I was troubled by a recent conversation with a fellow oiler, who was wondering why the bottle of peppermint he’d just opened smelled a little different from the last one he used. Both were sourced from the same supplier and one we both trust implicitly and with good reason. He asked if I thought there was something wrong with it.
“Wrong with it?” I asked, baffled. “For not smelling identical to the other one?”
After further chatting and ensuing explanations on my part, the light bulb went off and he wandered off a happy man, his invigorating cloud of peppermint essential oil heralding his presence until it eventually evaporated.
This little chat troubled me because when you’ve been around essential oils for a long time, you grow to learn so much that you forget they are mysteries to people who are new to them. Heck, it’s not just people who are new to them ! I’m still learning new things and I study them regularly.
The fact that essential oils work just as well whether you understand them or not can be a downfall as well as a blessing, because there’s no pressing incentive to learn more about their intricacies and it can easily fall by the wayside.
So today, let’s talk about essential oils and why variations in their smells are such a beautiful thing — just as no two snowflakes are the same. Or people.
But first, we need to lay a little groundwork.
I’ll take a punt that even if you’ve been dedicated to a non-toxic home and natural health for quite some time, there’s a chance you still wear perfume. And even if you don’t, when you smell one you know, you recognise it instantly — and it involuntarily brings up memories of certain occasion, person or point in time.
Did you know your sense of smell is the only one of your senses that bypasses the thought process?
When we smell something there is an automatic response. Sometimes pleasant, sometimes not so pleasant and sometimes downright repulsive. This knowledge has created a new industry called ‘Scent Marketing’ whereby we are unknowingly accosted by the aromas broadcast in different locations to influence our behaviour and or buying habits.
In man’s quest to influence the market, much research has been done on the chemical composition of aromas and all of those chemical components can now be made synthetically. It is a huge industry. And while these chemicals may have been ‘inspired by nature’ they are now 100% synthetic and as such, can have a damaging effect on our health.
In the aromatic industry, man’s aim since the mid 1700s has been to standardise aromas by manipulating the chemical constituents to give a consistent smell. This was motivated in no small part by the commercial reality of the perfume maker’s and buyer’s desire for their favourite scent to smell the same the next time they blended it (in the case of the perfumer) or bought it. And when you love a smell, it’s an understandable desire to have.
But it comes with a price. Our short video on synthetics and their hidden dangers will shed more light on that. If you haven’t yet watched it, I encourage you to do so now.
While on the surface of it this standardisation sounds great, it happens in a laboratory. It simply doesn’t happen in nature. As users of essential oils, it’s vital that we remember this, as we’ve been trained by exposure to standardised synthetic fragrances to expect complete uniformity but when it comes to authentically created essential oils — and all genuinely natural products — absolute uniformity can be an indication that something is actually wrong, not right.
It’s normal and reassuring for essential oils from different batches to vary slightly in odour. So let’s take a look at why.
Different climatic conditions, nutrient content of soil, water availability and so on, means that, in nature, every single batch of authentic essential oil – the true ‘essence of the plant’ — will have a slightly different chemical profile and therefore a slightly different aroma.
When we get a product that has consistently the same smell from batch to batch it is almost a certain indicator that the oil has been adjusted to standardise the compounds. Those chemicals used for the adjustment are almost certainly synthetic.
Some people are of the opinion that true oils are consistent across different batches, but this is simply not so. Now, some of us have more sensitive noses than others, so you might easily be thinking, “Huh? I’ve not noticed any difference when I crack the lid on a new bottle of any oil I’ve used.” It’s not a definitive measure either way, as it could be that there are subtle variations your nose isn’t detecting. But if you do pick up a difference, I hope today’s post helps you to understand why that variation can be a beautiful thing.
This will also connect you up with The Good Oil Team for our personal support and coaching. We'd love to help you on your journey to vibrant well-being the natural way!
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