 In
the spring of 2007, I decided to write a new book - on
the magical & energetic properties of Aromatherapy
Essential Oils and how they affect the energy body, and
thus a person's "state" - their emotions, their
thinking, their actions, their levels of well being.
I started with the essential oils I already had in my
cupboard, an eclectic collection gathered up in various
new age shops and health food stores I had visited home
and abroad for the past few years. Then I ran out and I
asked myself, ok, what else is out there?
Thus I sat down on my computer, called up the trusty
Google page and typed in "buy aromatherapy oils online"
for the first time.
As always, such a search produces many results; and I
set to work with picking a supplier of aromatherapy
essential oils, working my way through their list of
oils, their ordering processes and waiting for my
parcels to arrive.
This is in essence - pardon the pun! - what I did all
the year long, one way or the other. I also looked up
Latin names for essential oils,
because it is only when you know what species of plant
the essential oil has come from that you can be sure
what exactly it is, as many of the oils have various
nicknames and are sold under all these different titles.
Further, I looked up
images relating to the plants used
in aromatherapy in order to create my own paintings for
each of the oils; so my travels around the web and
across many sites that sell aromatherapy oils online was
indeed, most extensive.
The reason for writing the book in the first place
was well reflected in most of these sites; they look
like they belong to pharmaceutical companies rather
than suppliers of magic oils (which, in my opinion, is
what aromatherapy oils are, and I make no bones about
it).
Most sites lacked soul, or any meaningful connection
to an individual visitor; I am guessing they were
interested in only selling to aromatherapy practitioners
who are working with one foot firmly perched in the allopathic
medicine systems and love nothing more than to think in
terms of "only prescribing a chemical cocktail and
there's nothing whatsoever weird going on here at all
..."
Well, I'm not one of those so the clinical approach
doesn't turn me on. It certainly doesn't put me in a mood
for spending more than I had planned to spend, or made
me want to try new things, add something extra to the
basket so I guess ... that pays off for me then ... ;-/
I ordered oils from over two dozen sites over the
year and rather than going into the ones I didn't like,
what I am going to do is to name the ones that stood out
to me.
For me, the first deciding factor is the depth,
quality and richness of the oils. I am happy to go
through a convoluted order process, pay premium prices
and wait for a couple of weeks if what turns up in the
end is delightful, resonant, full of life and makes my
soul sing.
I
am happy to report that actually none of the
online oils were anywhere near as purile and
disappointing than essential oils I had purchased
previously from new age shops and health food stores.
Some of those were so miserable, dead and often
diluted to a point where you couldn't smell what they
were supposed to be, but the base of grapeseed or
sunflower came through perfectly strongly, that I got
really quite angry. I think that this is probably due to
the fact that shops buy cheaply, store essential oils
badly, and that they were probably long out of code,
having been purchased with an inventory many years
previously. So even the "worst" of my online
aromatherapy oil purchases compared actually very well
to in store purchases. Now I'm not saying there
aren't stores out there with good oils; I am sure there
are many wonderful and conscientious purveyors out
there, but I would advise caution when buying oils from
a general New Age or health food store that just has a
half filled rack with dust on the lids.
In the essential oil field you get people who are
extremely passionate about what they do - sourcing
organic high quality oils, buying in directly from the
suppliers all around the world rather than from a middle
man, and actually keeping track of changes with
suppliers, being deeply involved in every stage of the
production and storage process. One such purveyor told
me that where the oils were stored, at night when the
lights were switched off, music would be played to them
to keep them happy and resonant!
I enjoyed that, and I advocate to try and find a
supplier like that for yourself.
Here are my personal favourites amongst the many
online shops for aromatherapy essential oils.
First Prize goes to:
Oshadhi Aromatherapy
 Now
that was a different experience. I have had many
occasions where something I ordered wasn't available
before; what always happens is that I get a note that
the purchase price for the item has been refunded with
the delivery; sometimes I get an email telling me the
sad news.
