How to check natural essential oil or not. The quality of essential oils, how to determine the quality of an essential oil. How essential oils are used

A good indicator of the naturalness of an essential oil is its price. Artificial and synthetic oils are diluted and are always very cheap, so don't get fooled. low prices. However, the problem is that high price essential oils can not guarantee the quality.

The question is always the smell and volatility of the oil.

Essential oils should be clean and transparent without precipitation and suspension.

A good way to determine the quality of an oil is to measure the time it takes for the smell to leave the room, this method works with all oils except citrus. If, after you have closed the bottle of purchased sandalwood or cedar oil, its esters have evaporated within an hour, in yours.

Another way to check the naturalness of the oil is to drop a little oil on a napkin or cloth (this method works with all oils except citrus fruits), if the oil has evaporated in a couple of hours, leaving greasy, fake or highly diluted oil in front of you. If the stain is not oily, but slightly colored by pigments that are present in almost any essential oil, most likely you bought a natural oil.

When adding not so much quality oil in cosmetics, gel or milk becomes cloudy, and the cream exfoliates.

It is impossible to fully verify the naturalness of the essential oil; chromatographic analysis is required.

You need to buy essential oil. How to choose and how to check the essential oil when buying? Let's study.

Essential oil is one of the finest substances, which has always been considered a luxury item. That is why it can be considered exquisite gift for a person with refined taste, as well as a way of expressing admiration for the merits of the recipient.

Quality of essential oils

What affects quality? This is the place where the plant grows, climate, soil composition, illumination, climatic conditions, which have the properties to change from year to year at the present time, as well as from the time of day when the medicinal raw materials were collected.

Therefore, oil even of the same name may have different quantitative and qualitative characteristics.

Determining the naturalness of essential oils

When choosing an essential oil, the buyer, as a rule, evaluates it by smell. However, if you would like to purchase natural product, then this will not be enough. Since using modern technologies Aromasynthesis smell can be close to natural. Essential oil is a highly volatile aromatic substance. Therefore, after the complete evaporation of the oil droplet from a sheet of paper, a colored trace may remain, but there should never be a greasy spot. Remember this rule and use it when you want to check the oil for naturalness.

1. According to international standards, the packaging in which the essential oil is stored must be made of dark glass. The volume of oil is not more than 5 - 10 ml. The bottle must be equipped with a dispenser and a cap with a tamper-evident ring.

3. The presence of the botanical name of the plant.

4. Availability commercial name oils and country of origin.

5. Essential oil production method.

When you open a bottle of good quality oil, you will feel a clean aroma. For example, an orange smells like an orange, and eucalyptus smells like eucalyptus. Observe the smell for a while, if the oil is not natural, then only the intensity of the aroma will change, a greasy or sour smell may appear. This is a synthetic analogue. In natural oil, the smell is transformed, new shades should be revealed in it.

Evaluate appearance oils

There should be no turbidity and suspensions, the oil should be homogeneous and transparent.

Mandatory instructions for use

How much does essential oil cost

The cost of an essential oil determines

• raw material cost
• aromatic content, expressed as a percentage
• limitation in production due to environmental friendliness
• mode of production
• shipping costs
• commercial margin

Remember that a natural essential oil is always much more expensive than its synthetic counterpart.

It is not the wizard who chooses the wand, but the wand chooses the wizard. It's the same with oils.

Here's how it goes. Each of our 20 million receptors responds to essential oil molecules when a fragrance is inhaled, sending a signal to the brain. How we respond to a particular natural smell can tell a lot about each of us!

Only a properly selected individual cocktail of oils will help us calm down or, conversely, increase activity, relieve fatigue, improve health, become an impetus for success and even become a love potion for a dream man :)

One BUT - aromamagic works only if you use 100% natural essential oils. Unfortunately, not only will synthetic fragrances not have this effect, but they can also have the opposite or simply negative effect.

Here's a simple example for you: the aroma of natural vanilla essential oil can calm you and subdue your appetite. If you come across "synthetics", then, on the contrary, you will want to pounce on food, and someone may have a headache at all.

The main question is how to understand which oil is natural and which is not? Many people think that you need to focus on the cost of oil and that cheap oils are always under suspicion. But this is not entirely true, because a lot of factors affect the price.

Well, let's go to the magic potion shop to choose real oils?

So, what to look for:

1. Aroma impact. Of course, it is far from always possible to evaluate the smell of oil before buying. But if you already have your own set of oils at home, experiment. Inhale one essential oil after another. If the oils are natural, you won't feel any discomfort while exploring each scent. But if they are synthetic, then after the third or fifth breath it will be difficult for you to distinguish smells. Remember how perfume shops offer you to sniff coffee to distract yourself? With real essential oils, you don't need that!
2. The bottle that holds the oil. It should always be tinted glass, as light destroys beneficial features essential oil. If the oils are in transparent or plastic bottles, then you have synthetics in front of you, magical properties not possessing!
3. Bottle volume. As a rule, real essential oils are produced in a volume of 5-10 ml, no more. By the way, in no case do not confuse essential oils with cosmetic ones, the latter can be in large volumes, because they are created and used in a completely different way.
4. Composition and title. The bottle should not contain any impurities, additives and flavorings. Only 100% natural essential oil - and that's it! No names "aroma oil", "perfume oil", "oil concentrate", "fragrance oil", "100% natural aromatic oil" and so on. If the oil is diluted with vegetable oil or mixed with another essential oil, this is not considered a fake, but the percentage of substances should be indicated on the package.
5. Oil type. There is no banana, kiwi or strawberry essential oil (although cosmetic strawberry seed oil certainly is). If we talk specifically about fruit essential oils, then there can only be citrus fruits.
6. Mode of application. Most natural essential oils can be taken orally (as directed). But if it is written on the bottle that the oil is only for external use or for cosmetic purposes, there is reason to think about its quality, origin and the presence of magical power.
7. Manufacturer. If the creator of the oil is completely unknown to you, then it is better to get to know him better before buying. Conscientious manufacturers always disclose how they get their oils.
8. Price. Why is this the last item? Because the price is influenced by many various factors, and it deserves a separate section of the article.

About the cost of essential oils

Perhaps the price is one of the most difficult issues, because different manufacturers of the same oil can vary quite a lot in cost.

So let's give the floor to the potions professor :)

The cost of an essential oil is determined by the method of obtaining it, the rarity of plants and the percentage of essential oil in the plant. Also great importance it has to do with which suppliers of raw materials the manufacturer works with and what volumes this very raw material is purchased.

Get out the parchment and write it down!

Method for obtaining essential oils.

The most expensive and laborious way is enfleurage. As a rule, it is used for expensive rose oil, as well as for high-quality absolutes (for example, vanilla absolute).

Distillation(distillation by steam) is a much more affordable and cheaper way. At right temperature all the useful properties of the oil, the range of aromas and efficiency are preserved.

Pressing (cold pressed) is also considered an inexpensive method of production. Manual extraction can increase the cost of the product, which allows you to achieve higher quality. This method is usually used for citrus oils making them more affordable.

Solvent extraction Perfumers like to use it rather, but such oils are not suitable for aroma diagnostics and ingestion.

Plant rarity

Everything is simple here - the less oil you can "squeeze" out of the plant, the more expensive it is!

Simple examples:

• 3 kg of oil is obtained from 100 kg of eucalyptus,
• from 100 kg of bitter orange flowers - 50 g of oil,
• from 100 kg of lemon balm leaves - 100 g of oil.
• from 5000 kg of rose petals - 1 kg of oil.

The most expensive essential oils are those of rose, jasmine, mimosa, vanilla, neroli. Of course, a bottle of such oil in pure form cannot cost 100 or 200 rubles.

But oils of orange, lemon, eucalyptus, tea tree, for example, can really have an affordable price.

Manufacturer

As stated above, different manufacturers different approaches to the creation of essential oils. Someone aims to make the oil as affordable as possible without compromising its quality and natural properties, and someone makes according to individual recipes, working with exclusive suppliers, as it is aimed at production for professional use in therapy and aroma diagnostics.

In addition, a number of brands work only with types of oils that are inexpensive in themselves, and someone includes difficult-to-create oils in their lines.

Market situation for essential oils

Since there is no state structure that properly monitors the quality of essential oils, the market is overflowing with synthetics, despite the proudly screaming labels “100% essential oil”.

What shops with ethnic goods offer is chemical flavors. Shops with goods for baths and saunas also offer chemistry in most cases. Even in pharmacies, 99% of essential oils are of extremely poor quality, or simply synthetics.

And there is no one to condemn here, the overwhelming majority of sellers have no idea that they are selling chemistry under the guise of natural.

Therefore, in order to engage in aromatherapy with benefit and without harm to the body, be guided by the quality criteria proposed below.

Quality of essential oils

Since the essential oil market is filled with fakes, it is important to emphasize the issue of quality.

I want to disappoint you a little right away - in order to accurately determine a quality essential oil, you need to see a chromatogram with interpretation and a specialist's conclusion.

In a nutshell, chromatography is hardware method, which allows you to determine the percentage chemical composition product.

However, some reputable firms cannot produce such a document for various reasons.

Therefore, for beginners The best way definition of quality is the recommendation of a specialist, and preferably several.

With experience, the sense of smell can develop and it will be easier to recognize 100% fake. But even experienced aromatherapists do not rely only on their sense of smell and study the reputation of the company, suppliers of raw materials and chromatograms of essential oils.

There are a few more criteria that are very relative, but can help in choosing an essential oil.

1. For most essential oils, the standard volume is 5-10 ml (in some companies, 6 and 15 ml options are common, as well as fractions of an ounce - 1/4, 1/2, etc.), for expensive ones (rose, jasmine) it can be 1 -2 ml.

2. The bottle is made of dark glass, most often brown, but you can also find a bottle of other colors - blue, green, etc. If the oil is in a plastic bottle or in transparent glass, then this is a reason to doubt its quality.

3. The bottle is equipped with a dropper or pipette (except for small volumes of 1-2 ml).

4. Cork with a ring of the first opening, or with protection against a simple opening - like medicines.

5. On the label - the name of the plant in Latin (consisting of two words - the species and generic names, for example Citrus sinensis) and in the language of the trademark.

