The 11 Best Essential Oil Brands for 2021

Quality oils begin at the source. AETHOS essential oils are produced by either distillation or extraction methods to extract the purest and highest quality oils possible. Their oils are GC/MS tested to verify quality, and they make a commitment to not only provide pure and quality oils (with no fillers, additives or nonsense, in their words) but to do so in a way that reduces our impact on the planet. It's a new company but we've been very impressed with the commitment they are making to quality and sustainability which is why they're our pick for best essential oil brand.  

AETHOS doesn't have the largest selection of oils, being a smaller company. But, the way they source and what oils they choose to stock is quite unique. They take a science-backed approach to their essential oils. They aren't making ridiculous, unbelievable (or unlawful) claims about their essential oils, but they do their research and choose oils that have peer-reviewed publications to back it up. For example, studies have shown that lavender can support and promote better sleep. Rather than make that claim, they provide the research on their product pages for people to read. They call it their balance of science and tradition, which we love. Their prices are on the higher end, but they deliver on their quality with their high quality, sustainable oils. 

The most important thing to consider when buying essential oils is the quality and purity of the products. Quality starts at the beginning, by ensuring that the raw materials selected are of the utmost quality. Then, the distillation and extraction methods used to extract the essential oils need to be top-notch - which Revive guarantees. Quality Control and Quality Assurance is crucial and an integral part of Revive's business, even going so far as to making their lab reports publicly available. We've been really impressed with the commitment they are making to quality which is why they're our runner up for best brand of essential oils. 

Revive has established themselves as a high quality purveyor of essential oils through the ethical and sustainable selection of materials. They work with farmers around the world to produce high quality oils from high quality plants, but still keep prices down by providing the oils direct to consumer. We definitely see Revive essential oils as one of the leaders in this area. The best example is their Peppermint oil, which is sourced right from the United States, whereas other brands get theirs from China, India, or places where the quality of the plant is reduced. 

The quality of Simply Earth's pure essential oils are right up there with the best big players in the industry. Not only do they source the highest quality ingredients from around the world, but they also source these ingredients from ethically produced sources, as their way to give back. With their Simply Pure Promise, Simply Earth guarantees the 100% purity of each essential oil - with no synthetic additives or fragrance fillers, just pure unadulterated essential oil. Simple Earth publishes each of their GC/MS reports for every lot of oils as well, so you can rest assured knowing they're holding themselves accountable to this standard. Simply earth gets our runner up choice for best essential oils brand for all these reasons. 

As they are a slightly smaller company than some others on our list, you may think their selection is impacted, but that being said you can find almost any oil you will need from their website. From basics like Lemon, Eucalyptus oil and Lavender, to more complex oils like Melissa, Neroli and Jasmine, you can find what you're looking for. Price-wise they're right in the middle of the pack - not the most expensive due to their direct-to-consumer business model, but not the cheapest, due to their higher quality oils. They also produce these amazing essential oil boxes, which you can subscribe to every month. It comes with essential oils and many different amazing little add-ons like soap molds to make your own. And, our readers can get $40 off and a bonus box using the code AROMFREE. Check it out via the link below 🙂

Rocky Mountain Oils is company operating in the United States, an essential oil company that purchases their products from wholesalers, rather than do the essential oil production in-house. However, Rocky Mountain oils still have all the same quality metrics and tests of the other essential oil companies on our list. They perform tests such as chromatography to ensure the quality and purity of their essential oils like any other essential oil brand. You can even see the test results on the Rocky Mountain oils website for yourself!

Being an essential oil company that purchases their products wholesale, it allows them to keep their costs in an affordable range for the consumer. It also allows Rocky Mountain Oils to have a much wider range of essential oil offerings, since they're not limited to what they can produce themselves. Rocky Mountain Oils USDA Organic essential oils are some of the best you can get, their Frankincense being among the most premium options out there. 

Plant Therapy Essential Oils are certified pure, not just by in-house testing but also 3rd party laboratories. They've got an extremely thorough quality control department at their manufacturing plant. Plant Therapy oils are pure therapeutic grade, and they actually include the GC MS test results to prove the quality and purity with every essential oil bottle sold. The steps that Plant Therapy takes in their essential oil production, to produce quality and pure oils makes them one of the best essential oils brand you can buy, hands down. 

It's not just quality and purity that Plant Therapy excels at. They've managed to keep the premium status while still maintaining an affordable product. Plant Therapy essential oils are some of the best you can get, but still well priced. Plant Therapy organic essential oils and blends are among the best in the biz. They've got top notch and friendly customer service, you really just can't go wrong with Plant Therapy! 

