Even though these two bottles may look like the same product, they are NOT.
Recently I bought a “doTERRA” lavender essential oil off of amazon because I needed it in a pinch...and honestly I just didn’t want to pay the shipping on the doTERRA site and wait more then 2 days for it to arrive. lol
Big mistake.
When I opened the amazon bottle I immediately knew something was off. I compared it to one of my other lavender oils, bought off the official doTERRA site, and there was a STARK difference in smell and oil color. The doTERRA oil was clear while the amazon oil was more clouded looking, and the smells were totally different!...like not even close.
I had my husband smell to confirm as well (he has a keener sense of smell then I do) and he even said they smelled like two totally different things. The color was also different. Not good.
This means that the oil I bought from the “official doTERRA seller” on amazon is a fraud and that oil is not certified pure or safe for topical, internal, or even diffusing use.
I then looked it up and turns out doTERRA said they do allow some wellness advocates to sell on amazon who have "obtained a written authorization from Company. Wellness Advocates may seek authorization by submitting a completed Online Auction/Mall Application"
Well the seller I bought from claimed to be a "certified seller" from doTERRA sooo what happened here?
So here's the problem...
Even if a seller claims to be a "certified seller" (and this really includes any oil company in general but especially MLM one's), amazon doesn't have much in place in way of vetting someone to make sure they are who they claim to be. Companies have complained about this to amazon before. Amazon is currently putting new policies in place to help with this problem, however its very new, not yet established across the board, and essential oils are particularly difficult because of how easy they are to tamper with. Even if its truly a rep of that brand selling...whats to keep them from switching out the oil inside like what happened with me?!
I'll just throw this out there...it’s SUPER easy to replace the good oil inside an essential oil bottle for a lesser quality one, then just buy a new unopened cap for the bottle, therefore making it looked un-tampered with. Like you know the ring that separates from the cap when you twist the cap off for the first time? All you have to do is dump that oil out, replace it with a lesser quality one, take off that ring and cap entirely and just put on a new cap with that ring still attached...which you can buy in bulk btw. So the argument of, "well the cap hasn't been tampered with so it's fine." is null.
Scary stuff...you don’t really know what you’re getting in there because there’s no one taking responsibility for that product! (amazon certainly doesn't)
So next time you want to buy an essential oil off of Amazon...just know:
•it’s very possibly not 100% pure...you really have absolutely no way of knowing
•often times they don't allow you to return it
•using a lesser quality oil is not worth the risk
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