Where to Buy Essential Oils: How to Choose the Best Essential Oil Brands

QUICK SUMMARY

Knowing where to buy essential oils is not as simple as grabbing the cheapest bottle online, choosing the loudest brand in your social feed, or joining a company because someone told you they sell the only pure oils on the planet. Essential oils are powerful, concentrated plant compounds, and because adulteration, poor sourcing, pesticide residues, misleading labels, and vague testing claims are real concerns, choosing a trustworthy essential oil company matters.

The best place to buy essential oils is from a company that is transparent, responsible, properly tested, and trustworthy enough for your family. A high-quality essential oil company should provide batch-specific GC/MS testing, accurate botanical names, country of origin, plant part used, extraction method, safety guidance, and clear sourcing standards.

There is no single “best essential oil brand” for everyone. The better question is: which companies are willing to prove their quality before asking you to trust them? The biggest red flags are vague marketing claims like “therapeutic grade” without proof, no batch-specific testing, no sourcing information, unusually cheap prices for expensive botanicals, aggressive internal-use claims without education, and companies that hide behind testimonials instead of transparency.

Knowing where to buy essential oils isn’t as simple as it may seem.

Like choosing your doctor, you should be careful not to settle for anything but the best.  I have done my best to help you navigate these often muddy waters, and I strongly recommend that you bookmark this page because it will serve to answer most of your questions about how to choose the best essential oils brands for you and your family!

Choosing the Best Essential Oil Brand

By far, the #1 most common question I get from the folks who get my weekly newsletters or who took our essential oils class or follow me on Facebook is which essential oil brand I recommend.

Interestingly, when choosing where to buy essential oils, fewer people ask for the brands that I recommend, emphasis on the plural, which leads me to believe that most are trying to find the “Holy Grail” when they question me. In fact, snugged right next to this question, many people also ask me what the “best brand” is. Sadly, this train of thought has gotten a lot of people into trouble because nothing could be further from the truth.

Don’t get me wrong, I really can’t fault anyone for thinking this. We live in such a capitalist-driven society where we have been trained to believe that competition is never as good as the “real deal.” Not to mention, network marketing companies have done an exceptionally thorough job reshaping the way that people view oils. The “brand wars” have reached a fever pitch at this point, and people will swear on their deathbeds that their brand sells the only pure oils on the market and all others are contaminated!

Again, I really can’t fault people for thinking this. What else are they to logically think when a cancerous tumor disappears after using frankincense essential oil or their Lyme disease vanishes after using the protocol a distributor friend of theirs recommends?

Literally, there is no lack of testimonials out there, and I personally know people who swear essential oils saved their lives. I’m not talking about bloggers out there who use their “story” to sell oils. No, I’m talking about real people with real testimonials about real essential oils! This is why it’s so important to know where to buy essential oils.

Here’s the thing: a powerful testimony can encourage us, but a testimony does not replace quality control. A beautiful story does not prove that every bottle from a company is pure, properly sourced, correctly labeled, fresh, or safe for every person in every situation. We need both hope and discernment.

God gave us plant-based medicines as part of His creation, and we honor that gift by using them with wisdom, not hype. The best essential oil brand for your family is not the brand with the loudest marketing. It is the brand that can earn your trust with transparency, testing, sourcing, and responsible education.

Best answer: buy essential oils from a company that can prove what is in the bottle, tell you where the plant came from, explain how it was grown and extracted, provide batch-specific testing, and teach safe use without fear-based brand wars.

What Every Blogger, Distributor & Mom Needs to Know

When considering where to buy essential oils, just realize that there is no #1 essential oils company. It simply does not, nor will it ever, exist.

Now, don’t stone me because I refuse to bow down to the essential oil “gods” out there. If you’ve been following my work for a while, I hope that you’ve come to appreciate that my mission in life is not to give people fish but to give them the fishing pole that they need to regain control of their health. As a Biblical health educator and natural health researcher, I’m very passionate about educating people and equipping them to take the information that I teach to the next level of deciding where to buy essential oils.

The take-home message about where to buy essential oils all boils down to trust. As you will see below, the supplement and essential oil industries depend heavily on manufacturer responsibility, post-market oversight, and consumer discernment. In plain English, you cannot assume that a bottle is high quality just because it is being sold online, on a retail shelf, or through a passionate distributor.

If you have found a company that you can put your faith in because they readily provide you with the information that you’re looking for, your body responds well to their products, and you have no reason to believe that they are selling junk, then you found a “keeper.”

On the other hand, if you cannot get the information that you want from a company, or your body reacts to the oils in an undesirable manner and you develop suspicions because of an increase in negative reports on the Internet, you should probably find a new brand that you can put your faith in.

Reality check: “pure” does not automatically mean “safe,” “expensive” does not automatically mean “better,” and “therapeutic grade” does not automatically mean anything unless the company backs it up with proof. Purity is the starting point. Safety, dilution, route of use, plant chemistry, shelf life, dosage, and the person using the oil all matter too.

This is important because essential oils are extraordinarily concentrated. When you understand that it can take pounds of plant material, citrus peels, flowers, roots, resins, bark, or seeds to make one tiny bottle, you also understand why bargain-bin pricing should make you pause. A company that sells every oil at nearly the same price is either taking a loss on expensive oils, overcharging for inexpensive oils, or giving you a reason to ask more questions.

With that said, let’s now tackle the most emotionally charged and controversial topic in the essential oils industry: where to buy essential oils!

Tips for Discovering the Right Brand for YOU

There are several brands that sell high-quality, pure essential oils out there, and we use several of them. Here’s what Mama Z and I do before we start using new essential oils:

1. Ask the company that you’re investigating for a report of their sourcing and quality standards, and compare their answers to the quality checklist below.
2. Contact a friend or family member who uses essential oils that you trust to be conscientious and a thorough researcher. Be careful not to let hate speech and multi-level marketing propaganda get in the way of truth. EVERYONE’s brand is the best, right? Especially when they’re selling something. 😉
3. Contact the company or visit their website to see if they sell pure oils. Ask them for a batch-specific gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, GC/MS, report to see if there are any adulterants in the oil. This is common practice now and should be readily available on their website.
4. Look for other quality tools when appropriate. GC/MS is foundational, but current authenticity work may also use methods such as chiral GC/MS, FTIR, Raman spectroscopy, NMR, isotope ratio analysis, organoleptic review, and chemometric comparison to help detect substitution, dilution, synthetic isolates, oxidation, or quality variation. (1)
5. Try a couple, and test for yourself. Lemon, lavender, and peppermint are common and relatively inexpensive, and you should get a good gauge to see if this brand is for you.
6. Remember, many of the small companies get their oils from the same suppliers. They just private label them.

From what I’ve been told, the larger companies have unique suppliers that differentiate their products from those of their competitors. This doesn’t guarantee purity, but it can help put your mind to rest that they should be proprietary, which should help you decide where to buy essential oils.

Note: For a product to be labeled as an “essential oil supplement,” a supplement facts label is required to be placed on the bottle. This does not mean the product was FDA-approved before it went to market, and it is not a guarantee of purity or safety. Manufacturers are responsible for ensuring that their dietary supplements are safe, properly labeled, manufactured under applicable good manufacturing practices, and not adulterated or misbranded. (2, 3)

What to Look for Before You Buy Essential Oils

The best essential oil companies make verification easy. They don’t hide behind slogans. They don’t make you feel foolish for asking questions. They know exactly what is in the bottle and can show you enough information to make an educated decision.

Look for companies that provide:

• Batch-specific GC/MS reports, not generic marketing sheets.
• Botanical name, common name, country of origin, plant part used, and extraction method.
• Growing method, such as certified organic, wild-crafted, unsprayed, or conventionally grown.
• Safety guidance for dilution, children, pregnancy, pets, medications, phototoxic oils, and internal use.
• Clear shelf-life and storage guidance.
• Transparent sourcing and distiller relationships.
• Fair pricing that makes sense for the plant material required.

