Why Are Some Essential Oils So Expensive and What is a Dilute?
I get asked these questions about essential oils every week - Why are some oils so expensive and what is the difference between a ‘dilute’ and a ‘not dilute’?
I’m glad you asked!
Certain oils are known as ‘precious oils’, absolutes or concretes, these include oils like neroli, rose, jasmine and other delicate flowers.
The short answer to why they cost so much is that it takes a lot more plant material and processing to produce these oils than others.
To understand why the prices can be so wildly different, you need to know a little bit about how essential oils are made.
Generally for large scale production, there are three main methods of extraction for separating the volatile essential oils from the plant material.
- Cold Expression
- Steam Distillation
- Solvent Extraction (also C02 extraction, an even more costly way of producing oils but produces an extremely high quality oil retaining many more of the natural benefits.)
Cold Pressed Extraction
Most citrus oils like orange, grapefruit, lemon, lime, bergamot are all cold pressed from the peel of the fruit.
The oil is pressed from the skin and it is easy to extract and very abundant so it is less expensive to produce and then to buy.
Steam Distillation
Others like lavender, peppermint, juniper, rosemary and many more are steam distilled and more easily extracted. they are subjected to steam which vapourises the water and essential oils, it is then cooled through a pipe and goes into a tank where the water and oils are separated.
Solvent Extraction
Delicate flower petals like neroli & rose would disintegrate and produce none of the therapeutic benefits of their oils if they were pressed or steamed so they are extracted using a solvent which is sprayed over them to release their volatile oils.
The first pass of this process produces what is called a ‘Concrete’ and what remains after the process is a solid, waxy non crystalline residue. You can buy essential oils in this state and they are more stable and concentrated than an absolute in its final state.
An ‘Absolute’ is a concrete that has been further treated by dissolving the waxy material from the volatile oil with pure alcohol (ethanol) often several times and then allowing the alcohol to evaporate to leave the final volatile fraction of the oil.
So you can see that for certain delicate and precious flowers it can take a lot of production to produce a very small amount of final product.
In fact, it takes 1 tonne of rose flower petals to make about 300grams of rose absolute.
This is why those precious oils can be very very expensive. Bulgarian Rose Absolute can cost around £500GBP per ounce
Did you know that the most expensive oil in the world is Champaca Absolute
According to this article Champaca Absolute Essential Oil has been used for centuries to cure depression and relieve stress, vertigo or headaches.
Its powerful citrus and floral scent is much appreciated in India and parts of Asia where it’s also used as a perfume and as a powerful aphrodisiac.
A very expensive one, since the price per ounce is a staggering £1500 GBP, making it the most expensive essential oil in the world!
Absolutes are not the only oils with a higher price tag, other oils such as chamomile and frankincense are steam distilled but the material and production costs are also reflected in the final prices.
Dilutes
Because it is so expensive to buy absolutes and other precious oils, they are often sold diluted into a vegetable carrier oil such as grapeseed or jojoba.
They can be sold in various dilutions, but a common dilution is 5%. This means that in a 10ml bottle there will be approx 20 drops of the absolute oil mixed in to the carrier oil.
This seems like so little, but absolutes such as Rose and Jasmine are very powerfully scented… you need to use so little to get a lot from them.
How to use Essential Oil Dilutes
Diluted oils are ideal for adding to massage blends, directly to the bath, in roller bottle blends, on to wearable aromatherapy necklaces and bracelets, in oil warmer/burners or to simply dab as perfume (provided you’ve patch tested previously)
The only place you cannot use a dilute is in your ultrasonic diffuser as the carrier oil/vegetable oil it is diluted in, is not volatile, that means it will not evaporate and will clog your ultrasonic plate.
So there is a brief explanation of why some oils are very expensive and also what a diluted oil is.
These oils are available both as an absolute or pure oil and as a dilute on this website