This time, I got a phone call from the proprietor who
suggested substitutions, explained in detail what the
differences were between the essential oil I had ordered
and the one that would serve as a substitute; and
happily agreed to send me some extra Dill (my personal
favourite at the moment) to make up the difference in
price. Wow. What a TOTALLY different experience that
was!
I was also told details about the choices of
suppliers; the strict organic rules at every step of the
production and storage processes for the essential oils
along the way from the field in Egypt to my doorstep
(!) and received my amended order the very next day.
Wow.
The oils themselves were really outstanding. I was
really impressed with the many subtle layers and I also
received some superb testers for free. Sterling oils,
good prices and a practitioner of aromatherapy can get a
25% discount on repeat orders, which I thought was very
neat as well.
Also, Oshadhi Aromatherapy has the widest range of
oils - 450 or more. They were the only supplier for
Holy Basil - the very last
essential oil I was trying to find in order to include
in my book! - I could find in the United Kingdom.
I highly commend such dedication, so the First Prize
in my personal "buy aromatherapy oils online"
competition goes to:
http://www.oshadhi.co.uk/
And For Our Friends from the US:
Lots of people have asked me about a US aromatherapy
essential oil supplier I can recommend, and in April of
2009, I made contact with Audre Gutierrez from Shining
Sun Aromatherapy.
She sent me samples and they were absolutely FABULOUS
- rich, deep, vibrant and amazingly satisfying.
You can read my full review and the story of Wild
Tansy - wonderful! - on my blog:
Aromatherapy US: Shining Sun
So I am delighted to be able to recommend Shining Sun
and the aromatherapy products and services they offer
most wholeheartedly, and the 2009 prize for "the best
essential oils in the US" goes to:
http://www.ShiningSunAromatherapy.com
Quinessence Aromatherapy
 Rich,
satisfying oils, good prices, speedy delivery.
Customer contact is impersonal/robotic/nonexistent,
web site functional and efficient and it's all very
clinical.
The essential oils however are very nice indeed and I
would recommend them to anyone, especially the
exotic/luxurious kind such as Rose, Jasmin, Lotus and
one of my personal favourites, Champaka.
http://www.quinessence.com/
Amphora Aromatics
 They
managed to totally confuse me on more than one occasion
with their two sites, one called retail and one called
wholesale, which in my mind is both sort of shopping (!)
and I have a log in for one and not the other. Still.
The essential oils are very good, good prices and I do
appreciate the fact that you can actually read the
labels on the bottles without having to put on an extra
pair of glasses or peering into a dark cupboard with
your nose pressed up against every bottle before you
find what you're looking for. All hail for that! I do
sincerely wish other bottlers/distributors would take a
leaf out of their book. Quality of the oils is one
thing, but if you use them every single day, and you
have lots of these essential oils like I do, it really
becomes bugging having to pick up half a dozen different
ones and peer at them before you find the one you're
actually looking for.
This personal diatribe apart, full marks for speedy
delivery, well labelled bottles, and very nice,
reasonably priced essential oils.
http://www.amphora-retail.com/ or
http://www.amphora-wholesale.com/
Essential Oils Online UK
I was very satisfied with their service and prices,
and the oils themselves were also of good quality. They
don't have the biggest selection on Earth, but the oils
they do have seem lovingly chosen and carefully treated.
One bonus you get with these aromatherapy oil
suppliers is that they give free postage on orders over
£50 which I appreciated.
They also sell very reasonably priced blue glass jars
and bottles.
http://essentialoilsonline.co.uk
Abbey Essentials
I bought a number of essential oils from Abbey
Essentials and they were - delicious. Since I've
purchased the oils, they have a new website which is
snazzy I guess but the old one had much more character
and charm. I'm not sure I would have ordered from the
new one if I'd come across it, it looks just like any
other site there is out there now.
I am not sure if there has been a change of
ownership, so I shall have to order something else
before I can recommend Abbey - but certainly until 6
months ago at least, their Angelica was something to
sing about.
http://www.abbeyessentials.co.uk
Norfolk Essential Oils
 Norfolk
Essential Oils or NEO isn't a distributor but a co-operative of
growers who actually grow and distil their own
aromatherapy oils.
