When Pure is not as pure as you think!
- saraepurvis
- Mar 8, 2024
- 5 min read
As note in the previous blog post, Essential Oils 101, it was noted that it is important to find a quality oil. Particularly as you will be affecting your body if they are full of all the nasty chemicals you are trying to get away from. So in a market in which every company claims to have ‘pure’ essential oils, how do we really know if the oils we are using are pure?
Some tips to help shop for pure essential oils would be;
Look at the label and make sure that the Latin name of the plant is included. This is particularly important for blends.
Purchase from reputable companies that have been around for several years.
Ensure that the bottles/containers are dark-coloured glass. Plastic bottles/containers can dissolve/degrade over time and this will taint the oil.
Avoid oils that are labelled as fragrance or perfume oils. Whilst they might be made from essential oils, they are often combined with chemicals. Look for bottles with oils in their purest form with no other fillers.
Check and compare prices. The amount of roses required and the method of extraction are massive time and material consumers. This means that a pure rose oil will be way more expensive then say an orange or lemon oil which requires a lot less effort to extract. If you find a cheap oil that should be expensive, it probably is not pure, and filled with chemicals.
Further to these, it is important to check that the company you are buying from provides information about testing (do they do it and do they publish their results for public access).
With the above in mind, I decided to do a test on Lemon and Lavender (I had also included Tea Tree, but I wanted to review the oils that Kmart have, and they did not offer Tea Tree at the time of this blog post. I still have my research, so if they do start to have it, I will definitely look into it for us all.
Before we do the comparison, here is a quick overview of the different companies I looked at in alphabetical order:
- doTERRA;
doTERRA, a latin derivative meaning “gift of the earth”, was dreamed into reality in 2008. From the beginning doTERRA has had a mission statement to share the highest quality essential oils with thew world. Every doTERRA oil is held to the highest possible level of purity. Through industry-leading, responsible sourcing practices (co-impact sourcing) doTERRA maintains the highest levels of quality, purity and sustainability in partnerships with local growers around the globe. Every batch of doTERRA essential oils goes through rigorous testing within doTERRA and are then sent to an independent third party for further testing and validation. doTERRA is so certain of the purity of their oils, that they provides everyone with the option to check the results of the batch testing as well. There is a number on the bottom of the bottle (a quality ID), which can be entered into https://sourcetoyou.com/en/quality-reports and provide you with third party test results.
- Eco Modern Essentials
Eco. Modern Essentials was launched in 2009 on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. It has gone from a start up to a thriving business that exports to 16 countries since then. Eco. Modern Essentials is committed to constantly innovating and developing new products and formulas to support its customers active and vibrant lifestyles. They are an online brand that specialises in 100% pure essential oils and blends to support health and wellbeing. They are a brand that is committed to positively impacting the planet, and believe that high quality oils should not cost the earth and show this with their commitment to sustainability initiatives and having these in the forefront of any decision made. They are a carbon neutral company, offsetting their emissions by supporting the Yarra Yarra Biodiversity corridor in Australia.
The team at Eco. work closely with botanists, chemists and aromatherapists to develop the most effective essential oil blends and provide the best possible education on aromatherapy.
They provide sourcing transparency and manufacturing integrity on their website, publicly visible for anyone who wants to research further.
- Kmart Brand
From the information that I could find in a google search, i believe that Kmart started their wellness offerings in 2020, with their essential oils being part of this. On the product page, it is listed in its directions for use as a ‘fragrant oil’, and provides a warning that these oils should never be put directly onto the skin and never ingested. There is no where I could see that provides a way to track how it is made, where the plant it is made from is grown, or how it is grown like a lot of the online essential oil companies have been able to provide.
Fragrant oil leads me to review this one as adulterated, even though it claims to be an 100% essential oil.
- Thursday Plantation
The name of this business was developed as the grant for the land come in on a Thursday back in 1976. The business was launched after spending years researching over 300 species of tea tree to find the most potent and active variety. Over the next decades, the family built up the farm and in 1988 they took the vision of being sustainable and ecologically sound by planting 1.5 million trees on the plantation in Ballina. The production of the distilled Tea Tree oil and the development of a development and research lab followed shortly after. The understanding of their first product, tea tree oil, and its therapeutic benefits flows down from years of experience growing, harvesting and distilling the oil by the family who started Thursday Plantation oils. ‘Every Thursday Plantation product is subject to rigorous quality assurance and manufacturing standards, resulting in high quality, pharmaceutical grade oils’ according to their website. Further information on their quality claims are on their website also.
- Young Living
The idea of Young Living started small in 1993 when its founders developed their first organic herb farm and distilling operation. Both knew the power of essential oils, and so Young Living was established in 1994 and fuelled by the growing demand for top quality essential oils, they designed and built the largest, most technologically advanced essential oil distillery at the time in North America in the next few years.
Young Living has a ‘Seed to Seal’ promise that ensure that from selective sourcing, to innovative science and pioneering standards, Young Living’s essential oils are meticulously made, potent and they have also developed high quality products to replace harsh chemicals in day to day life.
Young Living vision is to ensure that every home has essential oils. Their mission is to empower wellness, purpose, and abundance for communities around the world. Their purpose is to as the farmers and families – creators, distillers, and dreamers who harness the power nature’s living energy to enrich humanity.
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