NOW Foods Essential Oils Review 2026: Honest Verdict on Quality & Value
By Ellen Cooper, independent essential-oil reviewer (hands-on since 2018, no MLM affiliation)
NOW Foods is the brand I point beginners at more often than any other, and the reason is unglamorous: it’s cheap enough that you’ll actually use it. A 1 fl oz (about 30 ml) bottle of their lavender lists at $13.99 on NOW’s own site, which matters more than it sounds. People who spend $40 on a bottle tend to hoard it, and an oil you’re afraid to use is worth nothing. What follows is what NOW does well, what it genuinely does badly, and the question people ask about it more than any other: whether you can swallow it.
Quick answers:
- Is NOW a good brand? Yes, as a budget brand. It sells through ordinary retail with no MLM markup, and the paperwork behind each pure oil is better than most small brands offer.
- Are NOW oils pure? NOW says GC-MS identity and purity testing is done by a specialized third-party lab, and you can look up the Certificate of Analysis for your lot number at cofa.nowfoods.com.
- Are NOW oils food grade? Not as sold. NOW says some of its oils could qualify as GRAS, but it labels every oil for aromatherapy only and many bottles say “Not for internal use.”
- NOW vs other brands? Same verifiable testing story as Plant Therapy or Edens Garden at a lower price, weaker labels, and no kid-safe line.
Is NOW Foods a good essential oil brand?
Yes, for what it is. NOW is a supplement manufacturer that happens to sell essential oils, not a boutique aromatherapy house, and the difference shows in both directions. You get industrial-scale quality control and lot-level paperwork that most small brands can’t match. You also get labels written by a supplements company, which is where it falls down.
NOW was founded in 1968 by Elwood Richard, a physical chemist who ran a small chain of Chicago health-food stores, and it describes itself today as a family- and employee-owned company headquartered in Bloomingdale, Illinois. Its own timeline says it earned GMP certification from the Natural Products Association in 2000 (NOW Foods, history). It sells through shops and ordinary online retail, with no distributors, no downline and no “wholesale membership” that turns out to be a recruitment pitch. In a category this saturated with multi-level marketing, that alone puts NOW in a different conversation from several brands in our essential oil brand reviews.
How does NOW compare with other essential oil brands?
The short version: NOW matches the better non-MLM brands on verifiable testing and beats them on price, but it trails them on beginner guidance. Here’s how it lines up against the brands people most often weigh it against.
| Brand | Testing | MLM? | Verification you can read |
|---|---|---|---|
| NOW Foods | GC/MS via specialised third-party lab | No | Lot-level Certificate of Analysis |
| Plant Therapy | Third-party GC/MS, per batch | No | Published lot report |
| Edens Garden | Batch GC/MS via Essential Oil University | No | Published lot report |
| doTERRA | CPTG, proprietary (in-house + third-party) | Yes | Company’s own summary |
| Young Living | Seed to Seal, proprietary | Yes | Company’s own summary |
Testing descriptions for the other brands summarize our individual reviews, linked in the table, where each one is sourced.
Where NOW loses is hand-holding. Plant Therapy has a KidSafe range developed with Robert Tisserand, and NOW has no equivalent. If you’re choosing between NOW and an MLM brand, the real question is whether the extra cost buys you anything you can check. With NOW, the check is a lot number and a public lookup.
How does NOW Foods test its essential oils?
This is the part worth reading carefully, because it’s routinely misreported, including, until recently, by this article.
NOW states that GC-MS identity and purity testing for its essential oils is performed by a specialized third-party laboratory, while the company builds out its own in-house GC-MS program with statistical batch analysis (NOW Foods, essential oil identity and purity testing). Externally run testing is a stronger signal than in-house testing, not a weaker one: a contract lab doesn’t sell the oil, so it has less reason to shade the result.
If those method names mean nothing to you, that’s normal. We break down what each test actually detects, and which four things on a certificate decide whether it’s worth anything, in our essential oil purity guide.
NOW’s testing page lists an orthogonal battery around that. Refractive index, optical rotation and specific gravity confirm the oil behaves physically like the species on the label; ICP-MS screens for arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury; an in-house pesticide-residue program uses LC-MS/MS and GC-MS/MS; and organoleptic assessment is a trained chemist smelling it. Any one of these can be gamed. Together they’re hard to fake.
How to check your own bottle: the lot number is printed on the bottom, and you enter it at cofa.nowfoods.com to see the Certificate of Analysis (CofA). NOW opened that lookup to consumers in February 2023 for its range of more than 90 pure oils (Vitamin Retailer, 2023). Two limits are worth knowing. The CofA site itself says not every product has results posted yet, “especially oils produced prior to 2023.” And at launch, NOW said blends don’t get their own CofA: each component oil is tested before blending, and the finished blend is checked only for physical properties such as specific gravity and scent.
