Essential Oil Testing

The most used technique to know if the oils are pure is by GC/MS test, which stands for gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, which are done in laboratory and for Canyon Zen our supplier does it for their batches.

Gas chromatography is a technique that provides a fingerprint of the oil which can reveal additives, while a mass spectrometry measures the presence and quantity of chemical constituents that give essential oils their therapeutic benefits.

To perform a GC/MS test at home can be more challenging, therefore there is another way you can test your oils. To perform the test you need:  

  1. The oil you want to test

  2. A piece of Styrofoam, like a cup, a plate or a bowl

  3. A penny (optional)

Turn upside down what you will be using, and our 4 drops of oil on the Styrofoam (place the coin) and wait. With citrus oils, the oil will go through the Styrofoam very quickly, and you can hear the oil dissolving the material. Pine, peppermint and other oils can take longer however the results should be the same, a hole in the Styrofoam. If using a coin it will go through.

When we did the test on other brands, we were left with:

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Synthetic “Oil”

That is the kind of oil you do not want to breathe into your lungs, we left the cup out for 2 days, and it remained intact, leaving a yellow residue which indicates the “oil” is synthetic and not pure.

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Diluted oil

Another result we had, the oil only dissolved the top part of the cup, but never went through the lining inside the cup, which indicates the oil is diluted.

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Pure Essential oil

When we tested the oils from our supplier, the Styrofoam dissolved, therefore indicating pure essential oils. This is the kind of oil you will find in our brand Canyon Zen.

You can watch the video below of the test Canyon Zen did.

Test your oils, it is a fun experiment and see what you get, you will know if what you use is pure, diluted, or synthetic.

 

What to look for when buying essential oils

  1. The oil should be packaged into a dark glass bottle. As per the test above, pure and undiluted essential oils will dissolve plastic.

  2. The label should have the Latin name of the plant, wood, or herb used to make the oil.

  3. Read small prints, does it says mixed in Jojoba oil, or diluted with alcohol, therefore it is not pure oil.

  4. The price is a big factor. Wanting to buy cheap oil to save money, will not get you pure oil, rather synthetic ones. And you do not have to spend a fortune either to get pure oils (depending on the oil, some are expensive to produce). But if you see a bottle of Sandalwood oil for $10 you can pretty much guess it is not pure, rather diluted or be completely synthetic.  Sandalwood is very expensive oil. Some other oil company will sell bigger quantity at a price of a smaller quantity to make their product attractive; however the oil can be diluted or be mixed with fillers.

We hope the information provided is useful and can assist you in your search of pure essential oils, and we can’t wait for you to try Canyon Zen essential oils!