How We Source & Prepare our Aromatherapy

About our Aromatherapy Products

We source all our aromatherapy products directly from a few selected importers who share our environmental and fair trading concerns and our passion for supplying the best quality product at the best prices that we can.

The quality of our oils are among the best available on the UK market. Our organically sourced oils are the highest quality of Food Grade. We previously sold these under our food license with the Soil Association due to their purity (many other suppliers sell organic oils as health and beauty grade).

Our main supplier also supplies some of the top-name brands but, because we are a small family business with less overheads and bottle the oils ourselves, we do not need to charge the same price tag!


Holistic Valley

We have branded our aromatherapy products (and all unbranded products we offer) with our trademarked brand name of 'Holistic Valley' (formally 'Aroma'). When you hear this name, you can be assured that the product is of the high quality that you deserve, and has been sourced ethically and with the best interests of our home, Planet Earth, in mind.


Bottling & Preparation

We buy in bulk, bottling and preparing the oils and products ourselves in a food grade aromatherapy preparation room in our warehouse in Bedwas, Caerphilly. This helps us to keep our prices so low as we do not pay for expensive factory bottling and bespoke labelling services. Our labels are all our own artwork and are printed on our own printers.

All our aromatherapy products are handled hygienically and with care by experienced staff who work with attention to detail. We are able to trace any oil back to its source with our batching system and we rotate our stock efficiently to provide you with the freshest product available. 

We use legal trade scales and measures and follow all guidelines as set out by the Aromatherapy Trade Council and Trading Standards.


A note about expiry or use by date

We detail expiry dates in one of the following ways:

A 'Period After Opening' time depicted by the 'cap-off' symbol which gives the number of months the product is expected to last once opened, or

An 'Expiry' date which is depicted by the 'egg-timer' symbol which gives a date after which the product may not be at its best and its properties may begin diminishing 

However, these are just a guide as there is so much that it can depend on due to the natural nature of the products. It can be dependent on the quality of the crop that was harvested, the time of year of harvest, how long the crop was stored before processing, the length of time it has taken to reach us through our importers, and how it is stored after purchase. 

All aromatherapy oils should be stored in a cool dark place, with minimal exposure to air (replace the cap securely and promptly after use). This will prolong the life of the oils.

The carrier oils tend to be very stable and we always aim to sell our stock within a year of purchase, although most stock is turned around within a few months. The best judge is by smell and the look of the oil. When carrier oils turn, they usually fade and smell just like normal vegetable oil (although some will smell like that anyway, but if the smell changes from when purchased then it is on the turn).

The essential oils vary considerably, but generally the citrus ones can usually last for up to a year although some have been known to be a few years old and still fine. The woody ones are fine for a few years, the others we suggest 18 months upwards. We have known some patchouli to last nearly 10 years!

The floral waters are usually fine for about a year after purchase, and even though they should last longer, the smell tends to deteriorate. 


Are we a member of the Aromatherapy Trade Council or similar professional body?

We are currently licensed with the Aromatherapy Trade Council.

We previously held a Soil Association licence for our organic aromatherapy oils, however this became prohibitively expensive, so we now simply call our organic oils 'Organically Sourced' (this has been approved by Trading Standards and ATC).

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