Essential Oils - Top Tips From A Certified Aromatherapist
Why All Essential Oils are not created equal.
top tips to ensure you are buying the right ones.
by Jessica Klingbaum
Graphics by ImageMakers & Influencers Magazine / Photo courtesy of Jessica Klingbaum
Let me start by saying that if you think the idea of essential oils is hokey, I totally get it. I used to be in the exact same place, and dare I say, no one was a bigger cynic about this stuff than me.
My dad’s a doctor and I was raised with western medicine and over-the-counter everything, and that worked just fine for me for 40 years. My sister, on the other hand, has always been a little “crunchy”, and she lives a very holistic lifestyle in Colorado – essential oils are her ride and die. But somehow, I was convinced to try an essential oil about 8 years ago when I needed to sleep better, and I’ve been hooked ever since.
Some background: I was operating at warp speed 24/7, as a Senior Producer running live news shows for a major TV network. I was desperate for ways to manage the constant stress, sleep better and reduce chronic headaches & migraines. I never imagined I'd find natural solutions to improve all of these areas. PLUS eliminate toxins at home all while managing my family's physical health!
I began using these Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade essential oils more and more, for all the things that come up in our regular lives that we usually run to the drugstore to fix. If my head was hurting, if I needed to calm down and decompress, if my kids were all wound up, if someone cut themselves, if my back or neck was achy, if we started feeling our annual seasonal symptoms, etc, essential oils became the first place I went for a solution.
You may be familiar with the words “essential oils” and it’s possible you’ve even had some experience with them, via a massage or some type of spa treatment. You may know someone that uses and raves about essential oils, though you can’t understand why. And you may have also noticed that practically every big box store, drugstore or beauty store has a selection of essential oils on the shelves…but with no real explanation or information on what to do with them or how to use them.
For devoted essential oils experts like me (I’m a Certified Aromatherapist and essential oils educator, which means I studied more than 200 hours, did 20 real-life case studies and completed a 10+ page research paper), it’s great to see that there is a such a huge demand and interest in moving towards more natural solutions for our everyday health and wellness concerns. However, there’s also a big concern that so many of the products out there are not actually essential oils, and most people – possibly yourself included! – aren’t even aware.
The truth is, all essential oils are NOT created equal. Period. The end. Why? Mostly because the industry is not regulated, which means that anyone can fill a bottle with a drop of actual essential oil mixed with fillers and chemicals, slap a label on it and sell it as “pure essential oil”. Kind of scary, but true. And this is what makes people think that there is no value to essential oils because they or someone they know used something that was horrible quality and got no benefit from it – that’s probably because the oil they used was adulterated with synthetics or chemicals and wasn’t even a pure essential oil. In fact, a study was done by Consumers Advocate.org, in which they tested 33 samples from 11 brands of essential oils (many of which you might be familiar with) for their purity, and guess what? Only three of those companies had no adulteration to any of their samples (https://www.consumersadvocate.org/essential-oils).
But, there are some fairly easy telltale ways to know if what you’re buying is a quality product, and I’m going to share them with you.
1) First off, it has to be in a dark bottle. If you are anywhere and see essential oils being sold in a clear or very light bottle, step away. It’s imperative that essential oils are kept and stored in dark glass bottles (most are generally brown or blue) in order to maintain the integrity of the oils, so it will deliver the therapeutic benefits the buyer is expecting.
2) It has to have the Latin name of the plant on it. If you see a bottle of Tea Tree, and that’s all it says, versus a bottle that also says Melaleuca alternifolia, then it’s just not pure.
3) Look at the list of ingredients. Nowadays this is something we’re doing with practically everything, from food to body and skincare products, and your essential oils should be no different. And here’s why – there should literally be only one ingredient listed on a bottle of a single individual oil. So, if you are looking at a bottle of Peppermint oil, on the back the only thing it should list is Peppermint plant. That’s it. There should be no other ingredients in that bottle, and if there are, they are fillers/synthetics and/or adulterants, which, by the way, can actually be harmful to your body and leave you worse off than before you used the product! Quality is directly tied to safety.
