ESSENTIAL OILS

  

TIPS FOR CHOOSING QUALITY ESSENTIAL OILS

How do you know if the Essential Oil you buy is a high quality pure essential oil?  This is a good question and one that is not easily answered although I will list some tips that can help.

• Avoid oils with the words "fragrance oil" or "perfume oil".  Generally these words indicate that the they are not a pure single essential oil and can be a combination of essential oils and chemicals or just a mixture of chemicals.
  
• Although an oil may be labelled as a "pure essential oil" it can still have be distilled from a poor quality crop, distilled using chemicals or have been sitting on a shelf for years, so this label doesn't always mean you are getting a high quality essential oil.
• Questions:  Are the oils tested?     Are the oils from the 1st distillation?     Does the distillation process use chemicals to extract the oil?     What temperatures are the oils distilled at (the lower the temperature the more oil that is extracted and the higher the quality of the oil).
• Always look for essential oils in dark coloured glass bottles.  Clear glass can allow light to damage the essential oils. Some oils are sold in aluminum bottles. Aluminum is said to be acceptable if the inside of the bottle is lined although I would personally avoid these.
• Essential Oils should never be stored in plastic bottles as essential oils can dissolve the plastic and in turn contaminate the essential oil.
• The price of essential oils should vary depending on which oil you are buying. For instance Jasmine, Rose should cost a lot more than Ylang Ylang.   The basic citrus oils such as lemon, orange and grapefruit are normally some of the least expensive oils.
• Something to remember is that when buying Eucalyptus there will be different qualities depending on whether it comes from the 1st distillation process or a later one.  Generally you can get a lesser quality Eucalyptus from the Supermarket which is great for using around the house but I would not use it for Therapeutic requirements.

I generally try and research the company that I am going to buy my Essential Oils from and send them emails with any questions you have.  Their response will also give you an insight as to what their customer service is like.

These days the only Essential Oils that I will use therapeutically is "Young Living".  This is actually an American company with the founder Gary Young  living in Ecuador but they do have Australian and Canadian Offices.  Although these oils are sold under a networking system which I don't particulary like and  I do not sell the oils as a business, I use the oils because the quality is far superior to any others I have used.  When I use these oils I am confident that I am using a "pure" essential oil that has been harvested from the highest quality plants and know that it has been distilled at a lower temperature to ensure a high quality essential oil. 

The results and benefits I have personally seen from the use of  these oils speak for themselves and although they are more expensive than other Essential Oils, in my opinion they are far superior and worth every cent.

A rule I used when teaching Baby Massage was "If you won't eat it, don't use it on your baby" because they will.  I now follow that rule for everything in my life and will not put anything on my skin or that of my child's that I wouldn't personally eat.

If anyone is interested in finding out more about Young Living Essential Oils click HERE for the website or alternatively you can leave a comment with any questions and I will answer them to the best of my ability.

Melanie you can reach me here:  j9turner at gmail.com, if you ever want to contact me