Pumps & Iron

In Part 2 of our aromatherapy intro series, we’re talking about all the things you should know when choosing an essential oil brand (or brands). If you missed last week, we talked about the basics of what essential oils are, what they do and how.

Later on in the post, I’ll list the specific brands I use, and I just want you to be clear that I’m not sponsored by any of these companies. I do, however, wish I was (yo I got bills to pay! lol). A couple of the brands have Amazon stores, one is available via Thrive Market, and one has a separate affiliate program. So I will be using a couple affiliate links, but there are no motives for sharing these brands other than they are truly the three I like and use the most.

What to Look for When Choosing an Essential Oil Brand

Before simply listing off brands I’d recommend, I want to go over what you should look for in making your own purchasing decisions. There are *tons* of essential oil brands, many of which I haven’t tried. A lot of companies are actually buying the oils from the same suppliers and just putting their individual branding and packaging on them. So there could be a small local brand in your city that sells essential oils of the same quality or even better as the big name brands.

The Label Should Include:

• Common plant name and its Latin botanical name | This will ensure you’re buying the right essential oil. For example, Eucalyptus citriodora, Eucalyptus globulus and Eucalyptus smithii are all commonly named Eucalyptus. However, as the Latin botanical name shows, these are three different species of Eucalyptus and therefore they’ll have different chemical makeups.
• Country of origin | There are natural variations in the chemical composition of essential oils that will occur depending on where the plant was harvested, at what altitude, in what soil and at what time of year. So if a brand is boasting that it harvests all its plants for essential oils right at home in the good ol’ USA, well, that may not actually be a good thing. The ideal environment for some plants to grow is not in the US (for others it’s perfectly fine!).
• Part of the plant used | Leaves? Stems? Peel? Flowers? Quality and chemistry can differ between parts of the same plant.
• Method of extraction | The only true essential oils are those obtained from distillation and expression. Other methods produce aromatic products which contain the essential oil and the solvent. Expression will be used with citrus oils being extracted from a fruit peel. Steam distillation is going to be the most commonly used method for most other essential oils.

Sometimes for the sake of space, all this info won’t be on the bottle’s small label, but if you go to the website, the individual product page should have it all listed.

There Should Be Price Differences between Oils

When choosing an essential oil brand, look for one with varied costs. If you find a whole range of essential oils all the same price, that probably means they have been adulterated with cheaper synthetic scents, vegetable oils or a similar essential oil that’s cheaper. Now to be clear, it’s not a bad thing to buy an essential oil and vegetable oil blend or a multi-essential oil blend. But they’re just that: blends. You’ll notice more expensive essential oils like Rose otto often come in jojoba oil to bring the price down. That’s fine! You just wouldn’t use it the same as if it were 100% pure essential oil, and the brand should be marketing it accordingly.

The reason some essential oils are more expensive than others has to do with the yield of essential oil from the plant. The more oil glands present in the plant, the higher the yield of essential oil and the less expensive the cost to extract it. So it’s not that more expensive essential oils are necessarily more useful or of higher quality than less expensive ones. They’re just harder to extract in large quantities (Rose otto is the prime example).

Avoid Words Like “Perfume” & “Fragrance” or Additional Ingredients

If a bottle is labeled “perfume essential oil,” “fragrance essential oil” or “potpourri essential oil,” it doesn’t matter that the words “essential oil” are in there—the substance is of synthetic composition. And it goes without saying that if there’s something listed on the bottle other than the essential oil, it’s not a 100% therapeutic-grade essential oil.

Organic Is Best

When possible, look for certified organic essential oils. I mentioned earlier how the quality of the plant’s growing conditions (soil, environment, etc.) affects not just the quality of the oil but the actual chemical makeup of it. There is also the issue of allergies and sensitization. Sometimes if a person has an allergic reaction to an essential oil, it’s actually in reaction to a pesticide or herbicide residue used on the plant, and not the essential oil.

Essential Oil Brands I Use

Plant Therapy

Lots of my essential oils are from Plant Therapy because they have a wide (and growing) array of certified organic essential oils. They have an Amazon store which makes things super convenient. And for anyone who uses Ebates to get money back when shopping online (I use the toolbar plugin), you get cash back at Plant Therapy’s website. Plant Therapy works with analytical laboratories and the Michael Jordan of essential oil safety, Robert Tisserand, to ensure purity and quality of its oils. I also LOVE how informative Plant Therapy’s website is—you can learn so much about each essential oil before buying them!

