Along with tea tree oil, lavender oil is perhaps the most popular essential oil for skincare, and for good reason.
It’s most popular for fragrances in perfumes, and pouring into your bathtub and reducing stress while you bathe, but for acne, lavender oil has two key powers.
Firstly, lavender oil strongly suppresses pro-inflammatory immune system agents called neutrophils in the skin. These chemicals fire bursts of free radicals, theoretically to break down old and fragile tissue, but frequently causing acne and a grey skin tone as well.
Secondly, lavender oil has a strange ability to increase collagen, a structural protein which helps with strong skin, youthful skin, and a bright and vibrant skin tone. Collagen also helps with healing old acne faster, and lavender oil is proven to increase type 1 collagen in human skin.
There’s only one problem: the market is riddled with poor quality brands. Compared to argan oil or shea butter, there’s a particularly high amount of fake and synthetic products.
That’s why today, we will discuss the 7 greatest lavender oil products money can buy. Firstly though, a safety note: always dilute your lavender oil before applying to the skin. Essential oils are very strong, and this rule applies to all of them. You should also avoid consuming your lavender oil – these products are all for external use only.
For a shortcut, Eden’s Garden and Plant Therapy are the ultimate products here.
Let’s get started:
One – Plant Therapy
This is 100% real lavender oil, rather than a synthetic imitation. Most importantly, Plant Therapy lavender oil is the correct subspecies – lavandula angustifolia. There’s 39 known species of lavender in the world, and lavendula angustifolia is much richer in linalool and linalyl acetate, the active medicinal components which are responsible for the acne-clearing benefits.
Meanwhile, another common species is lavandula latifolia, called spike lavender because of the spiky bushes. Spike lavender has similar levels of linalool, but far less linalyl acetate. There’s also lavandula stoecha, or Spanish lavender, extremely low in linalool with no linalyl acetate at all. For acne, you should always buy lavendula angustifolia, and Plant Therapy fits the bill.
Elsewhere, Plant Therapy lavender oil is in a protective dark glass bottle. The laboratory report detected high levels of linalool and linyl acetate, and also has comments from the world renowned essential oil expert Dr Robert Tisserand: “excellent powdery-floral odor quality“. Reviewers agree, calling the smell “great“, “wonderful“, and natural and floral. Last but not least, this oil is certified organic by the USDA.
Plant Therapy is one of the greatest lavender oils on the market.
Amazon link: Plant Therapy Organic Lavender Essential Oil.
Two – Rocky Mountain Oils
Rocky Mountain Oils is easy to dispense, with a convenient dropper built into the bottle. Speaking of the bottle, it’s made from glass and dark amber, to keep the lavender oil fresh.
The smell is “fresh” and “delicious”, according to reviewers. The technical reports are just as strong. The company has a full GC/MS lab report available on their website. The two key ingredients are fully in place: 31.53% linalyl acetate, and 29.78% linalool.
The auditors concluded that “No adulterant, contaminant or diluent has been detected using this method“. As with tea tree oil, there are shady companies attempting to cut corners everywhere, but Rocky Mountain Oils is fully trustworthy. The lavender petals this oil is made from originate in the French and Greek countryside, and are steam-distilled to avoid shattering the fragile compounds.
Rocky Mountain Oils is one of the best essential oil companies for acne, with their tea tree oil being similarly trustworthy.
Amazon link: Rocky Mountain Oils Lavender Essential Oil.
Three – Eden’s Garden
Eden’s Garden is a top quality seller of tea tree oil, and their lavender oil is among the best too. It’s steam distilled for optimal nutrition, while the bottle is glass and a protective dark amber. The smell is floral and earthy as it should be, described by Amazon reviewers as “fresh” and “amazing” and with “sweet honey notes”, with no strange chemical scent.
Eden’s Garden lavender oil is sourced from lavender fields at high altitudes in Bulgaria. As a rule, most quality Lavandula angustifolia originates from Bulgaria or France, the masters of lavender oil production, but can also come from Spain and Greece.
