2. I have read that a long drawn out process is necessary to produce therapeutic grade oils, thus the relatively inexpensive oils sold in health food stores are useless for this purpose. Can you comment on this subject? In essence, how does one go about deciding how much to pay for an oil?

1. Can the essential oils you sell for used for scenting candles?

Certainly. Essential oils can be used for scenting candles, and in fact, the most sought-after and the most expensive ones on the market are those listed as being perfumed with the true rare and precious essential oils and absolutes.

Obviously the advantage of using pure, true essential oils as opposed to synthetic fragrances is that not only do you enjoy the wonderful esthetic benefits for mind and soul, but added to this are the particular therapeutic benefits afforded by the essential oil in use for the environment and recipient alike. Excessive use of synthetics often results in various negative side-effects.

Auroma has an extensive range of pure essential oils and absolutes.

For candle scenting, you might want to concentrate on those essential oils with the most pervasive and powerful fragrances - some essential oils are just not strong enough to pack the required fragrant punch so to speak!

I would recommend the following to be going on with, although there are many many references in books and articles suggesting various essential oils to create wonderful perfume blends. Auroma also has a selection of publications by some of the world's most respected authorities in the fields of aromatherapy and perfumery.

Lemongrass - Cymbopogon citratus
Peppermint - Mentha piperita
Spearmint - Mentha spicata
Geranium - Pelargonium graveolens
Cinnamon bark - Cinnamomum
zeylanicum - blend in very low concentration with a citrus oil to quench the potential irritant property.
Lime - Citrus aurantifolia
Patchouli - Pogostemon cablin
Benzoin Resinoid - Styrax benzoin
Clary Sage - Salvia sclarea
Lavender - Lavandula officinalis
Clove - Syzygium aromaticum
Lemon - Citrus limonum
Anise - Pimpinella anisum
Sweet Marjoram - Origanum majorana
Ylang Ylang - Cananga odorata
Jasmine Absolute - Jasminum officinalis
Rose Absolute - Rosa damascena
Neroli - Citrus auranium var. amara p.o. flowers.

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2. I have read that a long drawn out process is necessary to produce therapeutic grade oils, thus the relatively inexpensive oils sold in health food stores are useless for this purpose. Can you comment on this subject? In essence, how does one go about deciding how much to pay for an oil?

This is a hard question to answer in a short space of time.

The procedures used to extract the volatile components from specific plant material are primarily directly related to the type of storing plant tissues, plus of course certain geographical/environmental and commercial considerations - as well as the skill of the distiller or technician involved. Therefore just because the procedure might be long and drawn out doesn't necessarily mean the oil will be of therapeutic grade. Some perfectly pure essential oils suitable for therapeutic indications and internal ingestion are produced by simple steam distillation that can be carried out in your own kitchen at home.

Having said that, in the US (at least) the term 'pure' essential oil has no real legal meaning even though you'll see it plastered on many an essential oil bottle. You will have some across various so-called 'grades' of essential oils out there on the market, the majority of which are used by the vendors to attach some selling advantage, such as 'Grade A' , and even 'Therapeutic Grade'. There certainly are so-called 'aromatherapy oils' or 'fragrance oils' masquerading as complete essential oils for sale, and of course these should be clearly labeled as such - but are in fact lab-created synthetics. A clue would be that there is not naturally occurring complete essential oil of apple or pear or 'sea-breeze' for that matter. Another practice is to suggest the bottle contains pure essential oil when in fact it is 'cut' or extended with a vegetal carrier/base oil or actually a combinaton blend of other essential oils. There is a generally recognized category of natural fragrance components/ essential oils that are labeled GRAS - Generally Regarded As Safe - but this is normally associated with those essential oils destined for the pharmaceutical, perfumery and food & flavors industries. In these instances each industry requires an engineered oil - a completely different extract/product from the originally whole, starter essential oil. This is why engineered oils exist in the first place. For example the perfume industry often requires fractionated eo's with the higher terpene components removed since these more often that not have no significant fragrance and prevent complete solubility in alcohol.

