Where to Buy the Best Essential Oils
This post may contain affiliate links from which I will earn a commission. Learn more in our disclosure.
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.
I can’t thank you enough for writing this series. I was literally online SIGNING UP for YL membership, when, due to being completely turned off by their requirement of my SSN#, i saw a link for your review. Boy, am I glad! I had never heard of NAN before, and after seeing that they had a larger selection of oils that I am looking for, as well as more affordable blends, and stating where the oils came from, I was sold. I’m also relieved I don’t have to involve my sensitive tax info just to get a good deal! I would love it if you could do a piece on the most helpful/useful EO LITERATURE that is available, since some of us don’t have the resources provided by a parent company (and NAN doesn’t seem to offer much in that dept). Again, thanks!
You are so welcome. I am inundated w/ personal issues right now but I hope to get a list of good books. NAN has an inexpensive book that you might like. They have free shipping today too!!!
It bothers me that the third world small farmers may be looked at with sheep clothing. Is Paul Dean a wealthy millionaire from this? Why do I see Excederine pain reliever on this page as a supporter?
Hi Sandi. I am not sure what you are asking, but here is the response from Mr. Dean:
I love working with the third world farmers. My goals when doing this is to increase there living and assist them in having a better life physically and spiritually. Many times I have personally donated a bit of money to assist the farm, the farmers, and the farmers’ families without any return to me other than I know I am doing a good work. (I still purchase their oils at the same cost.) I have a much bigger vision than to make money from the oils, I want to assist the world in a very positive and powerful manner. I am all about “teaching them to fish” rather than just feed them for a day. I want what I do to impact the world far after I am gone.
Hello, I appreciate all your research and answering the comments. WOW this all keeps you very busy. When I started looking up information on oils, it was confusing and frustrating. I looked into Rocky Mountain Oils. I seen a video on you tube. The man that started Rocky Mountain oils is from Young Living. SO this makes me wonder if alot of other companies are a start off Young Living. I have used NOW oils, Edens Garden, Doterra, Young Living, Plant Therapy and I have to say DOTERRA was the worst oils. All my family had reactions to the oils. I am a member of them as well. So sad I wasted so much money on them. Matter of fact my daughter was having muscle spasms from doterra. She used melaluca on her neck for hives and her neck and tongue has a muscle spasm.
It has kept me busy :). I don’t think that RMO or NAN started off of Young Living. The owner of NAN used to work there but it was just a part of his experience with oils that culminated in his starting his own company.
You are still with doTERRA then?
I am still a member of Doterra but will not be ordering anymore of their products. So I am back out doing my research again. We have been putting oils on my dads feet and he drinks lavender daily to keep the inflammation down in his throat, other wise he chokes on his pills and some food. Well he had an abscess on his leg that was very infected and caused him to be in the hospital for 6 days. So now he has a huge area on his leg that has to be packed twice a day. I cannot prove it was from the oils but it is a gut feeling I have. .Matter of fact if we had waited 12 more hours before getting him to the hospital he could have died, from what the doctors was telling us. The reason why I have a feeling it was from the oils, is cause of different reactions I have read from the groups on facebook. My dad was using the supplements as well but we have stopped them as well.
Wow. That is terrible. If you want me to run any of this by the owner of Native American I am happy to do that.
That would be interesting to see what the owner of NAN would have to say about it all. Plus would clear me up on my gut feeling. So while asking could you please ask what they would suggest for diabetics. I know these are not medical advice just an alternative to help the body heal itself.
I have an aunt that has possible lung cancer so I have forward her Paul’s videos off you tube as well. I hope she finds them very helpful. Do you know if he actually sees patients? Asking the question since he is a “MEDICAN MAN” I live around several reservations so I find him being a medican man is intersting. Thank you so much for all the help and care you have put into all of us wanting to help our self and loved ones. Caring is sharing. I wish i could write I for sure would do a blog and try and help spreak the word of healing with essential oils for NAN.
OOOPPPS sorry another question. Does NAN have ocotea that young living had. I have heard very good results on ocotea for various problems. I have searched the internet for it but all i find is young living. I dont think it is a blend. Somewhere I read it is in the cinnamon family.
They don’t have it – so sorry! I heard about it too and tried it but it did nothing for me. I tried it for weight loss. I found something much better…posting on it in the future ;).
Hi! I have been using YL essential oils for about a month now. I have been pleased with the outcome. They are however expensive. I did buy the kit so I could buy at wholesale prices but I am finding they are still too expensive. I was checking to see if you still recommend NAN? I have been on the web site and I am thinking about placing an order. Thank you!
Yes, I do for sure. I use them all the time. Hope you like them!!
Hi Adrienne,
I’m wondering if you checked the distillation process at Native American.
