What Are Essential Oils? A Complete Introduction to Their Benefits, Uses and Safety
From Bulgarian lavender fields thrumming with life to the sun-warmed citrus groves of Sicily, essential oils capture some of the most distinctive scents found in nature. But what makes these oils so ‘essential’? How are they made? And what exactly should we be doing with them anyway?
Author: Gabe Napper, Writer
Expertise Provided by: Kayley Hurley, Lush Spa Lead and Jodi Francis, Anya Dale and Gabbi Loedolff, Lush Buying Team
Last updated: 26th October 2026
Reading Time: 5-6 min
What are essential oils?
In short, essential oils are the essence of plants: highly concentrated aromatic extracts of flowers, trees, herbs, spices, shrubs, shoots and all sorts of greenery (try saying that three times).
Think fresh, cooling aromas of peppermint, the floral sweetness of rose or the bright citrus kick of bergamot. And they don’t just smell ace. These forces of nature have been used for centuries in everything from perfumery and bathing to incense, flavours and even medicine.
Essential oils can be made from hundreds of plants, which means there’s a huge variation in their look, texture, colour and smell, not to mention in the extraction methods used to obtain them.
Whether by steam, solvent or expression, how an oil is produced depends on the flower or plant it’s extracted from. Each method yields a slightly different result, either an absolute, butter or essential oil. But regardless of the form, they all have one thing in common: they all smell bloomin’ wonderful!
How do they work?
Ever caught a scent on the breeze and suddenly found yourself somewhere completely different — perhaps a childhood garden, a favourite holiday with your partner … or even a favourite holiday with your ex (awkward).
Our sense of smell has a particularly strong relationship with memory and emotion. With just one whiff, volatile molecules interact with receptors in your olfactory system, sending information to the brain where it can be interpreted and connected with memories long forgotten.
Small but mighty, these potent oils have the profound ability to transport you to a different place, time and even mood. And with scent being so personal, there’s no single emotional response and that's really rather lovely, don't you think?
But the story doesn't end with your nose. Essential oils are packed with naturally occurring compounds that do more than just smell nice (although they do that too). When used in skincare, these oils bring a whole bounty of benefits to your skin. Some soothe, others refresh, while some have even been studied for their potential anti-inflammatory effects. Who knew there was so much going on beneath the surface?
Meet some of our favourite essential oils
With there being hundreds of possible essential oils, it can all seem a bit overwhelming. So where should you begin? Well, here are a few of our favourites to get you started, but this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Lavender essential oil
Ideal for lulling you into a restful state of mind.
You’d probably be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn’t smelt this dreamboat. Synonymous with relaxation, serenity and a deep sense of calm, this apothecary staple has long been the herb of choice for softening the edges of a long day. Blended with rose and patchouli, it’s an absolute dream (if you’re after the sweetest of them).
Like what you smell? This dreamy oil features as a key component of the Sleepy product range, helping you put all your worldly worries to bed.
Neroli essential oil
Ideal for cheering the mood on even the gloomiest of days.
An aroma so opulent that the Princess of Nerola used it to perfume her gloves. This delicate oil is beloved for its jovial, reassuring aroma and blends particularly well with bergamot and fragonia to leave you feeling bright and composed.
Like what you smell? This delicate oil offers a mood-boosting lift to the larger-than-life fragrance, Big body spray.
Peppermint essential oil
Ideal for blowing away tension on an icy fresh breeze.
Cool, fresh and unmistakably minty, this popular oil brings an enlivening quality to everything it touches. Bursting with bracing menthol for that familiar cooling sensation on the skin, peppermint pairs perfectly with geranium and lavender to release tension and rebalance the mind.
Like what you smell? This peppermint pick-me-up lends its revitalising aroma to Cold bath bomb, part of our Bathe To Feel Better range, that’ll wick away your winter woes.
Rose absolute
Ideal for bringing your head, heart and skin back to equilibrium.
Said to be the Queen of Flowers, rose has long been treasured for its deep, velvety aroma and emotionally balancing qualities. But it’s not all about the scent; this soothing absolute blends seamlessly with sandalwood and ylang ylang in cosmetics to bring comfort and support to troubled skin.
Like what you smell? This evocative absolute acts as the floral focal point for our Rose Jam product range.
How can essential oils be used?
