Where to Buy the Best Essential Oils
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I used to think that essential oils were a scam, but I ended up finding out that they are a great resource for your natural medicine cabinet for issues such as headaches, ear infections, tummy aches, viruses and bacterial infections, and more. But I eventually felt I needed to figure out where to buy essential oils that I could trust and that I could reasonably afford.
I spent a ton of time calling companies, asking questions, sampling oils. Literally, it was a ton. And it was very exhausting.
I've learned a lot with all the time I've spent researching oils companies and I've covered a lot of what I learned here in this essential oils series, some of which I wrote while I was still trying to figure out which company I was going to be using and recommending.
In this post, I'll talk about the company that I decided to purchase our oils from.
It's also the one that I recommend to you as having the best essential oils for the money, with natural healing qualities and no additives or adulterating.
How I Chose Where to Buy Essential Oils for My Family
This all started with my not being happy with the way questions were (or were not) answered by Young Living and doTERRA. So I started contacting a bunch of other essential oils companies and asked a lot of questions.
If you remember, when I started trying to figure out where to buy essential oils, I mentioned the following about Native American Nutritionals (now Rocky Mountain Oils) in Part One of the series.
“Looks like they carry good products, but they are a bit expensive. Their prices, for a number of oils, in fact, are almost identical to the MLMs in this group, Young Living and DoTerra. And I don’t see any difference on the surface in the quality department.”
In this post, you can see that I ended up recommending them, but this was really a surprise for me. After thinking that I was writing them off, I got a call back from the owner of Native American Nutritionals, and I talked with him for a few hours, which turned into many hours after that, and I felt that he really knew his stuff.
I was intrigued by what he had to say about his company and the oils industry in general.
We had countless conversations from March 2012 – January 2013, and I literally grilled him about his company and others to figure out which company I wanted to recommend, and if his, was in fact, good enough for my family and for all of you.
I now can say that I feel very comfortable recommending this company to you and am now using their oils almost exclusively (only because I have a few bottles of other brands left over).
I hope you check them out and I'd love to hear about your experience.
(Disclaimer. I did not choose this company because I was able to become an affiliate for them, but I am one. I decided to work with them and then we made an partnership agreement. I was the first affiliate for the company.)
Why I Chose Rocky Mountain Oils
Please note: since this series was written, Rocky Mountain Oils purchased Native American Nutritionals. Native American Nutritionals was the original company, then the two companies had a partnership. Then Rocky Mountain Oils (RMO) purchased NAN. I am even more confident in the quality of oils now that this all has taken place.
Here are some of the qualities that make Rocky Mountain Oils a solid place to buy your essential oils from.
1. Experience
The owner of Native American Nutritionals Paul Dean, was in the oils industry since 1997, being first introduced to essential oils about 30 years ago. He started his first full-time essential oils business in 1998.
Rocky Mountain Oils was founded in 2004 by two essential oil enthusiasts, Michael and Leah Vincent. With years of experience in essential oils, the acquisition of Native American Nutritionals, and 14 years of company growth, RMO has become one of the leading direct-to-consumer essential oil companies in the world.
2. Purity
Quality Oils – all oils have been third party GC/MS tested.
Certificates are available upon request by easily entering in the batch number from any bottle.
Almost all of the oils come from plants grown in remote locations where no pesticides, herbicides, or harmful chemicals are used and only natural fertilizers are used.
3. Indigenous Plants
All oils come from plants grown in their indigenous locations (where they grow naturally).
4. Oils from Small Farms
Almost all oils from NAN were sourced directly from small farms (many are from third-world countries). Mr. Dean contracted with locals in the countries from where he sourced the oils, finds a quality farm, sets up a distiller, and extracts the oils. The oils are then sent to Native American, then sent for testing, and bottled. The only oils at NAN that are not from small farms are mainly the organic citrus oils.
Since Rocky Mountain Oils purchased Native American Nutritionals, some of the sourcing has changed as the company felt they had to make some changes to put a higher priority on the purity and quality of the oils sold. They source from small farms and also from leading experts in the industry.
