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The Great Essential Oils Showdown ~ Which Essential Oils Company is Best? – Part 1

by 2,031 Comments Updated: April 20, 2018

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Essential oils are all the rage these days.  People say that they can do everything from being a natural ear infection remedy, to helping with weight loss, to healing eczema, and more.

Most of you tuned in for my recent posts on essential oils in which I talked about:

From all the comments and enthusiasm about this giveaway and the other posts, I can tell you are just as interested in learning about essential oils as I am.

You can tell by those posts that I am a skeptic at heart and pretty detailed when it comes to sorting through all the information out there to find out what really works.  One of my readers (a friend of mine) once called me an “investigative reporter” of sorts.

My husband says that I “second guess everything.”

I'm not sure which one is right :).

In one sense, second guessing is a good thing.  I've saved our family a lot of money by avoiding problematic purchases.

But sometimes I can go overboard and spend waaaaay too much time analyzing a product or purchase.  (Kind of like driving all over town to save a few pennies.  Not smart, especially as I saw gas at $4.11/gallon coming home from church last night.  Deep sigh.)

This post may contain affiliate links from which I will earn a commission.

With the essential oils issue, I tried not to be too analytical at first.  But then…..

You read in the Are Essential Oils a Scam? – A Skeptic Looks at Thieves Oil, how I held off trying really any oils at all for years before trying Thieves.

(Well, truth be told, I do have a few old bottles of essential oils in my linen closet.  One bottle each of orange, eucalyptus, melaleuca (tea tree) oil, and rose oil, which I bought for topical use to brighten up my laundry [ended up never using it] and for my Homemade Chest Rub and Homemade Rose Water Spray [which I love, by the way].)

This time around, before buying the Thieves oil and signing up as a Young Living Distributor, I dug around a little, but not too much.  I asked about all the rumors surrounding Gary Young, the founder of Young Living and I also asked some questions about purity of essential oils.

I got some satisfactory answers and I figured that well, this stuff worked really well. And I was thrilled to have great resources in my natural health care arsenal.  I mean, who wants to put more toxins in your body if you don't have to, right?

However, after my post on Young Living's Thieves and the other oils (Wintergreen and Peppermint, etc.), a number of readers started asking me about other oil companies–if they were good enough, or not that great.  And so I started wondering.

At first, I thought, “This stuff (Young Living) works great, and I'm pretty worn out right now, so I am just going to leave this alone.”

But the “investigative reporter” in me just couldn't leave. it. alone.

So I started poking around.

Today I'm sharing with you the beginning of my investigation.

There were some essential oils companies that I knew of, and some that a few readers recommended to me.

One of my readers was a doTERRA rep who said I really should check out their company to see how it measured up to Young Living.

Little did I know what lay ahead of me.

The world of essentials oils is big.  Very big.

It did start out quite small for me, however.  Just a small list of companies.  I started out looking into these companies, but the list quickly grew as the series went on and as more and more readers commented and as I went down more and more rabbit trails.  I think you will find the whole thing interesting and I hope you will learn a thing or two about essential oils and the companies that sell them.

The Competitors: 

(UPDATE:  A lot changed after I started this series. Please follow the links at the bottom of this post to see how interesting everything got  – you can hop on over to read Part 2 of “The Best Essential Oils” here. 

To start off, following are the essential oils companies that were “on my radar” and so I started with these, wondering if I should stick with Young Living or switch to another company to be my family's “best essential oils company” of choice.

There are a TON of essential oils companies out there.  After writing this series I felt like I really opened a can of worms, but these are the companies that I started with.  Hang with me – it gets pretty interesting from here on out.

The Challenge:

1. HERITAGE OILS – (Now Hopewell Oils)

A few readers mentioned this company in the comments section of my post on Are Essential Oils a Scam ~ A Skeptic Looks at Thieves Oil.  They said that their oils were very high quality and inexpensive.

Since high quality and inexpensive are right up my alley (but they typically don't go together, right?),  I looked them up.

Problem #1.  No phone number. (UPDATE: A few readers have mentioned that they do have a phone number on their site. I did not take a screenshot of their site so I am not able to prove one way or another that there was or wasn't a phone number on the site.  It's possible that there was and that I missed it or that it was a long distance phone number and we didn't have free long distance at the time so I didn't want to pay to call (being the frugalista that I am :)).  In either case, I tried to contact them a different way.)

Oh well, I tried to contact them through their Contact Form.

Still – over two weeks later–no response.

THE VERDICT:  Since I couldn't get a timely response, I decided not to go with this company.

Why?