Essential oils are incredibly versatile.
- Perfumery: Their aromatic qualities make them especially valuable in perfumery, where they can contribute everything from bright top notes to a deep, woody base.
- Cosmetics: They’re also ideal for use in cosmetics (as you’ll likely know from the decades of smelling us before you see us), offering an abundance of benefits, from the tension-melting effects of peppermint to the radiance-boosting qualities of frankincense.
But before you get too carried away, keep in mind that essential oils aren’t the same thing as finished cosmetics. How they’re used, and at what concentration, matters.
- Carrier oils: That’s where carrier oils come in. Essential oils must never be applied neat to the skin and need diluting in a carrier oil, like jojoba, sweet almond or grapeseed, first. So, whether you’re preparing for a massage or dreaming up your own blends, always check the instructions before diving in.
- Diffusers: Now, back to the fun stuff. Some essential oils can even be used in your home diffuser, filling your world with fragrance and a whole host of aromatherapy benefits to boot. Sounds good? Smells even better.
What to look for when buying essential oils
Not all essential oils are created equal. Their quality can be influenced by everything from plant variety and growing conditions to harvesting, extraction, storage and handling. So, it’s important to consider a few things before purchasing.
- Check the botanical name. This tells you exactly which plant you're looking at — and before long, you’ll be telling your Citrus aurantium amara from your Citrus aurantium bergamia like a pro.
- Find out which part of the plant was used in extraction. Leaf, flower, peel, bark, root … trust us, it can make a remarkable difference to the scent of the oil.
- Look for transparency in sourcing. Where was it grown? Who produced it? Essential oils can be precious and sometimes scarce materials, so knowing more about their journey matters.
Essential oils are natural, so they must be safe, right?
As with any ingredient, concentration is key and can tip an ingredient from beneficial to harmful.
Thankfully, we've done the hard work for you. All our essential oils undergo quality control testing, ensuring they’re of top quality and purity. But we don’t stop there. Each Lush essential oil is also assessed by our expert Toxicology Team, who determine the appropriate methods and concentration for use.
So don’t let all that hard work go to waste. Always read the safety instructions, avoid contact with eyes and never apply essential oils neat onto the skin.
From soil to shelf: why sourcing matters
When it comes to sourcing the best essential oils, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it’s all down to good raw materials. While top-quality ingredients are important, this is only one piece of the puzzle.
When seeking out essential oils, the Lush Buying Team places great emphasis on nurturing and maintaining strong, direct relationships with the growers and producers who grow, harvest, distil and supply them.
These relationships are built over time, through trust, transparency and a shared understanding of what quality means. Getting to know the people behind an essential oil means understanding not just how it’s produced, but the care that goes into every step of the process. It also gives our Buying Team a clearer view of the social and environmental practices behind an ingredient, helping us to work with suppliers whose values most closely align with our own.
For Lush, there is always something particularly meaningful about working with family-run farms and businesses, many of which have built up generations of knowledge around the crops they grow. For example, we’ve partnered with the same family-run citrus producer in Italy for over two decades. With their invaluable wealth of instinct and expertise, they produce the most vibrant Sicilian lemon oil that brings life to our products and sunshine to your day.
But these relationships aren't just about buying an ingredient. Essential oils are a record of what’s happening at source, and the world is changing faster than anyone anticipated. Seasons fluctuate, weather patterns shift, and crops that are abundant one year can be scarce the next. These oils act as a fingerprint of time, their chemical composition altering to reflect it.
And while we can see how they’ve changed with two-step quality checks, we can understand why through the strength of these longstanding, stable relationships and the time spent on the ground and in the fields, witnessing harvests and hearing first-hand accounts. It’s this depth of knowledge of materials and conditions that puts us in a unique position to identify emerging patterns and initiate conversations around what we’re seeing in practice.
Ultimately, sourcing an essential oil is about much more than finding an ingredient that smells good. It’s about knowing where it comes from, understanding the people and processes behind it, and building relationships that allow us to care for the ingredient and the communities and environments connected to it for the long term. And hey, if it smells great too, then count us in!
Want to dig deeper into how we make our essential oils? You might find this article interesting. Did our sourcing practices catch your eye? Take a look here. Or has it simply given you an urge to find your new Lush Essential oil? Browse them all.