Possibly the most common confusion heard among natural product junkies is in distinguishing fragrance from essential oils.There are hordes of smelly and to-make smelly products out there, mutating daily as anonymous bearers of lab coats mix up and sniff things that may or may not be a plant version of Dr. Frankenstein’s meddling with the essential nature of humanity. But hey, I’m somewhat of a purist,
so I’m likely to judge.
The difference between fragrance and essentials is pretty basic: fragrance oils are not natural, they are synthetic.
Essential oils are entirely natural. Please understand that natural does not equate with safe; chemicals are chemicals are
chemicals, whether concocted by divinity or human being.
When an item is labeled a fragrance oil, it’s intended to mean ”has the fragrance of _____.” Apple pie. Grandma and cinnamon. You name it - fragrance oils are darned near limitless in possibility.
An essential oil, on the other hand, is intended to mean ”absolute essence of the plant when you tear it down to the point there’s literally nothing left but a puddle.” That puddle would be the essential oil. Not all plants leave a puddle behind - some just disintegrate without so much as a by-your-leave or by leaving their odor behind. Others might leave something more of a moldering heap, or impart so few drops that it’s just not possible to create something affordable.
When you first start shopping bath and body artisans, it’s very easy to get confused on this point. There are lots of labels thrown around, and misused. Some of them are obvious: Sweet Rain essential oil is most certainly not essential oil. No one, not even the greatest of historic alchemists, is ever going to extract oil from water. Sugar cookie is also obvious - to my knowledge, no one has ever distilled sugar cane for fragrancing. Less obvious might be such scents as gardenia, cucumber, magnolia, or rasberry. While there are ways to distill these scents naturally, not all of them can be distilled as essential oil - especially not the watery cucumber.
Even with this basic knowledge, there are more ways that popular labelling can trip you up in your hunt for all-natural goodies. Common terms designed to lead you to think you’re getting an essential oil when you’re not include ”essence oil,” “essence of,” “natural oil,” and “pure oil.” If you’re looking for goods with essential oils, just stick to the term “essential oil.” One of the easiest tip offs? Products made with essential oils almost always cost more.
One Response to “Fragrance Oils versus Essential Oils - What’s the Diff?”
[...] fragrance mix, then what is more probable is that the “pure” oil is “pure” fragrance oil. In that case, being sold a fragrance “undiluted” means that the seller is really [...]