Essential oils are concentrated extracts from flowers, fruit, seeds, peel, bark, roots and leaves of plants, herbs, spices and trees.
They are extracted by different methods including distillation, expression and solvent extraction and carry with them not only the beautiful aroma but special healing properties of the plant.
Synthetic oils (often called fragrance oils) cannot reproduce these qualities and will lack the important essential proprieties that provide the therapeutic benefits.
Essential oils were also used in the past by perfumers to create exotic perfume blends but today have been almost completely replaced by synthetics.