5. No Solvents
They use no solvents for distillation except when necessary, as in the case of absolutes like vanilla and jasmine (since the cost of those essential oils is otherwise prohibitive.) Update 2015: they now sell a vanilla extracted with CO2.
6. Affordable Pricing
They have affordable prices (not as expensive as the multi-level marketing companies, but not “too good to be true” either.)
7. Quality Pure Oils
I have a lot of standards for quality and making sure that you are purchasing quality oils. See this post on pure essential oils for that information.
In addition, I prefer buying organic whenever I can, and that includes essential oils. Recently (Nov 2017), Rocky Mountain Oils has included an organic line of oils in their lineup and should be expanding it soon.
8. Transparency
Details for oils are listed clearly on their site (including the Latin name and country of origin).
The company is working on how to indicate the growing method now that they sometimes have a variety of sources for some oils.
9. Reasonable Shipping Costs
Rocky Mountain Oils offers Free Shipping domestically in the U.S. and reasonable shipping internationally, with free shipping over $199.
10. No Adulterating
Oils are not heated, mixed with anything else, or adulterated in any way.
Unless declared on the label, the oils are pure. The only things added would be a carrier oil to make the oil or blend easier to use right out of the bottle.
What About Other Companies?
I often receive inquiries asking me what I think about other essential oils companies.
Please read this post on Essential Oils Testing and Quality and this report on 10 Things You Need to Know About Essential Oils to see if a brand measures up.
There are more and more companies out there on a daily basis. It truly seems that every day there is a new company selling essential oils and many are making claims that they are the only pure oils out there, which is not true.
My standards are high. I don't just want a company that says they are pure. When deciding where to buy essential oils, I want to make SURE I'm getting pure and not just a song and dance.
More Essential Oils Posts
Here are other posts that you might want to check out in this series on essential oils.
Hi! Great article about essential oils, you mentioned Rocky Mountain Oils as your favorite. I’m trying to do my own research and make sure I’m choosing oils that aren’t diluted and that are clean, if you know what I mean. A lot of friends tell me to try Young Living. I have used their Thieves before and love it, but they are so expensive, and I don’t even know if they are good. Since your article was from 2021, I was wondering if your opinion has changed at all or if you still prefer Rocky Mountain Oils? I’d love to hear what you recommend now. Thank you!
Hi there. Thanks for the kind words! I will be updating things in the future but yes frankly you do not have to buy Young Living and there are reasons not to in addition to the cost.
https://wholenewmom.com/best-essential-oils-company-young-living-review-doterra-review/
I have changed in that I will be recommending more companies. If you need a few more I could go through my notes and give you 1-2 more but again, no need to spend that kind of money at all.
Here’s an updated post about Thieves for you as well. https://wholenewmom.com/homemade-anti-bacterial-thieves-essential-oil-blend/ The info about where I got the formula should interest you. Take care!
Thanks for sharing this information.
You’re so welcome. Sorry but I don’t publish comment info when companies come here to drop links to their sites to get traffic from mine. So now you’re “anonymous.” 🙂
Thank you for such insight! I’ve been using revive for years now and have loved them along with their prices. Did you hear anything about this company along your research?
Again thank you tons have a beautiful and grateful day
Shelley
Hi there, Shelley. I’ve heard a number of things about them over the years and it’s of course hard to keep all these companies straight because their practices can change over the years. I did hear that they were recommending a lot of internal usage (and neat usage as well, I think) which I don’t like, but I thought there was more. I can’t find the information now. Sorry I don’t have more information at the moment. I 100% am not a fan of companies recommending unsafe practices, however.
I’m curious have never tried Rocky Mountain oils have used Doterra and Vitality. I want to try the Rocky Mountain oils, I’m curious do you have any relation or do you receive any money for recommending these oils or do you truly believe in them? TIA
Hi Mary. I do make some money from them but it’s not a lot. I try to find things that I like and then find a way to make income, not the other way around.
Thanks for reading! By the way, where are you hearing about Vitality because a number of people have asked me about them and I’m wondering about this. Thanks!
I have used Rocky Mountain oils for years. Have you investigated Jade Bloom oils? They claim 100% pure and have training on jadebloomuniversity.com I would like to know you opinion of them.
