Essential oils are exploding in popularity right now and for good reason. Besides adding a pleasant aroma to their surroundings—many have notable health benefits. To get the full benefits of essential oils, one needs to know which of the best essential oil brands to buy from.
Table of Contents
What Makes a Quality Essential Oil?
Essential oils are extracts taken from plants that are noted to fill the surrounding atmosphere with pleasant scents. This is a reflection of their volatility not often the most direct means of application.
Many considerations should be made while searching for the best essential oil brand—many of which are similar to those need while searching for the best supplement brands. The notable extension here is the extraction methods used during manufacturing. Here’s a brief summary of what to consider:
- Certified Organic Ingredients
- Non-irradiated ingredients*
- Non-GMO Ingredients*
- cGMP Manufacturing Practices
- Manufacturing Transparency
- Appropriate Extraction Methods Used
*Note: Organic certification also assures products to be free of GMO and irradiated ingredients.
Essential Oil Brands
Consideration for cGMP practices, company quality assurance programs, and product certifications such as NSF Registered GMP and USP all come into play. Check out the Buyer’s Guide for Dietary Supplements for more info—I won’t bore you here. Below are some of my favorite essential oil brands that all produce high-quality products.
NOW Foods
I consider Now Foods to be among the best supplement brands on the market. They offer products containing pure and potent ingredients at very reasonable pricing. Their products are free of toxins, irradiated ingredients, cheap fillers, and have testing data posted publicly on the Now Foods website. Now Foods has an extensive line of essential oils and herbal extracts available online and at most health food stores.
Aura Cacia
Aura Cacia is a member of the Frontier Co-Op—one of the most renowned sources of herbs and spices around. Anyone having ever bought an essential oil from a health food store or Whole Foods has likely experience an Aura Cacia product. They are affordable, potent, and of truly high quality. Most of their products now bear the USDA Certified Organic insignia. Their products are available online or in most health food stores.
Garden of Life
Garden of Life is an extremely high-quality supplement brand that also offers a great lineup of essential oil products. Their essential oils are certified organic, Project Non-GMO certified, and responsibly sourced (100% traceability in their words.) GoL has partnered with international sourcing magnate Robertet Groupe to assure the highest-quality ingredients possible for their essential oil products.
Mountain Rose Herbs
Mountain Rose Herbs stands apart from many other brands in that they are almost wholly dedicated to herbal-based products. Herbs and botanicals are just what they do! They’ve evolved from humble beginnings as a Herbalist supply store to now showcasing an impressive catalog of essential oils, lotions, herbal extracts, and many more natural health products.
Other Notable Brands
I don’t mean for this list to be the authoritative source of all quality essential oil brands. The brands I’ve listed here are those I have personal experience with and believe to be of high quality. I’ve heard positive things about several other brands here, of which I’ll mention in just enough capacity for you to start your own search:
- Plant Therapy (I’ve used their toothpaste)
- Jason (I’ve used their toothpaste)
- Wise Woman Herbals (I’ve used their licorice extract)
Review
The essential oil brands listed here are those I know and love. I have little doubt there are plenty of other quality essential oil brands out there—I simply have no personal experience with them. In most cases, these brands can be found in local stores with the possible exception of Mountain Rose Herbs (depending on where you live.) Products from all of these brands can be purchased online directly or through third-party merchants such as Amazon.
