About Essential Oils

For over 30 years, Eden Botanicals has supplied some of the highest quality, wholesale essential oils in the industry. Our specialty is in the global sourcing of 100% pure, genuine and authentic essential oils, CO₂ extracts, absolutes and premium carrier oils that we offer at fair and reasonable prices. We sell wholesale essential oils in bulk packaging (amber glass or aluminum kilogram bottles with full and proper labeling) in all sizes, rather than exclusively in small bottles. This allows us to serve both the casual end user looking for small amounts of fine quality oils as well as customers requiring large/bulk quantities of essential oils for product manufacturing, whether for aromatherapy, perfumery, incense, cosmetics or personal care products.

Innocent Manipulators?

For a plant, essential oils stored in specialized cells located in the plant's tissues have multiple functions. Released into the air, the plant uses these essential oils to attract pollinators, deterinsects and animal predators, and for protection against disease. Some researchers have even theorized that one of the many uses for which plants create essential oils is to attract humans to use and subsequently propagate the plants. In return for the many useful properties that plants provide in the form of aromatic oils, the plants benefit from the propagation, planting and care that humans provide. While this may seem far-fetched to some, is it really that different from a plant’s ability to attract insects in order to achieve pollination of its flowers?

For humans, essential oils derived from plants have multiple purposes that range from simple olfactory delight, sensory refreshment, ambiance transformation, to supporting well-being.Whatever the intended use – face, hair and body care products, aromatherapy, the creation of natural perfumes, anointments, baths, or for ceremonial and ritual practices – these delightful, aromatic oils will enchant and serve as faithful botanical allies.

The Basics

Essential oils are volatile oils (as opposed to fixed oils, carrier oils, fats) that evaporate and oxidize rapidly when exposed to the air. Genuine essential oils will also deteriorate over time when exposed to light and heat, thus the necessity to keep them cool and in dark, tightly capped glass bottles with as little head (air) space as possible inside the container. Contrary to their designation as oils (fats), they are most often light, non-greasy, and chemically, they are not ‘oils’ at all. Although scientifically termed secondary metabolites, when they are released from the plants through distillation or other extraction methods, they are commonly called essential oils. It is interesting to note that essential oils are comprised of dozens of individual chemical constituents, some at nearly imperceptible percentages while still contributing to the overall composition. We feel that evaluating an oil by its chemical analysis is only one way to determine purity and quality. It is inspiring for us to be working closely with dedicated farmers and distillers – some for more than 20 years – who are making exceptional progress in all aspects of essential oil production and worldwide distribution. These types of trusted relationships are invaluable, especially in this competitive industry.

While steam distillation is the most common method used to extract essential oils, there are several other methods. Most notably, we find that many citrus peel essential oils, such as Lemon, Orange, Grapefruit, Tangerine, etc., are expressed rather than distilled. Expressed essential oils are technically called essences. For this method, citrus peels are collected, washed, abraded and then centrifuged. The resulting liquid is separated into the essential oil and water fractions. There are also a few citrus peel essential oils that are steam distilled, and these tend to have more of a delicate, almost effervescent quality.

Other extraction methods include dry or vacuum distillation, molecular distillation, hydrodistillation (water distillation) or water/steam distillation (a combination of steam and water distillation), CO₂ and solvent extractions (absolutes). Please see our Extraction Methods page for more detailed information.

Dilute! Dilute! Dilute!

All of our aromatic oils are 100% pure, natural and undiluted except for the specific dilutions we make in-house. We emphasize that these oils are very concentrated and recommend that those using them first become familiar with their safe use. Please dilute them according to proper guidelines and dilution rates as is often noted on each oil’s webpage under ‘Contraindications’, ‘Blending Suggestions’ and ‘Safety Considerations’. Never allow children to play with essential oils; keep them away from the eyes and sensitive skin areas.

Purity and Guarantee

Eden Botanicals is one of few companies that has conduct and supply GC-MS analysis of their essential oils. This is an essential tool, whether searching for quality, finding evidence of adulteration or to compare percentages of components found in essential oils in our collection. This means that we can rely on independent third-party lab results rather than suppliers who may not be able to provide current or genuine documentation. In order to experience and evaluate prior to purchasing larger amounts, all of our oils are available in sample sizes, and all of our products are 100% satisfaction guaranteed. Please see complete details here.