NOW also says its in-house labs run over 31,000 tests a month across all product lines (a figure NOW gives for 2025), plus third-party verification (NOW Foods Quality). That figure is self-reported and covers far more than oils, so treat it as scale, not proof.
Credit where it’s due on marketing language, too. NOW’s own testing page says labeling an oil therapeutic, medicinal or aromatherapy grade “could be misleading,” because no approved grading standard is used consistently across the industry. A brand telling you its category’s favorite marketing term means nothing is a brand worth listening to.
Are NOW Foods essential oils food grade or safe to ingest?
No. Don’t swallow them. NOW answers this on its own FAQ: its essential oils are “intended solely for use as aromatherapy products; they’re not intended for internal use,” and many are labeled “Not for internal use” (NOW Foods, food-grade essential oil FAQs). The lavender product page carries that exact caution (NOW Foods, lavender oil).
The confusion is understandable, because it comes from a real rule. 21 CFR 182.20, titled “Essential oils, oleoresins (solvent-free), and natural extractives (including distillates)”, lists a long roster of plant oils, including lavender, peppermint and sweet orange, as generally recognized as safe “for their intended use, within the meaning of section 409 of the Act.”
Everything hinges on that phrase. The intended use is flavoring, at flavoring concentrations: the peppermint in a sweet, the lemon in a soft drink. GRAS status describes a compound appearing in food at that level. It isn’t a clearance to put drops of concentrated oil in water and drink it, and it says nothing about therapeutic doses.
NOW’s FAQ goes further than most brands. It says some of its oils “do qualify as food-grade” or could qualify as GRAS, yet it still won’t label or market any of them for ingestion, because a food or supplement meant to be swallowed must carry Nutrition Facts or Supplement Facts and serving information. It also publishes a list of oils that should never be ingested, including eucalyptus radiata, wintergreen, pennyroyal, frankincense, cedarwood, cypress, pine needle and balsam fir.
Worth being blunt about: “food grade” and “therapeutic grade” are both marketing phrases, not regulatory categories. There is no consumer-facing “ingestible grade” for essential oils. A bottle can be pure, third-party tested and completely genuine, and still be unsafe to drink, because purity and edibility are different questions.
The independent safety picture agrees. The National Capital Poison Center notes that some essential oils are poisonous if swallowed, and that an oil which is choked on and inhaled can cause pneumonia (Poison Control). If anyone swallows an oil, call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222. If a clinician ever recommends an ingestible oil, they’ll use a product labeled for that use, not a bottle marked “Not for internal use.” For the general rules of using oils safely, our beginner’s guide to essential oils and carrier oil guide cover dilution properly.
Why is NOW Foods so cheap?
Because the price you pay for most essential oils isn’t mostly the oil.
NOW sells through ordinary retail. There’s no distributor taking a cut, no upline above them, no compensation plan to fund. When you buy an MLM bottle, a meaningful slice of the price funds the network that sold it to you; that’s the business model, not an accusation. Our doTERRA and Young Living reviews go through what that markup actually buys. Strip that layer out, buy at supplement-manufacturer volume, and the same oil costs a fraction as much. Our Plant Therapy, Edens Garden and Rocky Mountain Oils reviews cover the rest of the non-MLM range, and the brand tag collects them all.
NOW’s pricing also rewards buying bigger. These are the list prices for its lavender on nowfoods.com, checked October 17, 2026; retailers often sell for less.
| NOW lavender size | List price | Price per fl oz |
|---|---|---|
| 1/3 fl oz (10 ml) | $5.99 | about $18 |
| 1 fl oz (about 30 ml) | $13.99 | $13.99 |
| 2 fl oz | $22.99 | about $11.50 |
| 4 fl oz | $39.99 | about $10.00 |
| 16 fl oz | $149.99 | about $9.37 |
Cheap does raise a fair question about cut corners, and NOW is genuinely more exposed here than a boutique brand: it doesn’t grow its own plants, and its range is broad rather than deep. The worry isn’t paranoid. Adulteration with cheaper oils, synthetics or vegetable oil is documented in the peer-reviewed literature and can be hard to catch without proper GC reference profiles (PMC, Molecules 2021).
NOW itself tested 28 lavender oils bought on Amazon in 2026 and reported that only three brands, its own among them, met ISO criteria for authentic lavender (NOW Foods; covered by Nutritional Outlook). Read that with care: it’s a competitor testing rivals, not a peer-reviewed study. It also cuts against the “cheap” story, since NOW reported that the three passing oils were among the four highest priced in the set. NOW is cheap next to MLM brands, not the cheapest bottle on Amazon. The answer to the worry is the paperwork above: buy the lot, check the CofA, and you aren’t relying on anyone’s promises.
Which NOW oils are worth starting with?
