Information about essential oils is everywhere you look. Just one online search turns up 68 million results and counting. Each result says something different about essential oils – the way they smell, where they originated, what they claim to do. One source says bergamot essential oil helps with anxiety and clears the skin, while another source says petitgrain essential oil helps boost the immune system.
You may notice our essential oil descriptions look a little plain compared to some – you won’t see any information about them boosting the immune system. There’s a very specific reason why that’s missing from the page.
Bramble Berry’s essential oil descriptions
The descriptions usually include what the essential oil smells like, how it’s distilled, its country of origin, its botanical name, what part of the plant it’s from, its flashpoint, and any safety information. For instance, Lavender 40/42 Essential Oil is steam distilled and originates in France. Lavender is also thought to alleviate headaches, heal burns, etc. However, these are drug claims.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates cosmetics and drugs, but the requirements for each are quite different. It depends on a number of factors, including what claims are on the label.
According to the FDA website, the law defines a cosmetic as:
“The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) defines cosmetics by their intended use, as ‘articles intended to be rubbed, poured, sprinkled, or sprayed on, introduced into, or otherwise applied to the human body…for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering the appearance’ [FD&C Act, sec. 201(i)]. Among the products included in this definition are skin moisturizers, perfumes, lipsticks, fingernail polishes, eye and facial makeup preparations, cleansing shampoos, permanent waves, hair colors, and deodorants, as well as any substance intended for use as a component of a cosmetic product.”
If you claim your product moisturizes, hydrates, etc., it’s a cosmetic and can be regulated as such. That means the product doesn’t need to sent in for approval by the FDA, and your company or product formulations don’t need to be registered with them. It’s your responsibility to ensure your product is made with skin-safe ingredients and labeled properly. Learn more about cosmetic regulations here. As for soap, if it only claims to cleanse the skin and meets the FDA’s definition of soap, it’s regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. If you include any cosmetic claims about the soap, it’s regulated like a cosmetic.
In contrast, the law defines a drug as:
“The FD&C Act defines drugs, in part, by their intended use, as ‘articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease’ and ‘articles (other than food) intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals’” [FD&C Act, sec. 201(g)(1)].”
So, if you claim your product diagnoses, treats, cures, or prevents disease, or if you claim it affects the function of the body, it has to be regulated like a drug. That means your business will need to be registered and your products will need to be listed with the FDA. The products will also require testing. Learn more about FDA drug regulations on their website and in this Soap Queen blog post. We also highly recommend reading Soap and Cosmetic Labeling by Marie Gale.
If you’re looking for more information on FDA regulations for cosmetics, drugs, and soap, check out the FDA’s website. If you have questions, the FDA does respond to emails – we have tested this several times. Click here to get their contact info. It’s so important to make yourself familiar with these laws when making and selling soap.
Long story short, all the products we sell are only intended for use in cosmetics and soap. If we claimed they helped with acne or headaches, they would need to be tested and registered with the FDA.
People often ask us about ways to work around the regulations. For instance, adding “thought to” or “believed to” in front of the claim, or adding that it’s thought to cure a disease but hasn’t been tested by the FDA. That can be a gray area, so we choose to err on the side of caution. If there’s any chance a customer believes it will cure a disease, even if you don’t explicitly say so, we recommend avoiding it. That may be overly cautious for some, but our main concern is helping small business owners make informed decisions.
More information about Bramble Berry’s oils
While our essential oils won’t clear your eczema or help with digestion, they still have a lot to offer. They’re 100% pure and come from natural sources unless otherwise stated. To ensure that purity, they’re spot tested using gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GS/MS). Those tests involve separating, identifying, and quantifying the complex mixtures of molecules in the oils to find possible adulteration. Learn more about GS/MS tests here. We also offer documentation about essential oils that can be requested by emailing MSDS(at)brambleberry(dot)com. Please read this section in our FAQs before requesting information.
Some of our essential oils are sourced locally here in the Pacific Northwest, which helps keep the prices lower. Those we can’t find locally come from vendors we trust and who we’ve been working with for years. We buy them in very large quantities and go through them quickly, which also helps keep the price down. That means you can focus on all the different ways to get creative with your favorite essential oils.
Why we love essential oils so much
Essential oils add a natural and fresh scent to soap, lotion, bath bombs, and more. Whether you prefer earthy tea tree, spicy ginger, or bright grapefruit, there is something for everyone. Essential oils also smell amazing when they’re blended together. We have four premixed blends for every occasion – Deodorizing Blend, Spa Blend, Massage Blend, and Outdoor Blend. Over the next few weeks we’ll share more information about the blends. Watch out for a massage oil recipe, essential oil tutorial roundup, and a fun quiz that helps you find out what essential oil blend is right for you.
We have four premixed blends for every occasion – Deodorizing Blend, Spa Blend, Massage Blend, and Outdoor Blend.
Hi!
I’m new to soap making and love your tutorials!
My question though is -When using certain essential oils like rosemary and thyme that have known contraindications with certain medications / health problems, am I required to state the risk on the packaging?
For eg, for a rosemary soap, a person suffering with high blood pressure should steer clear?
Sorry if it’s a silly question but I can’t find an answer to it online.
Thanks for the wonderful tutorials and endless advice!!
Bee.
As long as your cosmetic products aren’t being ingested or intended to treat or cure disease, you shouldn’t need to state that on your label – a full disclosure ingredients list should be sufficient. Here’s a quick link to the FDA’s guide to cosmetics labeling: https://www.fda.gov/Cosmetics/Labeling/Regulations/ucm126444.htm
This is a weird question. I have been buying Bramble Berry for 2 years now for my business. Before I started doing my business. I was bought doterra for my family. They claim you can take the some EO internally. I have used doterra for 5 years worked wonders for my family. But Im buying personally for my family doterra every month and then buy for my business from bramble berry. My question is in the grey area so things like Lemon, Oregano, thyme (food EO) ediable from Bramble Berry?