Application: Before buying a starter kit, pick one bottle and investigate it. If the company cannot tell you the exact plant, origin, extraction method, and batch testing for that one bottle, do not assume the rest of the line is any better.

Where to Buy Essential Oils: Quality Assessment

Before jumping in and buying a bunch of oils from a company, consider asking these questions to help ensure quality:

• Does the company have relationships with their distillers?
• Can the company readily supply a batch-specific report, GC/MS, on the oil it sells?
• Can the company readily provide safety data sheets, SDS or MSDS, upon request?
• What is the common name, Latin name, exact genus and species, country of origin, part of plant processed, type of extraction, distillation or expression, and how it was grown, organic, wild-crafted, traditional?
• Does the label clearly identify the oil instead of hiding behind vague terms like fragrance oil, aroma oil, nature-identical, or proprietary blend?
• Does the company provide responsible usage guidance for diffusion, topical dilution, children, pregnancy, pets, medications, phototoxic oils, and internal use?
• Does the company explain shelf life and storage, especially for citrus oils and high-monoterpene oils that oxidize more quickly?

Also, it is critical to test for your own organoleptic assessment. “Organoleptic” means the way your body perceives the oil through the senses: smell, touch, vision, taste when appropriate, and intuition.

This is important. GC/MS testing can tell you a lot, but it is not a magic wand. A single test may not detect every possible kind of fraud, and a report is only useful if it is batch-specific, current, complete, and from a trustworthy lab. A company that hides reports, gives you generic marketing sheets, refuses to disclose basic sourcing, or treats “therapeutic grade” as proof of purity should raise a red flag.

What Does “Therapeutic Grade” Mean?

The phrase “therapeutic grade” is one of the most misunderstood phrases in the essential oil world. It sounds official, but it is not a universally regulated quality grade that proves an oil is pure, safe, or superior. In the essential oil marketplace, it is often used as a marketing term.

Put simply: all authentic, unadulterated essential oils have therapeutic potential because they contain concentrated plant compounds. Contaminated, diluted, synthetic, oxidized, or mislabeled products are the problem. A label claim should never replace a batch-specific test report, transparent sourcing, correct botanical identification, and safe-use education.

Application: Before buying from a new company, ask for one current batch-specific GC/MS report and one safety data sheet for a specific oil, such as lavender or peppermint. If the company cannot provide those basics, keep looking.

Essential Oil Purity Checklist

Before you decide where to buy essential oils, use this simple checklist:

• Identity: Does the label list the Latin botanical name?
• Origin: Does the company disclose the country or region where the plant was grown?
• Plant part: Does it identify whether the oil came from leaf, peel, bark, resin, flower, root, seed, or wood?
• Extraction: Does it explain whether the oil was steam distilled, hydro-distilled, cold pressed, CO2 extracted, absolute, or another extract?
• Testing: Is the GC/MS report batch-specific?
• Freshness: Does the bottle have a lot number, batch number, or production date?
• Safety: Does the company teach dilution and cautions instead of just pushing more product?
• Price logic: Does the price reflect the plant? Rose, melissa, sandalwood, helichrysum, and jasmine should not cost the same as orange or lemon.

Indigenous Sourcing of Essential Oils

In my opinion, one of the most important factors is whether or not the oils are indigenously sourced and “organic in nature.” Meaning, they are harvested where God planted them, which is why they are referred to as “native” plants. One reason why is because “organic” is not a guarantee of purity. More on that below. The other reason, and even more important, is that non-native plants can pale in comparison to native plants when it comes to nutrition and chemical constituents. This is something important to consider when deciding where to buy essential oils.

