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About
Enfleurage essential oils
Are our oils organic?
Where do the wild crafted oils come from?
What type of farms do we deal with?
Do we offer "Therapeutic grade"?
Absolutes, Essential Oils and CO2s?
About
Enfleurage Incense and Exotic Aromatics
Is agarwood an endangered
species?
Is this real, non-adulterated agarwood oil?
Other FAQs
Do you really travel to those places?
Can prices change without notice?
What forms of payment do you accept?
How long does it take to ship something?
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 on small family farms and local gatherers.
Most of our oils are GC tested for purity and we grade our oils based
on smell, taste, colour, and vibrancy as well. I travel through the world
as much as possible to see growing practices and distillations for myself.
Are our oils organic?
Not all oils are available with an organic certification. You should question
anyone who claims all of their oils have it. The reasons are two-fold.
One, some countries simply don't have the infrastructure. Somalia is a
good example. The second reason is the cost involved. Many small producers
cannot afford the 6000 euros per crop per year fee to certify the oils.
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.
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.
What type of farms do we deal with?
In most cases, we deal only with small, family farms, and co-ops. Most
of these cannot offer organic certification, although most of them grow
without pesticides or inorganic fertilizers. However, this is in all cases,
a choice on the part of the farmer. It is nonsense to think that because
someone lives in an undeveloped country and is poor, that they cannot
afford fertilizers and pesticides. Those are the very people large companies
such as Monsanto focus on. Toxic condiments are cheap.
Do we offer "Therapeutic grade"?
Yes, of course. But this is a meaningless statement as there is no standard
explaining what that is. 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 I can find; our standards are extremely high and all of
our oils are pure, fresh, and possessing their therapeutic properties,
as well as being suitable for culinary use where applicable. But I will
not pretend that there is any "grading system" in place.
Absolutes, Essential Oils and CO2s?
Technically, essential oils are water or steam distilled. Although we
have a tendency to call all of the oils "essential oils" for convenience,
these 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 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,
not appropriate for culinary uses. Some people use them in aromatherapy,
and some don't. The argument 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. 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. CO2's are another thing.
The process here is a hyper-critical carbon-dioxide extraction. It basically
uses carbon dioxide as the solvent. This is expensive to do, and so not
so common yet. It was developed for the food industry and these are nice
to cook with. One can also argue that they are truer to the plant than
essential oils. The opposite side of the argument is that they lack the
soul found in steam-distilled oils. Again, it's up to you. The best way
to judge is to smell everything. CO2's also come in two ways - total and
select. A total extraction is one where all the constituents come out
in the oil. A select is when only selected constituents do. A good example
of select CO2s are the rosemary and sage antioxidants found as preservatives
in natural lotions. They don't contain their aromatic components, just
the ones necessary to fight the growth of bacteria.
Our incense and exotics change frequently. We have a few constants - our
incense lines from Japan and Korea, and some gums and resins. But many
of our most interesting items are brought in directly from Africa or Asia.
As with our essential oils, we strive to bring the best, most interesting
and oddest aromatics in. However, I do not buy these aromatics in the
same quantities as I buy essential oils. Sometimes I will buy a bag of
something strange from someone who has just gotten off the plane from
Sudan. Even when we buy fairly regularly from the same person, the batches
will change a lot. An example of this is our Yemeni Bakhur. It always
smells great, but never smells the same as the last batch.
Is agarwood an endangered species?
Yes and no. Legally, it is heavily restricted, and we do buy from licensed
stills. There is a huge amount of slash and burn occurring in most of
the world's forests, certainly in Laos. But this is not due to agarwood
harvesting, and occurs despite the harvest, not because of it. I do not
think it deserves the label "endangered" as it's one of the most heavily
planted trees in Southeast Asia. For more information on this please see
my article: Agarwood - Is it Endangered?
Is this 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.
We also test every batch by GC. But the main test, once again, is smelling,
and how long the fragrance lasts.
Other FAQs
Do you really travel to those places?
Yes, whenever I can. It's one of the reasons I started this business.
Can prices change without notice?
Certainly. The essential oil market is a volatile one! Planetary conditions
and the dynamics of climate, whether political or geographical can play
havoc with availability and prices.
What forms of payment do you accept?
We accept Visa, MasterCard,
Amex, Diner's Club & Discover for next day shipping
How long does it take to ship something?
On average in-stock essential
oils are shipped in less than 24 hour
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