How we make money, in plain English.

No. The price you pay is identical whether you reach the brand through our affiliate link or directly through the brand’s website. The commission we earn comes from the brand or affiliate network, not from you. In some cases, our partner brands offer discount codes or coupon opportunities through their affiliate programs that may actually save you money compared to direct shopping.

Every article that contains affiliate links includes a disclosure at the top of the article. Within the article, affiliate links are not visually different from regular links — that’s standard practice across the publishing industry, including major sites like Wirecutter and Consumer Reports. If you’d like to verify whether a specific link is an affiliate link before clicking, you can hover over it to see the destination URL. Affiliate links typically contain tracking parameters in the URL.

No, and we have built specific safeguards to prevent that from happening. Three structural points: First, our methodology is published openly so any departure from it would be detectable by readers. Second, we earn similar commission rates across partner brands, removing the incentive to favor one. Third, we publish reviews of brands we don’t partner with using the same rubric, so high scores are not contingent on partnership.

If you ever read a review on our site that seems to contradict our methodology, please tell us. We’d rather correct an error than let it stand.

Three things help us the most. First, subscribing to our newsletter builds a direct relationship with readers and helps us understand what content matters most. Second, sharing articles with friends researching essential oils — that’s how we grow without paid marketing. Third, sending us corrections or suggestions when you spot something we missed; reader feedback is how we improve over time.

If you have a specific concern about a specific page, contact us and explain. We don’t remove links based on general objection to affiliate marketing — that revenue funds the site and would otherwise need to come from somewhere else, such as paid subscriptions. But if you’ve identified something genuinely problematic about how a link is presented, we’ll review it seriously.

Not currently. Multi-level marketing brands typically don’t offer traditional affiliate programs — their commission structure runs through distributor networks rather than affiliate networks. Joining an MLM as a distributor to earn commissions would compromise our independence in ways traditional affiliate partnerships do not, so we don’t do it. This means we review MLM brands without any financial stake in whether readers buy from them.

We update this page whenever we add new affiliate partnerships, change existing ones, or modify our disclosure practices. The “last updated” date at the top of the page reflects the most recent change. Material changes to our monetization model — new revenue streams, significant new partnerships — are also noted on this page when they happen.