'Concretes' are made by extracting the plant material with organic solvents. After the solvents have been carefully distilled off, a thick paste remains. Absolutes are made by removing the waxes that make the concretes so viscous.

Note:Rose Otto is usually referred to as an absolute but since it is extracted by steam distillation strictly speaking it an essential oil.

Essential oils

Our pure essential oils are extracted from plants by steam distillation or by cold pressing. Each batch of product is analysed and tested to ensure compliance with strict standards as part of our quality assurance program. Each bottle of oil we sell can be traced back to a production and bottling index.

Chamomile Roman

Chamomile is the most commonly used and is usually the one referred to where Chamomile is specified. We also supply Maroc and the more expensive Matricaria (German or Blue) Chamomile.

Lavender

Our most popular Lavender oil is a blend of French lavenders. The blending is done to achieve long term product consistency and only specially selected high quality oils are used. Our Lavender Absolute, High Alpine, Lavendin etc are not blended.

Melissa

We supply a true Melissa which is quite expensive and a cheaper Melissa Blend is made up of fractions taken from other oils including Lemongrass and Citronella to give a close approximation to the composition of the whole oil.

Neroli

Our Neroli absolute is made of 65% distilled Neroli blossom and 35% absolute extracted Neroli blossom. This is a common practice undertaken to minimise a rather harsh off note on from the pure absolute. Neroli Light is recovered from water distillation by a new process and then sharpened up with other natural citrus distillates to give a very good approximation to Neroli blossom essential oil, but at a much lower price.

Sandalwood

We stock both Indian Sandalwood Mysore, and the less expensive Haitian Sandalwood Amyris that has a bouquet somewhere between Mysore and Cedarwood. The Mysore is the most commonly used.