Aura Cacia

Right up there with Plant Therapy is Aura Cacia because they offer certified organic oils and are conveniently available in Whole Foods, on Amazon, and select oils are on Thrive Market (aka savings if you’re a Thrive member!). I also love that right on the bottles it says the essential oil has been tested for purity via gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (two ways to determine if an essential oil has been adulterated).

Mountain Rose Herbs

Mountain Rose Herbs offers all the essential oils, carrier oils and herbs you could need, with most of them being certified organic. Like Plant Therapy, their website is super educational and you can read a ton about each essential oil. I love this company and the quality of all their products is high, but they’re just a little behind when it comes to the convenience factor. Granted Amazon Prime has ruined us all so in some ways it’s an unfair comparison, but the shipping costs with MRH are high and the speed is slow. You’re getting a great product so it’s worth it, but still hard to justify when Plant Therapy and Aura Cacia have such convenient options.

If you’ve found other essential oil brands that you love and trust, share your suggestions in the comments!

Aromatherapy Certification Update: My final exam has been mailed in (woop woop!). Now I’m just waiting to see if I passed. Until I have that final approval, I’m going to post these generalized, introductory posts about essential oils. Once I’m legit, we’re gonna get to the fun stuff (i.e. blending recipes!).

xo Nicole

Quick Aromatherapy certification update: All my coursework has been approved (!!) and I just received the final exam in the mail. The finish line is in sight! But until I’m officially a Certified Aromatherapist, I want to hold off on sharing any blends or doling out specific advice on the blog. So in the meantime, I thought it’d be helpful to do a mini Essential Oils 101 series to lay the foundation for anyone new to them. Today I want to start by answering the basic questions: What are essential oils? What do essential oils do? How? Next week I’ll talk more about what to look for in an essential oil brand, which ones I recommend, and what to know about storage and starting a collection of your own at home.

What Are Essential Oils?

Essential oils are the volatile aromatic principles found in plants. “Volatile” might sound foreboding, but it just means they turn from liquid to gas very easily and rapidly at room temperature or higher. They are the byproducts of plant metabolism and are produced and stored in special cells.

That’s the cut-and-dry definition of essential oils, but what I love about aromatherapy is that it’s rooted in science while also inhabiting this sort of higher (“whimsical” some would say) realm of health that’s connected to spirituality, the mind, and concepts that can’t be quantified in a laboratory. In that sense, essential oils can be defined as the soul of a plant—they are the plant’s life force and inner energy.

To give you a sense of their potency, one drop of essential oil is equal to about 30 cups of herbal tea. That’s important to keep in mind when using them: A little goes a long way! And more is not more—in fact, using too high a concentration of an essential oil can cause it to have the opposite of its intended effect.

The most common method of extracting an essential oil from a plant is steam distillation. Steam is passed through the plant material, which causes the oil to release from the sacs and vaporize. The steam is then passed through a condenser (this is the cooling phase), which returns it to a liquid with the essential oil separating from the floral water.

Lots of different parts of plants are used to produce essential oils. Flowers, for example, are used to produce Rose and Jasmine essential oils. Peppermint and Patchouli are derived from the leaves and stems. Citrus essential oils like Lemon and Grapefruit come from the fruit peel.

What Do Essential Oils Do?

Where do I even begin to answer this? Essential oils can be integrated into your life in a myriad of ways. From aiding in physical problems and ails, to supporting mental, emotional and spiritual health. They do far more than just smell pretty (although that in itself is significant!). Name an issue you’re having, and there’s a way essential oils can support it.

Well what if I snap my femur in half? Is your little bottle of oil going to heal me then?

Thanks for asking, smartass. And actually, yes, essential oils can help! After surgery, you may be dealing with the prospect of some pretty gnarly scars on your leg. A blend of appropriate essential oils in the right carrier oil can be applied to the skin during recovery to help prevent the formation of and lessen the appearance of scars. This broken leg of yours is also probably going to interfere with your job and make life a lot more stressful for you. Diffusing a blend of stress-reducing essential oils in your room throughout the day can help you stay calm through your recovery. When the cast does finally come off and you start to build strength in your leg again, you’ll probably be dealing with intense muscle soreness. A blend of essential oils in Epsom salt can be added to your bath for a relieving aromatic soak.

So no, essential oils can’t fuse a broken bone back together, but they can certainly help with recovery!

How Do Essential Oils Work?

How are these potent little drops of plant juice so effective? Well they work in many ways.

Let’s start with science. If we break essential oils down to their chemical constituents, there are many chemical families represented that you’ll recognize from other known remedies and pharmaceuticals. Alcohols (constituents ending in -ol), for example, are known to be used for their antibacterial, antiviral and anti-infective properties. Well in looking at the chemical composition of essential oils like Tea tree, there are high levels of alcohols. Not surprisingly, Tea tree oil is used to treat ailments involving bacterial infection, fungal overgrowth and viruses.

There are an increasing number of studies identifying the exact chemical constituents within essential oils responsible for making measurable changes in the body (and brain), and while I won’t dive deeper into it in this intro post, it’s worth mentioning for those quick to brush aromatherapy off as quackery.

But to reduce an essential oil down to its chemical constituents is to miss the real magic of it. Our sense of smell is connected directly to the limbic portion of our brain via the olfactory bulbs. The limbic system is the home of memory, emotion and primitive reactions and drives. Because of this, scent-memory association is strong. Have you ever gotten a familiar whiff of something and immediately been transported back to a specific time in your life? Or been reminded of a person you associate with that scent? Or experienced a shift in your emotions because of a scent? This is a silly example, but when I smell sunscreen (not the good-for-you natural stuff, but the Coppertone crap we used in the 90s and early 2000s), I’m not just reminded of carefree childhood summers at the beach, I actually feel happier and more relaxed. I could be sitting in a dungeon—if I smell sunscreen, I feel happy.

The responses to scent aren’t just emotional or mental, but physical, too. As a hypothetical example, let’s say you used to have an absolutely horrible boss who was constantly on edge and would yell and criticize you and your work every time he called you into his office. Every encounter was intensely stressful, and when we experience that feeling our heart rate rises, our blood pressure rises—there are physical changes. Now let’s also say this terrible boss used lemon-scented air fresheners to fragrance his office. Even years after you quit and start your dream job, it’s possible to smell lemon scents and not just be reminded of that d-bag, but your heart rate will rise, your blood pressure will rise …

The scent illicits physical responses associated with your initial experience or most profound experience of the scent.

Because of this, you can’t just simply say that Essential Oil A contains B and C and is therefore good for treating X, Y and Z. It’s true, but you also have to take into account the individual being treated and her/his experiences, personality and preferences. Peppermint may be great for alleviating headaches (it is!), but if the person suffering from a migraine has an aversion to the smell, or it reminds her of a stressful, terrible time her life, an alternate oil should be used. Or perhaps the Peppermint oil should be used in a blend with others to create a unique, synergistic scent while still reaping the benefits of Peppermint’s chemical makeup.

Essential oils can work even better together in a blend, holistically treating not just the main issue (i.e. arthritis) but the secondary stuff that comes with it (i.e. feelings of sadness at not being able to participate in the activities you once loved).

Essential oils work on a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual level.

Also of note before I wrap this post up is aromatherapy’s ability to connect us back to nature, even in some small way. Especially in today’s modern world, many of us are more disconnected from the natural world than ever before—and missing that fundamental connection does not come without consequence. Just think how calming, invigorating and therapeutic it is to go for a peaceful walk through the woods. Or sit on a bench in the middle of a beautiful flower garden. Or lay on the sand listening to the ocean lap against the shore. (Not that sand can be turned into an essential oil, but you get my point lol). Aromatherapy allows us to experience a little piece of the natural world indoors with us.

So now that I’ve convinced you all that this shit is legit … Next week I’m going to go over all the basics for starting to build and use your own collection of essential oils at home. I’ll tell you which oils to start with, what to look for when choosing an essential oil brand, and the basics of storing and using them. Any specific questions you want answered? Leave me a comment below!

xo Nicole