Phantom Essential Oils

There, sitting on the shelf of that “New Age” store, one may find a bottle of gardenia essential oil or “Essential Oil of Cherry”. Sounding exotic and interesting, perhaps even healthful, you grab it. The inexpensive price aids in the impulse. Then, at home you begin strumming through your essential oil Aromatherapy books only to find absolutely no information on how to use it medicinally. Or if you do find some information, you quickly come to terms what you have bought is not what you were told it was.

Essential oil of strawberries, as in the fruit is impossible to obtain. However the flowers and leaves may provide some oils. These however do not smell like the yummy, well-known fruit. This coupled with many peoples lack of understanding of what essential oils actually are, leads many each year to buy synthetic products that may cause more harm than good.

Many fragrance oils are created to mimic fruits and other smells, such as dirt, that are impossible to extract as essential oil. While this may have an Olfactory – healing connection, the labeling of such products as being essential oils is dangerous. Due to the toxic nature of some of these products especially to people with sensitivities and the fact they use combinations of chemicals, the FDA mandates that they be labeled with all inherent ingredients. If the product was a true essential oil all that need be on the ingredients label would be “essential oil of ylang ylang”. If a carrier oil is mixed with the essential oil, it should be “essential oil of ylang ylang and jojoba oil”, for example. However, when one buys a bottle of perfume, they are provided (or should be) with a whole list of ingredients. This too should be so for fragrance oils. However, due to fact many people neglect to look for such information present on the bottle, they subject themselves to who knows what kind of dangers. Especially if the item is imported from an area with lax cosmetic safety laws.

To help protect yourself, do some research. Be leery of a product such as “essential oil of grape” which smells like grape juice. Doing so can save you from a trip to the doctor.

-MAM

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