You can walk through any cosmetic department and see claims about aromas and scents. Some will be called pure, others natural essential oils. Still others will carry the label of fragrances. And then there are the perfumes. You will several candle lines made with pure essential oils at Journeys of Life. Here is the difference.

Essential Oils or Fragrance Oils ?

People often refer to essential oils and fragrance oils interchangeably because of their similarities, but some important differences distinguish them from each other. Essential oils are natural chemicals that are extracted from the leaves, flowers, stems, roots or bark of plants. They are not true oils, but are the aromatic and volatile essences derived from botanicals.

Fragrance oils (also called perfume oils) are usually synthetic; chemists analyze the plants’ components and reproduce their chemical compositions. Although essential oil blends (combinations of essential oils) are not synthetic, some suppliers call them fragrance or perfume oils.

You can find both essential and fragrance oils in perfumery, body lotions and oils, bath preparations and soaps. They are also used in home fragrance products: Potpourri, sachets, diffusers, aroma lamps and scented candles.

Aromatherapists not only use the essential oil of certain herbs in physical applications, as herbalists do, but also for the psychological effects applied through our sense of smell. However, synthetic fragrance oils are not effective therapeutically because even though they are copies of essential oils, these synthetic versions have different structures and, the body does not absorb them like natural molecules.