My father-in-law is a retired PhD agriscientist who spent his career evaluating chemical compounds in plants. He told me that native plants always have a better nutritional profile because the soil is naturally designed to feed indigenous plants with what they need most. For example, we live in Atlanta, GA, where the growing season lasts nearly 10 months of the year. It’s warm enough to sustain a fig tree in our backyard, but the taste and vitamin and mineral content of our fig is nothing like what it should and could be if that same tree were grown in Israel, where figs are native. The same goes for the pineapple, limes, and lemons that grow in pots on our deck.

Additionally, there are some other important differences between indigenous and non-indigenous plants when deciding where to buy essential oils:

Native Plants

• Evolved over a long period of time, and are best suited to thrive in their native region.
• Adapted to the local weather and geology.
• Can thrive in drought and inclement weather situations.
• Are environmentally sustainable for pesticide-free farming because they have developed natural resistance to native predators.
• Have a positive impact on the local environment and ecosystem by forming natural “communities” with other plants.

Non-Native Plants

• Are unnaturally introduced, deliberately or by accident, into an environment in which they did not evolve.
• Are not as well-suited for pesticide-free farming because they are not naturally resistant to native predators.
• May have a negative impact on the local environment and ecosystem because they have a tendency to take over a habitat, require pesticides to thrive, and are not natural food sources for neighboring wildlife.

Bottom line: organic in nature and indigenously sourced are best. This is important to remember when deciding where to buy essential oils.

Application: When comparing two oils, do not stop at the price. Compare the botanical name, country of origin, growing method, extraction method, distillation date or batch date, and test report. A cheaper bottle may cost you more if it is diluted, oxidized, or mislabeled.

Contamination Concerns

The fact that people are questioning which brands are best is a good thing. When considering where to buy essential oils, the underlying concern and motivating factor is that people want to use unadulterated pure oils, with no contaminants or harmful fillers. I validate this concern 100% and hope that more people will demand pure products in the supplement world so that suppliers step up their game. Remember, it’s all about supply and demand.

Current research continues to support this concern. A 2020 GC/MS investigation of store-brand essential oils reported that all six oils tested contained Carbitol in concentrations from 23% to 35%, and four of the six contained diethyl phthalate in concentrations from 0.33% to 16%. The authors specifically highlighted the need for more transparency about the composition of commercial essential oils. (4)

Essential oil adulteration can happen in several ways:

• Diluting an expensive oil with a cheaper carrier oil or cheaper essential oil.
• Substituting a different species or chemotype.
• Adding synthetic fragrance chemicals or isolated aroma compounds.
• Blending with nature-identical constituents to mimic a GC/MS profile.
• Using poor storage practices that allow oxidation and degradation.
• Mislabeling the plant part, country of origin, extraction method, or botanical name.

This is why “it smells good” is not enough. A product can smell pleasant and still be diluted, oxidized, contaminated, mislabeled, or inappropriate for the way someone plans to use it.

How to Spot a Possible Problem

Red flags include unusually low prices for costly botanicals like rose, jasmine, melissa, sandalwood, or helichrysum; no botanical name; no batch number; no GC/MS report; no safety guidance; no country of origin; vague “proprietary purity standard” language; identical pricing across oils that should vary widely; and companies that make it hard to get basic answers.

Also watch for language like “for aromatic use only” on a bottle being promoted internally, “100% pure fragrance oil,” “natural identical,” or “not tested because testing ruins the oil.” Testing does not ruin your discernment; it protects it.

Application: Choose companies that make transparency easy. You should not have to beg for basic quality information.

Is Certified Organic Necessary?

Since so much of the controversy centers on purity, one of the most common questions I get is whether every essential oil must be certified organic. My answer is: organic is valuable, but it is not the whole story.

When considering where to buy essential oils, certified organic can be a great sign, especially for cold-pressed citrus oils because the peel can concentrate pesticide residues. But certified organic does not automatically prove that an oil is unadulterated, correctly labeled, properly distilled, fresh, or appropriate for every use.

