Buying Essential Oils

According to authors Susan Worwood and Valerie Ann Worwood of their book titled, Essential Aromatherapy...A Pocket Guide to Essential Oils and Aromatherapy ,
that when purchasing essential oils (EO) that you should:

(1) Shop around.

(2) Essential oils should be contained in dark bottles with the Latin name on the bottle. If the Latin name is not on the bottle, then is should be catalogued or at least have a company brochure listing the Latin name. For example, Whole Foods carries the Simplier brand of organic essential oils. Near the display there is a pamphlet produced by the company which gives all the details of each oil.

(3) An expiration date should be on the bottle. Normally, oils should last two years, unlike oils from the citrus family ie lemon are said the deteriorate and lose their value quickly.

(4) There is a complication when using the term "Essential Oil" on a label. The legal definition used to describe all sorts of the things which are not truly a plant essence extracted from a plant. Some people will try to maximize profits by selling bottles of a liquid purporting to be an essential oil when it is actually was man made.

(5) Another problem is that the bottle correctly indicated that the EO on the label and not the particular oil stated. It may be a combination of some other oils blended to together to create that particular scent or an oil that smells similar.

(6) Labels may say that they particular product is "natural" or "pure". This may be accurate but it can be misleading because the substance inside the bottle is indeed natural, but is not the natural substance the label leads you to believe. For example, it may say carnation but to the trained nose it could be something completely different.

(7) If a whole range of EO are being sold at the same price in the same size bottle. Normally, EO are sold in milliliters and are a variety of prices depending on how much the of the plant the manufacturer has to extract to create that size. Some oils will need more of the plant than others which means the higher the cost.

(8) Pure, undiluted EO should be sold in dark bottles, such as brown, green, mauve or blue. Blue and brown are the most common colors. If the oils are sold in clear bottles or even worse plastic, the company is not aware that these types of bottles let the light in which damages the product. So it is best to avoid purchase oils from this company.

(9) The bottles of EO should always have dropper tops which allows for measurement. This is a practical feature and also for safety. For the practical side it helps with the proper measurement when adding to your bath products, but EO evaporate and deteriorate when exposed to air so bottles with out the dropper tops will accelerate this process. As for a safety feature, the dropper tops will not allow children to drink from them. Often the scent will smell so good that they will think it is good enough to drink such as lemon might considered for lemonade. Once consumed they will find out that is not. If a child accidently has consumed a large quantity of oils, proper authorities such as CDC, a proper aromatherapy practioner should be contacted for further advisement.