I've lost count of the amount of times someone has asked what is the difference between natural fragrance and essential oils.  There are so many companies that claim that their product is natural when in actual fact it's not quite as clear cut and dried as you would think and a key area where confusion arises is with regards to fragrance.  There are in fact 3 main different ways in which you could fragrance your product.

1. Essential oils

2.  Synthetic fragrance oils:

- typical fragrance oils (synthetic)

- Nature identical fragrance oils

3.  Natural Fragrance oils.  

So let's take Essential oils.  This is fairly straightforward. They are mother natures creations.  They are powerful, highly fragrant, concentrated natural essences that are extracted from different parts of plant material e.g. flowers, twigs, leaves, peels of fruit, roots, seeds, grasses etc.  The extraction method can be either by cold pressing or via distillation using steam or water.  (These essences are natural but they still have a chemical make up e.g. terpenes, aldehydes, phenols, ketones, esters, alcohols  etc).  So they not only have highly therapeutic aromas but they often provide other therapeutic benefits e.g. pain relief, decongestant, anti-inflammatory etc that are not found in synthetic aromatics. Most essential oils will consist of a variety of compounds which will make them more therapeutic and if you are using more than one essential oil in a blend then that will further enhance the therapeutic benefit.  

However the scents caused by essential oils ie Natural scents don't last as long as synthetic fragrances which have the benefit of using chemical fixatives.  Plus it's much harder to achieve an identical natural scent as different batches of plants will differ in quality and aroma. So if the fragrance is the most important thing to a product then the manufacturer may well turn to the alternatives. 

Let's move on to synthetic fragrance oils.  Your typical fragrance oils are entirely man made Made in a lab from synthetic compounds and composed almost entirely of petroleum by-products such as benzene derivatives, aldehydes, toluene, and other known toxic chemicals. They are much cheaper, offer greater variety, and utilize scent binders like phthalates to help retain their aroma for a longer period of time. Chemists can create lovely scents produced through chemical reactions that have no corresponding scent in nature. So to summarise synthetic fragrance oils are completely human-made from chemical compounds that do not exist in nature.

So a Nature identical fragrance oil may well suggest natural however this is a bit misleading since these oils are also completely or partially synthetic. The oils may be built totally from materials that are not natural or they may be blends of natural essential oils and synthetic aromatic compounds. The difference between creating a "Nature Identical" fragrance oil and synthetic fragrance oil is that in the end, the Nature Identical Oil has a chemical structure that is the same as its essential oil counterpart. It is basically a man-made copy of a molecule found in nature.

These scents are often listed as "fragrance," "parfum," or "nature-identical" oils on the ingredients list. There are indeed some fragrance oils that may contain a small percentage of essential oils. However, the addition of a little bit of essential oil does not mean they are natural. 

Finally let's move on to natural fragrance oils.  Natural Fragrance oils are also made in a laboratory.  They are created by isolating one of the natural aromatic components from a complex scent such as that of a rose or an orange.  These single scents are called isolates.  A natural isolate is a single chemical, isolated from a plant, that has a smell. 

Natural fragrance oils are blends of isolates that are extracted through the same processes that are used to get essential oils. The difference is that ...

• when you extract an essential oil you are extracting the entire scent complex compound
• when you extract an isolate you are extracting a single scent molecule. 

So:

• yes natural fragrance oils are made from natural ingredients
• There are a greater variety of blends with fragrance oils
• The aroma is consistent (essential oils aroma quality will vary according to crop)
• Generally cheaper than essential oils
• Long lasting (essential oils will degrade over time whereas you can use scent anchoring with isolates to help prolong the scent)
• More environmentally friendly (you could argue this however if you only purchased essential oils from sustainable sources then you avoid this issue)

However natural fragrance oils WILL NOT offer the same aromatherapy affects as essential oils. 

Essential oils are not only highly aromatic, but the natural chemical composition of many essential oils offers therapeutic benefits.

For example, lavender essential oil has a relaxing aroma that helps relieve tension with its soothing, calming and harmonizing effect on the nerves. Lavender also has anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antifungal properties that promote healing and ease inflammation. Lavender tones the skin and is useful for many skin complaints such as acne, oily skin, burns, sunburn, wounds, eczema, and psoriasis. Tea Tree essential oils key quality is strengthening the immune system however it is also an effective antiseptic in skincare and helpful with respiratory ailments. 

Natural fragrance oils may be able to duplicate a scent from nature, but they are not used in aromatherapy. While a single isolate may be pure and natural, it is incomplete because it does not have the entire essence of the original plant material.

Here at Freya Natural Therapy only essential oils are chosen to fragrance our products - this is because the product is first and foremost designed to harness the therapeutic effect of the chosen essential oils.  Yes there may be a very slight variation in fragrance from one batch to the next and the product may well be more expensive than its equivalent with fragrance oils but remember, its equivalent is going to be substantially less therapeutic!  You are simply comparing apples and pears!  

Plants have a life force of their own which is something science cannot measure.