Sun Essentials aka Sun Organic LLC, a Delaware company aka Scottsdale Wholesale - seller on Ebay aka Prime Time Commerce - seller on Amazon Selling diluted Tea Tree Oil on Amazon.com and Ebay.com and passing it off as 100% Pure Phoenix AZ

I would like to inform you about an Arizona company selling adulterated Tea Tree Oil.  The name of the product is Sun Essentials Tea Tree Oil.  I ordered the product a few months ago on Amazon.com.

I am very familiar with Tea Tree Oil, as I worked in the industry for some time.  Pure Tea Tree Oil does not feel greasy like Olive Oil.  It has a watery consistency.  I knew immediately when I touched this oil that it was adulterated.  It has a slight tea tree oil scent, but it was greasy. I had it tested using gas chromatography in a professional lab run by a chemist with a PhD, and it came back as 10% Tea Tree Oil and 90% of another oil, possibly Grape Seed.

Tea Tree Oil is expensive, and Grape Seed Oil is very cheap so this company is making huge profits through this fraud.  As you can see from the packaging, the label claims the bottle only contains tea tree oil. This company markets many other oils on Amazon; I haven't tested those so I don't know if any are adulterated or not. 

They are selling an 8 FL. OZ. Tea Tree Oil for $9.99 (it was $8.99 a few months ago when I bought it!!) including shipping; in addition, Amazon keeps 15% as their cut.  Shipping by ground (as it must be shipped since real tea tree oil is flammable and can't go first class) would be over $7.00.   [$9.99-$1.50 (Amazon cut) - $7.00 (shipping, on the low side) - $4.00 (approx. cost of 4 ounces of real Australian tea tree oil bought by the drum) - $0.15 (bottle, label and cap - low estimate)] =  -$2.63

This loss of -$2.63 per bottle is before subtracting labor, overhead, handling costs and profit!

Even if the tea tree oil were Chinese (cheaper than Australian), that would only reduce the loss by maybe $1.00

As I have knowledge of the tea tree oil market, I know that it is impossible to make money at this price if it is pure tea tree oil. This online fraud is ripping off scores of consumers.

This scam is massive, as this oil is one of the best-selling tea tree oils on Amazon now (the product has over 11,000 reviews).  Many people now give it bad reviews because they believe is diluted and fraudulent, but since it's been on Amazon so long these newer bad reviews don't make a dent in the 4 star review the product has.  Notably, 17% of the reviews are 1 star.  I believe people who do buy it and write positive, real reviews, love the $9.99 price and either don't have experience with tea tree oil, or don't want to believe they were ripped off.

The Amazon item code or ASIN is B00PHVXIQA

If anyone doubts what I write, go to any chain store (e.g. Walmart, Target, CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, etc.) and try to find a tea tree oil selling for $2.50 per ounce. You will never find one.  Even Walmart, with its unrivaled buying power is selling its Spring Valley Pure Tea Tree Oil in 2 ounces for $7.48.  To get this price you must go in the store; shipping is not included!  

Sun Essentials gets away with it because the FDA, FBI, etc. have limited resources to police online sales.

Some other details:

• Their label does not have a phone number or street address.  The FDA does not allow this; every consumer product needs to have contact information on the label in the USA. Try going to Walmart to find a health or beauty product without a phone number or street address of the manufacturer. Why does Sun Essentials not include this information on their label?

• The website was not working today.  Incidentaly, the website domain was registered by a company on the caribbean island of Nevis.
• The address of the Amazon seller of Sun Essentials, Prime Time Commerce is:

  Prime Time Commerce:

  9363 E Bahia Dr

  Scottsdale,  AZ  85260-1559

I have contacted Amazon, but they have done nothing.  I believe that they view their website as a platform for others and do not take responsibility for fraudulent products sold by sellers; if the number of products sold on Amazon declines so will their revenue.

I don't care about the $9.00 I lost.  I just want others to avoid these scammers.