The aroma oils and essential oils are very popular products in the self care market, since the nice scent and the properties that we can take advantage of. Some shops only recognize the difference between the products with the price, but they sell them as the same thing.  

Is normal to have certain confusion between both products, since both can have the same texture, even the same aroma, basic ingredients or names, but the truth is that both products, can not be used at the same way, since the aromatic oil represents environment, and essential oil, besides the aroma con be used to aromatherapy and have other uses related to health.

But before talking about the differences, it is important to know what are essential oils and aromatic oils, just to have more clarity in the differences between both.

What is an aromatic essence?  

This is an aromatic product that can have natural or synthetic origins, the function of these oils is only to be used like a perfume or air freshener of any space.

The essences do not have any ingredient or recipe that can be used like a therapeutic oil, it is only to create a good environment starting with the aroma.

Read: How to choose the perfect fragrances for home? 

What is an essential oil?

An essential oil 100 pure is an extract of different ingredients with natural origin, it is not volatile, greasy or dense, so it has multiple benefits to our health, specially in aromatherapy and the application directly on the skin.

To obtain an essential oil you can use two principal types of distillation of the ingredients, first, in case of plants the water stream and vapor or a dry distillation in case of the citrics; other ways to obtain the oils, are the hydrodistillation and the extraction by cold pressure or maceration in case of the nuts, like the almond.

The essential oil is a really concentrated substance, and this depends on the real quality of the oil. It is true that you can find a lot of essential oils in the market that are diluted with other oils, this makes the essential oil lose its properties and quality. 

We recommend you: How to identify a 100% pure essential oil?           

A good way to identify a pure essential oil is to mix it with water, if the oil can be mixed with the water, it is not pure, since the essential oils just can be mixed with alcohol, waxes and other vegetable oils.  

Differences between aroma and essential oil

The first and most important difference is the presence of properties, all the properties that you can find in the essential oils, are not in the aroma oils, since the aroma oils are only used to distribute a pleasant scent.

But there are other differences that start with the first:

• Essential oils are used to improve both mental and physical health. Aroma oils not.
• The aroma oils are made with chemical ingredients, while all the ingredients that are used to prepare the essential oils are natural.
• Essential oils have a lot of uses, and you can use it in warm baths, candles or diffusers, but in case of the scented oils, you only can find it like aroma oil diffuser or scent oil diffuser.  
• The aroma oils are cheaper than the essential oils, and the bottle can be transparent and plastic, but this is not the case of the essential oil, so you must keep it in a dark glass bottle to avoid spoiling it.

We recommend you: How to use uplifting essential oils daily?  

We know that it is hard to find quality 100% pure essential oils in the market since, even the shops that sell them seem to be confused about the difference of these oils, but now you know the differences, and you will recognize a good essential oil when you see it.