Eden's Garden made a promise to their employees and customers from the outset of their business and ensure that there are zero pesticides, herbicides or any other type of potentially harmful ingredients in their finished oils. They do this by employing their "E.D.E.N.S." core company pillars/values. Each letter representing a different core value within their commitment to quality. They are committed to producing Effective oils, Dedicated and Educated employees and customers,  and Natural, Safe products. All of Eden's Garden's oils are guaranteed pure and therapeutic grade, so you can rest easy knowing you're not just buying snake oil, but a product that actually works. The Edens Garden lavender essential oil is among the most pure that we've come across.  For this reason, Eden's Garden is highly a respected and popular essential oil company. 

One of the greatest differentiators of Eden's Garden from the other options is their expertly curated blended oils. They do produce single-source oils, but they also possess the largest variety of pre-blended oils of all the companies on this list, or their "Synergy" blends, as they call them. If you're looking to boost your immune system, there is the "Immunity" blend. If you want to improve your mood they also offer Synergy oils such as "Energy Boost," "Be Still," or even "Aphrodisiac." Other Edens Garden blends they produce can help treat more physical disorders such as "Anxiety Ease" for anxiety, "Head Ease" for headaches, or "Cellulite" for a topical application to reduce cellulite. Each oil is specifically mixed using plant extracts that are shown to have specific therapeutic benefits - such as pine oil containing the terpene pinene to help invigorate your mind. And, best of all, because over the last 20 years of growth, they've honed their procedures and manufacture much larger quantities, Eden's Garden oils are some of the most affordable you can get your hands on. 

NOW produces some of the best quality essential oils and blends on the market today. Producing the best quality essential oil starts with the source: the plants the aromatics actually come from. NOW Foods has an extensive amount of resources available to them, being such a large and successful company, which allows them to purchase large quantities of some of the finest starting materials. Their size has not however, hampered the quality of their essential oil products, nor the values that the company abides by. NOW uses steam distillation and cold press extraction for most of their oil production but they also employ some solventless CO2 extraction as well. These methods have been honed and improved on for many years leading to the impressive consistent quality you would expect, verified using gas chromatography, the industry standard. These methods paired with strict and thorough quality assurance measures and controls have cemented NOW as one of the most trusted essential oil brand in the industry.

As mentioned above, NOW is one of the largest companies in the space, and fittingly, they have the selection to back up their size. They've brought their experience of producing natural foods to produce amazing oils. From more commonly used products like eucalyptus oil and lemon, to more obscure essential oil blends including oils such as pennyroyal and juniper berry, they've got an oil for it. As well, they've got some great pre-blended essential oil blends that are premixed by their aroma-experts for ailments such as headaches, insomnia and lack of focus. Of course, you always want to use a carrier oil for these type of uses unless you're diffusing. What really makes NOW Foods stand out from its competitors is their USDA Certified Organic oils, which are guaranteed pure, of the highest quality sources and are both made of certified organic materials and manufactured in the same manner - which means even their cleaning products need to be Certified Organic too. As far as price goes, these are the type of oils where you get what you pay for - their Organic oils may be slightly more expensive - but you are getting a great quality essential oil. Industry-wide, these are some of the best priced out there, too so you can't go wrong.

One of the most impressive things about Aura Cacia essential oils is their commitment to their craft. Every bottle of oils they produce are guaranteed to have not been tested on animals, contain no synthetic stabilizers, added colors, parabens or petroleum, and are all guaranteed to be 100% pure. Aura Cacia adheres to strict sustainable sourcing practices to ensure that the local communities thrive in the places they source their raw ingredients (from Spain to Australia) and that the plants have time to recuperate and renew. Once harvested, the quality of their finished products reflect the initial standard of their raw ingredients. Aura Cacia also employs impressive quality assurance/control, testing all oils using gas chromatography to insure the pureness, as well as subjecting the finished products to an expert sensory panel that decide whether or not the oil is up to their standard. We toured an Aura Cacia essential oils facility previously, and actually witnessed a batch of oil be rejected from the sensory panel, requiring them to adjust their production schedule in order to re-process and refine the oils to bring it up to the accepted quality. A huge extra cost to the company, but one they are willing to pay to maintain their reputation of quality.

Aura Cacia has a great selection of oils at a price point many folks will be very happy with. Aura Cacia produces USDA Certified Organic oils, which do come with a bit of a stiffer price tag, but we always prefer an organic product for many reasons. First and foremost you know that the source materials were produced organically and even the cleaning products used in their facilities were organic too. Our favourite Aura Cacia essential product is their roll-on kit, which contains a group of essential oils with a roller in place of a dropper to easily roll onto your neck, behind your ears or on your aches and pains to alleviate pain and discomfort stress, or even to improve your focus. It's a super affordable option too!

