Artisan Essential Oils

All Artisan Essential Oils™ are obtained directly from trusted eco-friendly growers and distillers.

Each of the Artisan Essential Oils™ was personally selected by Dr. Joie Power and is of the very best quality. These Artisan Essential Oils™ are not mass produced - they are produced one drop at a time by folks who care about what they're doing and strive to offer the very best in essentail oils. These exquisite oils offer excellent value considering the individual attention given to producing each one by people who care about their rare and unique nature. When you inhale the aroma of any of our exceptional Artisan Essential Oils™, you will immediately recognize it as being one of the finest oils anywhere.

The School no longer sells products but, for all of your Essential Oil and Aromatherapy needs, we recommend purchasing from: Artisan Aromatics.
Artisan Aromatics can provide you with everything we offered plus much, much more! - Artisan Aromatics Online Shop

Enfleurage

Our friends at Artisan Aromatics offer four exquisite essential oils produced by the ancient method of Enfleurage:

Info: Organic Gardenia Essential Oil   |   Online Shop: Organic Gardenia Essential Oil

Info: Organic Lily Essential Oil            |   Online Shop: Organic Lily Essential Oil

Info: Organic Rose Essential Oil          |   Online Shop: Organic Rose Essential Oil

Info: Organic Tuberose Essential Oil   |   Online Shop: Organic Tuberose Essential Oil

Enfleurage is a technique of extracting the aromatic oils from flowers that goes back thousands of years to the days of the pharaohs in Egypt. It works on the simple principle that fats dissolve essential oils and thereby absorb their aromas. Petals and other fragrant plant parts are soaked in fat or non-evaporating oil which absorbs the fragrance. In the 19th century and early parts of the 20th, pork, lard and beef fat were used though now some producers use vegetable fats like palm oil. In the early days, the animal fat was smeared on glass plates in a wooden frame called a chassis and then the flowers were placed on the fat and left to release their oils for several days. The process was repeated several more times with fresh flowers being added to the plates until the fat on the plates was completely saturated with the aromatic oils of the flowers. The oil saturated fat, called a pomade, was then dissolved by alcohol. The aromatic oils migrate to the alcohol which is then separated from the fat and then the alcohol is evaporated to leave the pure aromatic oil of the flower.

Enfleurage is used on certain flowers because some fragrant compounds denature when heat is applied and almost all fragrance is lost if steam distillation is attempted. Today most essential oils that are extracted from flowers that are too delicate for steam distillation are done so by solvent (chemical) extraction. These oils, extracted by solvents, are called absolutes. The production of absolutes, while still quite expensive, is cheaper than the old method of enfleurage but, of course, the resultant oil can no longer be considered organic and there is always a hint of "chemical" smell to the aroma of the oil. The flowers that cannot withstand steam distillation for the extraction of their oils but for which enfleurage is appropriate include: Gardenia, Lily, Rose, Tuberose, jasmine, narcissus (daffodil/jonquil), lily of the valley, mignonette (birthday flower), cassie, violet & carnation. Rose and neroli (orange blossom) are available both as fine distilled oils and as absolutes.

Today only a few producers use the ancient technique of enfleurage because it is quite labor intensive and therefore quite costly but the exquisite results are truly worth it. The aroma of the oils extracted by enfleurage is quite similar to that of the actual flower. Just one drop of Gardenia Oil, Lily Oil, Rose Essential Oil or Tuberose Oil makes a wonderful perfume. In addition to the extraction process being labor intensive, a lot of plant material is needed to produce the oil. In one study, 1000 kilos of Tuberose blossoms yielded only 801 grams of oil.

We have found one small producer in South America that uses a modern version of the ancient technique of enfleurage to produce completely organic Gardenia Essential Oil, Lily Essential Oil, Rose Essential Oil and Tuberose Essential Oil. On his small farm (and surrounding farms), he grows the Gardenias, Lilies, Roses and Tuberoses which are then processed using palm oil as the fat and pure alcohol derived from local sugar cane. By using all local products, this helps to support the local economy and small farmers and gives employment to those who have been devastated by warfare in the area.

To experience the exquisite aromas of any of our fine Enfleurage Essential Oils, Gardenia, Lily Essential Oil, Rose Essential Oil and Tuberose you can make your purchase on our Essential Oils web page: Essential Oils

Go to top of Page