They are technically food safe but we are not a food safe warehouse so none of our products can be taken internally.
We are not a food safe warehouse so we do not recommend ingesting any of our products, including those EOs.
Starlene,
Revive (essential oil company) sells therapeutic grade essential oils as a direct competitor to YL and doTerra, but is NOT an MLM, and thus has a more reasonable price point. Bramble Berry is still my choice for bath and body products, but Revive is definitely worth looking into for taking EOs internally. They have stellar reviews. I hope this helps!
This might be a stupid question, but can Brambleberry’s essential oils be used in diffusers?
They can be. You’ll want to follow the directions that come with your diffuser, I believe most recommend mixing the essential oils with water.
More of a question…
I was at the BrambleBerry shop in Bellingham, and bought supplies. However, one of the things I was looking for was not carried, peppermint flavor for adding to lip balms. I was advised by the staff not to use peppermint oil. I found Peppermint Flavor by simply Organic at the local shop. According to their website, “Simply Organic®’s invigorating organic Peppermint Flavor adds a minty refreshing flavor to beverages, frosting, pudding and baked goods like peppermint bark and chocolate crinkle cookies”. According to the label, the ingredients are: Organic Sunflower Oil, Organic Peppermint Oil.
Can this be used for lip Balms?
Thanks,
Ron
I’m not sure, you may want to contact them for more information. It sounds like it’s lip safe but I’m not sure if it works with lip balm.
Thanks. I just called them to ask if it could be used for Lip balms, and according to Paul, “it would be perfect for that”.
Perfect!
Why can’t you use peppermint oil in the lip balms? Did they explain why?
You can use Peppermint Essential Oil in lip balms, we don’t recommend more than 1-2% because Peppermint has a very strong cooling sensation that can be uncomfortable for a lot of people.
Do you have a guide anywhere on this site with respect to:
1) Amount of essential oils to use in a soap recipe
2) Tried and tested EO blends
Thank you!
You can find out how much essential oil to use with our Fragrance Calculator: http://www.brambleberry.com/Pages/Fragrance-Calculator.aspx
This post talks about how to blend essential oils safely: https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/how-to-blend-essential-oils-safely/
And here are some blend suggestions: https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/lori-novas-top-ten-essential-oils-2/
Hello,
I see a lot of this happening in soap descriptions. They will place a testimonial from a customer of how the soap cleared up their acne, is that ok?
If there’s any chance the customer thinks it cures acne, it can be considered a drug and regulated that way. Even if it’s a customer testimonial, it is on your description and can make people think it cures acne. We recommend being extra careful and only including cosmetic claims.
I have a huge respect for you for writing this!!
My scientist friend, Doug Schoon is also a huge advocate of honest marketing and and an incredible source of information based on scientific facts.
http://www.dougschoon.com
Thanks for sharing that link, we’ll check that out. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Thank you for posting this. It can’t be said too many times. :*)
Thanks for reading Karen! 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Just to play “devil’s advocate”….. if the essential oils you sell have no therapeutic value attached to them and no claim to help with any skin issues, isn’t it then just a fragrance oil and no use for anything other than fragrancing a product? If so, then why not just use a fragrance oil. Aren’t essential oils expensive because of their therapeutic properties? Surely they are already registered with the FDA? Makes me wonder why bother with essential oils when clearly there is little benefit in doing so from a manufacturing point of view.
Many fragrance oils aren’t pure–there are artificial components, or alcohols and fillers added.
EO are over rated. Its all abiut the fragrance. I’ve been using candle scents. More potent and way cheaper.
It definitely comes down to personal preference. While our fragrances don’t have alcohol or fillers, they are made from synthetic aroma chemicals. Some people prefer to use natural essential oils. You can use whatever you like in your handmade products.
Learn more about the difference here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHvuWaClMz0&list=PLAADF6209996265D2&index=3
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
I also see so many people make claims on Instagram and Etsy and it really annoys me. Even some bigger or well known soapers/companies do it. Thank you guys, hopefully this will help some people learn. 🙂
I see so many people that don’t even label there products. The worst ones are the people that sale essential oils and some of these people are friends that claim all kinds of things that there oils will do for you and I know that they do not really know what there talking about. My favorite saying is how there oils are pure which may very well be the case but when they say you can apply directly to the skin and I try to explain that most pure essential oils would not be good without some kind of carrier oil because it would most likely irritate the skin they lose there minds. So I try not to engage them in any conversations about essential oils.
Brambleberry I love your products and am, in fact, waiting for an order to arrive but you really need to proof read. You misspelled philosophy in your graphic at the beginning of this article. Looking forward to making soap this afternoon 🙂
Oh thank you, we’ll get that typo fixed. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
I just wish the average person buying products knew this!
We’re hoping this may help small business owners with questions!
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Thank you for this clear precise introduction into the responsibilities of our claims on our products and your philosophy regarding essential oils. The FDA is clear about medical claims and helping people in the DIY trades need to be informed. Excellent article!
Thank you Pam, it means a lot to us. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Thank you for all the great tutorials and information!!
Thanks for reading!
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Love this, another great informative post Bramble Berry! Thank you for very specifically clarifying the labeling of essential oils.
A day, a mood, can be changed by a lovely fragrance… In just a moment. 🙂
Absolutely, it’s amazing how scent can transport you. Thanks for your sweet comment Bee. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Such great information, i will have to save this! I see so many posts on Instagram or wherever where the makers make all these kinds of claims about their products.
Thanks Michael, glad you enjoyed the post!
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry