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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.

Where to Buy Essential Oils you can trust

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.

Confused about essential oils? What this blogger found out will surprise you. She tried to find out which essential oils company is best and found out some VERY interesting things about oils and the companies that sell them, including Young Living and doTERRA.Pin

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.

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6,991 Comments

  1. I finally made it through this series and wanted to sincerely thank you for all the time and hard work you put into your investigation. I have been trying to compare companies because I’m skeptical about various things, but I have ZERO time to do a thorough investigation. Thanks again. I appreciate it more than you know. 🙂

    Reply

  2. Thank you for all the hard work you put into this, it sure made my own research easier. I would never have heard of Native American Nutritional without your blog and you are so right about their products. I still use some of the YL blends that I can’t seem to replace but I am saving a load of money on everything else. I appreciate your willingness to put up with the abuse for the benefit of people who just want some honest information. Thank you.

    Reply

  3. I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU for posting these. I am just now discovering EO’s and had no idea there was so much tension and controversy over the two major companies doTerra and Young Living. I was first exposed to doTerra and love it but I have friends that use Young Living and have seen some sites where people really defend their brand personally and put other’s down, so it got me wondering which was better and what all the controversy was over. I’m so happy I started digging and found your blog! THANK YOU for doing all this hard work and research. I hadn’t even considered looking into other companies but after reading how nasty some people have been from both the big major companies it has left a distaste for either of those big companies for me. And I should have known to look for a smaller company without all the marketing and “we are the best” hype. Because as you said usually the smaller the farm and companies are truer to the heart of the mission of what we are looking for. Seems the bigger a company gets usually greed and malice enters, and I am a big believer that energy gets filtered into the product and I don’t want that. So big thank you. I’m checking out the companies you have recommended 🙂

    Reply

  4. I am not only interested in purchasing essential oils for my own use but I am actually interested in being a distributor, I live in an area with almost 0 sources for essential oils. Do you have a recommendation? I checked out Native American Nutritionals and I do like what I see but there appears to be no option for resale.

    Reply

    1. Sorry they don’t have a direct sales option. I wasn’t a fan of the MLMs in the essential oil industry but have found other direct sales that seem legitimate (and a bunch that are not companies I would work with). If you would like to connect about options I’m happy to chat: adrienne@wholenewmom.com. I’m very picky and will be 100% honest with you.

      Reply

  5. Have you looked into the Simply Aromatherapy oils? If so, I would like to know your take on them.
    Thanks

    Reply

  6. Stumbled upon your site by accident- thrilled I did!! You answered many questions for me. I have been using EO for several years, with varying responses,but nagging at me was “maybe its the company”. I have many books on EO, but “The Complete Book of Essential Oils” by Valerie Ann Wormwood is by far the BEST. I am a registered nurse by education, with 25+ years experience. I am leaning and learning more toward complimentary therapies the older I get.Thank you for your information.

    Reply

  7. Hi Adrienne I tried to comment before but It was not posted for whatever reason. I am hoping if you do not post this comment you can at least email me your thoughts. I have forwarded my initial concerns with NAN that I addressed in my post that was not posted. The answer I got was insatisfactory IMHO. Here is my next email to NAN that I am awaiting response to

    Dear NAN
    I am starting to get really frustrated with the confusion between NAN and Rocky Mountain.
    I purchased oils from both. Here is one example that is making me rethink what I am doing. I purchased respiratory ease from NAN
    Ingredients: Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), Pine (Pinus nigra), and Lime (Mexico) (Citrus aurantifolia)

    I receive a bottle with a rocky mountain label on it that says
    Ingredients: Ravintsara, Rosemary, Pine, and Lime.

    So which oil did I get. I asked what oils I would be getting and I was told I was getting NAN oils. See where my confusion is, you can’t put a label on a bottle and says it contains this this and this when it doesn’t. That is so wrong. I don’t really care if you ran out of labels and were waiting for new production. Would that fly on any other product? I cannot use Ravintsara on my kid now I have no idea if it has it in it. And if you tell me it doesn’t can I believe you?
    Please answer me today so I can figure out what to use on my sick kid

    Adrienne this is so not right using labels on stuff that does not contain the stuff it says it does. Do you agree?
    Thank you
    Tania

    Reply

    1. Hi there, I am sorry your comment didn’t post earlier – that is strange. Glad you got it to work!

      What answer did you get from them, may I ask? I just got this response:

      Respiratory Ease does include Ravintsara. It always has. Looking on the NAN website I see that it was left out accidentally. I am making sure it gets fixed today. The RMO website had it and so do all of the labels. The labels and website is correct.

      I have attached our customer service manager so she knows whats going on.

      If this customer would like to return the oil, we will return it for a full refund and pay return shipping.

      Please let me know what you would like. I will say that they are growing and changing things so I assume this was a result of that. Let me know if I can help any further.

      Thanks for letting me know :)!

      Reply

      1. They did respond to me with something similar. My email states that the NAN formula had changed but the website did not update the change. Your response states that it always had the Ravintsara. This is the second oil blend in which they left out an oil ingredient on the website. The other issue I had concerned some missing information about Rosemary, I had emailed them about it and then it was changed. IMHO if they are now the same company, source oils from the same source, have the exact same formulas then they just need to have company. I have to toggle between websites to gain all the information on the oil and on the blend. NAN’s website has some info but not all, so then I have to go to RM to get the rest of the info, but RM doesn’t have all the info either. I was told this was going to change, and the websites would match soon. I do appreciate them willing to take the oil back.

        Here is what I think. I think when they merged they decided to make all their oils the same. I do not believe for one second that 2 companies had the exact same ingredients in every blend. At that time they changed their blend names. They ran out of NAN labels so started using RM labels. I am having a hard time believing that the RM labels put on NAN oils really do match the oils that are in the bottles. I am probably over analyzing but based on the different responses I have received it does leave me wondering. After doing my own research and looking more into the safety of EO on children I am way more concerned about companies not divulging some of the dangers oils can have on children. YL is notorious for recommending oils for children that really are not safe. This updated book really dives into EOs and children safety. It is kind of scary the flippant use people are practicing with EOs, I accept lawsuits will be filed against some of these companies. https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Oil-Safety-Health-Professionals/dp/0443062412

        They are letting me return the oil

        Honestly I do not know what to think, with no regulations on EOs it is really hard to trust. Between NAN and RM I have about $225 in EOs.
        Thank you for your response and for checking with NAN for me.

        Tania

        Reply

        1. Hi Tania. I am so sorry for not responding sooner. Trying to play catch up from a long time ago. The companies are growing quickly and trying to do a lot all at once. I really appreciate your kind comments and your thorough attention to detail. I really do trust them and have made it clear that if there is ever a reason not to I will not recommend them any longer. Thanks so much and hope to see you around again!

          Reply

  8. Excellent blogging series!! I recently purchased a premium start kit from YL, but have always been wary of MLM companies so I was thrilled to find the information in your blog. I truly respect your investigative initiative because you have done all the work for me!! AWESOME! I have already checked out the NAN site and cannot wait to order some of their products for my family for Christmas. I appreciate your commitment to finding the truth and your courage to stand up to the negative. Blessings to you and yours!!

    Reply

  9. Hi Adrienne,

    Similar story for me as many of your readers – new to EOS, trying to decide what brand to get started with, and I appreciate all your hard work & research, as well as the grace that you extend in your comment replies. I didn’t see that you looked into Floracopeia; it appears to be MLM, but they list a lot of product details under each oil (country, distillation, composition, etc) which is nice. Any thoughts? And did you have a runner-up to NAN for your recommended oil provider? Or was it a clear land-slide victory? 😉
    I subscribed to the email list for NAN/RMO and am hoping to get a reply soon. I think it’s interesting that you can order both diluted blends (with FCO) & NEAT blends! I hadn’t seen that before. Thanks again.

    Reply

    1. Hi there. Sorry for the delay. I did look at them. I don’t recall now but I didn’t choose them. Of course, there are other good companies out there.

      I didn’t really decide on a runner up. It was more that I was w/ YL and then doTERRA and didn’t feel I could stay there. There were companies that were clear “no”s and then when I found NAN and dug in I kept not hearing anything that I didn’t like. Now I pepper them with questions all the time and have no reason to look elsewhere. If I have time perhaps I could but I am so busy right now. Thanks!

      Let me know if you need anything else. Did you see they have a special on their new Christmas Blends right now? You can see the info here: https://wholenewmom.com/whole-new-budget/free-kindle-books-healthy-living-nov-21-2014/

      Reply

  10. Hi,
    I stubbled across these arcticles on essential oil companies and thought they were very informative and well thought through. I have recently joined a new oils company called Ameo (pronounced A-May-O). Their parent company is Zija, you may have heard of them. Anyway, they have done extensive research and claim to have clinical grade essential oils. I love their oils, especially the peppermint, which has a very different smell/taste then other EO companies. I would be very interested in your thoughts on this company!
    Thanks.

    Reply

    1. Hi there. I am getting a TON of comments with links to Ameo sites and Emails soliciting my readers to check out this company. I am sorry but I am very upset about this. I established this blog to be a resource for folks to learn – not as a platform for others to try to build their MLM business here. Please refrain from doing this in the future or I will have to ban you from my site. Thank you in advance for your understanding.

      I hope this doesn’t sound too harsh but this has been taking a lot of my time and it is just not ethical behavior. Thanks again.

      Reply