WhatsApp

+31614813268

Email

info@louisegebhardt.com

Opening Hours

Ma-vr: 10 am CEST-3 pm CEST

I get this question every now and then, and to be honest, I have asked myself this same question for a long time. But at the same time, the word ‘expensive’ makes me itch. Because what is expensive? In my opinion, expensive is something that has a high price, but is not worth that price. Yes, essential oil is pricy, in other words: it has a high price. But is it expensive? In my eyes, no, because it is more than worth its price.

So what you actually want to know is why essential oil is so pricy and why is there sometimes such a big price difference between the different oils. I want to explain that to you in this blog.

Price vs. Quality

Nowadays, you can get essential oils on almost every street corner. And as many places as there are that sell these oils, so many prices there are.

It is tempting to choose a cheap oil, especially if you are just starting to use essential oils. After all, you want to know if it is for you before you spend a lot of money on it.

Understandable, but unfortunately not very smart. With essential oil, the quality is generally directly related to the price. If an oil is very cheap, there is a very good chance that the oil has been tampered with to reduce the price. This is done, for example, by:

  • Diluting the oil with a neutral, odorless oil, or with a cheap oil that resembles the actual oil in terms of smell.
  • Adding cheap synthetic substances to the oil, such as adding geraniol to rose oil.
  • Selling completely synthetic fragrance oils as essential oil. Officially, these oils are not allowed to be called essential oils, and that is why they are often called ‘fragrance oil’, or something like that. And that is exactly what they are, scented oil… oil with a scent, but without the beneficial effects of the plant in question.
essential oils: price vs quality

So now you know the price vs. quality of essential oils, but how is that price built up? And how is the highest possible quality ensured, so that the oil is not expensive, but highly priced?

essential oil: the amount of plant parts

The amount of plant parts

One of the things that determines the price of an essential oil is how many plant parts are needed for that oil. To give you an idea: for a liter of jasmine oil you need 1000 kg of jasmine flowers. That amounts to about 8 million petals! For rose oil, the most expensive type of oil, you even need 5000 kg of fresh petals for a liter of oil. For a 5 ml bottle of oil, that amounts to 25 kg of petals!

The more plant parts you need for 1 liter of oil, the higher the price of the oil.

The productionproces

The second thing that partly determines the price of essential oil is how laborious the production process is.

It makes quite a difference whether you have to pick petal by petal by hand or whether the oil, as with citrus oil, is a by-product of the juice industry.

Enfleurage is a production method that is almost no longer used in modern times for cost reasons. It is namely an incredibly laborious and time-consuming method, which makes the oil obtained almost unaffordable.

essential oils: the productionproces
essential oils: rarity

Rarity

It’s logical, of course, the rarer the plant, the more expensive the oil. This rarity does not only have to do with the findability of the plant, but there can also be major differences in rarity per season. But the harvest per year can also differ, one year the harvest is good and the necessary plant parts are available in abundance, the next year the harvest is moderate and you have fewer plant parts to process.

This is one of the biggest reasons why oils are tampered with. After all, synthetic oil can always and everywhere be made.

Last but not least: Transportation costs

It is not rocket science that the lower the transport costs, the lower the price of the oil. A plant that you can find nearby does not have to be transported as far as a plant that you have to get from the other side of the world.

And then you also have to take into account that you do not have too much loss of quality of the plant during transport.

essential oils: transpotation costs

Now you know how the price is determined, but what about quality assurance?

Country of origin

An important aspect that determines the quality of an oil is the country of origin of the plant parts that are needed for the oil.

In many places we have a so-called microclimate. In short, this means that the weather, the soil, the number of hours of sunshine, etc. can be slightly different in one place than on a hill further away.

So in this case it is about: where did the plant grow? What kind of soil did the plant stand on? How much sunlight, rain and fresh air did the plant have? Some plants simply do better in one place than in another. And the better a plant does, the better the quality of the oil will be.

In Europe we know of 3 areas where plants for essential oils are grown on a large scale: The lavender fields in the south of France, the rose fields in Bulgaria and the jasmine production near the French city of Grasse.

The image below shows the country of origin of a number of the most common oils.

So…

I hope you now understand a little better how the price of essential oil is determined and which aspects influence this. In a next blog I will go into more detail about the quality and production process of oils.

If you have any questions about this blog, please do not hesitate to contact me. You can do this via the contact form, by using the chat button, by sending an email or by sending a message via Instagram. I look forward to receiving your message.

Recommended Articles