The Complete Guide to Essential Oil Grades and Popular Picks

You’re not alone. Many find it hard to make sense of essential oil types and uses. Like, which one belongs in your diffuser? Which one suits a DIY skincare blend? Does a higher price mean better quality?

Understanding essential oil grades can help you make sense of the options available and choose an oil for your needs. The three primary grades, therapeutic, cosmetic, and food, serve distinct purposes and have varying levels of purity and quality.

Cosmetic-Grade

Cosmetic-grade oils are formulated for use in personal care products like perfumes, lotions, and skincare items. They are safe and effective for use on the skin. 

Jojoba, sweet almond, argan and coconut oils are familiar favourites in cosmetics. When labelled as cosmetic-grade and suitable for topical use, nutrient-rich pumpkin seed oils are another welcome addition to skincare and haircare products.

Known for its rich and nutty aroma, pumpkin seed oil is derived from the seeds of the Cucurbita pepo plant through a process called cold-pressing. This gives the oil a distinctive deep green to greenish-brown colour and a smooth, slightly rich texture that works well in many DIY skincare and haircare blends.

You can use it on its own or blend it with other carrier oils. As already mentioned, this oil has a naturally rich colour, so you want to be mindful when adding it to DIY products. A few drops can be mixed into a larger amount of a lighter carrier oil, such as jojoba or sweet almond oil, depending on the recipe.

Pumpkin seed oil can also be added to homemade hair masks or used as an ingredient in simple scalp and hair oil blends. If you’re making a balm, butter or scrub, it can be combined with ingredients such as shea butter, coconut oil or sugar to create your own recipe.

When using this oil in your beauty routine, always work with clean, dry containers, measure ingredients rather than guessing and make small batches that you can use relatively quickly. The pumpkin seed oils can vary in colour, scent and texture, so it’s worth checking how an ingredient behaves before making a larger batch.

Also, patch testing first is a sensible step. Tolerating one oil doesn’t guarantee that you’ll tolerate another oil or a different formulation. A reaction can be related to the specific ingredient, impurities or other ingredients in a blend. Even if pumpkin seed oil itself has been fine before, a new product can have a different formulation or processing. 

Food-Grade 

This is the category to look for when an oil is going into something you plan to eat. Food-grade essential oils are approved for internal consumption. This means they’re safe for use in cooking, beverages, and other edible products.

These oils can bring a concentrated burst of flavour to recipes. Peppermint, lemon and sweet orange are some familiar picks. A food-grade peppermint oil can add a minty note to desserts, drinks and chocolate recipes. Lemon and orange oils can be used in cakes, biscuits, icings and other recipes where a bright citrus flavour fits. Since essential oils are highly concentrated, a little can go a long way, so they aren’t something you simply pour in like a regular cooking oil.

Make sure to choose a product specifically labelled for food use, and follow the manufacturer’s directions for how much to add and how to incorporate it into food. A bottle intended for aromatherapy or cosmetic use isn’t automatically suitable for eating just because the oil itself comes from a familiar food plant. 

Therapeutic-Grade

You’ll often see the label therapeutic grade used in marketing to describe oils intended for aromatherapy and other wellness applications. Therapeutic-grade essential oils are the highest quality oils and are usually 100% pure, undiluted, and free from additives, fillers, and synthetic chemicals. 

Popular picks in this category include lavender, peppermint, eucalyptus, tea tree and frankincense. They can be used in diffusers, massage oil blends and other aromatherapy preparations.

Again, when you’re making a DIY blend, remember that essential oils are highly concentrated. They aren’t the same thing as carrier oils such as jojoba, sweet almond, coconut or pumpkin seed oil. A carrier oil can be used to dilute essential oils for certain topical applications, while essential oils generally shouldn’t simply be poured directly onto the skin.

It’s also worth checking the label rather than assuming that a bottle is suitable for every purpose. Directions, dilution guidance and intended use can differ between products.

Final Thoughts 

After looking at the different grades, it’s important to note that there’s no official grading system for essential oils. Terms such as “therapeutic grade” and “cosmetic grade” are often used in marketing, but they aren’t an official quality classification. Food-grade is an exception. When an essential oil is approved and labelled for use in food, it must meet the applicable food-safety requirements for that intended use.

That said, why bother with the grades? Because they can help you see past the fancy labels and get a better idea of what you’re actually buying.