Aromatherapy Oils Selection | Essential Oils

What You Must Know about Aromatherapy Oils Selection

Aromatherapy oils selection and usage can be a monumental task especially with so many different types of essential oils flooding the market nowadays.

Do you know that by reading the label on the bottle, it is NOT sufficient to guarantee you the real stuff?

Fret not – Use the guidelines here, and be on the right track.

In this section, you will know more about aromatherapy oils selection.

You will know how to:

Sniff essential oils safely. (Guarantee you won’t faint after sniffing).
Choose your essential oils correctly (Beware of fake stuffs!).
Shop with confidence when buying aromatherapy oils.

All these even if you are not a perfumer…

I have also included Healing with aromatherapy oils, using aromatherapy to ignite your passion in the bedroom, and to pep up your energy, performance & efficiency.

You can also read about the different treatment methods and how you can use aromatherapy oil safely.

Take some time to look through them and I’m sure you will find them useful.

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Sniffing essential oils safely…

Take note that the scents from essential oils can be overbearing so,

Sniff from the lid (NOT directly from bottle) at a minimum distance of 15 cm from your nose.

Dilute the aromatic molecules by moving the lid back and forth.

Clear your nose after about six sniff. This helps you to regain your sense of smell. To do that quickly, you can walk to open space and inhale fresh air, put a few grains of salt on the tip of your tongue or take a few deep breathe through wool scarf or cap.

Choosing your essential oils correctly…

Commonly there are 3 main categories of essential oils – Synthetic, adulterated and diluted.

The type of oils used affects the scent greatly. This means that you may be sniffing at 2 bottles of lavender oils – one using synthetic oil and the other, adulterated - with totally different smell.

Synthetic oils

These are derivatives from petroleum and generally speaking cheaper than natural oils. Quite frankly, I don’t find them a good substitute for what Nature can offer.

I have also heard of cases where users develop allergic reactions after using synthetic essential oil. While natural oils have therapeutic effect, I can’t say the same about synthetic oils. The long term effect of using synthetic oil on human health remains unknown so far.

How to detect synthetic oils?

Develop a pair of keen eyes for aromatherapy oils selection.

Check out the merchandize on the racks. If you spot any of the following, I recommend you NOT to buy from the store. High chances this store is carrying synthetic oils.

Price - Look out for expensive oil such as Rose and Jasmine. These oils should be priced higher than other oils.

Scent Type – Look out for scents with odd names like New Mown Hay, Oriental Garden and Rain. Also note that scents like Strawberry, Coconut, Peach and Lilac cannot be produced naturally.

Popular scents like Apple, Carnation, Gardenia, Magnolia, Raspberry and Violet Flowers are commonly produced in synthetic oil.

Label – Some dealers list the oil type on the label.

Smell – Synthetic oils tend to overpowering. Often the fragrance is too strong and sweet.

Adulterated Oils

Refers to replacement of some or all of the expensive oil with less expensive type. Even if you managed to get pure oil, you are not likely to receive the therapeutic properties you are looking for.

Be aware with Oils like Sandal Wood, Rose, Neroli (orange blossom), Myrrh, Melissa (lemon balm), Jasmine , Frankincense, Bergamot, Vanilla and Ylang Ylang which are popular yet often adulterated or substituted.

Diluted Oils

Essential oil are often diluted to make them affordable and useable. Dilution is commonly performed using vegetable oil (such as Jojoba, almond and grapeseed), alcohol or chemical solutions.

Have a feel of the extent of dilution by looking at the label. The largest amount ingredient is the one listed first. Also diluted oils smell weaker compare to pure essential oil.

You can quite easily tell if the essential oil is diluted using vegetable oil. Place a few drops of oil onto the paper. Wait for it to dry. If you can witness an oil stain on the paper, probably it is diluted using vegetable oil.

For those diluted using alcohol, you should be able to detect an alcoholic odor.

The hardest of all is the one diluted using chemical. The only tell tale sign is the weak smell that you may be able to detect. Oils diluted using chemical are potentially hazardous to apply onto the skin or inhaling it.

Shopping with Confidence…

Here are 5 tips to make aromatherapy oils selection & shopping an easy affair for you.

Purity – Oil stain mark and traces of alcoholic smell. You should not detect both in a pure product (see above for detail).

Authenticity – Synthetic oils such as peach within the line of aromatherapy oils. This could mean that all the oils are synthetic based (see above for detail).

Buy in small quantity – If you are purchasing from a new company. Test out the quality of the product in small quantity the first time round.

Buy from reputable source – Buy from companies with good reputation for quality oils.

Ask – That’s right! Ask the company for the botanical names of the plants and assurance of that the oils comes from those plants. Also ask for assurance on the purity of the product.

Take note that each aromatherapy essential oil has its own unique scent and properties. They offer a variety of naturally occurring physical and mental benefits. Visit aromatherapy-at-home.com to know more about each properties of essential oils.

Okay, that should be it for now. To your aromatherapy oils selection and usage success!

To Aromatherapy for Success
To Aromatherapy in the Bedroom
To Healing with Aromatherapy Oils
To Treatment methods with Aromatherapy Oils
To Use Aromatherapy Oils Safely
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