Some of these components are also 'bitter-tasting' and so are removed from those products destined for foods and beverages. The pharmaceutical industry will use some eo components as a starter material for the production of lab-created ingredients for various products like menthol from peppermint and eugenol from clove.

There is obviously concern about what happens to the 'left-over' materials. Many times unscrupulous dealers have purchased these to 'bulk up' essential oils destined for the aromatherapy market. Not many aromatherapists are also chemists.

True Aromatherapy demands the use of whole, complete, unadulterated essential oils. But how do you know what you've got in your bottle? Develop a relationship with a recommended supplier - and prefereably one who has control over the entire cultivation, harvesting, distillation/extraction, handling and storage procedure.

Always order by complete Latin name with appropriate producing orga, variety, cultivar, and biochemical specificity or chemotype/country of origin if you can.

Ask for back-up data on botanical origins and biochemical definitions by organoleptic analysis, and Gas chromatograph and Mass Spectrograph analysis at the very least. Now I understand that unless you are competent at reading this data, it will be less than useful. But you should be able to ask your supplier what it signifies and have them work with you to explain. They should have nothing to hide and everything to share.

They should also be able to advise which essential oils would be most suitable - or at least potential candidates - for your specific intentions/indications. Also what are the appropriate associated cautions, precautions and contraindications for their safe and effective use, and usable shelf-life. Unfortunately this is not often the case.

It is a bit of a mine-field out there for the consumer no doubt about it - and the fact that aromatherapy has been big-business now for quite some time with sales increasing annually makes the temptation for some suppliers to cut, extend, bulk and co-distill just to make a fast buck.

Where price is sometimes an indicator, it's not always a reliable clue to authenticity, purity and completeness. Not all true essential oils or essences are expensive. The majority of the citrus expressed essences or even their distilled variations are very reasonable - mostly about $2 or $3 for 10 ml - but this will be slightly higher if you've got a cold-hand-pressed Citrus bergamia from Calabria for example, rather than a bog-standard Citrus sinensis as an offshoot of the orange juice industry here in the USA. Some of the chemotypes are more expensive such as the Thymus vulgaris linalool,(Sweet Thyme) is way more expensive than the usual Thymus vulgaris thymol (Red Thyme). The cottage industry produced Rosmarinus officinalis b.s. (or c.t.) bornyl acetate, verbenone is much more expensive than the R. officinalis, 1,8 cineole from Morocco because there's much more of it around.

Without much doubt, if you are asked to pay say $15 for a 10 ml bottle of Rosa damascena or Melissa officinalis - both of which have low yield and finicky harvesting methods - you can pretty much bet its a con. They should be more like $150 for 10 ml or thereabouts.

However, the 'smart' con-merchant would know this and price accordingly. Each essential oil or absolute will be priced according to availability, demand and method of production. This will often change annually. The best way of knowing what is a fair price for an eo is to compare pricing between a number of suppliers. Also ask them why the eo is priced the way it is. Your answer should cover variables in location, organic cultivation methods, specific plant yield, harvesting techniques, extraction procedures, transport and storage, analysis costs, demand, and support service. Be wary of a supplier that claims his or her oils are 'superior' in efficacy or purity - or that they come in beautiful bottles and individual wrapped boxes!

The aromatherapy of the 'Glade Plug-ins' offering 'mountain breeze' or even 'citrus fresh' must be synthetics because of shelf-life and product conformity.

Health food stores usually don't have staff that know much about what they're selling and there's usually no Latin binomials, shelf-life or cautions printed either.

Citrus oils and pine needle oils have much shorter shelf-lives because they oxidize rapidly and could become potentially irritating to the skin. Often these bottles are displayed in windows and in over-heated areas which would speed up the biodegradation.

There will be some companies who have their products in health-food stores that have integrity and excellent essential oils. Standards are generally rising. Ask the company directly - not the store - if they only provide essential oils for the aromatherapy market.

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