“NOT ALL ESSENTIAL OILS ARE CREATED EQUALLY”

 Pricing of Pure Essential oils

We sell and use Organic Pure Essential Oils in our products. These raw materials in the most part determine the final price we charge you. If those raw materials increase in price at some point we may have to increase our prices. The reverse is true, we will reduce our prices whenever possible.

A few moments spent searching online for pure essential oils will soon make you realise that prices of what appears to be the same pure essential oil vary considerably, why?

What is commonly known as rosewater can be found selling from anything between £2.95 and £50.00 for the very same product!  100ml bottle. However some detective work may reveal part of the truth.  Are they in fact the same? Some companies manufacture rosewater and market it as such, whilst it clearly is not ! On the other hand ours is a 1st distillation Rose Otto Hydrolat from a recognised quality organic distiller in Bulgaria. £50 is a bit too much! and I would ask them why it is so expensive just to see what marketing BS they reply with.

If you compare our prices with those of the established true! aromatherapy companies you will find lots of similarities sometimes exact matches. Why?

Firstly you should be clear about what you think you are buying. Companies X’s  Basil Oil is not the same as Company Y’s How?

Is it Basil A?

or is it Basil B?

So, if company X’s basil Oil is £3.95 for 10mls and Company Y’s is £10.95, obviously, ask yourself why? How can the price vary so much unless A is clearly stating this is a special offer price.As of December 2024, you will find Basil! Oil for sale at those two different prices.  I know some of the companies selling at £10.95 can be trusted and sell high quality oils.  In addition, Basil is a good case in point, the £10.95 Basil is probably the Basil Linalool (ocimum Basilicum) Essential Oil and Soil Association and COSMOS Certified

Is it Organic, or not Organic, this will affect the price. pesticides and herbicides do carry over in the distillation process if the plant is not grown organically.

The species or variety of the plant makes a huge difference to the quality and yield of the plant.  There are several varieties of Lavender for example. Lavandin grown here in the UK  is nothing like Lavender angustifolia grown at a high altitude in France, their prices should differ considerably.

The country of origin (There are only a few or even one country accepted as the correct location for growing that particular plant)

How is the plant grown, the soil, the weather, the knowledge of the farmer … etc.

Extraneous events, severe weather, crop disease, geo political events, sudden unforeseen demand, big changes in currency values … can all affect the end price of pure essential oils and products with them in.  In the 90’s Black Pepper Oil suddenly double in price and for a while was not available. – Dr Pepper has bought up the world supply.

How is the Oil extracted, is it solvent extraction, distillation, expression or ?

The yield from the plant material. Yield at distillation is normally 1% to 2% but for rose Oil it is 0.015% hence, Rose Otto oil is considerably more expensive to produce.

The overall quality of the production process – what time of the year and condition at extraction?

The price paid for the final batch of oil to the farmer or supplier

Shipping, storing and handling costs.

Price paid to the bulk seller (Very! few companies deal direct with the farmers/producers of the oil, very few! Some claim they deal direct with the growers, they do not) Unfortunately there are companies out there that will “stretch the truth” in order to try to get you to buy their product.

The Profit needs of the selling companies. The seller may have a stack ’em high sell ’em cheap business model ( you will find lot’s of these companies on E-Bay) or like most, they need a reasonable profit margin to cover costs and  pay wages etc whilst making a living for themselves.

The target audience. Companies that directly target the wealthy or people who would like to think they are! Deliberately, over price their products because often price is equated with quality. Well, there have now been many exposure programmes and article clearly demonstrating that is not always true. However, some time it is. especially with pure essential oils

Adulteration. It can and does happen, either buy adding cheaper pure essential oils or by adding chemicals. There are many reasons why this may happen and sometimes the unwitting supplier is unaware of it or worse are colluding in it. (It is so important that you can trust your supplier). Low prices are sometimes a reason to suspect something is not quite right.

Economies of Scale. If you can buy big! you inevitably get a cheaper price. That is normal. The seller can choose to pass that benefit to you or make more profit.  Equally you have to be confident you can sell your stock before it goes out of date or deteriorates before that even.

Marketing budgets have to be financed. That finance must come from gross profit. To generate the finance high retail prices sometimes are the result, which have no relation to the quality of the pure essential oil or product containing them.

Labelling of the product. If it is not labelled correctly, you have no idea what is inside the bottle or jar. It may be good, it may not. Even worse it may be dangerous. Of course a label does not guarantee quality, but it is a start.