Speaking of which, high altitude lavender oil is a subset you may come across, a version that boasts of being grown in mountains or hills. The benefit is higher nutrition, since colder temperatures and thinner air force the flower to pump out more linalool for its own protection. This is a nice bonus, though not strictly necessary – always remember that the species is most important for acne (L. angustifolia). Also remember that a brand marketed as high altitude still has the pitfalls of any other lavender oil, being potentially fake or synthetic.
Luckily, Eden’s Garden isn’t one of those. Its quality is unimpeachable, with full disclosure on their website in the form of an independently conducted GC/MS report. The two key ingredients were within the optimal guidelines: 32.58% linalyl acetate and 32.81% linalool.
Eden’s Garden has only one ingredient: Lavandula angustifolia oil. This brand ticks all the boxes for a top quality lavender oil.
Amazon link: Eden’s Garden Lavender Oil.
Four – Aromatics Internationals
Aromatics Internationals is also in a glass bottle, with a dark amber colour. Why is this vital? All skincare oils need protection against UV radiation, but lavender oil might be the most important of all. Its signature compound, linalool, is highly vulnerable to damage when exposed to sunlight.
When oxidised, linalool turns from anti-inflammatory to strongly pro-inflammatory. It’s a similar case with limonene in citrus oils. That’s why every lavender oil featured here is in a sturdy glass bottle, and Aromatics Internationals is no exception.
This lavender oil also succeeds by being steam-distilled, and originating from the lavender heartland of Bulgaria. The website has several laboratory GC/MS tests. A batch from July 2023 contained 29.97% linalyl acetate, and 26.70% linalool.
According to a 2023 study, the L. angustifolia species naturally contains 25–47% linalyl acetate and 20-45% linalool. Another reassuring sign is less than 1.5% camphor – having unusually high percentages is one way fraudulent brands have been caught out. Aromatics Internationals contained just 0.22% camphor.
Aromatics Internationals comes with a built in dropper for simple usage. Mixing lavender oil with a carrier oil such as tamanu oil is the ultimate strategy.
While expensive, Aromatics International is pretty much unbeatable for an acne-clearing lavender oil.
Amazon link: Aromatics International Lavender Oil.
Five – Simply Earth
Simply Earth is grown in Dobruja, Bulgaria, perhaps the world capital of lavender farming for essential oils. It is steam distilled, and in a dark glass bottle. There’s a built in dropper which is easy to use.
Simply Earth lavender oil uses the correct species, and features not one, but two GC/MS lab reports on its website (as of March 2024). The all important linalyl acetate comprised 26.69-29.81% of the batches, and the linalool 31.72-36.79%. The camphor was 0.23-0.29%, well below the important 1.5% benchmark. The verdict is clear – no sneaky adulteration.
Read Annihilate Your Acne – get the diet that could transform your skin!
An important note about lavender oil is that even when it’s 100% natural, the fragrance won’t be identical every single time. The same farm in the same traditional village will produce lavender oil with a slightly different nutritional composition each year, thanks to variations in weather, soil, and temperature which force the plant to react.
Regardless, Simply Earth has the classic lavendery smell. While not officially certified organic by the USDA, their website pledges that their lavender fields are free from harsh pesticides and use “organic practices”. Chemicals are nowhere to be found, and no preservatives, parabens, nor additives are used.
Simply Earth is among the top 7 lavender oils available today: there are few products better for acne and skincare.
Amazon link: Simply Earth Lavender Essential Oil.
Six – New Direction Aromatics
New Direction Aromatics is certified as organic by the USDA. This lavender oil contains no real flaws, as it comes with an inbuilt dropper for added convenience. The bottle is perfect, with thick glass and a dark brown colour. The website proudly displays a GC/MS lab report, with all the important compounds in range: 29.68% linalyl acetate, 29.44% linalool and 0.30% camphor.
