It is very important that essential oils be pure before you use them with your body. The authenticity of an essential oil can make or break how it supports your systems. Take lavender, for example. Real lavender is great for applying topically to promote skin regeneration. However, apply fake lavender and your problem might get worse.

Unfortunately, fake essential oils are very easy to make in a lab. All they need to know is the genetic makeup of an essential oil and they can replicate it into a counterfeit version that isn’t effective or can even be harmful.

Another issue with essential oils is that they might be partially pure, but then have been “stretched” using various chemicals and other adulterants. This saves the counterfeit essential oil companies a lot of money, but ultimately produces an essential oil that’s still unhealthy.

Fortunately, there are a few ways to identify a fake versus real essential oil.

5 Tips to Identify Fake Essential Oils

1. How is the essential oil stored?

What color is the bottle? Genuine essential oils can go bad if exposed to ultraviolet radiation. Therefore, real oils are stored in dark-colored {typically amber, but sometimes cobalt blue} bottles. So if you found essential oils that come in clear or other colored bottles, they’re probably fake essential oils.

What is the bottle made of? Real essential oils must be stored in a glass container. The reason for this is twofold—1) many real oils can destroy a plastic bottle so it’d just leak everywhere, and 2) components of non-glass bottles like plastic ones can leach into the oil, making it adulterated {impure} and therefore no good. So if you found essential oils that are stored in plastic or other material bottles, they’re probably fake essential oils.

Do note, however, that a plastic lid is fine, specifically if it’s made from essential oil safe material, because the oil isn’t sitting up against it when it is stored.

Is there an orifice reducer? An orifice reducer is the insert at the opening of a bottle. This is important because it prevents you from pouring out too many drops at once as well as protects certain oils prone to oxidation from the air and therefore preventing them from oxidizing as quickly. If the oils you’ve found are stored with nothing but the lids to cover the bottle openings or if they come with dropper lids {especially if the droppers are plastic}, then they’re probably fake essential oils.

2. How is the essential oil obtained?

Real essential oils come from good farms or are wild-crafted {that means gathered from a field}. It’s okay and good if it comes from a farm {either owned by the company itself or from a trusted third party}, but also look into HOW they’re farmed. Do they use pesticides or toxic chemicals? Do they use the best plants at harvest time? If an essential oil company can’t or won’t answer these questions for you {or can answer them negatively—such as they use those purity-altering pesticides or toxic chemicals}, then they probably sell fake essential oils.

3. What does the essential oil cost?

So, why buy a pricier oil if there are other oils of the exact same kind that are cheaper? Well, that inexpensive price is a telltale sign the oil is fake or adulterated. Plus, something that baffles me on this price topic, is why people think essential oil companies are out to get them by charging more. If they can sell more and therefore make more money by selling them for less, why wouldn’t they? On the contrary, pure essential oils cost more because they’re actually pure. And, depending on what plant is used and the amount of plant parts used contributes to the cost. Take our trusty lavender essential oil for example. One 15 ml bottle of lavender takes 25 square feet of lavender plants to make! But here’s the deal, it’s authentic and it has real benefits that really work. So, if the bottle of essential oil you’ve found sells for a price that’s too good to be true, it’s probably fake.

4. How does the essential oil smell?

Real essential oil might have a slightly different smell from bottle to bottle. For example, peppermint might smell stronger in your second bottle than it did in the first—with the same brand. This is actually a very good thing. Some aspects of the plants can’t be fully controlled when growing or transforming them into essential oils {ever grown zucchini and notice how two plants planted at the exact same time and treated the exact same way grow at two totally different rates?}. So one batch might be just a tiny pinch stronger than the last. Now, if a brand consistently has an oil that smells exactly the same in every single bottle, it is probably fake because they can chemically make it smell the same over and over. Also, if you have an essential oil, take peppermint for an example again, that smells sweet—kinda like a candy cane rather than sharp like a peppermint plant—it’s adulterated. Real peppermint should not smell sugary.

5. What does the oil’s name say?

If an essential oil is real, it will, in addition to its name like peppermint or lavender, have the Latin designation for the plant from whence it came, like Mentha piperita for peppermint or Lavandula augustifolia for lavender. If this Latin lingo is absent on a bottle’s label, that oil is probably fake.

Conclusion

The negative about the above list? A counterfeit essential oils company can still do everything they can to make their products appear to be authentic. They can falsely claim they’re 100% pure, authentic, therapeutic—they can even make up their own certification for it. They can include an orifice reducer, use an amber colored glass bottle, even make it smell differently from one bottle to the next. Therefore, determining whether an essential oil is real or fake ultimately dwindles down to research, research, and more research.

I personally researched essential oils and essential oil companies {including gas chromotography results} for about a year. And all the stuff I dug up ultimately pointed me in the direction of the Young Living brand. I chose Young Living primarily because their quality essential oils are genuinely pure and really do work {you can read more about why I chose Young Living here}. And, yes, I “sell” {I use that term loosely because I’m not too gung-ho at it for the moment} Young Living. But I didn’t dive into Young Living because I wanted to sell it. I dove into it because it was the best. Trust me, if a company with cheaper oils was the best, I’d have gone with them! “Selling” Young Living is just an extra perk!