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.
I’ve just discovered your blog when I searched for info on YL vs. DO. I read through all seven articles and was quite impressed. Sorry you had to endure what you did, but you certainly handled it well (at least here online :-).
I will definitely be checking out NAN. My desire is to eliminate all unnatural cleaners and to have a completely natural medicine cabinet. Thanks for all the time and effort you put into this.
Hi there. Sorry for the delay – I’m trying to play catchup :). I am thankful for your kind words. I hope you enjoy their oils – I’m about to place another order myself :). Using a lot of lemon and peppermint these days.
I have recently taken an interest in essential oils and their medicinal and therapeutic effects. I was completely intrigued and had done my own research on companies as well, because choosing a company is one of the first GIANT hurdles once you decide that essential oils are worth investigating and experimenting with. In my limited initial research, the thing that stuck out to me most was that “Essential oils” are not monitored in their own right and if you choose inferior companies who cut corners or trademark phrases that sound impressive but have no basis in reality, the medicinal effects are non-existent. This made since to me, so i decided I wouldn’t even bother unless I felt confident in a company. Interestingly enough, I had also decided that Native American Nutritional was who I felt most confident in and had just received my first order of EO’s in the mail when I stumbled upon your blog. I will confess that my research was not nearly as extensive as yours. I was nervous when I read Part 1 because your comment about Native American sounded a little dubious! By the time I read your reveal, I was downright scared that I had chosen the wrong company! Luckily, my limited research and gut feeling had turned out for the best! I thank you for not only the extensive time spent in researching these companies, but in the time put in to share all of your knowledge and findings with the rest of us! Your information was invaluable to me and I truly appreciate it!
Hi there. Sorry for the delay – I’m playing catchup here…..How interesting that we chose the same company! :). I hope to see you around again – a new essential oils product is coming out next week on my blog :)!
Thank you so much!! This is exactly what I was looking for….someone else to do all the hard work! You did a great job and I feel so comfortable going with your choice, you did a huge amount of research and I am truly thankful! I will also be following you on Pintrest and cant wait! How can I make sure that if and when I order its threw you? You might as well get something for doing all the work for me!
Thank you
Katie
Hi and welcome!!! As long as you clicked through from my blog and ordered then it’s fine. Did you do that? Thanks for caring to support me – I really appreciate it.
I, too, heavily researched companies before selecting Young Living. I would never go with another company. Young Living oils are the only ones I will trust my family, pets and friends to.
Thanks for commenting :). Glad you found a company you like.
I have recently seen Forever Green Essential oil products and wonder if you have compared them in your research?
Hi there and sorry for the delay- I am playing catchup. I am sorry but I can’t comment on other oils companies but you could look at this post to see if they measure up. I am also coming out w/ a new oils publication this coming week that should be of help and there is more to come. Take care! https://wholenewmom.com/health-concerns/toxic-overload-health-concerns/essential-oils-testing-is-it-reliable/
I just read thru your #7 sections on “The Best Essential Oil Company”
that was posted in 2012. I’m wondering if you STILL feel Native American
Nutritional is still the best?
I have order from them because of your writing 🙂
I have friend that really want me to sign up with doTerra!
Hi there. I still really like them. I am sure there are a handful or so of other good companies out there but I am pleased w/ them for more reasons than just their oils – for what they are doing in Third World nations and more. I will write more about that later. Thanks!
Thanks for posting this! I was searching for a cheaper option before ordering YL. Are the Native American Nutritionals oils safe to apply topically and to ingest? Specifically curious about putting them on young children – I’ve tried lavender, lemon and thieves on my little ones (ages 18 mos and 4). I’m so happy you posted this. I could see myself doing all of this research and asking tons of questions and you just saved me the time! And I’m so disappointed to hear the EWG ratings for YL products. I thought they were completely safe. 🙁
The owner of Native American Nutritionals says that his oils (and all truly pure oils) would be fine to ingest and use topically. The ones he would say are not safe would be those that are adulterated with chemicals or fake scents. That being said, some oils are hot and should be used with caution / blended and used internally only w/ caution. I have not done a bunch of reading on safe use on children but I would, of course, err on the side of caution. That being said, I think that some of the warnings about photosensitivity and such might possibly be overstated. I think there is a balance in here somewhere. Thanks! I hope you enjoy them should you choose to order them and if you buy through my links it helps me keep on blogging – much appreciated :).
I really appreciated what you wrote! I was wondering if you’ve ever looked into Veriditas Botanicals essential oils. Thanks!
So sorry but I can’t comment on other oils companies due to potential legal issues. I would recommend that you look at this post and see if they measure up. More on oils coming soon :). https://wholenewmom.com/health-concerns/toxic-overload-health-concerns/essential-oils-testing-is-it-reliable/
First of all, wow. What a ton of research you did here! Amazing and so fascinating to read. Sorry if you covered this in another comment already ( I tried to scroll through, but there are quite a lot of comments!)
Did you look into Plant Therapy oils at all? Curious how they would stack up against the others. Thank you.
So sorry but I can’t comment on other oils companies due to potential legal issues. I would recommend that you look at this post and see if they measure up. More on oils coming soon :). https://wholenewmom.com/health-concerns/toxic-overload-health-concerns/essential-oils-testing-is-it-reliable/
I will point, however, to an independent test that I saw online. They failed a GC/MS test (due to the % of limeonene being too high, as well as the presence of some unusual compounds) and then paid to have a new batch of oils retested. The tester applauded them for that. The company that I recommend was tested too and didn’t have that problem. There is a lot that goes into chemical constitution of oils and the GC/MS testing – so that “failing” a test may or may not indicate a real problem of purity re: the oils being tested, but I am happy that I have chosen Native American Nutritionals.
I wanted to say thank you so much for these posts you have done on essential oils. I love NAN!! They work wonders, where others haven’t. I do have a question, didn’t Rocky Mountain Oils merge with NAN? If they did, why do they still have separate websites? Getting all confused with names of oils etc. Do you recommend the NAN book on their oils? Thank you again. The one that I noticed a huge difference was the cypress for my swelling legs and feet while pregnant. It was the only one that made a difference.
Thank YOU! They were going to merge completely but ended up staying separate but their oils are the same. Their book on oils is “OK”. But I have never found just one book that I LOVE. I have several recommended in most of the posts in this series….hoping to write more after I review more. I think they all have something that the others don’t and are each missing something. Hope that’s helpful to some degree.
That makes sense why they still have their own websites, but their oil bottles are the same? Are the costs the same? I bought a couple that had blue tansy in the blend then found out later that being pregnant I couldn’t use that oil. Now soon, I will be nursing, should I call them and find out which oils I can use and which ones I can’t? Gets so confusing when there are so many blends and I can’t figure out which ones are okay and not. Again, thank you!
Their bottles are the same- just the labels are different. The costs should be the same as well. As far as nursing w oils, this might help you. https://www.mirvacu.com/oils-to-avoid-while-pregnant-breastfeeding/ I can’t vouch for the info there, however. I know it’s confusing. You could make your own blends. There’s a book on making your own blends at the end of this post – that way you could make your own and avoid whatever you need to :). https://wholenewmom.com/health-concerns/homemade-anti-bacterial-thieves-essential-oil-blend/