In a previous blog, you mentioned about Doterra’s Peppermint:
“candy-cane-smelling peppermint is from the second distillation or a complete distill (distilling for a long time). The oils are either distilled for a longer time, or redistilled and some oils are taken out to give the oil a clean pepperminty candy smell. (Source).
This is exactly what doTERRA’s peppermint oils smell like. So yummy, in fact, that if you have kiddos in the house, you’d best keep it out of arm’s reach.
Here is the response I got from doTERRA stating that their peppermint oil is, in fact, a “complete distill”:
You can let her know that our Peppermint uses complete
distillation. There is 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and complete and we use complete. (Source: my email.)”
I would like to know how many rounds of distillation is used for NA oils.
Thanks for doing this research!
Tara
Their peppermint is first distillation. There aren’t many oils that are distilled more than one time or that have a “complete” distillation available. Just some. Ylang ylang is the one that is the most common.
Hope that helps. I thought I made that clear in the post – did I not?
Thanks!
Thanks for your very informative post. I have been doing some research on the MLM essential oil companies. I was seriously considering purchasing YL or Doterra. Honestly, if I would have had the money, I probably would have jumped right in without doing the research. Sometimes being broke has its advantages! I kept seeing “YL is the best” or “Doterra is superior” on other blog posts. But then I realized, all them making these claims were consultants. They probably do think and stand behind these statements but it doesn’t necessarily make them true. The more I keep researching, the more I feel like they are not as good as they claim to be. Or at least, they are not worthy of the price they charge. I am going to give Native American Nutritionals and Essential Vitality a try.
I haven’t looked at Essential Vitality. You might wish to check out this post to see if they measure up: https://wholenewmom.com/health-concerns/toxic-overload-health-concerns/essential-oils-testing-is-it-reliable/ Thanks! I do get weary of the cheerleading of those 2 companies too.
Great website… congrats!
Thanks for the kind words :).
Hello there!
I am a newbie at homemade products, essential oils and the whole wagon. I am however enjoying the new life/health improving hobby.
I purchased quite a few of my EOs from Bulk Apothecary and I had no problems with their products. They seemed to be of good quality and the I have found quite a few reviews, after the fact, stating that they have less than optimal EOs. I have been debating which company to sign up with, YL or DT.
I am so very thankful to you for taking the time doing your very in-depth investigation. I have learn so much and I am looking forward to purchasing NAN EOs and trying some of your product recipes.
You are so welcome. I hope you like them!!!! I haven’t bought BA for that reason. I did buy their cocoa butter, though :). I would so appreciate it if you buy through my link. Every little bit helps – thanks!
Thank you for all the research you’ve done about EO companies! I’m sure it was a lot of work and I appreciate all the effort you put in. Based on what you found out, I decided to go with the oils from NAN/RMO. I’ve been very pleased with the communication from the company to their customers. I use mostly the FB pages and they get back to those with questions pretty quickly. I got their diffuser too and used it for the first time tonight. Love it!
To those who don’t like you findings, get over it! Who cares if she makes a commission. Many people who recommend DT or YL profit from their sales too. No difference. We’re all different people and have different opinions so it’s ok to like different companies. I’m a big enough person to make my own decision and so is everyone else!
I am so wanting to get that diffuser – thanks for the mention of it and I really appreciate your encouragement. Thanks!
Hi,
I am new to essential oils and read all of your posts on finding the best and now will be ordering from NAN. Before reading your blog I had just ordered an intro pack from a rep with DoTERRA which includes lemon, lavender, peppermint. I was wondering what your other favorite/staple oils were that I could order from NAN website?
Hi there and welcome. This is a list I got from the owner of NAN. I pretty much concur w/ him but I have the Immune Strength and don’t have the ylang ylang or rose blend. I hope this helps :). Of course this is not medical advice. Please consult w/ your physician before using supplements / using oils internally.
First Aid — great for cuts and scraps and open wounds
Tummy Rub — anything digestive or nausea
Serenity or Calming — for relaxing
Relieve Me, Sports Pro, or True Blue — Pain and none open wound healing
Aligning or Immune Strength — I like Aligning for the overall balance and physical structure aligning or if you wanted to go with anti viral use the Immune Strength
Peppermint — love this oil for pain, headaches, massage with the Aligning, and lung issues
Lemon — great cleaner but I normally put a drop in water to detox
Lavender — wonderful all around oil but I always have a bottle in the kitchen for burns
Ylang Ylang or Rose Blend — uplifting calming oils that puts me in a good mood
Oregano or Eucalyptus — if your got Immune Strength above then get the Eucalyptus or if you are going with the Aligning use the Oregano for your anti viral needs