  • I've had allergic reactions to a few oils and Young Living has promptly refunded my money over the phone.
  • I've also had 2 bottles of oil leaking on arrival and I've gotten replacements for them on the spot.

I LOVE good customer service and I am willing to pay extra for it.

Also, customer service aside, if a company is that hard to get a hold of, then I really don't feel comfortable using their oils on mine or my children's bodies.

UPDATE:  Several readers have commented that Heritage (now Hopewell) has great customer service and that I made unfair comments about them.  First, that they do indeed have a phone number on their site, and secondly that they have fabulous customer service.

First of all, I only reported what happened to me.  I contacted Heritage on 3/12/2012 and didn't hear back from them until 5/22/12, well after the publication of this post. I have the emails in my inbox from them to prove it. I am sure you can understand that I felt that I didn't receive good customer service. Linda, the owner, was very kind when she responded and said her response had been sitting in her draft folder.

Regarding them not having a phone number, I can only say that I didn't notice one. It is possible that they put it up later. It is also possible that I didn't notice it or that it was a toll call and I didn't have free long distance at the time. I do not like paying for phone calls and really didn't at the time of this posting since money was very very tight for us at that time.

I hope this clears everything up.

2.  NATIVE AMERICAN NUTRITIONALS (now Rocky Mountain Oils)

When I first contacted this company, I thought that their prices seemed a little high for a non MLM (multi-level marketing) company, but the more I talked to them the more interesting it all got.  

You'll have to read more in the series to see what happened.

THE VERDICT:  Probable high quality with no apparent earnings opportunity.   Need to check into this company more.  

 3. NORTH AMERICAN HERB AND SPICE

From all I could figure out, this is a great company.

Trouble is, all they make is oregano oil.

So if you just want oregano oil, then this is a good place to turn.

THE VERDICT:  Oregano is a pretty amazing oil, but I want more than just that in my natural healing arsenal.

4.  Mountain Rose Herbs

I like Mountain Rose Herbs' mission and have a few bottles of their oils.  When I contacted them they told me that they did not recommend internal use of their oils as they were not produced in a food grade facility.

Much later (after this whole series was done) I contacted them again and they said that this was not the case.  I need to do more looking in to their sourcing, etc.

5.  Aura Cacia

Aura Cacia is adamant about not using their oils internally.

I personally have a number of Aura Cacia's oils that I bought prior to really digging into oils.  I can't say anything except for my personal experience which is that they don't smell as potent as some of the other oils that I have.  I do like the company and I purchase from Frontier Co op regularly, but I'm not choosing to get my oils from them.   That being said, I think that they have a lot of great information about oils and their use.

Well, this is a long enough post already – thanks for sticking with me!

Onto the other competitors in the next post and see what happens!

Looking for more information on Essential Oils?

There are sooo many books out there.  I have a bunch, but this one, Advanced Aromatherapy, is in my shopping cart at Amazon now.  It comes very highly recommended from many aromatherapists.

Advanced Aromatherapy

The Rest of the Best Essential Oils Series:

– Best Essential Oils – What a Good Oils Company Should Have – Part 2
– Which Essential Oils Company is Best – Troubles with the Oils Industry – Part 3
– Young Living vs. doTERRA – Part 4
– Are Multi-Level Marketing Oils Worth It? – Part 5
– Distillation, Bias, Vomit and More Concerns – Part 6
 – Announcing “the Best” Essential Oils Company – Part 7***

or read this post on Essential Oils Testing which gives you the company I went with.  Some readers are having issues reading the last post so you can try here if need be.

Free Essential Oils Report and VIP Newsletter Access

Also, if you go and grab my Free Report on 10 Things to Know About Essential Oils Before You Buy, you will not only get more myth-busting essential oils information, but you'll get access to my VIP newsletter as well–complete with updates, great healthy living offers, of course new posts on essential oils, and more.

Wondering about essential oils? I sure was. Get this guide to buying the best essential oils from a mom blogger who dug deep into the industry to find out what's really going on. Fascinating information including some real debunking that saved me a ton of time and money.

What are your thoughts?

Reader Interactions

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Comments

  1. I desperately need help on what to do! I have 2 Italian greyhounds and a cat. I have paper wasp that are getting into my home and I don’t know what kind of oil to spray outside around the eaves and along the borders of my porch and house that are safe for my pets.

    I believe my dogs would be OK but they say it could hurt my cat. I have a deck that joins up to my house and the wasp have built nest under there. So I need a way of getting something down between the boards that would smell strongly, perhaps peppermint oil that would deter them as I know it doesn’t kill them. ? And I thought about hanging fake paper wasp nest outside but don’t know if they’re rainproof! So please, please, please get back with me ASAP. Today is April 14th

    Reply

    • Hi there. I am reading that lavender, pennyroyal, citronella, eucalyptus, and tea tree help.