The original European Pharmacopoeia database evaluation focused on essential oils from 2006 to 2013 and tested nearly 600 samples for 217 substances representing 28 different oils.

• 314 samples didn’t show any residues.
• 275 samples were contaminated with at least one residue.
• 1,150 results were discovered to contain at least one pesticide residue.
• A few of the specific oils they looked at were neroli, rosemary, eucalyptus, caraway, and lavender.
• Of the 65 samples of neroli, 199 positive pesticide findings were discovered, and 77 showed that the pesticides were above the maximum levels.
• 49 samples of rosemary were tested, and 15 revealed more than the maximum level of a citrus peel treatment agent known as biphenyl.
• Interestingly, rosemary does not have a peel, so the presence of biphenyl can only be explained because it was contaminated by the packaging, the manufacturing equipment, or some other manmade intervention.
• 36 eucalyptus and 25 caraway samples were tested, and three of each were positive for pesticides.
• 19 lavender samples were tested and one was positive.

A later database update covering 1,536 samples of 38 essential oils and 225,268 analytical data sets found that positive pesticide findings were still relatively low overall, but were higher in oils produced by cold pressing than in distilled oils. (5, 6)

Bottom line: certified organic is good, but no guarantee for purity. Organic in nature is probably your best bet.

Application: Buy organic when you can, especially for cold-pressed citrus oils, but don’t stop there. Ask for batch-specific testing, sourcing transparency, and residue testing when appropriate.

Essential Oil Regulation

At this point, the most natural question you should be asking is, “Who regulates essential oils?” The easiest answer is, “It depends.”

From a consumer-shopping standpoint, there is no single pre-market gatekeeper testing every bottle of essential oil for purity before it reaches the shelf. That is why it is so important to buy oils from a company that has their products third-party tested.

Technically speaking, essential oils can be regulated in different ways depending on how they are marketed and used:

• If an essential oil product is sold simply to make you smell good or beautify the skin, it may be regulated as a cosmetic.
• If an essential oil product is marketed to treat disease, relieve pain, treat anxiety, help sleep, or affect the structure or function of the body, FDA may consider it a drug based on intended use. (7, 8)
• If an essential oil product is sold as a dietary supplement, the manufacturer is responsible for safety, truthful labeling, and good manufacturing practices, but FDA does not approve dietary supplements for safety and effectiveness before they are marketed. (2, 3)
• If an essential oil is used as a flavoring substance, certain essential oils and natural extractives are listed in federal GRAS regulations for their intended use. (11)
• Advertising claims are also regulated, and the FTC expects health-related advertising claims to be truthful, not misleading, and supported by appropriate substantiation. (9)

Hence, the reason why you’ll see this disclaimer on essential oil bottles, “These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease.”

Unlike drugs, supplements and essential oils sold as supplements are not approved by FDA to cure, diagnose, prevent, or treat diseases before they go to market. That means supplement labels should not make disease claims such as “treats heart disease.” Statements like these are drug claims and change the regulatory category of the product.

Under the FD&C Act, cosmetic products and ingredients, with the exception of color additives, do not generally require FDA approval before they go on the market. Drugs, however, must generally meet drug requirements before marketing unless they fit within a specific regulatory pathway. (8)

When choosing where to buy essential oils, keep in mind that many products are only evaluated by regulators after they go to market. To help make sense of this all, here is a quick summary of the current regulatory system and the principal players:

1. The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, DSHEA, of 1994, which amended the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, regulates supplement manufacturers by holding them accountable to safety, labeling, and good manufacturing practice requirements.
2. The Food and Drug Administration, FDA, regulates labeling, safety, quality, dietary supplement manufacturing practices, adverse event reporting, and post-market enforcement.
3. The Federal Trade Commission, FTC, regulates advertising. Manufacturers must report truthfully what their products contain and must have proof backing up advertising claims they make.
4. The Dietary Supplement and Nonprescription Drug Consumer Protection Act of 2006 requires serious adverse event reporting, the same kind of system the FDA uses to inform the public about injury reports and unsafe incidents.

