Post by Allan on Aug 6, 2007 22:22:26 GMT -5
OILS I:
ESSENTIAL OILS VERSUS FRAGRANCE OILS
Over the years many people have asked that i sell them
"Essential oil of Jasmine" or "Essential Oil of Sweet Pea"
and when i tell them that these are fragrances, not
essential oils and that they are compounded of synthetic
chemicals with occasional admixtures of essential oils, they
insist that i am wrong because "So and So sells pure, uncut
essential Sweet Pea oil, so how come you can't get it for
me?"
The more often customers demand that suppliers clearly label
something an "essential oil" or a "fragrance oil," the more
the suppliers will comply. But that is no reason for a
weak-minded supplier to give in and sell as an essential oil
some compound that is merely a fragrance oil.
Now, there are good reasons to use fragrance oils in certain
cases -- for instance, when an herb or flower cannot be
distilled for an essential oil; or where an oil can be
distilled, but in such minute quantities that the essential
oil would cost more than any customer is likely to pay; or
where the oil's aroma is unstable or fugitive.
Sweet Pea falls into the first category: there is no
essential oil of Sweet Pea. Jasmine falls into the second
category: the essential oil is so tediously difficult to
distill that it costs hundreds of times more than other
essential oils.
In these cases and others like them, i think the supplier is
justified in using a fragrance oil, but i think that you
should add some of the plant matter to the mix.
For instance, many people use Bayberry for the purpose of
money-drawing. Bayberry candles used to be used for this
purpose. They were made of natural plant waxes from the
Bayberry plant, also known as Wax Myrtle or Candle Myrtle.
Bayberry and numerous other plants have a waxy coating --
that's what was being collected, by boiling the plants in
water to melt the wax, then cooling the water to harden the
fragrant wax and skim it off.
Obviously, the naturally scented greenish wax collected
by this method were only available in minute quantities, so
it was cut with beeswax to make money-drawing candles.
Well, over the years, the rising cost of labour and the
destruction of wetlands where the bayberry bushes grew
brought us to the situation where now real bayberry wax is
unobtainable at any price, and all the so-called Bayberry
candles sold these days are made of paraffin wax scented
with artificial Bayberry aroma.
So down-home conjures who want to capture the natural
money-drawing virtues of the Bayberry plant soak Bayberry
root chips in oil and use that as a dressing oil on green
candles. That way they are getting the plant's essences into
their candle-burning work.
But Bayberry root in oil is not highly scented -- and
customers demand that Bayberry scent. So folks add a touch
of synthetic Bayberry fragrance oil to the Bayberry root
chip money-drawing oil, to provide that elusive aroma. And,
of course, that is burned on green paraffin candles, not on
Bayberry wax candles.
However, if a supplier just blends up artificial Bayberry
scent with oil, without the Bayberry root chips, he or she
made nothing but perfume. If you use that stuff, you're just
dressing your green candles with perfume. It's like eating a
soy-burger and calling it ground round.
© 2002 catherine yronwode
ESSENTIAL OILS VERSUS FRAGRANCE OILS
Over the years many people have asked that i sell them
"Essential oil of Jasmine" or "Essential Oil of Sweet Pea"
and when i tell them that these are fragrances, not
essential oils and that they are compounded of synthetic
chemicals with occasional admixtures of essential oils, they
insist that i am wrong because "So and So sells pure, uncut
essential Sweet Pea oil, so how come you can't get it for
me?"
The more often customers demand that suppliers clearly label
something an "essential oil" or a "fragrance oil," the more
the suppliers will comply. But that is no reason for a
weak-minded supplier to give in and sell as an essential oil
some compound that is merely a fragrance oil.
Now, there are good reasons to use fragrance oils in certain
cases -- for instance, when an herb or flower cannot be
distilled for an essential oil; or where an oil can be
distilled, but in such minute quantities that the essential
oil would cost more than any customer is likely to pay; or
where the oil's aroma is unstable or fugitive.
Sweet Pea falls into the first category: there is no
essential oil of Sweet Pea. Jasmine falls into the second
category: the essential oil is so tediously difficult to
distill that it costs hundreds of times more than other
essential oils.
In these cases and others like them, i think the supplier is
justified in using a fragrance oil, but i think that you
should add some of the plant matter to the mix.
For instance, many people use Bayberry for the purpose of
money-drawing. Bayberry candles used to be used for this
purpose. They were made of natural plant waxes from the
Bayberry plant, also known as Wax Myrtle or Candle Myrtle.
Bayberry and numerous other plants have a waxy coating --
that's what was being collected, by boiling the plants in
water to melt the wax, then cooling the water to harden the
fragrant wax and skim it off.
Obviously, the naturally scented greenish wax collected
by this method were only available in minute quantities, so
it was cut with beeswax to make money-drawing candles.
Well, over the years, the rising cost of labour and the
destruction of wetlands where the bayberry bushes grew
brought us to the situation where now real bayberry wax is
unobtainable at any price, and all the so-called Bayberry
candles sold these days are made of paraffin wax scented
with artificial Bayberry aroma.
So down-home conjures who want to capture the natural
money-drawing virtues of the Bayberry plant soak Bayberry
root chips in oil and use that as a dressing oil on green
candles. That way they are getting the plant's essences into
their candle-burning work.
But Bayberry root in oil is not highly scented -- and
customers demand that Bayberry scent. So folks add a touch
of synthetic Bayberry fragrance oil to the Bayberry root
chip money-drawing oil, to provide that elusive aroma. And,
of course, that is burned on green paraffin candles, not on
Bayberry wax candles.
However, if a supplier just blends up artificial Bayberry
scent with oil, without the Bayberry root chips, he or she
made nothing but perfume. If you use that stuff, you're just
dressing your green candles with perfume. It's like eating a
soy-burger and calling it ground round.
© 2002 catherine yronwode