retail offers, bazaar vendors, big box stores, or any vendor that sells all essential oil brands at the same price or at very low prices. The advantage of having an expensive oil is that you will not need to apply much, thanks to the oil being highly concentrated.
The purity levels
You have likely heard of the phrase ‘pure essential oils, but wonder what that really means. The problem is that it is very hard to define what purity means since there are no set standards – so in the end, it means very little to the therapeutic value you get. What this means is – that you might purchase a pure, 100% oil, but it gives nothing more than a mild fragrance because the processing was not correctly done.
The levels of chemical constituents that regard the therapeutic aspect of these oils can change depending on the season or where the plant source was from, as well as the extraction process. In this case, it is best to find a retailer that is highly trusted; since chances are higher they will be concerned about the product quality.
Testing results of the essential oil
The first thing to look for when finding out the authenticity is checking whether the oil bears the botanical or scientific name of the plant source, and also the chemotype.
Chemotypes are when a plant has a different chemical profile, depending on the region it originates from. It does not apply to all plants though, but you can ask for clarification if you have your doubts. It is also vital to see if there is an expiration or distillation date, the process used in extraction, and the plant origin (the country it was grown in).
If you are dealing with a legitimate essential oil business, all their oils will go through two tests – MS or Mass Spectrometry, and GC, or gas chromatography. These are done simultaneously, and the business will always do them whenever they get new supplies from distillers. In addition, a trained aromatherapist can give you recommendations if you are not sure.
Does the vendor have a variety of oils?
Essential oils are very expensive to produce and sell, so you will not find one retailer that has all the oils you can think of. However, you can always check if their oils are of high quality, through the MS/GC reports they have. This will give you an idea of the oils the retailer has, and then you can compare other factors such as prices and availability.
Basic terminology used
Wildcrafted, organic or unsprayed
If you see the oil that has an ‘organic’ label, always choose that as the first choice. This particularly applies to essential oils made from citrus fruits.
Organic will mainly indicate high quality, even though it might mean different things depending on where you are. Certain oils will come with the ‘unsprayed’ label, which basically means organic but without the spraying of pesticides on the plant source, or ‘wildcrafted’.
Clinical grade or therapeutic
You will mostly find these on essential oil bottles, and suppliers will mention these to give you the impression that their oils are superior to that of their competitors. However, it is important to note that the terms themselves are not standardized, and may have a different meaning according to what the supplier wants you to believe.
Essentially, different suppliers might tell you different things about the same oils, yet the terms they use are not standard in the industry because they do not meet certain requirements.
Conclusion
Getting essential oils is quite the process, and you may not get it right the first time unless you know what to look for. In all situations, it is vital to check the therapeutic value and oil purity, which will help you trust the vendor you are dealing with.