Under DSHEA, manufacturers and distributors have the first responsibility for ensuring their products are not adulterated or misbranded. In plain English, you should not assume a bottle is pure just because it is on a shelf, online, or sold by a popular distributor.

Drug Claims

In contrast to dietary supplement manufacturers, who are able to utilize certain structure/function claims, aromatherapy companies that sell essential oils for external use must be very careful about claims.

Establishing a Product’s Intended Use

• A product can be a drug, a cosmetic, or both depending on intended use. A fragrance marketed to make a person smell good is generally a cosmetic. But an aromatherapy product marketed with claims such as easing pain, helping sleep, treating depression or anxiety, relaxing muscles, or preventing disease may be treated as a drug because of the claim being made. (7, 8)

This is where some brands get in trouble because they, or their distributors, make “drug claims” that are outside the scope of cosmetics or supplements. The law doesn’t require cosmetics to have FDA approval before they go on the market, but FDA can take action against a cosmetic on the market if reliable information shows that it is unsafe when consumers use it according to directions or customary use, or if it is not labeled properly.

This is also why you will often see companies say very little on the bottle but much more in social media groups, distributor conversations, or online testimonials. Be wise. A company that hides behind vague labeling while encouraging aggressive therapeutic claims through sales channels is not necessarily a company you should trust.

Application: When evaluating where to buy essential oils, pay attention to how the company teaches, not only what the label says. Responsible education is part of quality.

The Supplement Label and Internal Use

As described by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a dietary supplement is a product intended for ingestion that contains a dietary ingredient intended to supplement the diet. A dietary ingredient may be one, or any combination, of the following substances:

• a vitamin
• a mineral
• an herb or other botanical
• an amino acid
• a dietary substance for use by people to supplement their diet by increasing the total dietary intake
• a concentrate, metabolite, constituent, or extract

Dietary supplements may be found in many forms, such as tablets, capsules, soft gels, gel caps, liquids, or powders.

Other sources like Jade Shutes from the School for Aromatic Studies explain this further: “Dietary supplements can be created by using both nutritive and non-nutritive ingredients. Essential oils, of course, would be considered non-nutritive dietary supplements. The use of essential oils continues to actually grow within the dietary supplement world. This is the value of GRAS-approved essential oils. They have already gone through incredible safety evaluations for internal use. So we see dietary supplement companies utilizing GRAS approved essential oils/co2 extracts.”

Remember that essential oils are oftentimes a key component of the supplements that we take, and this is key: dietary supplement manufacturers are able to utilize certain structure/function claims, whereas traditional aromatherapy companies that sell essential oils for external application are operating in a different category.

So, if a company states on the bottle or package that their essential oil product can affect normal body structure or function, the company must have substantiation that the claim is truthful and not misleading. For dietary supplements, certain structure/function claims require notification to FDA no later than 30 days after first marketing the supplement with the claim, but this notification is not the same thing as pre-market FDA approval. These claims also cannot state that the product diagnoses, mitigates, treats, cures, or prevents a specific disease. (10)

This seems pretty straightforward, but it is not a guarantee that products are being properly evaluated by consumers. Only certain types of claims and regulatory triggers bring certain requirements into play. So, the natural course of action for a vast majority of supplement and essential oils manufacturers is to simply not make disease claims on their labels. Then, these same companies may make claims on their website or through distributors and try to walk this fine line.

For instance, let’s say that:

• Company XYZ states that a product reduces pain and inflammation on its website only.
• Company XYZ does NOT state this on their dietary supplement label.
• Subsequently, the label does NOT mean the product was FDA-approved before it went to market.
• The supplement label will typically be addressed by FDA after market if the product is found to be adulterated, misbranded, associated with injury reports, or otherwise in violation.
• If dietary supplement claims are made, Company XYZ is responsible for substantiating that the claim is truthful and not misleading.

