Essential oils sales, etc.

[Guest guest]

I have posted similar to this before but for the benefit of new people

on the group I am revising it and reposting:

 

1. If you are new to this trade and think you can set up a business

selling essential oils and allied extracts, my advice is don't. You

will probably end up loosing money on unsold stocks and your sales

will be minute.

 

Reason for the above is that the bottom has dropped out of the

aromatherapy sales market in the UK and it has declined a lot in the USA.

 

The market is saturated with web sites selling fake oils which

unscrupulous suppliers swear hand on heart are the real deal. Many of

these sites are operating illegally and would sell their granny to

make a buck. Most of these businesses operators have no training or

experience within the essential oils trade, or health related training.

 

So because of that, I strongly urge you to only purchase from long

established businesses such as some on this group. This is not a

sales plug as I gain nothing from promoting suppliers.

 

This week I took Stacey Miller to visit two of my past employers in

the UK, who are REAL experts in this trade; both are only hanging on

by their finger nails. One of those is an expert analyst with many

years experience; he is now getting the same kind of requests from

aromatherapy suppliers that he had when he first got into the

aromatherapy supply business. A common response is: " that's too

expensive, have you got something cheaper " . The " too expensive " is

for the genuine oil, and what these suppliers are after is an

adulterated oil which they can make massive profits on by reselling to

their customers as " organic grown " ; " wild grown " ; " GC analysed " ; and

all the other bs that their customers fall for. He also purchased a

range of genuine organically grown oils, but then got stuck with them

because therapists refused to pay the higher price for the genuine

article.

 

So don't put all the blame for adulterated oils on the suppliers as

the customers can drive the market. When an oil is cleverly

adulterated only expert analysis can detect it and such people are

rare in this business. Most aromatherapy suppliers cannot possibly

afford full analysis by an expert and so they often take the word of

their fragrance trade suppliers, or they have a basic GLC run which

does not always detect adulteration.

 

2. Genuine absolutes: I am sure Stacey will confirm that the genuine

absolutes of things like lime blossom and several of the other florals

mostly smelt dreadful. These are intended for use only by perfumers

who need these weird smells to add minute amounts to create their

perfumes. Most of these absolutes and C02 extracts are not intended

for use on the skin in the concentration commonly used in

aromatherapy. So if you smell a wonderful lime blossom absolute or

similar, then the chances are it is a fragrance blend and not just

what is claimed.

 

3. With CO2 and molecular extracts they can smell superb, but you

should not use them for skin application purposes unless there is

safety data which in most cases there is not. Again these extracts

were solely produced for the food flavour and fine perfume markets

where only minute volumes are used in products. To use these for

aromatherapy skin products is unwise unless similar volumes to that

use in perfumes is used. I have seen people on this group advising on

the use of these extracts in food, but the volumes used are often way

higher than in commercial products and the safety at those levels is

completely unknown.

 

If you come across absolutes, etc. that you have never heard of DO NOT

BUY THEM AND EXPERIMENT. Try to check out first how they are used and

what safety information is available. If you cannot find that

information then do not use them for any skin application as you are

playing with fire (which might burn).

 

4. Never ever rely on suppliers quoting the uses of the herbs, that is

also a recipe for disaster. That particularly applies to the sellers

of extracts from herbs and trees used traditionally in South America.

There is virtually no sound information on the extracts made from

those herbs; the natives rarely used refined extracts which can be

safer or more dangerous, but without safety testing no one knows.

 

5. A growth market is so called " natural perfumery " , yet some people

who are held out as being 'experts', sell extracts that they claim are

100% natural, but which were banned by the fragrance trade years ago.

Costus root and fig leaf extract are examples - chances are high these

are in reality synthetic perfumes. If you see those on a web site

beware as it indicates a site owner with either a weak knowledge of

the trade they are in, or who are lying about the naturalness of what

they sell you.

 

This natural extracts and health supplements trade is crammed with

people who will invent therapeutic uses based on worthless

information, so beware. You can always ask on this group if anyone

knows about an extract - assuming the answer is not in the archives.

 

Martin Watt

http://www.aromamedical.com