Real or Fake? Are your oils genuine?

Real or Fake? Are your oils genuine? The shelves are saturated with essential oils these days but they certainly are not all the same. How do you know which ones to buy can you tell whether they are genuine or synthetic?

Price is going to be a good indicator of their quality. If you are buying for £1 from the supermarket or pound shop you can be confident that they have used synthetic fragrance to create the oil.

Sadly most products we use these days are packed with just such fragrances. These create excess toxicity in your body, unbalance your hormones and overwork your livers. Something I’m sure that you would really rather avoid.

The essential oil market is unregulated and the only standard set is the label ‘pure’ which is totally misleading. You would imagine that if an oil is labelled as pure that it would be just that. Sadly, however,  all this stipulates is that there is a minimum of 5% essential oil in the bottle. It does not indicate if it is synthetic or natural. I’m sure you can appreciate that there is going to be a big difference in fragrance and effectiveness between only 5% and a full 100% essential oil.

More than just a nice smell.

If all you consider that an essential oil offers you is a nice smell, then what does any of this matter? Well maybe for you it doesn’t but what if I told you they are so much more than just a pretty aroma. 

For centuries essential oils were one of the main sources for medication alongside herbs and spices. When the pharmaceuticals started to produce our modern medicines they took these oils into their laboratories and tried to replicate the properties contained within. However, whilst these chemists are clever people they really aren’t as clever as nature. Generally they are only able to isolate a couple of the chemical properties from within the oil. Whilst this creates us an effective medicine they just aren’t as effective as the oil before it.

When you understand this aspect of the oils you can see why purity is so much more important. When the founders of doTERRA began building the business, purity was at the forefront of what they wanted to create. But they also wanted to partner with farmers who had the same high ethics. Oils are collected from the healthiest plants, harvested in season from their natural habitats ensuring that they are the most potent they can be. They even have to be picked at the right time of the day. The plants are grown organically, no pesticides, no chemical is used during extraction. But don’t take my word on its purity, look on the bottom of your bottle of oil. Input the code into www.sourcetoyou.com and you can see for yourself just how pure they are. 

What else to look for.

Some more things to look out for when buying your oils is the type of glass. Make sure they are in an opaque brown or blue glass bottle as this protects the quality of the oil. Plus make sure you store it out of direct heat or sunlight to keep it from deteriorating.

You want he top of the bottle to be fitted with an orifice reducer. This is a plug that stops the volatile essential oil from evaporating plus it makes it easier to get a drop at a time. Quality essential oils are more expensive so you don’t want to waste them but of course you also don’t need as much.

You will always find with higher grade oils that the label will show the Latin name alongside it’s known name, peppermint for instance is Mentha piperita, https://sourcetoyou.com/en/stories/story/peppermint

When buying high grade essential oils you can be sure that when you use them they are not just filling your home with a beautiful smell but rather you will be enjoying their therapeutic value as well, even if you aren’t aware of it. Take a look at one of our previous blogs on essential oils.

If you would like to understand more about what an essential oil is, how to use it and what makes doTERRA different then why not come and join one of our ‘Introduction to Essential Oil’ classes. To explore the range of oils available you may also like to visit my online shop.