Rocky Mountain Oils Review
www.aromessential.com
Rocky Mountain (Essential) Oils (RMO) is a household name for essential oil lovers. They are one of the larger, more established brands in the industry. RMO was founded in 2004 in Utah by a group of health enthusiasts who were determined to develop essential oils that were safe and pure for the whole family to use. Since 2004, they've established themselves as a reputable, safe, and consistent essential oils company that provides pure products at affordable price points.
The market for essential oils is as vast and diverse as those who enjoy them, so it’s no surprise that some brands have obtained a reputation - some for better, some for worse. Brands like DoTerra and Young Living are notorious for some questionable past business practices that have left consumers skeptical of larger brands, especially MLM. You can read more about our thoughts on that here. Even though RMO is not an MLM company, as a large brand, some people are naturally skeptical of their products.
While it’s always important to be a skeptical consumer, we wanted to do a Rocky Mountain Oils review to look for ourselves at how RMO compares to other brands. When we do an essential oils review, we look for quality and transparency. Here’s how RMO stacked up.
Our Favorite Essential Oils from
Rocky Mountain Oils
1. Tranquility Blend
While Rocky Mountain produces individual/isolate oils that are good quality, and well priced, they also dabble in creating some very well-crafted blends of oils. Top of our list is Tranqulity - a calming citrus focused blend. With orange, tangerine, lime and citronella at the core of this blend with a earthy, herbal accent of chamomile, patchouli and ylang ylang, this is a great diffusing blend. Bright and citrusy to invigorate but also to soothe nerves and produce a calm and serene environment.
2. Attention Assist Blend
Another one of our favourite offerings from Rocky Mountain Oils is their Attention Assist blend. This is a beautifully mixed blend of foresty, earthy oils that promotes both calm and focus. If you've ever noticed that immense sense of grounding and focus you get from walking through the forest, this is the same feeling that this woodsy blend promotes. Cedarwood, lavender, vetiver and frankincense shine bright in this favourite of ours.
3. Copaiba Balsam Isolate
If you've never heard of Copaiba, it's an impressively medicinal and therapeutic plant with uses that trace back many years in traditional medicine. It has many benefits, including being anti-inflammatory and anti-fungal which makes it great for diffusing and for use in skin topicals. Harvested from the trunks of an entire genus of trees, Copaifera, we've found Rocky Mountain to produce the highest quality of Copaiba oil we can find. On top of all the therapeutic benefits, it lends itself to blending or diffusing with its mild, woodsy aroma.
Purity
We all know that the purity of an essential oil is key to its quality. Having pure essential oils is a huge part of what separates high end oils from cheap ones. The testing and quality assurance involved in producing the purest oils is extensive, which is a reason why you see a big difference in price points.
When an essential oil is pure, that means it contains only the oils from the botanical from which it was extracted, without synthetics or adulterants. This is important because the therapeutic benefits of an oil come from the botanical, not a synthetic chemical. In other words, the less pure an oil is, the less effective it's likely to be. What’s more, impure oils also don’t have the same aroma, often having chemically or “fake” scents. They also are more prone to trigger certain allergies as the consumer isn't always aware of what actually is inside the bottle of their "essential oil".
Rocky Mountain Oils has their standards set pretty high. Their suppliers have to meet those standards and unless their supplier's product is 100% pure, they won't use those oils. They pride themselves with being known as a brand that only has pure essential oils.
Extraction Methods
In order to get pure oils, Rocky Mountain Oils (RMO) practices top quality procedures and testing. They're unique in that for such a large company, they actually buy their oils in bulk from their list of trusted manufacturers.
These suppliers use a few different methods of extraction. Steam distillation is usually used for plant materials like leaves, flowers and roots. It's a way of extracting the essential oils naturally, without the use of chemicals or synthetics. It's also a method that can gently extract the oil in delicate plant parts such as petals. Cold press is the method used for most citrus fruits. Cold press also does not use any chemicals or synthetics and is the best way to preserve the aromatics of the fruit.
Quality Control
RMO’s own quality assurance is given by the acronym S.A.A.F.E. It stands for Satisfaction Guaranteed, Authentic, Analysis, Free of adulterants, Effective and pure. By carefully sourcing, sampling and testing their products, RMO ensures the highest quality essential oils. They're committed to retaining their quality at all times, unlike some companies that will harvest plants early or skip certain tests, or even add synthetic chemicals to their products when the demand for oils grows. RMO is dedicated to honest production and high quality oil. Rocky Mountain Oils S.A.A.F.E promise is also backed by their 100% Guaranteed Satisfaction of Quality. Basically, they're completely confident in their product and the fact that they consistently provide pure essential oils.
Rocky Mountain Oils has great transparency with their products. The company recommends for the consumer to always check with their doctor or medical practitioner before ingesting any oils, just incase of an allergy. They also have a kid-friendly line (bonus points!) which makes for a great customer service experience for families wanting to get into essential oils together.
Testing
Testing products is important for any company, regardless of the quality of their sourcing. Even well sourced and extracted oils can contain contaminants. When we do an essential oils brand review, we really like to look at the testing protocols companies have in place. In this Rocky Mountain Oils review, we immediately noticed how RMO conducts a variety of both in house and third party testing to guarantee their oils are 100% pure and free of adulterants.