      I haven’t looked into the safety of all of those w/ dogs and cats. Does that help?

      Reply

  2. So I just recently started trying some essential oils to get off a lot of medications that I have to be on. I don’t know a lot about them but I just started by in a few of them from Art Naturals and Gurunanda that I ordered off Amazon and found at Walmart. I keep looking for the natural stuff with no yucky or unhealthy stuffin them to make myself healthy and to get off these medications. I also have melasma that was triggered by me having to have chemotherapy and radiation treatment for cancer that I have been trying desperately to get rid of. I’ve tried to make a cocktail myself with a bunch of oils and just started this out four days ago and seeing how it goes. Any insight would be very much appreciated and helpful.

    Reply

    • I did a bit. My concern is that they tout themselves as being a natural company but they have artificial colors and fragrances in a number of their products and while I didn’t look at everything, I have concerns about other ingredients in their other lines. What do you think about that?

      Reply

    • Hi Lara. I don’t have personal experience but I did see Dr. Axe say that they were the only USDA organic oils on the market (which isn’t true) and I saw Jordan Rubin say that they were the best on the market just a short while before he said the same thing about Epigenetics / Organixx’s oils, which is the supplement company connected to The Truth About Cancer. So I don’t know what to make of all of that.

      Reply

      • Adrienne you are the best! Thanks for taking the time to reply. I am a big fan of dr axe and so would like to believe his products are all good. I cannot find enough info on his oils though so will probably go for another more transparent brand. TAC series is amazing! Just finished watching. Leaning towards plant therapy for oils. Love how much info there is on the oils, good price and they ship free internationally for over 50 bucks which is a biggie for me. With RMO it’s 200 min spend. Thanks again for this great blog!

        Reply

        • Hi Lara,

          I didn’t mean to say that his products were bad, I just don’t know what to think about those statements. It’s possible that it wasn’t him but was a staff member who doesn’t know what they are talking about. It’s hard to know if someone responding on FB is the person or not when it’s a business. Of course the Jordan Rubin thing is most likely more about Rubin than about Axe but it was very odd.

          I appreciate your thoughts on the shipping and have passed it on to RMO. Thanks again!

          Reply

  5. I am so confused, and not a good researcher! Please continue to inform those of us who desperately need honest guidance and information. Tx

    Reply

  6. Thank you for all of your hard work and time invested into this blog ! Because of this I chose RMO years ago. Their prices began to really wear on my budget and I have been using Edens Garden as it’s so much better financially. Once I re-read your article I see that you investigated them. Could you share why you chose not to go with them ? It may make me switch back to RMO. Thank you ! (I tried to see if I could find anything about this in other comments but there’s soooo many comments lol !)

    Reply

    • Hi Mel.

      I have to be really careful what I say about companies and of course companies can change over the years but maybe contact them and ask them if they had / have these standards now: https://wholenewmom.com/health-concerns/pure-essential-oils-testing/

      There are companies that I didn’t go with for different reasons. Some of them had oils sourced from countries that weren’t optimal, some seemed to be lying about sourcing based on the pricing on their sites (being priced below wholesale), one had a scandal that was horrible going on w/ a sister company that was being covered up, some had reports of failed 3rd party testing, some didn’t do any third party testing, I heard reports of some falsifying reports to sell on Amazon, some wouldn’t answer my questions…..it’s been a very interesting journey to say the least.

      I hope that helps! Maybe I should write a post about this or put it in the series.

      Reply

  7. Thank you for all the time and hard work you put into your posts. I learn so much from you. I love the essential oils information and I have begun to make some of the easy recipes for body care. I have found RMO to be very good and I like being able to order the oils at will. I hope you will continue to educate your followers on essential oil companies you find to be good choices. I will keep reading . Thank you.

    Reply

  9. I highly recommend DoTerra!!!
    I’ve suffered from rhinitis due to over use of Afrin for 6 months. I tried everything from nasal irrigation to acupuncture to chewing on fresh grated horseradish to no avail. I stated using DoTerra essential oils and their eucalyptus cleared me right up. Threw away the Afrin. They also responded to my phone call the first time. They also provide you with a number on every bottle showing it’s been tested for purity. I’ve been researching essential oil company’s for quite some time and DoTerra is #1 On my list.

    Reply

    • D?TERRA also runs 8 additional tests on the oils they sell above and beyond any other oil companies. Third party testing, which provides integrity. Sourcing plants from countries that the plant is native to and giving people in those cylinders and sustainable income. I would ONLY use d?TERRA Oils.

      Reply

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