What to Look For in Essential Oils & the Best Ones to Shop, According to an Expert

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Dealing with low energy? Poor focus? Sore muscles? Dry skin? An itchy scalp? Believe it or not, there’s an essential oil out there that may help alleviate some of your symptoms. But with so many options on the market, it can be hard to decipher what’s legitimately worth spending your money on.

To help you wade through the noise, we tapped aromatherapy experts for their help identifying the best essential oils brands out there. Keep scrolling to find out the ones worth shopping for every concern.

Best Essential Oils at a Glance

• Best Essential Oil for Sleep: Pura D’Or Lavender Essential Oil, $17.99
• Best Essential Oil for Improving Energy: Yoursy Energy Essential Oil Blend, $18.90
• Best Essential Oil for Boosting Your Mood: Vitruvi Boost Essential Oil Blend, $27.99
• Best Essential Oil for Calming Stress: Saje Stress Release, $28
• Best Essential Oil for Anxiety: Grove Co. Unwind Essential Oil Blend – Orange & Chamomile, $15
• Best Essential Oil for Focus: Neal’s Yard Focus Aromatherapy Blend, $19.60
• Best Essential Oil for Sore Muscles: NOW Essential Oils Eucalyptus Oil , $14.95
• Best Essential Oil for Immunity: DoTERRA On Guard Essential Oil Protective Blend , $50.67
• Best Essential Oil for Anti-Aging Skin Concerns: Plant Therapy Anti Age Essential Oil Blend, $23.99
• Best Essential Oil for Hair Growth: Rocky Mountain Oils Hair Support Essential Oil Blend , $23.95

What Ingredients to Look for in Essential Oil, According to an Expert

When shopping for an essential oil, the shorter the ingredients list, the higher your chances are of it being better quality.

“An essential oil should be 100 percent pure, meaning that there is nothing in the bottle but the pure essential oil,” says aromatherapist Amy Galper. “So if you’re looking at a lavender oil, for example, the only ‘ingredient’ should be lavender oil. That said, pure essential oils are listed by their botanical names, so the ‘ingredient’ in lavender would be listed as ‘lavendula angustifolia.'”

From there, you can start to suss out which specific essential oil you should opt for based on your concerns. If you’re looking for something to relax you, Mikki Anderson, PURA D’OR’s in-house aromatherapist, recommends oils with linalool, which can be found in lavender, coriander, and basil, to name a few. If you want something that will help improve energy, and focus, opt for an oil that has limonene and menthol constituents, like lemon, rosemary, or peppermint.

What Ingredients to Avoid in Essential Oils, According to an Expert

When you select an essential oil that’s 100 percent pure, as experts recommend, you can be sure it doesn’t contain any filler ingredients that are best to avoid. “If there is anything else listed as an ‘ingredient’ aside from the scientific (botanical) name of the plant from which the essential oil is extracted from, then that product is actually NOT an essential oil,” says Galper. “Essential oils always are a single ingredient, a single aromatic plant extract.”

Though essential oils smell good, “fragrance” is also not something you want to see on your labels. “Steer clear of fragrance oils or the term ‘fragrant oil’ on the label—it usually indicates chemical additives for preservation and an enhanced aroma,” says Melike Atilgan, a NAHA Certified LEVEL 2 Professional Aromatherapist and the co-founder of Yoursy and The Banyo Co. “These blends often mix essential oils with synthetic chemicals, making them unsuitable for genuine aromatherapy.”

Additionally, certain pure essential oils may not be suitable for everyone. “Safety depends on many things, including health, medical and skin conditions, [alongside] age,” says Anderson. For example, cold-pressed citrus oils (like lemon, orange, and grapefruit) may irritate damaged skin, and wormwood, balsamite, camphor, Ho leaf, and Hyssop may cause seizures in those with epilepsy.

A few other “hazardous” essential oils that Anderson recommends steering clear of for topical use: Basil (estragole), camphor, (Safrole), cinnamon bark (Cinnamaldyhyde-do not use on skin), sage (Thujone), wintergreen (Methyll salicylate), and pennyrole (Pulegone).

How can you tell essential oils are good quality?

1. Shop from a reputable essential oil brand

“Look for an essential oil company that is transparent about their production methods and botanical sourcing, produced by steam distillation or cold pressed (CO2), and made with plant material only,” says Anderson. The good news? All the brands on our list fit the bill.

2. Check out ingredient sourcing and extraction practices

A good-quality essential oil should provide a lot of information about its ingredients—even if there’s only one of them in the bottle. “The geographical location of the plant should be listed on the label or in the product description, the part of the plant the essential oil comes from, and how it is extracted,” says Galper. “All essential oils are steam distilled, and the essential oils that come from citrus are cold-pressed or squeezed from the peels. So if the method of extraction says ‘solvent extracted,’ that tells us that it is not an essential oil.”

3. Examine the bottle

“Select oils in dark-colored, glass bottles,” says Atilgan. “Pure essential oils are potent and can erode plastic, affecting their quality. Most reputable companies use brown or blue glass containers to preserve the oil’s integrity.”

4. Do an at-home test

If you’ve brought home an essential oil and aren’t confident in its quality, there are a few things you can do to double-check it once it’s in hand.

Smell test

“Sometimes your nose can detect an odd smell to an expired essential oil or one that has been manipulated to smell a certain way,” says Anderson. “It just smells odd, harsh, or synthetic.”

Drop test

“If you drop a few drops of essential oil into the water chamber of your diffuser and the water turns cloudy or a milky white, that tells us the oil isn’t pure and it has been blended with a synthetic solubilizer,” says Galper. “If you place a few drops of the essential oil on a white sheet of paper and it stains the paper with a greasy ring, as if you spilled olive oil on it, that tells us the essential oil isn’t pure, but could be diluted or adulterated with a carrier oil or lipid-rich substance.”

What Is the Highest Grade of Essential Oils?

Fun fact: There currently isn’t a governing body to grade essential oils, so any “grade” you see on a bottle was determined by the company selling it.

“Essential oil grades essentially function as marketing terms, much like the phrase ‘Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade’ (CPTG), which is trademarked and exclusive to one essential oil company,” says Melik.

With that in mind, your best bet is to use the information above to determine whether or not an essential oil is legit (or shop our top picks down below).