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 Adrienne, Thank you SO MUCH for all your hard work & dedication so that the rest of us don’t have to worry about it!!!! I really want all your naysayers to shut it! But anyway 🙂 I just wondered if there was a Facebook group for NAN users? I am currently part of a group connected to one of the MLM and because of your wonderful research I’ve decided to go with NAN and need to leave the group I’m currently apart of. However, I have loved being able to ask questions, read about others’ experiences and what worked for them, etc. I would like to find the same community on Facebook for NAN, if there is one! Please let me know if you know of one? Thank you again & God bless you for all your hard work:)
There is not but there is a facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/NativeAmericanNutritionals
I can recommend this to the owner.
Adrienne, you wrote concerning Ananda Apothecary: “I was put off by them offering free shipping in exchange for a positive review”
Ananda doesn’t offer anything for positive reviews. After a purchase their email reads exactly as follows:
“Earn FREE Standard domestic shipping on your next order by writing a review of your experience at The Ananda Apothecary. We value your feedback! Just visit one of the these sites below and write your review”
Ananda wants feedback and this feedback may be good or bad. In fact I have ordered from them three times and once I gave them a negative review, but not because of their oils; they were quick to remedy the solution. I’m not an expert on oils, but theirs are working for me!
Thanks
They must have made a change. It was that way for sure when I wrote what I did. I have documentation in emails of it as well. I do appreciate your attention to this but it was different before. thanks!
Good Morning! I am very new to usuIng oils. I absolutely enjoyed reading your blog and thoughts! Along with a few of the other ladies, I would love to receive your newletter! Could you please send me how I can do that? My email is bmbattaglia@gmail.com.
Thank you!
There is a sign up in the popup on my site for the email delivery and there is a signup for the newsletter in the orange box in my sidebar – let me know if you need anything else :).
I appreciate your research, but cannot find any information on Mountain Rose essential oils. It was included in your list of companies at the beginning of part one, but after reading through the series again, I don’t see a summary of the company. Can you please tell me what your conclusion was regarding it?
Thank you so much..
I mentioned them – inconclusive about internal use so I didn’t know what to think and so my research stopped there. Thanks. the comments are on this post.
I just started using essential oils and recently found your website. I have found all your research very interesting:) can you tell me if you gave any information about Spark Essential oils?
I believe I answered that. I’m so swamped – check these comments. Thanks! I hope to put something more together but I just can’t get everything done now but I am not thrilled.
I am interested in what you found out about Mountain Rose Herbs. You may have answered this already in your comment section, but I did not see it.
Thank you.
Wendy
I just answered this in w/ these comments. Thanks!
Thank you for this post. I have been learning about and buying herbs and I’ve been looking into essential oils for a long while now since I decided to start a blog about my personal experiences with different natural remedies. but have waited to check all the options. I finally decided to go with NAN/RMO. I can’t say I will stay with them forever, I still want to check out YL Thieves and a few others and see which one I prefer.
These are the ones I bought:
Immune Strength: so far so good. Smells amazing. Haven’t really needed to use it for sickness yet, but we use it on and off for immune support.
First Aid: This worked magic on a few bites my daughter had. I used this and they were gone completely in 2 days. She is a slow healer. (I did not use by itself, I used a homemade clay mix which also works wonders)
Fortify: We use this as an immune booster and no sickness yet.
Attention Assist: Haven’t used it enough to tell if it helps or not.
Breathe Easy: WOW. Just a whiff and my sinuses clear up immediately. We will use this a lot with a diffuser, my daughter has sinus problems.
Blend of Melissa: This is Oil of Melissa (Lemon Balm) diluted with Fractionated Coconut Oil. Obviously a lot less expensive than neat oil. It smells so strong you can’t even really tell it’s diluted. We love this oil.
I live in PR and the shipping was pretty fast. I contacted customer service with a question about one of the oils and they responded quick. So far, my experience has been great.
BTW, I will definitely be checking your blog more often! Love all the great posts!
thanks so much! Sign up for the newsletter in the orange box in the sidebar – for a free meal plan :)!
So glad to hear that! I am still using Native American Nutritionals all the time and I love them.
Thanks for all of this info–I’ve read through every comment!
You’d mentioned in a previous comment that there was an EO company that looked promising but you didn’t pursue them because they focused too much on the “energy” of the oil. I would be interested in something like that. Would you mind sharing which company that was so that I can contact them to get answers to some questions?
Thanks!
Oops, sorry, just saw my comment from a couple days ago is awaiting moderation (I thought it got lost in cyberspace). 🙂 Please just ignore this one!
Let me see if I can find it. The owner of NAN deals w/ this as well if you’d like to ask questions in the meantime. The other company just had it so “front and center” that I felt it would be too much for many of my readers but I think they have good oils.
I saw you mentioned Aura Cacia oils, but couldn’t find what your review was of them. Also have you looked at the NOW brand oils? GREAT blog series! 🙂
Sorry but I just can’t comment on / evaluate the companies anymore. I’m just swamped plus there might be legal issues. You can check out this post to see what you think and I hope to write more – thanks and sorry for the delay. I have been just now trying to go through to respond to all of the comments that I missed. Sorry again. https://wholenewmom.com/health-concerns/toxic-overload-health-concerns/essential-oils-testing-is-it-reliable/
Thank you so much for your extensive research. I just wanted some eo products and ended up becoming a YL distributor to get the deals. I was definitely a skeptic and your blog saved me so much time! You answered all of my questions and some I hadn’t even thought of.
Thanks for the kind words :).
Thanks, for all the info. I have been recently introduced to EO’s and YL however upon a little research I wasn’t happy with what came up about the founder. So I started researching (yikes! a confusing task..) and looking at other options and stumbled upon your website. I had come across plant therapy and was wondering if this was a company you had looked at. I apologize if you have already answered this question. I tried sifting through comments but didn’t see anything. Thanks!
I really can’t go into details about other companies but you can read this post and then see if they measure up. Thanks! wholenewmom.com/health-concerns/toxic-overload-health-concerns/essential-oils-testing-is-it-reliable/