Some essential oils brands claim to offer certified therapeutic grade essential oils and blends. Their potential customers often ask if is this possible? Is this true?

The answer is simple – there are no certified therapeutic grade essential 0ils!

There is no nationally or internationally recognized body, such as an independent certification board, that certifies essential oil quality. There is also no agreed-upon definition of a therapeutic classification.

Distillers and essential oil suppliers will often run tests on batches of essential oils to assess the quality, e.g., check for impurities and evaluate the chemical composition. A reliable distiller or company will share the results of those tests with buyers.

If a company says that they produce certified, certified pure therapeutic, or certified therapeutic essential oils, find out who or what agency certified them and what they mean by certified therapeutic grade. If they did the certification themselves, that’s biased, and certainly out of the norm for how other products are certified (e.g., all organic certifications). Typically certification is conducted by an impartial independent certification body that follows certain agreed-upon procedures and assesses certain agreed-upon criteria.

If you like the company’s essential oils, great. If you think they’re worth the extra money, great. But don’t be fooled into thinking that the oils are special or superior just because the company certifies them themselves or says that they are pure or therapeutic grade.

See our blog on what’s gauging high-quality essential oil.