EO Brands - BioFinest

[deserthawk]

Hi,

I'm researching the different EO suppliers for quality and affordability for soap making purposes and would like to ask if anyone has any experience with the Biofinest brand. If yes, would really appreciate your opinion on whether you:

1. Trust the quality of the brand
2. Find it performs reasonably in soap making in general (though if you know how specific EOs from them work that would be great to know too)
3. Is priced reasonably compared to other EOs in the market that you trust

Thanks in advance

 

[IrishLass]

I've never heard of them before. For what it's worth, I buy mine from either Liberty Natural or Mountain Rose Herbs


IrishLass

 

[szaza]

I don't have any experience with them and I'm afraid I don't know any suppliers in the Singapore area either. What I can say is most of their oils look really expensive to me (+-2-5x what I'm paying), though their jasmine is incredibly cheap: 100ml of steam distilled jasmine oil from biofinest is cheaper than 10ml absolue from my supplier.

 

[AliOop]

My first thought regarding this post is that it is actually a marketing technique to get the company name out there. No disrespect intended, but if one wanted to compare brands, why is only one brand mentioned, and not a few of them?

 

[Zany_in_CO]

My first thought regarding this post is that it is actually a marketing technique to get the company name out there. No disrespect intended, but if one wanted to compare brands, why is only one brand mentioned, and not a few of them?

With all due respect to the OP, @AliOop you may be on to something. I Googled "Biofinest essential oils" and a whole bunch of links came up suggesting they may be selling "fakes". Here's a link to just one from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/review/R2MG6U2EYJMLQG

@deserthawk It would be helpful to us to help you if you could take a moment to go to the Introduction Forum and tell us a little about yourself and your soap making experience.

 

[deserthawk]

Hi, No offence taken, when I reread my post I can see how you got that impression. But no this isn't marketing, just a newbie soapmaker desperately seeking more info on EOs suppliers. Like @Zany_in_CO I googled the brand but just couldn't find any credible and independent reviews. Where I stay, I don't have access to a lot of variety and have to consider shipping cost so before I dismiss it completely I thought I'd check and was hoping there might be fellow soapmakers who might be able to provide me with their first hand experience before I make any costly purchases. I figured unlike Amazon reviews and even blog reviewers my best bet for an unbiased and experienced review would be in this forum.

The reason I posted only one is that I am going through a list of brands in order to evaluate them independently and in an orderly fashion. Also, for some of the brands the forum already has a numerous threads on them and so I didn't have to ask about it.

Some brands like Now (My current main source), and from WSP and BB I've bought and tried personally and they also have threads discussing them already.

I'm avoiding any brand in which it's run as an MLM (Young Living & Doterra) partly on principal partly because their prices are way too expensive.

Of all the ingredients involved in soapmaking, EOs seem to be the most difficult to source ethically with some of the dodgiest supply chains.

Brands I trust based on personal experience are only 3 (Now Foods/BB/WSP) But due to shipping cost and sometimes depending on the EO they are too expensive.

In my search for a more affordable Roman Chamomile I came across BioFinest but as their price seems almost too good to be true I am hoping someone is able to tell me if this supplier can be trusted or not.

Also on my list to evaluate are these companies (I just haven't got to them yet):
1. Bulk Apothecary - Though their shipping will bankrupt me
2. Aura Cacia (iHerb) - Rather expensive
3. New Directions Australia
4. Pure Essentials Singapore

 

[deserthawk]

My first thought regarding this post is that it is actually a marketing technique to get the company name out there. No disrespect intended, but if one wanted to compare brands, why is only one brand mentioned, and not a few of them?

I understand why you got that impression. Hopefully my above reply addresses that.

To answer your question, I'm not comparing brands with each other, more researching each one independently.

@deserthawk It would be helpful to us to help you if you could take a moment to go to the Introduction Forum and tell us a little about yourself and your soap making experience.

Thanks, I'll go over and introduce myself shorty.

I don't have any experience with them and I'm afraid I don't know any suppliers in the Singapore area either. What I can say is most of their oils look really expensive to me (+-2-5x what I'm paying), though their jasmine is incredibly cheap: 100ml of steam distilled jasmine oil from biofinest is cheaper than 10ml absolue from my supplier.

Yeah that perplexed me too. For oils like peppermint and sweet orange I noticed they were significantly more expensive than the brand I'm using, Now Foods. But for Roman Chamomile their price was almost a 1/3 of other brands. But I'm not familiar enough with the industry to know how to interpret this.

The lack of transparency and regulations surrounding EOs is both confusing and stressing me out.

 

[AliOop]

@deserthawk Thank you for explaining your situation, and I'm sorry to have doubted you. Part of my day job involves spotting fake emails and links, and training my staff to spot them, so I'm more over-reactive to this possibility than most. Wish I had more advice to give regarding EOs, but I don't think most US suppliers will ship overseas, or if they do, as you noted, it will be very expensive. Best of luck finding something more local and reasonable.

 

[deserthawk]

@deserthawk Thank you for explaining your situation, and I'm sorry to have doubted you. Part of my day job involves spotting fake emails and links, and training my staff to spot them, so I'm more over-reactive to this possibility than most. Wish I had more advice to give regarding EOs, but I don't think most US suppliers will ship overseas, or if they do, as you noted, it will be very expensive. Best of luck finding something more local and reasonable.

No worries, I understood where you were coming from. And as someone who has found this community both welcoming and invaluable, I'd want to protect this space too.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

I'm wondering if India would be closer to you to order from. ???

I have a soaping buddy in Arizona who orders her Rose Oil, as well as other EOs, from Shiva Export India.
She is a long time soaper, a savvy shopper and as frugal as all get out LOL, so if she's paying shipping from there to the USA, it's gotta be worth a look. Yes?

This is where I order my essential oils and emu oil from. The prices are the best, shipping is reasonable, you can choose glass or plastic, and they have a large variety of sizes, which I like for blends. I'm not sure if they ship overseas though.

Sun Pure Botanicals (Ebay)

 

[szaza]

I just checked the supplier I normally get my EO's from and they seem open to orders from outside of Europe (shipping costs are calculated individually in that case, so there's no indication of price). I also noticed the English version of the website is missing (it was wonky, so they probably just deleted it), which is another obstacle. You could probably email the owner, I found customer service to be quite good, but it's a bit of a stretch and a lot of effort.
Here's the link to their EO's and contact info.
I also made an excel sheet with their EO prices. I can send it to you if you're interested (I use it in my what-(not)-to-buy decision making)

 

[deserthawk]

Thanks so much for the sources @Zany_in_CO. I had considered India, but again it came down to trust and cost so it's helps a lot knowing you and your friend has experience with these suppliers.

Thanks @szaza, their prices look really reasonable. Thank god for GoogleTranslate Appreciate the offer for their EO prices, will pm you.

 

[Lray]

Hi deserthawk! I know this is a long ago post but was searching for fellow Singaporean soap makers and happened to see this post. If you are still interested, I buy my essential oils from Singapore Soap. Their essential oils are inexpensive and good.

Singapore Soap

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Hi deserthawk!

TIP: If you put an "@" sign in front of the name, they will receive a notice that someone mentioned them in a thread -- @deserthawk.

Unfortunately, it seems deserthawk is no longer a member.

 

[squarepancakes]

@Lray Also from Singapore, I usually buy from Plant Therapy as they have a good variety and range as well as free shipping (above a certain amount). You can also consider them too.