Sampling and GC/MS testing
RMO always samples their products first, rejecting batches off the bat if they find any diluents, synthetics or other impurities.
They conduct third party GC/MS testing before accepting any batch. GC/MS testing is done only once the test is passed do they order in bulk from the same batch.
Rocky Mountain Oils actually allows you to see the GC/MS reports for yourself on their website. Every bottle you purchase from RMO has a batch number on the bottle. All you have to do is input the batch number of your oils and it generates the report for you to see for yourself.
Secondary Testing
After you order a batch of oils, the batch is once again sent to a third party for GC/MS testing to confirm it is the same batch. Rocky Mountain Oils then conducts in house quality control testing including organoleptic testing and RI (Refractive Index). These tests further confirm the purity and quality of the oil. For their organic oils, RMO conducts third party testing for pesticides.
Packaging
One area in which RMO has its competitors beat is with its packaging. RMO is currently switching to using 100% recycled materials for all of their packaging. They have also started the industry’s first bottle recycling program and will help you track down your nearest glass recycling center. You can even send them used essential oils bottles from any brand which they will recycle for you. That’s huge plus from an environmental perspective and a responsible customer service standpoint.
Labelling
How a company labels their products is something we like to take a look at. While it’s not the be all end all of reflecting the quality of a brand’s product, the more information the better! An informative label can reflect more transparency from a company, but can also simply serve as a useful resource for users.
Overall, RMO’s labels are good. Some of their essential oils are okay for topical use and you’ll see the mark right on the label. Their website provides a dilution guide which is always both helpful and convenient to have access to. On their website you’ll get even more information, such as the extraction method, testing results, and even a list of suggested blends. This is especially great if you like to make your own blends.
On their Learn page, they break down what everything on their labels actually means. The 4 main areas of the label include the name of the essential oil, the scientific name, the source country, and the size of the bottle. On that same page, you can also see what all of the icons mean on the bottles as well. Because essential oils aren't monitored by the FDA and there's no certification in order to sell essential oils, transparency really is key.
Variety
We love a company that offers good variety of products. The more selection the better, especially when it comes to quality essential oils. Rocky Mountain Oils offers a huge variety, with 77 different singles and 60 blends. They also list the intended benefits of their singles and blends on the website, so you can narrow down your choices by benefit or by aroma.
If you're new to essential oils and are unsure as to what benefits they can provide, RMO has a whole section based on choosing your experience. On their website they have wellness, energy, sleep, skincare, cleaning, and mood. Once you click on one of the experiences, they provide you with single essential oils and blends that will suit that experience best. Overall, Rocky Mountain Oils really has a wide variety of oils and they're completely transparent with the best uses for each essential oil.
Organics
Rocky Mountain Oils also offers constituent oils, which means the oils were made from organically grown or wild grown plants. These are different from certified organic oils, which endure a much more stringent set of testing and auditing the requires everything from the source to the materials used in production to be organic. RMO does have 6 essential oils that are offered as USDA certified organic: Tea Tree, Peppermint, Orange, Lemon, Lavender, Frankincense (Serrata), and they’ll offer more in the future. You can find the certified organic label on the applicable bottles.
Starter Kits
RMO offers a few different types of starter kits, which are a great way to buy in bulk. They have options for both singles and blend starter kits. If you love this brand, or simply like to make the most of your order and buy more than one type of oil, the kits are great place to start.
Affordability
Despite only selling pure and high quality essential oils, Rocky Mountain stacks up at a pretty affordable price range. The price point for oils from RMO is actually lower than other companies, particularly MLM companies, with the same high quality essential oils. Another big bonus: free shipping. RMO understands how important free shipping is to the consumer and they provide free shipping on every order, without any order size requirement.
Because Rocky Mountain Oils assures and promises their oils are 100% pure and free of adulterants, they have a 90-day no hassle satisfaction guarantee return policy. A return policy like this one is key when first starting out into essential oils. It's important that you're 100% comfortable with the oil you're trying, and you actually enjoy it. Unlike wine, essential oils do not get better with age so its important that the product you're buying actually works for you and doesn't just sit on your shelf. We've never had any issues with their products, but it's nice to know they stand behind every oil they're putting out.
Final Verdict: Are Rocky Mountain Oils a Good Buy?
Rocky Mountain Oils is one of the older, more established essential oil brands on the market. Despite many people being skeptical of larger brands, RMO is a good example of why that’s not always necessary. Based on this Rocky Mountain Oils review, we've seen that their commitment to pure, high quality oils along with their huge selection makes RMO one of the better essential oil brands out there. We really like how convenient buying RMO is for the consumer, particularly with their 90 day return policy. We also love how they guarantee every essential oil they produce is pure and how responsible they are with their recycling program. We really hope this becomes a trend in the industry.
More of the Essential Oil Best Brands
Based on this Rocky Mountain Oils review, we saw that RMO makes some incredible essential oils, but they unfortunately don't sell single/isolate oils. If you want to check out some other companies we recommend, check out this guide to the safest, most trusted essential oil companies to find the right product for you!