Lavender first, always; it’s the most forgiving oil in my cabinet and the one I reach for most. Then sweet orange, which is cheap, pleasant to almost everybody, and hard to overdo in a diffuser. Peppermint for the sharp, clearing scent. Eucalyptus if you want something for a stuffy room, as a diffuser oil only: NOW puts eucalyptus radiata on its never-ingest list. Tea tree only if you have a specific use for it; it’s potent and the smell divides people. If you’re still deciding what to stock, our guide to the most popular essential oils ranks them by what people actually use.
Skip the blends at first. They’re convenient, but you learn nothing about how an oil behaves on its own, and NOW said in 2023 that blends don’t get their own CofA.
Where NOW Foods falls short
The oil is fine. The paperwork around it isn’t always.
Dilution guidance on the labels is vague, which is a real problem for a brand this many beginners start with. The lavender page tells you to “carefully dilute with a carrier oil” and then to “consult an essential oil book or other professional reference source for suggested dilution ratios” (NOW Foods). That tells a first-time buyer nothing actionable, and I’ve watched people guess at it rather than look it up. There’s no dedicated kid-safe or pet-safe line to match Plant Therapy’s KidSafe range.
None of this makes the oil worse. It makes NOW a brand that assumes you already know what you’re doing, which is an odd assumption for the brand most beginners start with. For the record, this site works to 20 drops per ml, so 1 drop per teaspoon of carrier gives roughly a 1% dilution.
Where to buy NOW Foods essential oils
Health-food shops, the usual online retailers, and NOW’s own site. If you’re shopping for a diffuser at the same time, our ultrasonic diffuser picks pair well with these oils. I buy mine in a shop when I can, for one small reason: you get to read the actual bottle, with its botanical name, country of origin and the lot number you’ll need for the CofA lookup, before you commit.
Recommended NOW Foods Oils on Amazon
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you. Product details and availability are subject to change. Check the live listing on Amazon.
| Image | Product | Best for | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|
 | NOW Essential Oils | Bright, minty scent | Buy on Amazon |
 | NOW Essential Oils | Soft floral scent | Buy on Amazon |
 | NOW Essential Oils | Sharp, camphor-like scent | Buy on Amazon |
 | NOW Essential Oils | Sharp, medicinal scent | Buy on Amazon |
 | NOW Essential Oils | Fresh, uplifting scent | Buy on Amazon |
Affiliate links · details and availability change · check the live Amazon listing.
The verdict
On the criteria this site scores brands by, NOW Foods is the strongest first-bottle choice in our reviews. Buy it if you want honest oils at an honest price and you’re comfortable looking up dilution ratios on your own.
Look elsewhere if you want hand-holding: a beginner buying for a child or a pet is better served by a brand with an explicit kid-safe line and clearer labels. And whatever you buy, keep it out of your mouth.
Frequently asked questions
Are NOW Foods essential oils good quality?
Yes, for the price. NOW says a specialized third-party lab runs its GC-MS purity testing, backed by heavy-metal and pesticide screening. Quality control is the strong part; labeling and beginner guidance are the weak part.
Are NOW Foods essential oils food grade?
Not as sold. NOW says some of its oils could qualify as GRAS, but it labels all of them for aromatherapy only and does not market any for ingestion. GRAS under 21 CFR 182.20 covers use as a food flavoring at the levels used in food, not taking concentrated oil by the drop.
Can you use NOW essential oils internally?
No. NOW says its oils are not intended for internal use, labels many of them “Not for internal use,” and lists some, such as eucalyptus radiata and wintergreen, that should never be swallowed. If anyone swallows an oil, call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222.
Are NOW Foods essential oils pure?
You can check rather than trust. Find the lot number on the bottom of the bottle and look it up at cofa.nowfoods.com to see the Certificate of Analysis with the results of NOW’s quality testing. The site says results may be missing, especially for oils produced before 2023, and NOW said in 2023 that blends do not get their own certificate.
Is NOW Foods an MLM?
No. NOW Foods is a family- and employee-owned manufacturer founded in 1968 that sells through retail shops and ordinary online retailers. There are no distributors, no downline and no membership tier, which is a large part of why the oils cost what they do.
How do NOW essential oils compare with doTERRA and Young Living?
NOW sells through retail at a fraction of MLM prices and lets you look up a lot-level Certificate of Analysis. doTERRA and Young Living sell through distributor networks and describe their testing in their own proprietary programs, CPTG and Seed to Seal.
How we review essential oil brands
I buy the products I write about, I take no free samples, and affiliate links never influence a rating. More about me and this site is on the about page. Brand assessments here rest on published testing documentation, regulatory records and label evidence, not on manufacturer marketing. Where a claim comes from the brand rather than an independent source, I say so in the sentence. Facts in this review were last checked against their sources on October 17, 2026.
Medical disclaimer: This article is general information, not medical advice, and does not diagnose or treat any condition. Never apply essential oils neat or ingest them, and check with a qualified professional before using them during pregnancy, while nursing, around children, with a medical condition, or alongside medication.
