About Enfleurage Essential Oils
We strive to bring you only the highest quality essential oils for your aromatherapy, culinary, vibrational or perfumery needs. Most of our oils are directly sourced from the farms and stills. We buy organic whenever feasible and otherwise rely mainly on small family farms, local gatherers, and small cottage industries. Our emphasis is on quality and terroir. Certain places are known for a particular plant--some plants are happiest growing in certain places, due to climatic conditions, soil composition, elevation and the like. It's a term usually used with wine. For more on terroir, check the wiki page. You can see that terroir is usually an integral part of the quality, as where a plants loves growing and this in turn brings out the strongest, happiest components of that plant.
Many of our oils are randomly tested for purity, and we grade our oils based on smell, taste, colour, and vibrancy as well. We travel through the world as much as possible to see growing practices and distillations for ourselves. Nothing is added to our essential oils and hydrosols. No preservatives, no isolates, no “enhancers”, no alcohol. What you get is the aromatic soul of the plant. Purely.
Are all our oils organic?
Not all oils are available with an organic certification. The reasons are two-fold. One, some places simply don't have the infrastructure. The second reason is the cost. Many small producers cannot afford the high annual fee for certification. This has no bearing on whether pesticides were used or the state of the ground water. It's just not affordable. In some developed countries such as France land is certified organic for wild gathering. This is really great, but it doesn't diminish other wild harvests, which may occur in equally pristine areas but without the certification. Also, sometimes organic certification means less that it should, due to human nature and the high premium (and more money) put on organic certification.
Where do the wild crafted oils come from?
These botanicals are generally harvested from remote areas such as the Laurentian forest of Quebec, the Omani desert, the Himalayan foothills and the Lao jungle. In all cases the harvesters are local people with a direct interest in the harvest and their future. Every effort is made to insure that these harvests are legal and ethical, including any plants listed as endangered species. Please bear in mind that as with organic certification, all is sometimes not what it seems. Some essential oils, such as frankincense, and agarwood, were never in danger of extinction--and any question of over-harvesting would need to be understood on a case per case basis, and is sometimes the actual result of moves to control a wild species by insinuating the botanical is soon to be tradable only with certificates that a few (mostly large of course,) companies get.
What type of farms do we deal with?
Whenever possible, we deal only with small, family farms, and co-ops. Some of these cannot offer organic certification because it is really expensive, although organic certification is becoming the norm now. The distilleries we buy from grow without pesticides or inorganic fertilizers. In most instances we have personally visited.
Do we offer "Therapeutic grade"?
Yes, of course. But this is a meaningless statement as there is no standard explaining what that is. It's an MLM term--Multi-level Marketing. Nowadays we see this term everywhere, but, again, it's a corporate sales slogan, and not really a thing. There are generally accepted terms of "food grade," and "commercial grade," and "pharmaceutical grade" but not "therapeutic grade." Pharmaceutical grade is grown specifically for the pharmaceutical industry, and requires essential oils to be treated as medical products, with exact levels of constituents, and not much variation. This is at odds with the spirit of aromatherapy, and the wild and variable nature of the oils we deal with. Food grade should mean more than it does. Commercial grade is a very low standard (as far as natural therapies are concerned,) and allowances are made for adulteration and "nature identical." We offer the best oils we can find; our standards are extremely high and all of our oils are pure, fresh, and possessing their aromatic and therapeutic properties, as well as being suitable for culinary use where applicable.
Absolutes, Essential Oils and Enfleurage?
Technically, essential oils are water or steam distilled. Although we have a tendency to call all of the oils "essential oils" for convenience, essential oils, absolutes and enfleurages are three different things. The distillation process requires boiling, and water boils at 212º, (100C.) Some flowers won't put up with this and their fragrance breaks down. The solution (put very simply) is to use a medium with a lower boiling temperature than water. This is usually hexane. The end product is called an absolute, and the scent is often bigger, richer and more complex than an essential oil. Absolutes are great for perfumery. Some people use them in aromatherapy, and some don't. The argument against is usually that absolutes retain some hint of hexane, which is not physically the case, but vibrationally it's possible. Sometimes, you will find a hexane smell when you open the bottle of an absolute - this usually evaporates off quickly and is mostly found with absolutes from developing countries where the hexane quality standard is not so high, or the extraction is newer and not so experienced. It's up to you to decide for yourself if you want to include absolutes in your aromatherapy practice, but you won't find a jasmine or carnation essential oil, just the absolutes. Enfleurage is our new extraction process and we are happy to offer oils made by a modern version of this process. It involves a gentle coaxing of aromatic molecules into palm oil, which is allowed to saturate over time and then is washed with alcohol, which is then distilled to separate out the oil.
CO₂ Extracts
Our CO₂ extracts offer another way to experience the aromatic character of botanicals. Extracted using carbon dioxide, this method can capture rich, complex aromatic profiles and distinctive qualities that complement our collection of essential oils and other natural aromatics.
About our Incense?
Our incense and exotics change frequently. Our incense is natural and in raw bulk form. Frankincense, Myrrh, and agarwood are our incenses. These incenses need to be burned on charcoal.
Real, non-adulterated agarwood oil?
Yes, agarwood has been my obsession and specialty for 14 years. I have traveled all over the world for it, and have personally witnessed the entire chain, from raw material gathered through the bottling of the oil. But the main test, once again, is smelling, and how long the fragrance lasts.
Animal products
We don't usually have these, due the way these are "harvested." As far as I know, all extractions of musk, castorum, and civet are cruel and not something we will support. We do not believe in the stories of "ethically harvested" musk or "cruelty free" civet. However, when animal products can be gathered, then we are delighted to have them. Ambergris is usually found on beaches, although I think perhaps the whaling industry, especially in Japan, may also seek ambergris. But our ambergris is Arabian. The other animal product we carry is African Stone which is the concentrated fecal matter of Africa's Rock Hyrax.