Not all essential oils are created the same, and since they are completely unregulated in the US the companies selling them are under no obligation to be truthful in their labeling or advertising.
Let me repeat that.
No. Obligation. To. Be. Truthful.
Because the essential oil industry is unregulated, any company can label their oils in any way they want to without fear of consequence. They can call them “pure”, “therapeutic grade”, “medical grade”, or whatever other buzzword they choose, while adding synthetic fragrances, diluting with cheaper oils, or punching up the scent with compounds from other plants than the one listed. Customers who have sent in their oils for testing have been shocked and disappointed to find that their “pure” oils from companies with good reputations were adulterated.
Here’s a story about Young Living.
Here’s one about both YL and doTERRA.
There are more stories out there, and as I come across them I’ll update this page.
So to help my readers make good choices and not waste money, I’m compiling a list of companies that sell essential oils and provide batch-specific GC/MS testing on all their single essential oils, up front and available to you before you buy. Since GC/MS testing is cost prohibitive for the vast majority of essential oil users (it costs hundreds of dollars per sample, so this cost really needs to be borne by the seller), this is the only realistic metric we have to determine if a company’s claims of purity are true – if you can’t view a GC/MS report beforehand, don’t buy the oil.
(Do you need to be able to read and interpret a GC/MS report in order to safely use essential oils? No, you don’t. Having one is an indicator of the company’s good faith. Here’s a post I’ve written about GC/MS if you’re interested. But for most casual uses, having the report is enough.)
This list is a work in progress. As I find more companies that fit the bill, I’ll add them here. So far I’ve screened, oh, bunches of companies and come up with 12 that I would feel comfortable ordering from. I have personally only ordered from 4 of these. (An extra loud shout out to all my friends over at the Aromahead Institute’s Student & Graduate Forum for their help in compiling this list!)
Please note: This information can change. A company that had never provided reports might get with the program, or a company that had done so in the past might start to get lazy. I’m not systematically monitoring these websites, unless they are ones that I’m personally ordering from on a regular basis. Since some of these are companies whose websites I’ve checked for reports but haven’t actually ordered from, there may be other problems with them that I haven’t experienced. Please feel free to shoot me an email if this list is incorrect or out of date, or if there are concerns about a company that I should research.
The Scientific Holistic 