Essential oils are a product that are widely used in many natural skincare products these days, however more research has been coming out suggesting that even though essential oils are naturally derived that doesn’t necessarily make them safe. At Mountain Wisdom we have made the choice to formulate all of our products without essential oils and as an alternative we use herbal infused oils that we make ourselves.
Before jumping into why we choose to keep our products essential oil free at Mountain Wisdom let’s jump into what essential oils and herbal infused oils are and how they are made. Essential oils are technically considered volatile oils, these volatile oils occur naturally in plants as a means of survival. The volatile oils found in plants are used for two main reasons:
1. To attract pollinators and different animals to aid in spreading the seeds of the plant.
2. To repel organisms that pose a danger to the plant
These volatile oils, as you can probably imagine, are extremely potent and often require a carrier oil to use them safely on the skin. Essential oils are primarily collected by distillation and pounds of plant material is often needed to create very small amounts of oil. Herbal infused oils on the other hand are created when we put plant matter into oil and leave it to macerate, often for weeks or even months so that the medicinal properties of the plant are infused into the oil. The oil that the plant matter is infused into acts as the medium to transport the medicinal qualities of the plant into the body. Herbal infused oils use significantly less plant matter to make compared to essential oils, making them a more sustainable option for skincare product formulation.
So why have we chosen to keep our products essential oil free at Mountain Wisdom?
The first reason to to keep our products safe for everyone! As mentioned above essential oils are highly concentrated volatile oils that can cause irritation to those with sensitive skin, especially if they aren’t properly diluted. Since many of our products are pregnancy/postpartum and baby care products we have chosen not to use essential oils because these are all periods of life where sensitive skin is more common and herbal infused oils offer a gentler alternative. Another reason we are essential oil free is because certain essential oils have been shown to disrupt hormones. In this study the use of products with lavender essential oil was shown to increase estrogen activity and decrease androgen activity leading to premature breast growth in children. One thing that people are often surprised by when they try our products is the subtle smell of them, products that you typically buy that contain essential oils are heavily scented because they are so concentrated. Herbal infused oils don’t have as strong of a scent because the medicinal qualities are pulled out while a lot of the aromatic are left behind giving all of our products a gentle, earthy scent which is perfect for those who are sensitive to strong scents. There is also the sustainability aspect that must be considered when talking about using herbal infused oils instead of essential oils. Mono-cropping and over-harvesting is often a problem that is associated with essential oil production because of the large amounts of plant material that is required to make such small amounts of oil, this problem is not as common with herbal infused oils because less plant material is needed and in the case of Mountain Wisdom many of our oils are created with herbs that we either sustainably forage ourselves by hand or grow and when we can’t do that we ensure we ethically source the remainder of our ingredients from businesses with regenerative and organic growing practices.
Have you ever considered making the switch to an essential oil free lifesstyle? Let us know below!