As such, this is a place to buy locally grown oils
and also some unusual items, such as a special
Frankincense variety that is grown in the UK - very
interesting it is too, on many different levels.
You won't find "1000 different oils" at NEO but the
ones you do find are really snazzy and they also come in
larger sizes in very cute aluminium storage containers,
that still fit in the 30ml size into my aromatherapy
shelf.
http://www.neoils.com/
I am sure there are many more good and dedicated,
honest suppliers of aromatherapy oils online - if your
favourite company isn't mentioned here, it doesn't mean
I didn't like it or there was something wrong with it.
- If you have good oils for sale, and you would
like me to review your company or services on this
page, please contact me
and send me a minimum of three samples of any size
plus any important details that make your
aromatherapy oils stand out.
Buying Aromatherapy Oils Online: The Verdict
My
online shopping experience for oils has been very good
overall; there were no bitter disappointments or
outright frauds at all amongst the many companies I
ordered from this year.
That is very heartening in and of itself.
I would say that for many suppliers, the problem must
be that I did not even find them in the first place.
There are many website design companies who make a
pretty site but they clearly don't understand the first
thing about SEO (search engine optimisation), to the
degree that a very nice site belonging to an honest
company might simply be invisible to someone like me who
is actively looking to spend money on aromatherapy
products.
That's something I personally deplore, because
I believe that taking money off of someone for a website
WITHOUT considering and delivering at least basic SEO is
like selling someone a car without tyres, or an engine -
a total rip off.
So if you have a company where I and
others might "buy aromatherapy oils online" and you're
not showing on web searches, by all means,
let's talk!
Here are my top tips for buying aromatherapy
essential oils online:
 If the bottle/ad on the site doesn't have the Latin
name of the plant which provides the essential oil, go
somewhere else. Clearly these people don't care enough -
or they don't even know, which is worse.
I really appreciate a sell by date on the bottle. I
don't follow it, but again, it shows some investment and
care by those who have produced this product.
Don't buy oils from second- or third level retailers
or drop ship people. I've done this on a few occasions
and have been dissatisfied with the results. The Internet
allows us to deal directly with a distributor who should
be the only link in the chain between the growers and
the end user - you.
Don't buy aromatherapy essential oils from a place
where they appear to be some sort of afterthought. By
this I mean sites which have all sorts of cosmetics,
jewellery and
hairsprays listed and somewhere in there is a section
with "Essential Oils". It can lead to no good.
Following on from that, find a site that specialises
in essential oils and has some explanation in the "About
Us" section as to who they are and why they're doing
this (rather than selling plastic buckets). Someone
who LOVES essential oils and really cares for their
products is always going to be a superior supplier.
Comparing prices alone and buying the cheapest oils
doesn't bring the best results. Think about it. How long
does it take for you to get through a single bottle of
Frankincense? Or Rose? And is the disappointment each
time you use it really worth it?
Shop around. Aromatherapy is one of those things that
has a strong personal preference attached. Buy three,
four cheap essential oils like Lemon, Lavender and Tea
Tree from a number of different suppliers and compare
them. You'll soon be able to tell the difference!
Choose one special comparison oil that you ALWAYS
order - I use Clary Sage. I always include it in my
purchase because I use it for a benchmark to judge the
supplier by; if their Clary Sage comes up to scratch, I
will order other and more expensive items there as well.
Try and make a personal contact with the aromatherapy
oil supplier. Phone them up or email them. Ask them a
question, ask for free samples or discounts. How they
respond to you tells you everything you
need to know about the company you are dealing with.
Dr
Silvia Hartmann 2007/2008/2009
Buy
Aromatherapy Online -
Quality Of
Essential Oils Online -
The Best
Aromatherapy Oils Online -
Aromatherapy US -
Other Good Suppliers Of Aromatherapy Online -
Aromatherapy Oil Online Buying Tips
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