6. On the label - the manufacturer and his address.
Otherwise, there will be no one to present claims to the quality of products.

7. There is a common myth that if you drop a natural essential oil on paper, it will completely evaporate after a short period of time. It is not true. The fact that the oil has completely evaporated from a sheet of paper does not indicate its quality. Sometimes synthetic oils evaporate from paper much faster than natural ones. Consider if your myrrh or patchouli oil vanished without residue from a piece of paper or blue chamomile oil did not leave a blue trace.
A drop of oil on paper can give a rough indication of whether the oil has been diluted with a fatty solvent or not. An hour after you have dropped the essential oil, there should not be a clearly greasy stain. But keep in mind that some oils will not completely evaporate - frankincense, myrrh, and some will color the paper - patchouli, chamomile, yarrow.

8. It is not possible to obtain an essential oil from every plant. Therefore, essential oils of banana, strawberry, strawberry, kiwi, melon, mango do not exist. These are synthetic flavors.

9. Price can also serve as a guideline in determining the quality of an essential oil.

The price is mainly determined by the percentage of essential oil in the plant material. The higher this percentage, the lower the cost.

For example,
in eucalyptus it is 3% (up to 3 kg of essential oil is obtained from 100 kg of leaves);
in juniper 0.5% (0.5 kg of oil is obtained from 100 kg of berries);
in neroli 0.05% (from 100 kg of orange flowers, 50 g of oil are obtained);
roses have 0.03% (30 ml of oil is obtained from 100 kg of petals)

I am often asked how to distinguish a quality essential oil from a fake. Let's figure it out.

Of course, you can 100% distinguish a natural product from a fake only in laboratory conditions, but still, following the recommendations below, you will significantly reduce the risk of acquiring quality product.

100% natural essential oils can't be cheap .

The cost of essential oils depends on:

From the cost of raw materials (the most expensive are jasmine, neroli, rose, tuberose, iris);
on the percentage of aromatic substances in the plant;
from environmental restrictions on production;
on the method of obtaining EM (enfleurage, extraction - the most expensive methods, pressing - the cheapest).

Therefore, read the label - how the oil is obtained!

— The name of the plant from which the oil is made must be written in the language of the selling country, as well as in Latin. Latin name very important, as it only tells what kind of plant the oil is made from.

- A self-respecting manufacturer will write on the label or box brief instructions on application and brief description properties this oil, as well as the method of obtaining it.

- The label must indicate the expiration date and batch number.

All essential oils are photosensitive.

According to international standards, the bottle must be made of dark glass (at least 50% blackout) and must have a dispenser (dropper).

In addition, all self-respecting manufacturers seal the bottles (there is a first opening ring).

ATTENTION!

Transparent glass is a sure sign of a fake! It's most likely synthetic. Natural essential oils change their chemical composition when exposed to light, and substances harmful to humans can be produced. Therefore, manufacturers are unlikely natural oils will take that risk.

Bottle volume.

Usually all essential oils are packaged in 10 ml.

It makes no sense to pour more, for the reason that 10 ml of high-quality oil, with proper use, lasts for six months or a year, and the shelf life of some oils can also be limited to 1 year (more often - 3 years).

Particularly expensive undiluted oils can be packaged in 1 ml (also a dark glass bottle).

But if the manufacturer offers a wide range of volumes - 2, 5, 10, 15 ml - then this is also a sure sign of a fake. The fact is that setting up essential oil bottling machines is an expensive procedure. It adds to the cost of oil an average of 30-50%. Therefore, the variety of packaging volumes indicates the penny cost of raw materials.
Having a certificate.

Copies of certificates for essential oils should be available at any point of sale of essential oils. And if you do not want to show the certificate, then this is already a bad sign.

If you have been shown it, then you should read it. All aromatherapy oils must be ISO or GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) certified.

If the manufacturer does not have an international certificate, then he produces oil for anything, but not for aromatherapy. In certificates of cheap essential oils, it is usually written: “for use in cosmetic purposes”, “for use in Food Industry”, etc. If the certificate says “for aromatherapy”, but there is no reference to the corresponding international standard, then you have a fake. If the certificate contains the word “refurbished” (“restructured”), then this is a synthetic product.

Aroma.

Sellers of quality essential oils should have sniffable test bottles.

A good oil has a clean scent: eucalyptus smells like eucalyptus, not mint, and orange smells like orange, not tangerine. At the same time, the smell is not sharp, but soft and deep.

Once sniffing a quality product, the next time you are unlikely to confuse it with a fake.

So, if the essential oil has received a positive assessment on all five grounds, then you have a high-quality aromatherapy preparation that can be safely added to your first-aid kit.

And if you want to thoroughly master the use of aroma oils with a rejuvenating purpose, I invite you to a unique Master class for beginners at home cosmetologists “Aroma Cosmetics With Your Own Hands. Effective Recipes Rejuvenating preparations natural cosmetics Houses"

In this Master class, we will deal in detail with all the intricacies of using oils, and you will master cooking healthy all-natural aroma cosmetics with your own hands.