Guide to Buying the
Best Tea Tree Oil

Choose the Best Tree Oil for Your Health

Are you looking for the best tea tree oil products?

Here you'll find tips to choosing the best products and some of my favorite brands. All of these oils were chosen for their high quality, excellent purity standards and high terpinen 4-ol levels.

Walk into your local health food store and you may be greeted by dozens of different products.

With so many different brand names to choose from, how do you choose the right product?

How to Choose the Best Tea Tree Oil

Here are tips to help you choose the right tea tree oil product. Not all products available will meet these criteria, however, ensuring your product meets some of these suggested factors will at least ensure your product has some measure of quality.

1. Determine the % of Terpinen 4 OL in the Oil

Terpinen 4 OL is the primary antiseptic agent in tea tree oil.

*The higher the percentage of terpinen, the stronger the tea tree oil's antiseptic properties.

Look at the bottle labels to see if the percentage of Terpinen 4 OL is listed; some products may or may not list this information.

You may find terpinen concentrations can range from 10% to 40%; some people may be sensitive to higher concentrations. If you think you may be hypersensitive to tea tree oil it's recommended a skin patch test be conducted before using a higher concentration.

2. Does your bottle come packaged in dark brown glass bottles?

Studies have shown that terpinen-4-ol can rapidly oxidize and become useless when exposed to light.

Light exposure can also increase the levels of para-cymene (a hydrocarbon found in tea tree oil). According to the Environmental Working Group Cosmetic Database, para-cymene is a known skin irritant.

You can avoid possible skin irritation by using products with low para-cymene levels.

3. What's the Concentration of Tea Tree Oil?

Some tea tree oils come mixed with other essential oils, such as eucalyptus oil or peppermint oil. These diluted mixtures may affect how well the tea tree oil will work.

4. Is your Tea Tree Oil 100% Organic?

It's your personal choice whether to purchase products that are 100% Certified Organic; an organic oil may offer higher levels of purity and terpinen 4-OL concentrations.

5. How much does your Tea Tree Oil Cost?

Prices for tea tree oil depend on:

The size of the bottle you're buying

The strength of the tea tree oil (look at the percentage of Terpinen 4 OL)

If the oil is 100% pure or mixed (diluted) with another substance

You may find two ounce (60 ml) bottles range from $10 to $20 and larger 32 ounce bottles priced at over $100.

List of the Best Tea Tree Oil Brands

Here's my list showing some of my favorite Tea Tree Oil products:

• Now Foods Tea Tree Oil - This is an organic, essential oil made from steam-distilled leaves and provides 100% pure tea tree oil. It comes in a 1 ounce bottle and you can find it for about $12 a bottle.

• Thursday Plantation Tea Tree Oil - This is a popular brand the produces dozens of different products made from tea tree oil. I've used this brand a number of times and found it a really good quality tea tree oil that provides a high concentration of terpinen 4-OL.

• Good n' Natural Tea Tree Oil - While I haven't personally used this product, it apparently has received dozens of positive customer reviews on Amazon.com. This is a 100% pure tea tree oil made from Australian Melaleuca alternifolia leaves. This sells for about $14 for a 2 ounce bottle, but you may be able to find it cheaper at various online retailers.

• Pure Essentials Tea Tree Oil is another product that's gotten a lot of positive reviews on Amazon.com. I've never used this product either, but it does look fairly decent with 100% tea tree oil and it's pretty cheap at under $6 a bottle.

Tea tree oil can also be found at your local health food store and you can even do an internet search to locate more products.