Hi Gail! I have heard of testing done by Robert Pappas and seen other reports of adulteration so I personally wouldn’t buy them. Hope that helps.
Hi. I Was just wondering if you ever hesrd of Vitality Extracts? They are an essential oil company. Their prices are almost to good to be true but I have tried some of their products and they seem legit. I actually like them. They are master advertisers, by the way. I’m interested in your opinion because I trust it. Thanks for all the good info. Blessings
Hi Don –
I hadn’t heard about them but I did a search and found some interesting information. Here are a few posts about this company by Robert Pappas. You can see from my posts here that he and I had some interaction that wasn’t the best but he’s very knowledgeable about essential oils.
This is from 2 years ago:
“Today I want to take a moment to alert you to a different kind of deception from companies selling essential oils. A follower of this page asked me about this 10 ml bottle true Helichrysum oil from Vitality Extracts selling for only $18, seems impossible right? Vitality Extracts claims they are selling the oil at a loss to get customers to come back for more oils. But when you dig deeper into the product details page and click on the INGREDIENTS section, you will see that this oil is not the expensive Helichrysum italicum oil that most people are expecting when purchasing Helichrysum, but actually its Helichrysum gynocephalum which is WAY cheaper and chemically very different than Helichrysum italicum and would not be used the same way therapeutically. Helichrysum gymnocephalum is a high 1,8-cineole oil that smells basically like eucalyptus and has a much higher EO yield than the drastically more expensive Helichrysum italicum which is high in neryl acetate can be in the thousands of dollars per kg. Futhermore, Vitality Extracts is not losing money on this oil. As you can see from the photo below taken from the site of a popular wholesale/bulk company, this oil can be purchased for $117.53/kg which means the oil cost for a 10 ml bottle is actually about $1.06! And their cost is even less if they purchase in larger quantities than just 1 kg. Not only are they not losing money but they are actually making a killing at $18/bottle! Deception is everywhere people, please share this post and encourage your friends who are interested in essential oils to follow it and become educated so they don’t get ripped off!
”
And this is from March 2024.
“HELICHRYSUM CONFUSION
Just a heads up for those who love Helichrysum essential oil. Most of us who fell in love with this oil on first smell did so because we were exposed to Helichrysum italicum. Specifically, the Helichrysum from Corsica (high neryl acetate type) is the best quality on earth. For those who love this oil you will be soundly disappointed if you by other species of Helichrysum (namely gymnocephalum or bracteiferum) as these are chemically NOTHING like the italicum as they are high 1,8-Cineole oils and and would not be used therapeutically in any way like italicum. Personally I would avoid companies like pictured below who sell these inferior species of Helichrysum at cheap prices (the best italicum would sell for $140+ per ounce) and yet claim its therapeutic use to be the same or similar to how italicum would be used. These other species would be more appropriately used as you would use a Eucalyptus oil!”
I hope that helps. I do hope to revisit this topic soon. I think you’d be better served to stick w/ the company I recommend for now and I will have more thoughts later. Hope that helps!
Thanks so much for the info. I had a feeling it was to good to be true
You are so welcome! Yes, it often is. Not always, but often.
I love Rocky Mountain Oils, but living in New Zealand I find it hard to get my hands on their products, which is a real shame. At the moment, I am sticking with Doterra because we have a warehouse here on the ground. I would switch to Rocky Mountain products in a heartbeat if their products were easier to get.
I understand the trouble with getting oils and other things from overseas. They do still have an international shipping option, do they not?
I hope to revisit this topic in the not too distant future! Stay tuned…….(you can subscribe here if you’d like….wholenewmom.com/about-me/)
Yes, I’m wondering if NOW essential oils are any good.
Hi there. I hope to revisit this topic later but I think that overall they are a good company. I haven’t dug into their purity etc recently, however.
Hope to soon! Stay tuned….
Do you still have RMO as your #1 recommended essential oil resource as of 2022?
Hi there. Sorry I responded earlier but it didn’t show up for some reason. I hope to revisit this whole topic at some point to offer more info etcetera to my readers, but at present that’s the company I’m recommending in my posts. I’m buried with a lot of things–stay tuned! You can subscribe here if you’d like. Take care and thanks for reading!