Aroma Oils and Chemicals in Cosmetics

Below is an email exchange between myself and a client who asked me about a specific brand of aroma oil. This is what followed after the original question was asked.

Dear Susan D,

Auracacia and most essential oils and massage oil brands are generally are not recommended for internal use. If you can, please stick with Oshadi or Aromatherapist brands only for internal use. Topically I recommend cold pressed oils as well.

If you can, please call Auracacia and ask them the following about the jojoba Oil:

1. What temperature is the oil processed at?
2. What method of processing? Any chemicals used in the extraction process? Any chemicals to preserve? Does it have a date freshness? How long does the oil last if no date stamp?
3. Do you buy your oils direct or through a broker? (If through a broker the oils could be very old and not fresh!)

Oshadi and The Aromatherapist brands are direct and date stamped. Super fresh! If you like to share the answers with me, I would love to hear what they have to say!

Wayne

Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2006 4:43 PM
To: Wayne Gendel
Subject: Aura Cacia

Hi, Wayne – I called AuraCacia and got this info:

• The jojoba oil is brought directly from the supplier
• It is expeller pressed, pasteurized at 190 degrees and filtered
• They state it won’t go rancid, but then say it will last 750 days
• They use Julian dating, so if a bottle says 5201, it means bottled in the year 2005 on the 201st day of the year
• She couldn’t say anything about chemicals
• Is that a high temp, or good because it’s below 200? Just curious……….Susan D

Susan,

I’m not sure why they would use such a high temperature? Usually they feel that oils need to be cooked and irradiated to last long! I love that she could not say anything about chemicals! That is the law protecting her from saying any more than she has to! Perfume manufacturers are the worst! There can be hundreds of combinations of chemicals in perfumes and nothing is listed! There are 10,000 plus chemicals used in the personal skin care industry and less than 100 are approved for human use! Of course using low amounts of hundreds of harmful chemicals makes it right in their minds!

I recommended Jojoba as it is an excellent skin oil. It is actually classified as a liquid wax and is very stable. Cold pressed and unrefined is considered to produce the highest quality oil. It’s not only better internally but externally as well especially for therapeutic use!

Since it is a bean, a lot of manufacturers do use an expeller pressing. This is common for a lower quality cosmetic grade of the oil, but even with this method the temperature is only raised by the friction of the mechanical press so it ‘should’ remain pretty low. I have no idea why it is pasteurized and likely chemical preservatives added to it. But likely it’s to meet cosmetic manufacturing standards. Like many products they tend to be cooked, irradiated – i.e. pretty much DEAD and in my opinion, harmful!

Please Live Forever Healthy!