We also say that the final quality of any pure essential oil starts from the source materials used. This is where Mountain Rose has a huge advantage compared to other companies: they employ a strict organic program to ensure only the highest quality of sources. Mountain Rose Herbs uses several different methods to extract their distillates including steam distillation, cold press extraction and CO2 extraction, and employ an uncompromising quality assurance and quality control department. Their resulting oils are 100% pure, aromatic oils from a wide variety of different source plants to provide what we believe is the largest selection on the market. Mountain Rose Herbs is one of the most respected and popular essential oil companies in the game. 

Despite their commitment to organic and fair-trade production practices, Mountain Rose Herbs is still able to provide a huge array of products at a reasonable price. You name the plant and MRH likely has an essential oil for it. From the more common extracts like lemon, lavender and pine, to more unusual plants like Hyssop, Manuka or Vetiver, Mountain Rose likely produces it. While their prices for the more uncommon oils are slightly higher due to their limited availability, Mountain Rose Herbs does a great job at keeping prices in affordable ranges for their customers. They don't have beginner or starter kits like many of the other companies on the list, and they don't really produce pre-made blends, but we've put together a good place to start in our full review which should be completed shortly!

The one thing we will say, is that Young Living cannot have survived so many warnings and hiccups without the best quality product to stand behind. The founder of the company actually used to cultivate lavender, peppermint, sage and other herbs and distill them himself! So needless to say, the company has an imbued culture that revolves around a deep commitment to quality.  The company has in place many quality standards focusing around the procurement of all raw materials from the agricultural practices to the processing practices. Uniquely, Young Living actually directly owns a lot of the farms they source their ingredients from which allows them even more control of the quality of their finished products: it all starts from the source. Young Living employs a variety of refining and distillation techniques, depending on the type of plant to be extracted from. To be completely honest, the more we researched them.  we are actually very impressed with how thorough their science and quality teams have honed and audit their processes. One thing that they are still missing however is an Organic Certification.

Being one of the larger essential oil brands, Young Living has been able to diversify greatly, and now produce a wide variety of pure essential oils, both pure single extracts and expertly pre-made blends. Unsurprisingly, based on their founder's history with the plant, in our opinion the best oil they produce is their lavender single extract. Some of the less common oils like Black Pepper, Angelica, and Kunzea are also a few we love the smell and therapeutic effects that we don't find elsewhere. One of their most popular oils and one of our favourites is their Thieves oil, which is a perfectly balanced blend of Clove, Cinnamon, Lemon, Eucalyptus oil and Rosemary oil. It's got a ton of benefits and can be used topically or by diffusion. If you're using it topically, you'll need to use  carrier oils, but diffuse away with a little water. As far as price is concerned, Young Living actually sits on the pricier end of the other brands on our list. As with most products these days, you pay a premium for quality.

doTerra claims that all of their essential oils are of Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade, or CPTG. This certainly sounds both very official, and impressive, however unfortunately it's all marketing fluff. The CPTG Certification is not one that is awarded by a third party group, but one that they apply to their products internally. Now, the criteria by which they require their oils to be CPTG is still quite impressive and thorough, but it is important to understand it's not an official certification granted by a third party, such as Certified Organic certifications. In order for a doTerra product to receive its CPTG certification, the oil must be 100% pure (compounds extracted only from the specified plant), free of contaminants, fillers, artificial components, chemicals and pesticides. As well, all doTerra essential oils are tested using mass spectrometry and gas chromatography which are techniques used to validate the purity and composition of the aromatic compounds and essential components of the oil. Now, while doTerra doesn't have its oils tested by a third party doesn't mean you shouldn't trust what they're doing internally, since most essential oil companies aren't required to have these tests done. We know from first hand experience that their oils are great quality! We just don't personally support MLMs, and to each their own!

Being a larger manufacturer, doTerra provides a large selection of oils, more than 50 single extract oils, in fact. These single extract oils are sourced from all over the world, in order to procure high quality plant materials for their processing methods. This includes sandalwood from both Hawaii and India (which we prefer to the Hawaiian) and even Siberian Fir. In addition, doTerra also produces a number of pre-blended oils that can be used for a variety of uses from cleaning to diffusing to topical use. We absolutely love their Breathe respiratory blend in the winter when feeling a little congested, and their Motivate encouraging blend is great to diffuse in the office to promote creativity and focus. We love diluting it with a little olive oil as a carrier oil and dabbing for a little energy boost. All of doTerra's thorough sourcing, procedures and testing do add up operationally, resulting in a more expensive oil than some other companies on the list. But, like we have said many times before you get what you pay for. Since we all look for something slightly different in our oils, and have different budgets, if you're torn between doTerra essential oils and another company, we suggest buying one of each and comparing which you prefer yourself!