The bottom line is that manufacturers are responsible for ensuring that their products are safe before they are marketed, which is a main factor when considering where to buy essential oils.

The Great Aromatherapy Debate

When choosing where to buy essential oils, it is commonly believed that the bottle should contain a supplement label. To make a brief statement about internal use, the fact remains that there are no scientific, evidence-based, anatomical, physiological, or logical reasons to say that all essential oils are unsafe for human consumption.

Paradoxically, aromatherapists are still at odds with each other on this point, which confuses the casual essential oil user all the more. With that said, rest assured that large professional organizations like the National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy, NAHA, acknowledge that essential oils may be applied on the skin, inhaled, diffused, or taken internally, while emphasizing that each method has safety issues that must be considered. (12)

And this makes complete sense to me. Like anything, we can easily overdo it, and we must remember a little goes a long way with regard to essential oils, especially for internal use!

NAHA also makes an important point that I want every Natural Living Family reader to hear: internal use should not be indiscriminate or uneducated. If essential oils are used internally, they should be used with appropriate education, appropriate formulation, and guidance from a knowledgeable health professional when needed.

The thing that really throws me for a loop regarding people who speak out against all internal use is that they are in direct opposition to the several human studies in the scientific literature and completely disregard the Food and Drug Administration’s recognition that many essential oils and natural extracts are used as flavoring substances.

Yes, you read that correctly! According to federal regulation, certain essential oils, oleoresins, and natural extractives are generally recognized as safe for their intended use as listed. For the exhaustive FDA-recognized list of Generally Recognized As Safe, GRAS, oils, see below. (11)

Note: not all oils that are safe for ingestion are included in the FDA-recognized GRAS list, and GRAS status for intended use is not a blank check to ingest any oil, at any dose, in any person, for any purpose. I recommend that we use this list as a base point to start the conversation about what is and what is not safe because it all boils down to dosage, route, purpose, purity, and the person using it.

Tips for Internal Use

It is important to realize that people consume essential oils all day without even realizing it. Where do you think your processed foods get their flavor from?

Virtually anything that is naturally flavored may contain essential oils, oleoresins, essences, extractives, distillates, or other plant-derived flavoring constituents. Under 21 CFR 101.22, “natural flavor” can include essential oil, oleoresin, essence, extractive, distillate, or other listed flavoring constituents derived from plant or animal sources when their significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional. (13)

Foods Containing “Artificial Flavors” and “Spices” do not Contain Oils

Artificial flavor means the flavoring substance is not derived from the plant, animal, or fermentation sources described in the natural flavor definition.

Spice means an aromatic vegetable substance in whole, broken, or ground form, whose significant function in food is seasoning rather than nutritional, and from which no portion of the volatile oil or other flavoring principle has been removed.

Foods Containing “Natural Flavors” May Contain Oils

Natural flavor or natural flavoring may include essential oil, oleoresin, essence, extractive, distillate, or other flavoring constituents derived from sources such as spices, fruits, vegetables, herbs, roots, leaves, bark, buds, and similar plant material, when the significant function is flavoring rather than nutrition. (13)

By letting common sense be our guide, I propose some tried and true tips on how to take essential oils internally.

• When starting out, stick with those that are GRAS for intended flavor use and appropriate for the way you plan to use them.
• Culinary use is safest, such as 1 drop in your morning latte or a properly diluted recipe.
• Don’t overdo it. Limit to 1-2 drops at a time in food or capsule form unless you are following a specific, educated protocol, and be sure to wait several hours before taking consecutive doses.
• Let your doctor know if you’re currently taking pharmaceuticals, are pregnant or nursing, have liver disease, have a serious medical condition, or are using oils with children.
• Discontinue use IMMEDIATELY if adverse reactions occur.

