19 Aug 2026
Essential oil sustainability cheat sheet:
- Essential oils are highly concentrated plant extracts
- They often require huge amounts of land, water and energy to produce
- Some need hundreds of kilos (or millions of flowers) for tiny amounts
- “Natural” doesn’t always mean sustainable
- smol uses a blend of essential oils, lab-made fragrance and upcycled ingredients
- The goal? The same beautiful scent with a much lighter footprint.
If something smells like a plant, and comes from a plant, and has a lovely planty name…
It’s better, right?
Not always.
Essential oils are basically a plant’s powerful defence system, distilled down and bottled. That’s why they smell so strong, and need to be used carefully. They’re pretty potent. In fact some are now classed as notifiable allergens on product labels.¹
But when deciding if they’re really better for fragrance, it’s worth asking: what does it take to make them?
A heavy load.
Essential oils are the result of a VERY resource-heavy manufacturing process.
Just look at what it can take to create these oils.²
Amount of plant needed… | To make…. |
5 tonnes of rose petals | 1 kg rose oil |
1250 oranges | 1 kg orange oil |
250 kg of lemons | 1 kg lemon oil |
2 tonnes of orange blossoms | 1 kg neroli oil |
40 kg of sandalwood | 1 kg sandalwood oil |
That’s a big pile of plants… for some very small bottles.
Does it matter though?
The problem is the scale. Growing crops just for a fragrance uses:
- Huge amounts of farm land
- Large quantities of water
- Intensive harvesting and processing
- An awful lot of wasted plant
And unlike food crops, most of the plant material isn’t being used as food. It’s purely used to create a smell.
So, should we ditch essential oils?
Not completely. Essential oils can make sense if they are:
- Sourced responsibly
- Used in small amounts
- Part of a balanced formulation
And that’s exactly how we approach them here at smol.
smol does fragrance differently.
To give great performance yet tread lighter on the planet, we use a clever mix of:
1. Essential oils.
Where they make sense and are ethically-sourced, we use them selectively.
2. Lab-made fragrance.
This is often the more sustainable choice because it avoids the need to grow and harvest huge amounts of raw materials.
- Synthetic sandalwood fragrance avoids using 40kg of wood for just 1kg of oil
- Lab-made citrus scents don’t require hundreds of kilograms of fruit
- Biotech ingredients like fermented cedarwood (to replace patchouli oil) can give a 90% lower carbon footprint.
It’s the same scent experience but far less resource-heavy.
3. Upcycled ingredients.
Instead of growing new crops, how about using waste and by-products that already exist?
- Citrus peel from juice production
- Eucalyptus leftovers from forestry
- Sawdust from sawmills
We make good use of these fragrance ingredients in our scent-sational Fabric Conditioners and our beautifully scented Surface Reset, Floor Reset and Bathroom Reset.
The bigger picture.
This isn’t about saying essential oils are “bad”, but it is about being honest.
Natural doesn’t always mean more sustainable.
It’s the footprint behind the fragrance that counts.
Essential oils sustainability FAQs.
¹ European Commission. Cosmetic Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009
² Aromaweb and AirAroma
Catherine Green, Cleaning Expert
Catherine has been on a mission to revolutionise the way we tackle chores since the dawn of smol and is an advocate for making more sustainable living accessible to all, with a strong focus in cleaning that’s heavy on dirt, lighter on the planet and gentle on the skin. Catherine has tested hundreds of hacks to make tackling chores easier, safer, and better for the planet and our homes.
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