4) Buy from a reputable company that’s been around for a while, and that is transparent about the sourcing and production of the oils. This is hugely important. There are a lot of different factors that play into whether an essential oil is going to “work”, and they include: where the oil comes from, the altitude, the temperature, the quality of the soil, the way it was grown, how it was harvested, what method was used for production (i.e. cold-pressed versus steam distilled), and how the product was stored after production.
5) Compare prices. Based on the things I just mentioned about the overall method of how the oils are produced, you must know that they will be priced accordingly. And oils that are far easier to grow and harvest will be a lot less expensive than others that are more difficult to produce. For example, a bottle of Frankincense oil or Melissa oil will always be much more expensive than a bottle of Lemon or Wild Orange oil. Frankincense comes from the resin of trees that grow off the side of cliffs in Somaliland…not exactly an easy oil to produce. Plus, the trees can only be tapped so many times before the quality of the resin deteriorates, which then affects the medicinal qualities of the oil, itself. So if you see a brand of oils and every bottle is priced in the same range, stay away. Because I promise you that a bottle of Frankincense that costs $20 is not real.
6) Buy from a brand that allows you to see the GC/MS scientific testing results of your batch/bottle. Any reputable company should be testing all of their oils, and if they are, then they can easily share the results with you. If you cannot access that information, it’s because they aren’t testing or they don’t want you to see the results because the oils are adulterated. Do your research.
7) If it matters to you, you might want to buy from a company that practices ethical, sustainable harvesting. The companies that do will have information available about those practices online, so when you do your research, you will know. And isn’t it nice to buy from a company that you know gives back in some way, to the impoverished communities in the countries that the oils come from, and to organizations that support the greater good in our world as a whole.
8) Use common sense. If you are buying a bottle of Lemon oil, or Oregano oil, or a type of oil that comes from a plant that we typically ingest, then if the bottle says “not for internal use”, you can be assured that it isn’t pure. Because what would be in a bottle of pure Lemon oil that would prevent you from being able to put a drop in a glass of water? Something not good, that’s what.
9) Don’t buy essential oils from Amazon or other reseller sites. I’ve personally seen videos that show how easy it is to remove the sealed caps off bottles, fill the bottles with something else and then replace those caps with brand new “sealed” caps that are available for purchase.
10) Ask an expert. Your best bet is to talk to an essential oils expert or Certified Aromatherapist that can actually guide you in the right direction on what to use and how to use it safely. Essential oils are completely safe for all ages, but you do want to be sure you’re following the proper safety precautions, which are super easy to do.
At the end of the day, it’s a good thing that people around the world are finding effective solutions for everyday issues that we all deal with. There’s no reason to have to run to the store for over-the-counter products, when your best and most cost-effective option may be a simple answer from nature.
A few years after my first experience with essential oils, my passion and interest in this whole world - how and why they work and the amazing things they can do led me to actually quit my high-level TV job. That’s how life-changing they were for me! Now I spend my time educating as many people as I can about the incredible ways real and pure essential oils can impact their daily lives, and you are welcome to reach out to me at jessica@behipandhealthy.com or check out my website www.behipandhealthy.com, where I have a great free e-book.
Plus, when you get started with my Healthy Habits Kit, I'll teach you everything you need to know - and you’ll get a special free gift from me, which I promise you'll love!
Jessica Klingbaum is an experienced essential oils educator and Certified Aromatherapist. She helps people learn how simple it is to use natural solutions for their everyday health and wellness. She has taught corporate wellness workshops for HSBC, The Skimm, law firms, PR companies, to mention a few, and hosts private classes to teach people everyday healthy habits they can use easily and effectively.
Image by Lisa Hobbs via Unsplash