New Direction Aromatics contains the optimal Lavandula angustifolia lavender species, and speaking of this, there’s one last “subspecies” to avoid: lavandula x intermedia. Commonly known as lavandin, this ingredient is a man-made hybrid species combing l. angustifolia and spike lavender.
The all-important linalool and linalyl acetate content lies between the two, therefore making it lower than lavandula angustifolia. Furthermore, there’s massive variation inside the subspecies; some plants might secretly contain much less linalool than others, while still simply reading “lavandin” on the label. Again, l. angustifolia is optimal, and New Direction Aromatics contains it.
If lavender oil is secretly the solution to your acne, New Direction Aromatics is a great way to get it. The bottle is available on their website.
Seven – Essential Depot
This essential oil brand flies under the radar, yet their products such as lavender oil easily outstrip many which are selling by the thousand.
Essential Depot’s lavender oil originates from the sweeping fields of Bulgaria, and is steam-distilled to avoid obliterating the fragile compounds, and hence the whole point of the product. It comes in a dark, amber bottle to minimise UV radiation damage, and uses organic growing methods. It uses Lavandula angustifolia, the greatest lavender species of the 39+, and the liquid is described as clear to pale yellow.
Like every lavender oil on this list, Essential Depot is tested for purity using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), in this case at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. In fact, Essential Depot tests every single batch for purity. As of March 2024, this lavender oil contained 24.9% linalyl acetate, 39.5% linalool, and 0.3% camphor, close to the ideal range for natural Bulgarian lavender oil.
One easy marker labs use to spot fake lavender oil is “dihydrolinalool”. This is formed during the creation of synthetic linalool, and doesn’t exist anywhere in nature. The same is true for linalyl acetate, lavender oil’s other main medicinal compound. “Dihydrolinalyl acetate” is formed only during the creation of synthetic linalyl acetate, and is never found in pure, natural lavender oil. If you read a lab report with these names on, you are reading about the successful uncovering of a scam.
Essential Depot, on the other hand, is one of the most trustworthy lavender oil (and tea tree oil) brands around.
Amazon link: Essential Depot Bulgarian Lavender Oil.
Conclusion
If you lived in a traditional Bulgarian village, you could probably use the world’s highest quality lavender oil every day to your heart’s content, but for everyone else, these are the nine best products available.
Again, the lavender oil market is particularly fraught with danger compared to other oils. Synthetic fragrances passed off as oils are everywhere. Even some apparently big brands have been caught out. The products listed here are proven to be genuine, and have every other feature for acne and skincare as well, whether it’s optimal nutrition or a glass bottle.
As well as buying your lavender oil and enjoying the results, remember the principles of this article while buying other oils too.
NEXT: discover the root causes of acne and banish your pimples forever
Thanks for reading!
The lavender oil from Essential Oil labs is a product of India, not Bulgaria. Although their website and documentation (which is probably fraudulent) say Bulgaria, the bottle has very fine print on the back that says “Product of India”.
Did you buy a bottle? Can you post an image if so, because I can’t find any mention of it being from India.
https://imgur.com/qzKZOlW
https://imgur.com/nFmFtIb
I couldn’t find a way to directly upload the images. But yes I purchased a bottle and didn’t see any mention of India until I got it and looked at the back label (which is not shown on their website or on the amazon page). And I double checked all their documentation before and after buying. They mention bulgaria everywhere but the actual bottle.
Interesting. Essential Oil Labs is now gone from this page forever until an explanation appears. What about the scent – does it smell synthetic, or floral and natural like it should do?
I emailed them about it but they haven’t replied yet. The smell isn’t particularly synthetic, but is different from the bulgarian lavender oil from artnaturals (which is part of a set that came with a diffuser, and has proper documentation). Also the link essential oil labs provides on their website for the analysis of their lavender oil doesn’t work. It could be that the lavender is genuine, but I doubt it’s bulgarian. That might also explain why they are able to sell it at a relatively lower price.