The difference between essential oils and fragrance oils

Essential oils are...

Essential oils are a substance extracted from the seeds, flowers, leaves, roots, stems, or bark of plants, typically through steam distillation, expression, or extraction. You’ll often spot them in perfumes, soaps, cosmetics, household cleaners, incense, and other similar products. Because they contain the fragrance of the plant from which they are derived, essential oils are used in a variety of scent-related applications like perfumes, flavorings, cosmetics, household cleaners, and medicines.

And yes, you’ll also spot them used to scent candles. The performance of essential oils in candles is variable.

Fragrance oils are...

Fragrance oils are a combination of essential oils and synthetic aroma chemicals. Used in a variety of different applications to scent consumer products.

Fragrance oils make it possible to create candles and other products with aromas you could not achieve with essential oils. Think scents like fresh baked cookies or a crackling fire–things that a plant-derived material simply cannot replicate.

You might now be wondering: should I use fragrance oil or essential oil for my products? 

Let’s look at some of the benefits of fragrance oils:

· Performance
Fragrance oils are intended to be burned in a candle and are created with this purpose in mind. In general, fragrance oils throw fragrance more strongly and retain the characteristics of the aroma while burning.

· Cost
Fragrance oils are generally inexpensive compared to essential oils, especially when purchased in bulk quantities.

· Variety
Fragrance oils are available for nearly every aroma you can possibly imagine–and many that you can’t! Essential oils cannot replicate scents like cheesecake or salty sea air, but fragrance oils can.

· Ease of use
Fragrance oils are friendly for beginners and give great results when used as recommended.

Now, let’s look at some reasons you might consider using essential oils in your products:

· They’re a natural product
Essential Oil is derived from plants and quality essential oils do not contain any synthetic components. This might be important to you personally, or for brands centered around natural ingredients and environmental awareness.

· Cost
Yep, this is both a pro and a con depending on your brand! Essential oils can be significantly more costly than fragrance oils. For those with luxury brands and price points on the higher side, using 100% in your products is a great way to justify that price point

· They're tested for performance
We have extensively tested the performance of our essential oils in a variety of matrices. We can't comment on other essential oils, but the oils we do offer come with detailed preparation instructions and processing performance notes that can help you understand what products you can make with our oils, how to make them, and the types of performance you can expect.