Trust me, people don’t break out in hives in a “detox” reaction when using essential oils like I’ve read out there in cyberspace. Pain, irritation, swelling, inflammation, bloating, burning, reflux, and anything else that isn’t pleasant is NOT a good sign. This is your body’s way of warning you that something harmful is attacking it.

Download our free essential oil dilution guide as an easy reference.

Some More Practical Tips:

• Gentle oils like frankincense and lemon can usually be taken directly under the tongue for quick access into the bloodstream.
• More volatile oils like oregano and clove should ALWAYS be diluted with a carrier oil to their appropriate concentrations for dermal safety.
• Putting 1-2 drops in a capsule with carrier oil can help you avoid esophageal irritation.
• My family and I regularly enjoy a drop of lemon or lime + some liquid stevia in sparkling water as our soda pop alternative.
• Include 1 drop of your favorite oils in your food.

Cooking with essential oils is an extremely effective way to enjoy the health benefits as well as the wonderful experience through your taste buds. 1-2 drops of cilantro or coriander with 1-2 drops of lime, for example, go wonderfully with your homemade guacamole. Try 1 drop of cumin in your curry next time. Or 1-2 drops of black pepper in virtually anything savory!

Bottom line: internal use is not the enemy. Careless internal use is. Know your oil, know your dose, know your purpose, and choose a company that gives you the information you need to use essential oils with wisdom.

Essential Oil Buying FAQs

What is the best essential oil brand?

There is no single best essential oil brand for every person. The best brand for your family is a company that is transparent about sourcing, provides batch-specific testing, teaches safe use, and sells oils your body responds to well.

Where should I buy essential oils?

Buy essential oils from a company that provides batch-specific GC/MS testing, botanical names, country of origin, plant part, extraction method, safety guidance, and honest sourcing information. Avoid companies that rely only on buzzwords, testimonials, or brand loyalty.

How can I tell if an essential oil is pure?

You cannot prove purity by smell alone. Start with the label, the botanical name, the source, the extraction method, the price logic, and the batch-specific GC/MS report. Then use your senses as one more layer of discernment.

Should every essential oil have a GC/MS report?

A reputable essential oil company should be able to provide a batch-specific GC/MS report for the oils it sells. GC/MS is not the only quality tool, but it is one of the most important starting points for detecting adulteration and confirming chemical composition.

Is “therapeutic grade” proof of purity?

No. “Therapeutic grade” is commonly used as a marketing term. It does not replace botanical identification, batch-specific testing, transparent sourcing, and safe-use guidance.

Is organic essential oil always better?

Certified organic can be helpful, especially for cold-pressed citrus oils, but it is not a guarantee of purity. Organic oils can still be affected by drift, water runoff, shared equipment, storage, or environmental contamination.

Are cheap essential oils safe?

Some inexpensive oils, such as sweet orange or lemon, can be legitimate because the plant material is abundant and the yield is higher. But very cheap rose, melissa, sandalwood, helichrysum, or jasmine should make you ask questions because those botanicals are expensive to produce.

Can essential oils be taken internally?

Some essential oils can be used internally when they are pure, appropriate for ingestion, properly diluted or formulated, used at a wise dose, and matched to the person and purpose. Internal use should be educated, not casual or excessive.

What does GRAS mean for essential oils?

GRAS means “generally recognized as safe” for a specific intended use, often flavoring. It does not mean every oil is safe to ingest at any dose or for any purpose. Dosage, route, purity, age, pregnancy, medications, and health conditions all matter.

What are the biggest red flags when buying essential oils?

The biggest red flags are no batch-specific testing, no Latin botanical name, no country of origin, no safety guidance, identical pricing for very different oils, vague “therapeutic grade” claims, aggressive disease claims, and companies that make transparency difficult.

FDA-Recognized GRAS Essential Oils

PART 182 — SUBSTANCES GENERALLY RECOGNIZED AS SAFE

Subpart A–General Provisions

By reading and studying this information and the listed references, you should be able to decide where to buy essential oils…and the best way how to buy essential oils.

References: