As alternative therapies gain steam, essential oils have wafted into the spotlight. Volatile, potent compounds extracted from plants by distillation or expression, essential oils are immensely versatile. These aromatic chemicals have plentiful applications, from scenting homes and aromatherapy to self-care rituals and therapeutic applications.
Essential oils can support emotional well-being, reduce inflammation in the skin, enhance immunity, support wound healing, respiratory and digestive health, and much more.” Essential oils can be inhaled, applied topically after dilution, or popped into a humidifier or diffuser to infuse your home with fragrance.
We took a look at a wide variety of different essential oil companies, comparing different brands based on their product selections, quality of ingredients..
- 1.Plant Therapy
- 2.Vitruvi
- 3.Rocky Mountain Oils
- 4.Pura D’or
- 5.Aura Cacia
- 6.Edens Garden
- 7.Saje Natural Wellness
- 8.Now Foods
- 9.Aromatherapy Associates
- 10.Garden of Life
- 11.doTERRA
1. Plant Therapy
The rising demand for clean and sustainable products has led many to seek out alternatives that are both good for them and the environment. One solution that has emerged is the use of plant-based products. At Plant Therapy, our journey started with a passion for essential oils and has evolved over 12 years. We’ve grown from a humble family-run business to a sophisticated brand offering the best in home and beauty.
Now, it is our pleasure to share our products with you. Learn more about what we can do for you below, and reach out to us if you have questions about our products.
Your search for high-quality and affordable essential oils without additives, adulterants, or dilutions stops at Plant Therapy, a brand whose wide selection is worth a sniff. These essential oils are sourced from reputed suppliers and are third-party tested and supported by GC/MS reports, so you can be assured of their quality. Plant Therapy products are also Leaping Bunny certified cruelty free. Some—but not all—of the essential oils are USDA organic certified. Ultimately, the oil selection is unbeatable in value and quality.
Planet Therapy’s offerings cover the entire caboodle, including tailor-made kid-safe and Pup & Pony Safe selections. Apart from essential oil sets and samplers, you can buy body care, household, CBD products, and even essential oils in bulk, along with other doodads at this one-stop site. Plant Therapy sells direct-to-consumer, keeping prices competitive, and many oils are available for less than $10. If you’re not satisfied, you can return the oils, even after 90 days.
While the bulk of Plant Therapy’s essential oils are USDA Organic certified, make sure to check the label while browsing. Not every product bears this key certification. Additionally, some users mention that certain oils carry softer, harder-to-smell fragrances–but that’s a detail that really comes down to personal preference.
2.Vitruvi
We’re on a mission to help you feel at home in your space. Through intentional design, best-in-class quality, and an unwavering commitment to safe and natural ingredients, we create premium air care products that elevate your home.
We want you to live in space that you’re proud to call your own—a space that inspires self-expression and belonging.
Siblings Sara Panton and Sean Panton sought an alternative to traditional home scents chock-full of toxins, so they bottled and labeled Vitruvi’s first few essential oil collections by hand. This effort blossomed into a design-forward brand that creates not only essential oils but also humidifiers, home air fresheners, and diffusers, including the highly stylish Vitruvi Porcelain Essential Oil Diffuser. The brand’s essential oils are made with plant-based ingredients and are free of fillers, diluting oils, and synthetic fragrances. They’re sourced from over 20 countries, including France and Madagascar.
We love the elegant, minimal packaging for the vegan, cruelty-free essential oils. The bottles are UV-protected, printed using plant-based ink, and bundled in biodegradable packaging that can be recycled and reused. Vitruvi’s oils make perfect gifts; you can pick single oils or blends with dreamy names such as Slow Dance, a grounding aroma with notes of fir, cedarwood, and pine wafting through. Shop online, or buy from retailers such as Anthropologie and Nordstrom.
It’s worth noting that Vitruvi’s essential oils are designed with the intention of pairing them with the company’s line of diffusers. So, if you’re looking for a broad selection of oils for various uses, these may not fit the bill. However, they are quality products made without fillers–two critical perks for any essential oil brand.
3.Rocky Mountain Oils
Rocky Mountain Oils provides 100% pure essential oils and essential oil products for home, health and beauty so that you can confidently care for yourself.
Michael and Phoenix’s struggle to find quality essential oils without a membership led them to found Rocky Mountain Oils. The company retails pure, authentic, and unadulterated GC/MS tested and independently verified essential oils directly to customers in amber glass bottles. The brand’s broad collection includes singles, blends, kits, organic oils, kid-safe oils, roll-ons, and other options—meaning there’s something for every kind of essential oil enthusiast.
Committed to sustainability, Rocky Mountain Oil is in the process of switching to sustainable packaging and has even initiated a bottle recycling program. Regular customers can benefit from the Rocky Mountain Oil rewards program, which earns you points on purchases and referrals. What’s more, the company offers a 90-day hassle-free return policy, even after using the products. Nose through the extensive list of best sellers, including a fresh lavender and a tart lemongrass, and find your new favorite scent.
While Rocky Mountain Oil’s product line is broad and includes a wealth of choices for different users, the oils are more expensive. And not every oil is certified USDA Organic. However, if you want variety, sustainability, and kid-friendly options, this is a brand worth shopping!
4.Pura D’or
Popular hair, skin, and body care brand Pura D’or is also home to an aromatherapy lineup. Working with professional certified aromatherapist Mikki Anderson, the limited selection of essential oils is ethically sourced from family-run farms and small distilleries. The products are USDA certified organic, Leaping Bunny cruelty-free, and vegan. However, the brand hasn’t made quality test results available as other brands have.
While Pura D’or offers a few basic essential oils in 4-ounce bottles, such as tea tree, lemon, lavender, cedarwood, ylang ylang, and more, it’s the brand’s nifty and affordable essential oil kits that we really like. You can choose either the box sets featuring 10 or 16 10-milliliter bottles of essential oils for dabbling in aromatherapy or boosting your vitality.
The biggest potential drawback to Pura D’or essential oils is the lack of transparency in product testing. However, since the brand carries multiple key certifications from third-party organizations, you can rest easy knowing the oils have been vetted by the USDA, Leaping Bunny, and more.
5.Aura Cacia
At Aura Cacia we are inspired by the power of positive change. In our own lives and in the lives of women everywhere. Our essential oils, skin care oils and more are made from simple and pure botanical ingredients to unlock nature’s ability to improve our well-being. We source our ingredients carefully and sustainably from the best sources around the world, then test every shipment of essential oil we receive to verify its purity and quality.
If you’ve popped into your local Target or Whole Foods, chances are you’ve seen Aura Cacia’s essential oils on the shelves. Aura Cacia has been a part of a member owned co-op since it was founded in 1982, putting its employees, growers, and the community at the forefront of its operations. Aura Cacia’s sustainably sourced oils are verified for purity with GC/MS testing, and they’re free of synthetic colors, fragrances, and preservatives.
The brand’s product selection boasts an impressive variety of single and blended oils, USDA certified organic and premium oils, all starting at reasonable prices. You can also shop a collection of diffusers, mists, and bath and skin products for adults and kids. To boost your mood, try the Uplifting Kit with a selection of four citrusy oils (namely lemon, lime, grapefruit, and sweet orange oil) that’s a refreshing and invigorating gift.
Although the essential oils offered by Aura Cacia are affordable and you’ll find a wide selection to shop, just keep in mind not every oil or blend is USDA Organic certified. Many are, but if this is important to you, make sure to double-check before buying.
6.Edens Garden
BY GRACE MARTIN, EDENS GARDEN FOUNDER/CEO
“Edens Garden has come a long way since I started it at my home in 2009. As a women-led, family-owned and faith-based company, we’ve worked with passion and intention to help others find more goodness, selling millions of bottles of essential oils worldwide and giving back to charities making a difference.
My journey with essential oils started years ago, while on a mission trip in New Zealand. I would explore the island, picking flowers and plants and pressing them in books to share with friends. Incredibly pure, clean, and fresh, I learned that essential oils offer that same refreshing and captivating experience of nature, and I again wanted to share that sense of calm.
When I founded Edens Garden, I didn’t have a big investor or huge staff but my goal was to share high-quality, affordable essential oils. The medicinal and healing qualities of essential oils can beautifully transform lives, and I wanted more people to be able to experience that.
Providing affordable access to wholesome, safe and toxic-free aromatherapy options is my way of sharing my passion for nature with others. With humble gratitude, I am so proud of the values and integrity that Edens Garden holds. We don’t compromise quality. We offer the best oils at accessible prices. We are transparent about our sourcing and process. We guide with education. We never take the shortcut.
7.Saje Natural Wellness
Saje’s holistic and worry-free wellness ethos is behind its purposeful collection of essential oils, and home (including cleaning kits), skin, and hair care products. Saje states that its essential oils are free from parabens, SLS, artificial colorants, synthetic fragrances, and fillers—all of which is supported by a GC/MS analysis. Committed to sustainable business practices, a majority of Saje’s kits are made from recycled water bottles. The company also believes in giving back to the community and supports NGOs such as The Little Market.
Newbies can try the wellness concoctions available in beautiful amber-hued roll-ons, such as flu season hero Fortify; the tackler of niggling aches Pain Release; and Saje’s first-ever formulation, the best-selling Peppermint Halo, a soothing blend of peppermint, eucalyptus, rosemary, and lavender to nix stiff shoulders and a throbbing head. Saje’s oils and oil blends do run more expensive than most other essential oil brands, but the rave customer reviews and many different perks of these “clean” products make them worth the price, if you want to shop a brand committed to wellness and sustainability.
8.Now Foods
As a family-owned company since 1968 – NOW produces high-quality natural products at prices that everyone loves. We are respected leaders in the natural products industry, with a mission to provide value in products and services that empower people to lead healthier lives.
A household name for self-care products and dietary supplements, Now Foods was founded by Elwood Richard in the 1960s with the intention of creating affordable, high-quality nutritional products. Today, the brand’s vast catalog includes pure essential oils (though there are some exceptions, like the synthetic jasmine, which is labeled such), blends, and USDA organic-certified essential oils.
9.Aromatherapy Associates
We have been sharing the therapeutic powers of essential oils for over 30 years. Starting out as therapists in the early 1970s, our founders, Geraldine Howard and Sue Beechey, connected with the emerging practice of aromatherapy.
Training under renowned aromatherapist Micheline Arcier, who had herself studied aromatherapy with its original pioneers Marguerite Maury and Jean Valnet M.D, they experienced first-hand the powerfully positive effects of essential oils on our physical and emotional wellbeing. It began a love affair with aromatherapy.
Each blend has been crafted with carefully curated essential oils, combined to support different wellbeing concerns. Whether you need a better night’s sleep, or an energising pick-me-up, our blends address most wellbeing needs. Perfect for using in The Atomiser and Atomiser Connect, our collection of waterless, heatless and portable diffusers, to fill your home with mood-boosting scent.
10.Garden of Life
Empowering Extraordinary Health® is not just a mission statement to be used on our website or advertisements. The sole purpose of Garden of Life is and always will be to empower you, our consumers, with the tools necessary to achieve extraordinary health. And, at the same time, ensure that we are offering clean, traceable, clinically studied ingredients in the most sustainable way possible.
Our process is not the same as many nutritional supplement companies out there. We believe in whole food ingredients, in traceability, in third-party certifications, and in accountability. As fanatical as we are over what goes into our products, we are even more obsessed about the things we keep out of them. You won’t find synthetic ingredients, artificial flavors or colorings, binders or fillers. We’re uncompromising about your health. That’s what we are all about.
11.doTERRA
At doTERRA, we appreciate the power of people and pure intentions to heal the world. We designed our business to intentionally help people—financially*, emotionally, with education about healthy living, and through a sense of belonging to a community.
We founded doTERRA with the bold commitment to sell only 100% pure essential oils. Our pursuit of purity not only benefits the lives of our customers when they receive the full natural benefits of the plant, it also ensures that every life we touch from source to you is also enriched.
We are a company founded on personal empowerment. Our business model, sourcing strategy, and humanitarian efforts are designed to give people and communities the resources and tools to become self-reliant.
From the beginning, it was clear that doTERRA had embarked on a journey that was bigger than essential oils. Through pure business practices, and our focus on health, wellness, and philanthropy, our company is uniquely designed for social impact and personal empowerment for all.
We strive to share the resources, education, tools and solutions that can empower anyone to make their own informed decisions about the wellbeing of themselves and their loved ones. To offer everyone the best personal essential oil education and experience around the world, doTERRA uses the power of people, via our modernized direct selling model.
We choose to source nature’s most powerful essences differently and set the standard for the rest of the health and wellness industry. doTERRA’s team of expert scientists and research partners continuously revolutionize the landscape through state-of-the-art testing and unrelenting innovation.
Conclusions:
What to Look For in an Essential Oil Brand
You need to consider several factors while shopping for quality essential oils, especially in the absence of industry standards, says Jade Shutes, founder and director of education for The School for Aromatic Studies. While researching brands, look for the common and scientific name of the botanical on the label, whether the method of production is specified, from where in the plant has the oil been extracted from (flowers, leaves, stems, roots, or fruits), the color of the bottle (preferring amber, blue, or green), the brand’s commitment to sustainability and the reputation of the company, among other criteria.
Ingredients
A great place to start your search for quality essential oils is the list of ingredients on any given bottle. You can look at the ingredients used by specific brands or take a closer look at what’s inside an individual bottle. This is key, as it’ll allow you to determine what, exactly, the oil is made with. Pure essential oils, which tend to be the most expensive, have nothing beyond the oil itself. However, many oils can come with unexpected surprises, like fillers, water, and additives. For the safest options, look for short ingredient lists and brands that offer full transparency around what’s inside every bottle of oil.
Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry Testing
“Batch specific Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) testing is essential to show that there is no adulteration and to highlight the purity of the tested essential oil,” says Marge Clark, owner of Nature’s Gift Aromatherapy and author of “Essential Oils and Aromatics.” Rigorous and independent third-party GC/MS testing helps analyze the chemicals that constitute an essential oil; it also helps you understand what, exactly, goes into various oils and blends. Thus, look for the test reports so you can make an informed decision before purchasing.
Certifications
Certifications offer additional insight into essential oil brands and their products. For example, an organic certification such as USDA organic indicates that an essential oil is made almost entirely from organic ingredients and free from fertilizers and pesticides. Other third-party certifications to consider include PETA’s Vegan & Cruelty Free certification and Leaping Bunny Cruelty Free certification. Another common certification is Non-GMO, which means the essential oil was produced without genetic engineering and its ingredients are not derived from GMOs.
Scent
Scent is no minor detail—it can make or break an essential oil! You want to seek out oils that give off pleasant fragrances and choose products that smell nice to your nose. But it’s not always as simple as choosing a singular scent that you already know and love. Essential oils can be blended together, either in a single bottle or inside a diffuser for a more customized mix. To get an idea of which scents complement each other, starter kits and prepackaged blends are a great place to start and seek out some inspiration.
