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The story Behind Essential Oil Prices
(From the Young Living Lavender Life Blog)
You aren’t the first to wonder why some essential oils can be so expensive. Anyone starting out has compared prices and asked why the essential oil prices on the market vary so much. You may have even seen lower-priced essential oils in your local grocery store and wondered how they compare to Young Living’s premium essential oils with the Seed to Seal® quality commitment.
Is the price difference worth it when it comes to the quality of the oils?
Let’s talk about why the answer is definitely YES, and what factors contribute to the cost of essential oils.
If you are looking for budget-friendly oils, check out our list of Young Living’s top oils that cost under $30 at the end of this blog post.
Why are some essential oils expensive?
Many factors contribute to why some are more expensive than others.
These factors include:
• Methods used to produce the plant material (organic, lots of nutrients, good water)
• Ease of harvesting the plant
• Amount of plant material needed to produce the oil
• Farvest time sensitivity
• Purity of the oil
• Rarity of the plant
• Shipping costs
• And more
1) How much plant it takes to produce an essential oil
Some plants produce less oil than others when distilled. As a result, more of some plants are needed to produce the same amount of oil. For example, a quality Rose essential oil is very valuable due to all the effort it takes to cultivate the flowers and all the raw plant material it takes to produce the final product.
It takes approximately 5,000 painstakingly harvested pounds of fresh rose petals to make just one pint (473 ml) of Rose essential oil. So, there are approximately 53 pounds of fresh rose petals in every 5 ml bottle of Young Living Rose oil. It’s our most expensive oil! That’s 2 dozen roses in every drop of Rose oil!
2) Ease of harvest and plant time sensitivity
Certain botanicals can be extremely sensitive and need to be harvested at a specific time of day to yield the highest amount and best quality of oil.
Melissa is a great example of this. Distilling it is a time-intensive process that must take place at the right time of day and precise moment of blossoming to harness its full potential. The difference between an early-morning cutting and a late-afternoon cutting can be critical enough to decrease oil production by as much as 90 percent. This leaves a very small window to get any meaningful yield.
Additionally, less than 1/1,000th of the bulk plant is likely to end up as condensed oil. Plant material must be taken from the field to the distillery immediately. Any drying of the plant material can destroy or severely limit the amount of oil obtained through the distillation process.
3) Rarity of the plant
Plants like lavender and lemon are extremely common, while others are much scarcer. Blue Tansy is a rare, exotic plant that originates on the Mediterranean coast of Morocco. Thousands of little Blue Tansy flowers are required to obtain this beloved, sapphire-colored oil.
4) Shipping costs
The plants used to produce essential oils originate from different places all over the world. Shipping them from different countries adds transportation costs to the price
of oil production. Helichrysum is native to coastal France, Italy, and Croatia. Its delicate flowers bloom in rocky soils before being harvested and distilled in Croatia. Then the distilled oil is shipped to Utah to be tested and bottled and then tested again before being shipped to you!
When you buy oils, it’s important to research where the botanicals were grown. Farming the plants in their natural environments or in habitats that replicate their native environments is crucial to producing best-quality oil.
Why are some essential oils so cheap?
Companies with lower-end pricing often use poor-quality oils and dilute them with harmful additives to achieve those cheap price points. Poor quality oils sometimes smell like high end oils because the additives don’t have any aroma.
When shopping for high-quality essential oils, double-check that they don’t contain any synthetic fillers.
• Oil singles should have only one ingredient—the single essential oil.
By US law, if an essential oil contains at least 5% pure oil, it can be called Pure on the label and they don’t have to list the other ingredients.
• Some blends may be diluted with a neutral carrier oil like jojoba or grape seed, depending on the product’s intended application. Make sure it is a high-quality carrier oil!
For example, some of our blends, like those in Young Living’s KidScents® and Animal Scents™ lines, are prediluted with carrier oils like MCT oil to make them safe for use around children and pets.
As a rule, you’ll want to avoid synthetic oils, fragrance oils, additives and dilutions entirely and also poor-quality carrier oils. They can be toxic! The problem is, it’s almost impossible for most people to tell if an essential oil has been adulterated.
You can trust Young Living to bring you highest quality pure essential oils!
What makes Young Living different from other oil companies?
Young Living sets the industry standard for quality with its strict Seed to Seal quality commitment. This commitment to naturally derived, plant-based products means we oversee the making of our oils from start to finish—from growing the seeds to harvesting the plants to obtaining their oils to exhaustively testing the final product.
This results in oils and oil-infused products you can use with peace of mind in every part of your life.
We’re passionate about using only the best ingredients, ones that are as pristine as they are effective. You can rest easy knowing that Young Living products will never contain:
• Formaldehyde
• Artificial dyes
• Petroleum
• Mineral oil
• Sulfates
• Parabens
Our oils are made with the highest quality in mind. This takes out all the guesswork, allowing you to live naturally without a second thought.
What oils can I purchase for under $30?
While we absolutely adore our higher-priced oils, we understand that, especially when building your collection, spending a lot on a handful of essential oils may be a bit much.
That’s why we’re suggesting some of our favorite, most versatile oils that you can add to your collection for under $30 each!
Also, the Premium Essential Oil Starter kit is a cost-effective way to get starter. And you get a free diffuser.
Oil singles under $30:
• Jade Lemon
• Spearmint
• Orange
• Lemon
• Cedarwood
• Eucalyptus Blue
• Citronella
• Palmarosa
• Vetiver
• Elemi
Vitality™ oils under $30:
• Lime Vitality
• Lemongrass Vitality
• Clove Vitality
• Peppermint Vitality
• Fennel Vitality
• Basil Vitality
• Oregano Vitality
• Lavender Vitality
• Sage Vitality
• Bergamot Vitality
Oil blends under $30:
• R. C.™
• Seedlings® Calm™
• Citrus Fresh™
• Purification®
• KidScents® SleepyIze™
• Grounding™
• Envision™
• Melrose
• Peace & Calming II
• Awaken™
