What are Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils?

Q:  Can you tell me what "Aromatherapy Grade Oils" (aka therapeutic grade) are? There is no such thing in the trade and it actually is discussed on various lists and it said to be a marketing hype thing that real aromatherapists ignore. What is your slant on it. Who tells you that the oils are "aromatherapy grade"? - U.K. 

A:    To read a full discussion on this, check out our Essential Oil Quality article. But here's the short (ish) answer: We find that if you are looking at the therapeutic properties of essential oils, then there is often a very real difference between one and another.  No one tells us that these are are "aromatherapy grade" or "therapeutic grade". This is the decision we make and the label we apply.

"Aromatherapy Grade" or "Therapeutic Grade" may be considered by some to be marketing hype but, in fact, it is not. We use the terms "therapeutic grade" or "aromatherapy grade" (same thing) to differentiate our essential oils from other essential oil "stuff". We use the terms to mean that we consider our essential oils to be of excellent quality and suitable for therapeutic applications. There is no official grading system other than perhaps the use of the term "food grade" or pharmaceutical grade, which often denote oils inferior to those sought by aromatherapists. You could say that all essential oils are alike. You could also say that all wines are alike. I think there is often quite a lot of difference between one wine and another and one essential oil and another.

We purchase our essential oils either directly from growers or through known sourcing agents (people who know the oils and the growers). And we've been working with many of the same suppliers for many, many years.

That's what we mean by aromatherapy grade. Is it hype? I don't think so but some might. By the way, we could go through a lot less hassle and buy almost any of our EOs at significantly lower prices but then we'd just be selling stuff. That's not our goal. We want to provide the best essential oils that we can find.